January 16, 2019

Football Concussions: The point of impact from personal experience

       Now that the NFL & NCAA football seasons are well underway, let's talk concussions.
Yours truly, during his fourth football camp.  For the record, yours truly had four concussions, a broken foot, a separated shoulder, a sprained back and whatever else as a result of football.  In fact, he once started and ended a football game with a 102.4 degree temperature, and  even intercepted a pass at the end of that game.  So, you can play full speed in that condition and stay in rhythm.  We did push ourselves to the breaking point, between phases of dogging it and pacing ourselves.  In fact, some of us went past that point and cracked like glass in the end which usually happened during a special teams play.

The following article is a result of the press dedicating time and space to the topic of football head injuries.  The ultimate purpose of this article is to share with you the actual experience of incurring that type of injury.

The danger factor in football head injuries is that, at least half the time, they're extremely pernicious things.  One concussion might result in you seeing flashing lights, while being accompanied by zero pain and no impairment.  Another might involve pain, but is rapidly following by a feeling a instant recuperation.  Things look a little foggy, as if you are looking through a vignette filter.  Yet, you felt functional enough to go back out on the field.  The one exception for me was my first concussion.
It was followed by a chronic headache, day after day.  However, the splitting headaches might have been my sensitivity to the nearby pines.  The following year, our football camp was not held near the rows of pines, and I had no headaches.  Only two concussions that year.

When you get a back sprain, a torn ligament, or a broken arm, you feel it and you know that you won't be playing football the following day and even for the rest of the month.  You feel the pain
as you try to move the injured area.  With head injuries, most of the time you feel that you can go back out on the field at that very moment.    You're a little groggy, but you're not in pain.  So, you have to employ your own sense of rationale to know that you should give yourself a bit of recuperation time and cease full speed contact for at least a short while, lest you cause lingering damage to yourself.

Concussions were not uncommon occurrences

I wasn't the only one to go the concussion route during that time span.  In fact, one of the guys on the team had to be taken out via stretcher, with a neck brace firmly attached to him, during a special teams play.  He was the leading scorer in the entire county, returning a kick-off.  So, perhaps he had a bull's eye on him.  None the less, my worse concussion was during a special teams play.  This is probably because there is a lot more running room on a kick-off and punt play, allowing guys to reach higher speeds than during regular scrimmage line plays.

Another one of the teammates was carried to the sidelines via stretcher, the night when we beat the champs on a rain-soaked field.  He shortly came back to consciousness, leaped out of the stretcher, and went into a high-kick sprint down the sidelines, upon which everyone in the stands was cheering at him and not at the players on the field.  He ended up going to the Air Force Academy, to play football.

There was another player who went the route of multiple concussions.  He was one of the two starting half backs.  He was forbidden by doctor's orders to ever return to a football field, on account of his  concussions.  Ironically, after he left football, he returned as an adviser, took me to the side and showed me the trick in going full speed into any defensive player with an added punch.  From that point on, I never had a head injury again, except for that fateful punt play on the last game of the season.  All in all, when it came to football concussions, I wasn't alone. 
Football head injuries and the media exposure they have been getting

A number of journalists, writers, and web hosts have maturely reported, conjectured, and commented on the phenomenon of football head injuries.  After all, there is an instantaneous concern to it, as it applies to energetic youth who had the discipline to train well enough to be able to take all sort of hits, from all sorts of directions.  However, none of these reporters were able to tell you what it was like to get concussion after concusion after concussion.  All in all, no matter how disciplined and in shape you are, your head remains very vulnerable and you remain completely mortal.  The tragic endings of a few NFL football stars remind us of this.

The Immediately Needed Partial Remedy for the NFL

The NFL needs to bring back its 300 pound weight limit.  Some players today are entirely too big for safety purposes.  The NFL managers of decades prior realized that behemoth players were not conducive to the good of a league that provided role models to many an American youth. 

During those rare plays when my helmet would come off

I can only speak from my experience on the following matter:  On those plays when the hitting was such that my helmet would come off, I felt zero pain.  I didn't even feel my helmet come off.  I simply suddenly noticed that it was off.  Sometimes, I actually saw it rolling.  After the play, I would go and get my helmet, while thinking to myself, "How did that come off?"  That is to say, I never felt the exact hit which dislodged it.  And remember, when you're carrying the ball, you are getting hit by three to six guys in a single play.  Some of those guys are your own players crashing into you and getting pushed into you.  So, I never knew what hit dislodged my helmet from my head.

Also for the record, at no time during my four concussions did I ever see stars.  A concussion is a matter of lights out ... not stars out tonight.

