USS Enterprise

This is a time warp piece back to the days of old back in World War II. I happen to love the History Channel and today they had a non stop running of Battle 360 and it covered the battles that the carrier U.S.S. Enterprise encountered in the Pacific against the Japanese during WWII. If there was ever a symbol more worthy of the American people it was this ship against the original Axis.

Those guys went through hell more than once. If you are reading this and you are a veteran of the Enterprise then God bless your heart my friend. Holy crap! From battle after battle the Grey Ghost just wouldn’t give up and at one point she was the only surviving carrier the US Navy had during the Pacific Campaign of WWII. If there is anything that comes close to defining the road trip to hell and back, then these guys can explain it all with graphic personal first hand details.

The Enterprise encountered the best the Japanese had to give and beat them back time and time again. That is a tribute to the American spirit of the time and a testimony that many should hear. These men refused to give up and they gave it their all to defend what was right and wrong in the world. Even against overwhelming force they stood and fought and persevered. It was an amazing time and in it we can all take a serious lesson in our lives today. Regardless of all the crap thrown at you at any point in your life, somebody faced a much more dire set of circumstances than we will ever think possible, and they survived to tell the world about it.

Times are tough but times are changing for the better. Things are starting to turn around in the banking industry, stocks and confidence in them shows that. Housing starts are starting to turn the corner and the refinancing of existing homes is turning a page for the better.

Now is the time for people to stop listening to the doom and gloom media and think that it is actually possible that America can survive and get past the current economic crisis. While everyone on the news is spouting more gloom and doom you don’t hear crap about the success stories during this difficult time. Something like General Motors saying that they believe that they will be okay after bankruptcy court. Or the fact that many people able to purchase an existing home from the distressed real-estate market will be launching into home repairs, renovations, upgrades, and out right rebuilds of the existing homes all across America. Then of course it is a must to mention all the folks that still have a job, still pay their bills and pay their mortgages on time as well.

All is not lost, the ship that is the American economy is still able to tread water and make headway. We just can’t barrel ahead at 25 knots and we all need to accept the fact that we have to fix the ship and know that our battle in this economic crisis only acceptable outcome is victory. Just like in WWII, we can fix this and make it seaworthy once more to make her ready for battle on the frontline again. But we can do better. We can make her torpedo proof, make her capable of defending herself, and we can make her survive the long fight ahead of us all. All that we have to do is give her a crew worthy of the sacrifice.

Thank you Enterprise and all that served on her then and now for your courage and your service. Your history and your ship earned a respect unequaled by many and wothy of many more tributes. I just hope that the America of today can live up to your courage in the face of total aniliation and see that survival is possible and you can come back to fight another day.

Papamoka

We are going to be Okay

For the average person it is understandable that you can’t sort out the facts from the hype when it comes to the economy. I believe we can all chalk that up to massive over speculation on both sides of the Main Stream Media shilling for their political perspective and audience. So what is a guy or gal to do when reading reports about the economy? My answer, nothing. Just live your life like you always have, clip the coupons to save a dollar or more on your grocery bill, research big buys like a new car like you have always done, and just live your life like you always have. Storm troopers are not going to drag you from your bed at night if you lock yourself into the MSM hype and fear engine.

If you are lucky enough to have a job in a stable company then go the extra step to help the company out by finding cost savings, new ideas, or just doing the job they are paying you to do. In the long run the economy will fix itself because of the American way of life. We as a people don’t like old appliances, old cars, old anything when you get right down to it. Our nation has a built in mentality that the best product on the market is what we want for our families and somebody is always coming out with the latest replacement for the 8-Track player. America is a nation of cutting edge technology on everything under the sun and other nations copy it cheaper and provide it at a better price for the average consumer. As sucky as that sounds it is the way of the world today, have you shopped at Wal-Mart lately?

Back in the 1980’s I worked for a company that was always experimenting with new product ideas. Vendors of the company participated in the experiments and out of that practice makes perfect trial and error experimental process came a product line that boomed for the company for almost a decade. Cheaper copies of the same product hit the market eventually but the company was already working on dozens of other new products by then. Ingenuity and willing to take a risk is what drives business and it isn’t always about the bottom line of today. Same goes for America, we have to reinvent ourselves every couple of decades to make sure we know that we are the land of the free and the home of the brave. If you look at all of the products made in China today, most likely they originated in the USA a decade or more ago! It’s what we as Americans do, and they duplicate and sell ten years afterward.

My two cents on the economy is that President Obama and his team are on the right track, Wall Street loved his recent news so much that the market jumped the highest percentage in over seventy plus years in one day. That my friends is the first step in building confidence in the American economic engine that actually runs the world today. President Obama is the voice we need to hear, it’s the voice business needs to hear, and it is the voice that the American people elected to hear.