Concussion #1:
When a coach allows a football drill to turn into assault and battery upon a Freshman

During summer camp of my freshman year, the head coach was present while the senior backs were taking turns, giving me violent shots, during a summer camp drill which went awry.  If that type of thing would happen today, it would be on YouTube and that coach's career would have been terminated.  He happened to have been the brother in law of Steeler quarterback, Terry Bradshaw.
The coach's form of football was basically blood thirsty animal thuggery.  Very little technique was taught by him.  Yet, he would obsessively have us redo a play or two during practice, to get it right.
Well, if he taught us more technique, he wouldn't needed to have us practice those plays over and over again.

Incidentally, for those unaware, such as my readers in Turkey, Western Europe, and the Ukraine, Terry Bradshaw possessed four Super Bowl rings.  He was the American football champ four times in his career.  None the less ...

During that summer camp drill, the seniors went out of their lines and proceeded to give me shot after shot after shot, in the same one drill, giving the phrase "football drill," new meaning.  They were absolutely drilling my head ... fracking me and practically fragging me ... and no other freshman had to go through this.

It was that I had a brother who graduated the year prior, and those seniors didn't like him at all.  My brother was the second string fullback the year prior.  This meant that the third string fullback was now the starter and he was ruthless to me.  My brother, incidentally, became a military officer, up to the rank of colonel.  Anway . . .

My course of action at the time was to literally do the Christian turn-the-other-cheek thing.  I conscientiously employed the turn-the-other-cheek policy, as a moral obligation.  So, why was I playing a sport as violent as American football?  Oh ... because there were cheerleaders on the sidelines and fans in the stands.  You would be surprised how many girls would magnetize to you, simply because you were a football player.  None the less, in my freshman year, the seniors took their hatred of my brother out on me.

During that one solitary drill, I would take a shot, and go down to the ground.  Yet the coach, Terry Bradshaw's brother-in-law, wouldn't blow the whistle.  So, I would get back up, only to take yet another hit when I wasn't even 3/4 of the way up.   In fact, I would keep getting up and have to fend off another series of hits.  Never was I given the opportunity to stand up and get set.  I was lunging forward and meeting the hits, because I would get hit immediately upon trying to stand up.  Bam! Over and over again did this happen.  Moreover, this was only the second or third day of camp.

The coach let it go on for an amount of time that was entirely too long.   I even remember seeing the sneering face of one of the seniors, as he made a perfectly aligned helmet-to-helmet hit on me, followed by others taking turns in hitting me at full speed, time after time.  A few days later, I was diagnosed with my first concussion.   Nice guy ... my head coach.   Just what I needed.

I was still playing full contact football during the time between the drill which went awry and the day before my diagnosis. That wasn't a smart thing to do.   I was playing full contact football with a concussion not being given the opportunity to heal.

Incidentally, I went to the doctor because of a chronic headache that wouldn't subside.  Needless to say, I missed the first scrimmage of the season.  But, during the second scrimmage, the following week, I wasn't gun-shy on the field, at all.  For some reason, I was revved-up.  I was so in-tune that I would place one hand on the front-center shoulder pads of the ball carrier, and the other hand on the back-center should pads and literally throw the guy down to the ground.  Something clicked, because of having of been so severely attacked and refusing to quit the team, despite the full-blown physical harassment of seniors.

None the less, during my freshman year, there would be times when, without warning or cause, a senior would hit me full force in the head, during scrimmages.  There was even a time during a scrimmage when the whistle had blown, and everyone stopped, except for the senior wingback, who clipped me at full speed rom behind, resulting in me getting a separated shoulder.  Ironically, the following year, I became the starting wingback  . . .  and right side cornerback.

As was previously mentioned, if those things happened today, I would have gotten a hefty settlement, the coach would have been fired, and the school would have been placed on some type of probation.I took a beating that year.  What made things even more difficult was that my mother was dying and she would be gone during the following calendar year.

Incidentally, whenever a player on the other team would get injured and be unable to take himself off the field, those same seniors would clap and cheer.  Today, that would have incurred a 15 yard penalty and disciplinary action.  That anti-sportsman mindset prevailed throughout that graduating class.  In the years to follow, however, the seniors would be much more civilized.  In fact, one of those abusive seniors (during my freshman year) was recently indicted for a major, high priced fraud. That was a vicious graduating class, to say the least.

Concussion #2:
This one was fascinating.

Concussion #2 happened in the same year, during a Freshman game.  It was played against the one school locally known for its gymnastic talent.  Anyway, I went to the sidelines, only to see in my peripheral vision, two flashing lights that looked like neon signs.  One of them almost looked exactly like an arrow sign that you see when passing a stretch of road under construction.  That is to say, the design of the flashing light was organized and continuous, not morphing into any other design.  None the less, there wasn't any hit that I remember which was hard enough to trigger the flashing lights.   In fact, I wasn't in pain.  I simply saw the flashing neon light phenomenon and knew that it was time to stay on the sidelines for a while.

Concussion #3:
The one which occurred when I was carrying the ball.

This occurred in the middle of my second year.  There was no pain attached to this one, either.  It occurred at practice.  It was a standard, off-tackle run.   The line of scrimmage was a traffic jam.
So, I put my head down and plowed through.  My problem was not using my forearm to absorb some of the contact.

If my memory is correct, I made it past a linebacker and a safety who were were playing the role of welcoming committee upon my person.  However, neither one could make a center-mass hit on me.  So, I went to then end zone.  Then suddenly, it felt as if I were waking up and suddenly materializing on the field.  I turned around a looked at the line of scrimmage which looked like a photo taken in a vignette filter.  It was one of those things when you find yourself thinking in total silence, "Oh no.  Not again.  Another concussion."

Concussion #4:
Walking unconscious

This was the last game of the second season.  It was during a punt play on a Saturday afternoon, when a defensive end collided into the side of my head, in an attempt to block the punt.  I went entirely unconscious, yet I was walking ... instinctively walking toward the sideline, with my right hand on the right side of my helmet.

While coming back into  full consciousness, I heard the sound of a buzzer that sounded like the type you hear in a game show when a contestant gets a question wrong.  In fact, when I came to consciousness, I thought that I was waking up, to go to the game.  Next, I faintly heard cheering.  Then, I loudly heard cheering.  Suddenly, I saw the punt returner headed directly toward me.  About four guys made the tackle fifteen yards away from me.

When I did come back into consciousness, I momentarily experienced the worst pain in my life ... even when compared to the day I was caught between two 2,430 lb steel beams at the heal ... even in comparison to a number of vicious asthma attacks, my separated shoulder, my broken foot, the -30 degree wind chills I endured, the 106 degree Oklahoma weather I once endured, etc.  The pain disappeared when the elongated buzzer sound vanished.  I would then attend two more football camps, in the years to follow ... free of any further concussion.

Now, as far as would go any lingering effect, I had none that affected any mental functionality.  But,  safety improvements are still needed in organized football,  to remedy an eminent danger in a sport that's violent in nature .. unless if the authorities decide to cancel the sport, altogether.  None the less, despite four concussions, I managed: 1} to get published at the age of twenty, along side a handful of laureates, 2} to later get published along side a multiplicity of laureates, 3} to play impressionist poly rhythms in studio piano class, 4} to score a 100% on a national standardized collegiate accounting exam issued by an Ivy League school, 5} to get inducted into what used to be called the National Languages Honors Society, 6} to make the dean's list more than once, 7} to get inducted into the International High IQ Society.

Keep in mind that I had all of my mental faculties almost immediately after incurring each head injury.  The fatal error in a head injury scenario is going back out on the field, instead of heading to the locker room ... or to the team doctor.  In the words of any successful poker player, you gotta know when to fold 'em.  I did, three out of four different concussions. 

The rare summer football camp death in the general area was a matter of course.

During every summer camp season, I expected, as matter of course, to hear news broadcasters report one or two local football-related deaths.  Usually, it was a blood clot in the brain which was the cause.  At least that's how it was registered in my memory.

When the news of the first death of the season would be reported, there would be an impromptu team meeting, headed by the team captains.  Coaches made sure that we wouldn't be deprived of water on the field.  So, we evaded the ultimate football tragedies.  None the less,  I would end up getting four concussions before I would sew my first football letter on to my school jacket. 

A quick note about the team photo above, being
that there was one historic element to our team.

Concerning the photo at the top of the page, the guy to my left was the fastest guy on the team and a bit track-and-field champ.  The gentleman to my right was the starting quarterback.  The taller team mate behind my left shoulder wasn't a lineman.  He was the second or third string quarterback and one of the most personable guys on the team.  The one ace up his sleeve was the distance he could throw a football.  He was also a golden gloves boxer.  But, he just didn't have the speed to be a starter.  The guy behind my left shoulder played defensive and offensive end.  Perhaps you know that phrase:  "A defensive end is someone who can tear a refrigerator apart, while an offensive lineman can tell you how to put it back together, piece-by-piece."  In fact, the worst beating I ever took in my life was at the hands of a defensive end, in a game we won 63-6.  He was revenging the lopsided score on my rib cage.  He beat me ruthlessly on that field.  The more we would score, the more violent he would get.

I already mentioned that our head coach was Terry Bradshaw's brother in law.  He's the one seen celebrating on the field with Terry, at Three Rivers Stadium, in the famous Immaculate Reception film clip that made Franco Harris an icon.  At last count, he was an assistant college coach, to former NY Jet head coach Joe Walton, on the college level.