Franklin Roosevelt faced a barrage of skeptics under his New Deal theory and the economy was in far worse shape than it is now by a margin of mega proportions. Opponents fought him over every single idea he raised but he stuck to his guns and managed to get the best of them passed. Not all ideas in Congress get a green light and you shouldn’t expect that from this President either. George Bush wanted to privatize Social Security, aren’t you glad that didn’t work out now?

Healthcare, jobs, and education is the agenda for President Obama and he has always said that throughout his campaign for President. The collapse of our economy is an added bonus having him in charge instead of a “Hand’s Off” right side of the aisle leader. All I have to say is that it is damn well time for the sun to shine and this video covers it…

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Go about your life like you always have, there is nothing to see at this accident other than some bankers and insurance executives asses being spanked for being arrogant and over zealous for mega profits. The next wave of the American innovation experiment is about to begin and its going to be one hell of a political ride to get it started.

Papamoka

Obama isn’t Wrong

Is it just me or do we all recall the non stop non action when it came to our nations economy of George the greeter at a Walmart wannabe in Texas? All over the media there are reports of President Obama screwed up on this, he screwed up on that, his plan is flawed in this way and the drum beating continues from overpaid mouthpieces without any single clue. Stuffed shirts with nothing to say than critical thoughts on what they would have done in his place. Hello! You are not the President for a reason and you are in fact just over paid blow holes!

Can we put things in perspective rather than on the damn front boiler on high heat? Can you or I not see that the President is dealing with a crappy situation that his predecessor and the Congress before him dealt him. President Obama was handed a deck of cards to play the game of the American economy as our new leader but Bush and company loaded all fifty two cards with nothing but deuces! You can’t get twenty one at a black jack table with nothing but deuces.

It simply boggles my mind with the talking heads pointing out how wrong the President is when they are sitting in the cheap seats while taking down mega salaries for just spouting off opinion simply because they can. Who the hell is a talk magazine to preach about what the President should and should not do? I beg to plead and offer you this thought, the main stream media is selling poorly crafted aluminum siding that you don’t want to buy today, or tomorrow, or even the week or months to come. They are sipping at the cooler of irrational and economic dissent opinion and like how the water tastes today. You don’t want their product on the side of your house because the guys selling it won’t even buy it. All the talking heads are selling it but in the next broadcast they will be offering coupons in opinion on the next issue to come up that will spin 180 degrees from where they were yesterday.

FDR couldn’t turn around the Hoover mess on a dime, Reagan couldn’t turn the Carter years around on a tax cut, and Clinton could not turn the Reaganomics collapse around in one term. Obama has been President for a freaking month and the press is calling his administration a failure already simply because their own “Experts” say so. BULL!

The tax cuts and the stimulus package have not even reached the people and states in America. Give me a break when you criticize President Obama’s leadership before it even hit’s the people all across America.

Papamoka

Handle with Care

In these foreboding times in our nation it is up to all of us to handle our economy with care. While we have all been beat up and shot down our reputation and place in the world is to lead with confidence and to some degree arrogance and yet with some form of humility. Our future as a people and nation has not been robbed from us but simply misplaced. It is up to each one of us to lean on one another to find the path out of this mess and we can clean it up together. Our nations government and its reputation is on the line with the bailout packages that they are proposing but that is just a drop in the bucket of what this nation really needs. We need to join together, stop being fooled and listen to one another and act accordingly with one another. Stop acting as if the next great depression is upon us and listen to the traffic outside your window and that my friends is America alive and well and working. Non stop fear mongering by the media is driving the mentality that we should all tighten our belts and forget that we are the economic engine of the world. That is bull and we all know it deep down.

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Everybody has a part to play in this economy and everyone can excel at their part in fixing it by simply not acting out of fear. Give the time needed for change to happen and by all means, if you can hire one person to do a job in your small business, then do so. If you can take the time out of your life to volunteer at your local police or fire department, parks department, schools, or wherever your service to the community you live in will help, then just do it!

One thing is certain, when any group of people acts like a bed of clams and closes their shells tightly out of fear, eventually the entire bed will die off from lack of oxygen. The same scenario is true when the American people stop using their overall purchasing power that does in fact run the world economy.

Make no doubt about it, fear is the main driving force that is running the American economy right now and the only thing we have to fear, is fear itself. A wise man once said that to his people in a similar situation. Who was it that said that? His name is on the tip of my tongue but I'm drawing a blank... Help me out here.

If you are waiting for better times to replace the things you need to replace just in case then the fear is in your heart. Let it go and let God. Replace that old car or truck with a new one, replace that television or fridge or washer and dryer with a new one, replace that living room set that you hate anyway. Not because you have to, but because you want too! That my friends is the key to the American way of life. We do things simply because we want to and that got us to the moon with the inspiration of a President some four decades ago. So what is stopping you from replacing or upgrading the stuff you already have? Is it fear? Now ask yourself who sold you that fear in a wrapped package?

Papamoka