Pittsburgh Football was, once upon a time, in the image and likeness of its steel mills

Keep in mind that I was raised in the Pittsburgh vicinity ... in the specific borough that once had the largest push button railroad in the world.  Pittsburgh was the King of Steel,  as was evidenced by a 21 mile stretch of the Ohio River whose east and west banks housed some of the steel mills that were arrayed throughout the general region.  In fact, the 21 mile steel line only ended at the property line of the largest push button railroad on Planet Earth (at the time.)  Pittsburgh, at present, is the king of bridges, even more than Venice.  The other thing about Pittsburgh is that it was known as one of the three quintessential football venues in America ... at the time, with Ohio and Texas football being as iconic.

The Pittsburgh vicinity was the home of Dallas star Mike Ditka, Heisman trophy winner Tony Dorsett, New York Jet Super Bowl quarterback Joe Namath, record-setting Miami Dolphin quarterback Dan Marino, Miami Dolphin star Mercury Morris, NFL Hall of Fame running back Curtis Martin, all-pro Chicago Bear lineman Jimbo Covert, all-pro Buffalo Bill lineman Bill Fralic, Cotton Bowl quarterback Kevin Scanlon, Steeler head coach Bill Cowher, Washington Redskin Rich Milot, Notre Dame star Terry Hanratty, four-time Super Bowl quarterback Joe Montana, Oakland Raider legend George Blanda, and others.  In sports, you only become as good as your competition.  These stars had the competition to fine tune their skills and fortify their wills.  Even at that, it was my understanding that Ohio football was tougher, in the contact department. 

Pittsburgh football didn't make you arrogant.  It humbled you.

If you were a multiple letterman in Pittsburgh, as well as someone who played in the formal venues of summer league baseball, one thing was guaranteed.  You would have a number of team mates who would eventually make a national mark in football.  For example, my former team mates included an all-pro lineman who earned a Super Bowl ring, as well as someone who started as quarterback in a Cotton Bowl game, and someone else whose name I heard on ABC television, during an Orange Bowl game.  One team mate would go to such and such university to play football, while another one would go to another American university, to do the same.

Even an occasional guy you would compete-against in track would end up on this WFL team here, while one you faced in summer league baseball would end up on another football team there.  In as much, you would think that coming from an environment such as Pittsburgh would make you arrogant.  The truth is that it made you very humble.   Yet, it wasn't the hits which made you humble.  You could take the hits after your first year of apprenticeship.  The humility factor was in you not being as conditioned as the stars-to-be ... or not as fast ... or not as able to turn the corner without sliding down to the ground ... or not alert enough to avoid from running into your blockers, from time to time.  Do not be deceived.  I was built like an Adonis and was very acrobatic, even to the point of winning an organized summer league batting championship and base-stealing championship on a team of men who became champs of their football division.  Despite this, there were a number of guys against whom I competed who put me to shame.  Pittsburgh was that athletic of a place.  So, I learned a great deal about humility in a place once called the City of Champions.

It Wasn't Always Head Hunting, though

When a defensive back goes head hunting on you and he misses, you are on your way to the goal line.  So, during one particular game, in hometown of Mike Ditka, a linebacker wanted to do little more than make sure that I wasn't going anywhere after catching a short pass, not wanting his coach to lambast him for missing me in an attempted head-hunting play.  So, he would wrap his arms around me so tightly that breathing became a difficulty until the ref blew the whistle.

I spent the entire game as a wing back, going five yards and out, catching five to ten passes in the process.  The same linebacker tackled me every time.  He was a human vice grip as he wrestled me down.  He was just doing his job and played by the rules.  But, I dreaded his grip.  I would have preferred that he take full speed shots at my head, in the attempt to dislodge the ball from me.  But no.  He had to be the human vice grip.   So, he played prevent-defense throughout the entire game and it worked. 

Some opposing players do take revenge during a game.

We played a team in West Virginia during my freshman year and beat them 63-6.  I played right end for the entire second half.  The opposing defensive end beat me to near death.  He kept targeting my rib cage, and even when I cross body blocked him to the ground, his knees would drive into my ribs.  So, I spent an entire half holding my right arm to my right-side rib cage.  The lesson is, just because you win a game in a whitewash, it doesn't mean that it will be a painless experience.  I never took a beating on a football field that badly.

The Coach's On-Field Disciplinary Tactic

When you're a running back and the play doesn't involve you carrying the ball, you have a way of acting as if you're not in the play, meaning that you occasionally miss your blocking assignment.  Well, one day in practice, after having missed my blocking assignment, the coaches decided to do the Pittsburgh version of an intervention.  They called the exact same play, but I was going to be the ball carrier.  They then told the offensive players to not block for me.  They next told the defensive players what the play was and that the offense wasn't going to block for me.

For some reason, I thought to myself, "Oh well. Who cares?  Let's get this over and done with." 
The quarterback called the signals.  The ball was hiked.  It was handed-off to me, and the entire offense went on vacation for the play.  So, who made first contact on me?  A defensive end, of course; ... the one who later went to play for the Air Force Academy.  Next came a few others, and then came everyone else.  I went down facing the sky ... and it didn't hurt at all, because all the other defensive players were absorbing the impact, and because the first defensive end simply wrapped his arms around me and started pushing me backwards, upon which I eventually went down like George Washington's cherry tree.

Of course, I wasn't going to tell anybody that it didn't hurt, lest the coaches call the same play and send the offensive players on another hiatus, in order to "teach me."   This was during my freshman year. 

The injury process on the football field sometimes 
backfired on the player attempting to inflict pain on you

The injury process on a football field can work in reverse.  For example, during my Senior, while I was running an end-around play as a half back, yet another defensive end spiked me as hard as he could in the kidneys, while I was being stood-up by a few defensive players.  He was the one who had to go to the sidelines in pain.  I went back into the huddle, only to be informed by a guard what happened.  I didn't feel it, at all, even though he came at me full speed from behind.  After all, there was more than one guy hitting me, and when that happens, all of the different feelings of impact cancel out each other one.  None the less, in trying to drive me to the ground as hard as he could, the defensive end ended up hurting himself.

American Football was basically legalized venting, unless if you were a pass receiver in the path of a linebacker.  Well, it was venting for the linebacker.  When you went up for a pass, you were completely defenseless, as the hits made upon you were designed to dislodge the ball from your hands.  When you keep taking those kinds of hits repeatedly, something eventually gets dislodged.
       
Junior Year:  My first track meet as a hurdler.  Football players commonly
went out for track or played summer league baseball.  Hurdlers were
the coordinated guys who didn't have the flash speed of a sprinter, 
but who were faster than everyone else.

January 15, 2019

American Farm Subsidies in Review: Required reading, even for city slickers.


In the modern world, a phenomenon occurred where abundant harvests effected price
decreases to such a degree that the cost of production exceeded any fair market income
from the harvested produce.  There was too much supply for the domestic market, show-
ing how Supply Side Economics is utterly worthless when gauging a national economy.
Thus came the subsidy.  None the less, leftover produce can perhaps find a foreign mar-
ket.  However, the price would be based on demand in the foreign market, in relation to
whatever supply is not demanded in the American market.   Thus, produce surpluses
have a number of remedies.

But first, as an introduction to farm subsidies ...

... the primary purpose for any farm subsidy is to prevent price instability ... to safe-
guard consumers from wildly fluctuating prices ... to hinder drastic and sudden price
changes.

Approximately $30 billion in farm subsidies are targeted for elimination, over the next
ten years.  However, do not be deceived into thinking that the humble sized family farm
is what has been benefiting by agricultural subsidies.  We live in the era of the corporate
farm, and between the Years 1995 and 2010, 10% of the farms were given three quarters
of the $194 billion in farm subsidies that the U.S. federal government appropriated.

Specifically, it was 74%.  The other 26% of subsidies went to 28% of the other American
farms.  In as much, 62% of American farms received zero subsidies ... according to the  Environmental Working Group.

http://www.ewg.org/agmag/2012/01/farm-subsidy-research-and-analysis/

The Equation of Near-Economic Disaster, in review

The Trade Balance Deficit had damaging consequences upon America, to the tune of
$500 billion yearly for the past ten years.  In addition, the George WMD Bush tax rate
cuts cost the U.S. federal government $1.8 trillion in lost revenue, between 2002 and
2009.  Plus, Bush incompetently executed two costly wars, one of which was entirely
unnecessary.  Meanwhile, the former employer of Vice President Dick Cheney, name-
ly Halliburton, received no-bid government contracts, despite the conflict of interest.

Add to the equation the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act which used to protect pensions
and the such.  Toss in Phil Gramm's unconscionable Enron Loophole, and throw in the
fad of predatory house loan processing, and voila,  you have the 2008 economic crisis.
In fact, there is something known as the 2007/2008 World Food Price Crisis.  U.S. farm
subsidies didn't prevent food prices from rising more quickly than yeast.  After all, farm
subsidies firstly seek to prevent price crashes.  It then seeks price stability.  The contra-
diction was in the Corn/Ethanol subsidy which resulted in fructose corn syrup replacing
more expensive sugar.  The feds pay the difference in the price discrepancy., none the
less.  Now, it is always important to have safety nets for small business operators and
private citizens.  However, a certain type of corn subsidy had a dominoes effect which
hindered economic growth in the agro department.  When you are hindering markets,
you are preventing a Renaissance from transpiring.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2011/07/24/opinion/sunday/24editorial_graph2/24editorial_graph2-popup.gif

http://farm.ewg.org/region.php

The Types of Agricultural Subsidies  

Direct Payments, aka Market Transition Payments

This type began in 1996, as part of the Freedom to Farm bill.  It's presently targeted for
extinction.   It has cost approximately $5 billion per year.  It was intended to replace the
traditional subsidies which began in the 1930s, and then, it was intended to be phrased
out in the Year 2002.  It never phrased-out.  In addition, the payments made under this
program were not in parity with any production or market conditions.  It was to be the
subsidy to end all subsidies.  It then became yet another subsidy.

Counter-Cyclical Payments, aka Market Loss Payments

Very simply, the federal government calculates recent historic crop yield and price
averages, followed by it setting a projected price for a commodity.  The farmer then
plants and harvests the commodity.  If the actual market price is less than the deter-
mined average price, the farmer is paid the difference.  For example, if the average
price for a bushel of wheat was determined to be $8.40, and the market price drops
 to $7.20, then the farmer is paid $1.20 for each bushel of wheat sold.

Marketing Loans

These are cash advances for harvests to be sold in the future.  Without this type of
subsidy, a farmer would have to sell a harvested crop immediately, regardless of the
price.  If a farmer can wait, perhaps he can sell his grains or non-perishable crops
at a higher price.  Thus, a marketing loan lets the farmer wait.

Disaster Payments

Self-explanatory, be the crop-destroying disaster a tornado, drought, pestilence, etc.
This subsidy had yearly payments in the approximate $1 billion range.

The Crop Insurance Program

Only certain crops in the locale in question apply, being that some crops in some
locales don't stand much of a chance to grow in healthy proportion.

Average Crop Revenue Election, cleverly called ACRE.

This was vetoed by Bush in 2008, yet his veto was overridden.  It serves as an alter-
native to the Counter-Cyclical Payments.  Electing to be part of this program results
in lower direct payments, by 20 or 30%.  This program guarantees a set revenue for
a farm, based on the average crop yields for the State where the farm is located and
the national market price.  Yet, the payments are based on the average crop yield of
the farm combined with the average State yield.  It's known a State-level and Farm-
level planted yield times the national market price for the crop in question.
___________________________________________________________________

There are many creative solutions to the present economic situation of the United
States.  The congress, if it's members were not owned by lobbyists, could do much
better, even to the point of bringing forth new ideas.  However, a politician ultimate-
ly votes for whatever gets him re-elected.  A politician only votes for the benefit of
those who fund his/her campaign.  So, they will implement and perpetuate the same
old thing, even if it caused severe damage to the nation, because the ones in financi-
al power want the process to remain which made them the principle holders of the
wealth.  There are much better way to remedy the financial jeopardy where Ameri-
ca finds itself.  The congress put America in its state of jeopardy.  The congress, the
congress, the congress IS at fault.  NAFTA and the repeal of Glass-Steagall are con-
gressional products which caused a lot of damage to the United States.
___________________________________________________________________

January 13, 2019

Demand & shoppers w/ disposable income create jobs; and not the tax-sheltered holders of wealth which was kept away from sweatshop slaves.

Admitted, conceded, resolved . . .:is that Hillary Clinton is beyond corrupt
and that The Clinton-hijacked Democratic Party Platform is vile.  It's not the
Democratic Party of FDR, JFK, RFK, Hubert Humphrey, etc.  None the less,
the obscene level of Clinton Corruption does NOT automatically canonize the
Republican Party Platform, in its economics stance.
Christmas hiring increases only because shopper demand increases.
The rich don't create jobs.  Shoppers do.
Let us review review and review until the Reaganomics trance is broken:

Spending-money coming out of the pockets of citizens and businesses is the only thing
that creates jobs.  If there is no demand, there are no sales.  If there are no sales, there
are no jobs.  It's that simple.  In order to create jobs, more money must be in the hands
of CUSTOMERS, and not the rich who took tons of money and then put it into over-
seas tax havens and foreign sweatshop operations.

The ultimate example is Christmas time.  During Christmas, extra hiring occurs only
because there is a much higher demand for various products and services.   Thus, the
extra hiring that occurs during the Christmas Season is NOT due to the rich making
investments.  It's due to the customers making purchases.  If the money supply is tak-
en out of the hands of the consumers and then put into the hands of the rich, you end
up getting the Reagan 10.8% unemployment rate, as well as the Great Recession of
the Bush II administration.  It's that simple.  The rich have only been investing in
slave labor nations, all the while hiding personal money in overseas tax havens.

An example of how it is false to say that, "If you build it, they will come." 

There is only a limited need for funeral homes.  People are not going to start having
themselves killed and buried, just because the rich suddenly create a surplus of funer-
al homes.  Only so many people have cancer.  The cancer industry will not get more
clients, if the rich open more clinics.  Only so much of any type of product or service
can be consumed.  In as much, demand is the major determinant of added business
operations.  Should the demand be lacking, then new business will quickly go into
the history books and Voila.  No more new jobs. 

The rich have more than enough money for investment.  This is why they are called
rich.  These are the yuppies of the Reagan years.  They have already proven that they
don't care about you or the Chinese sweatshop workers who have threatened suicide
and even committed suicide.  The Reagan era yuppies are not your friend.  You are
their dupe, if you subscribe to the give-to-the-rich concept.  During Christmas, the
phrase used to be, "Give to the poor."  Not any more.

Money talks ... to politicians.   Witholding money also talks ... to big business.

Now, jobs are out there, in response to the demand that exists at this hour.  In fact,
the jobs are way out there ... in China's low-paying labor camps.  Being that foreign
sweatshop laborers make too little money, and being that there was typical protec-
tionism of the part of the Chinese Communist regime, there is the lack of demand
for American products from the Chinese workers who cannot afford them, in the
first place.

There aren't going to be any new businesses of appreciable numbers in America's
near future, if it keeps operating according to sweatshop economics, and if hiked-
up prices remain hiked, thereby draining the level of disposable income in America.
At this rate, the Republican Party will fulfill the Apocalyptic prophecy, "A Day's 
wages for a loaf of bread."  Republican economics is ushering-in Armageddon.

Disposable Income equals Potential Demand.  In as much, if you want positive
change, you have to establish the 21st Century version of Caesar Chavez's Grapes
& Lettuce Boycott.  It benefited the workers at the time.  It resulted in amended
ways of doing business.  It did not leave the workers out in the cold.

As a review, the sweatshop workers need disposable income in a two-way highway
trade system which will create the demand that will bring back the American jobs
that left for China and other sweatshop nations as far back as the mid 1990s.  Only
in two-way reciprocal trade is there free trade.  By now, you should realize that
NAFTA has nothing to do with freedom.  Only the opposite.

Putting added dollars in the hands of the rich isn't going to create demand, and there-
fore, it isn't going to create jobs that will last.  For example, the added dollars in the
hands of the rich won't increase the human body's capacity for food and drink.  So,
it won't create a greater demand for food and drink.  In as much, demand is the #1
determining factor for an economy's investment sector, in combination with the rate
of circulation of the money supply, in as far as concerns the Multiplier Effect.

It was recently proposed by a Reaganite that America is falling into the inflation trap.
In as much, take note:  As of October 2011, the U.S. dollar inflation rate was 3.53%.
At the beginning of the same year, it is 1.63%.  However, toward the end of the Bush
years the rate ranged from 5.6% to .09%, and this was in a six month period.  During
the Barack Obama years, the inflation rate has thus far been as low as MINUS 1.48%
(in Aug 2009).  In years past, the rate was an average of 13.58% in 1980, 11.03% in
1974, and even 14.65% in 1947.  In 1931, a Great Depression year, the inflation rate
was MINUS -10.3%.  Shortly after WWI, in 1919, it was 15.31%.  Plus, even though
1974 was a high inflation rate year, the United States was the second highest exporting
nation on Planet Earth in 1975.  Therefore, the present inflation rate is not alarming.

http://inflationdata.com/inflation/Inflation_Rate/HistoricalInflation.aspx

The middle class would be able to huddle together and start new businesses, if there
weren't a such a wide disparity in income between the top 10% and the bottom 90%.
Technically, it's the top 20% versus the bottom 80%, in term of stocks and securities.

As you can see, the Republicans disseminated yet another lie in claiming that you
absolutely must throw all the money in the world into the hands of rich, or else no
more jobs will be created.  The fact is that throwing more money into the hands of
the rich decreases demand by decreasing disposable income among potential con-
sumers.  The very thing that the Republicans claim to be the only cure to the econ-
omy has been the cause of its demise, all along.

January 11, 2019

The Actual Cause of the Massive U.S. National Debt

Ultimately speaking, Washington and the Lobbyists are the cause.
The Causes:  1} The Bush Tax Cuts (and overseas tax havens of the rich),
2} The Trade Balance Deficit, 3} Exorbitant DOD/NSA/CIA/HLS budgets,
4} Disparate-waged corporations who paid its full time employees wages so
    low that they needed to be given food stamp allotments, while the corpora-
    tions profit at the expense of federal taxpayers who pay the corporations'
    wage discrepancy for them.  The taxpayers are paying these corporation's
    wages-due for them..
_________________________________________________________________

A certain TV star recently mentioned on air that the food stamp program consists
in taxpayers helping huge corporations such as McDonald's, Walmart, and KFC
pay their underpaid workers who can't afford basic necessities, while corporate
management makes much more than their predecessors of decades past.

Reagan's former budget director was seen on TV air waves the same evening,
stating that the Bush Tax Cut was a disaster which cost America $4 trillion in
tax revenue.  This was known in 2010.  So, the economics expert was remind-
ing us of something that was already known ... but which was left to be forgot-
ten, via the insistent diversionary tactics of right winged conservatives.  None
the less, if it weren't for the Do-nothing 112th Congress, America would have
a much lower national debt than is has today.  Yet, FoxNews blames it on the
president.  In fact, the Bush Tax Cut was the #1 contributor to the rise of the
national debt.  Furthermore, the obscenely wealth never need personal income
tax cuts.  In their future is 21st Century version of the Nuremberg Trials, due
to the exploitation of sweatshop workers throughout the dictatorial venues of
the world.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2010/09/putting_the_39_trillion_extens.html

Directly below is the link to an educational slideshow for orientation purposes.
It guides a person through a brief history of what has been occurring since the
start of the Reagan years, and it's written very simplistically.  It shows how the
Republican rhetoric about the debt is a skewed con game that misinforms people.
It contains bits of added facts hard to find anywhere else  . . .  and it is for people
with no background in Economics.

******************************
http://zfacts.com/book/export/html/81
******************************

Next comes the reality check confirmed by world renown US News and World Re-
port by which the Democratic States pay more tax dollars than they receive, while
the Republican States receive more tax dollars than they pay.  This is extremely
logical in light of the existence of farm subsidies, coupled with the fact that the
farm states are Republican.  In as much, lying propagandists having been deceiv-
ing rural Americans into thinking that the cities have been leeching on off them.
The reality is that the subsidized farmer has been receiving city dollars, for their
sustenance ... or windfall profit.  So, the rural people need to start displaying re-
spect for the northern city dwellers ... and suburbanites ... without whom rural
folk could not economically survive.

http://www.bluemarblealbum.com/2014/01/blue-states-pay-more-taxes.html
________________________________________________________________

I remember being told by a Ron Paul supporter that, if we had deregulation, the
national debt would be paid-off in five years.  Of course, he had zero training in
economics and/or accounting and/or international finance, etc.  Furthermore, the
non-government group called the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget
concluded that Ron Paul's plan would merely reduce the federal debt to 76% of
GDP by 2021.

Moreover, America had pivotal instances of deregulation under Bush II, resulting
in the Great Recession of 2008/09.  This included the repeal of Sections 20 to 32
of the Glass-Steagal Act and the Phil Gramm rider placed in the Commodity Fu-
tures Modernization Act of 2000.  Even at the end of his administration, even
though he destroyed the economy and turned America into a Paranoia State,
George Bush II kept pushing for more deregulation.

http://www.newser.com/story/41383/huge-bush-deregulation-push-before-jan-20.html

Instead of radio talk show propaganda or TV sound bytes, visual aids of the United
States National Debt would help put things in perspective.  The links below provide
the aid.

America had a higher debt per GDP shortly after WWII than now.  The fact that the
U.S. was a manufacturing nation, and not a sweatshop import nation, is what saved
it.

In the 1950s McCarthy era, military spending was ridiculously high, in terms of its
percentage of the GDP.   After all, constructing a vast nuclear arsenal is extremely
expensive.

The U.S. national debt as a percentage of GDP (Gross Domestic Product) was
lowest during the Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter years.  Yes, people rejected
Carter for a Ronald Reagan who would triple the national debt, make America
the top debtor nation on earth, send the unemployment rate soaring to 10.8%,
set America up for the October 19, 1987 stock market crash, give us the Iran-
Contra debacle, and usher in the Savings & Loan Crisis, as well as initiate the
foreign slave labor importation fad which made the U.S. Trade Balance Deficit
astronomical.

America can only be salvaged if the sweatshop waged importation and other
drains to the circular flow, such as Mitt Romney's Cayman Island accounts,
are halted.  A diminishing circular flow is the same as pulling the chair out
from under millions of Americans.

Keep in mind that the "stimulus" was an artificial way of injecting dollars into
the circular flow.  It was temporary.  The surmise is that the Republican Party
really has been destroying America all along, for the sake of a selfish few; for
the sake of  those with lobbyist dollars to fund re-election campaigns.  Inciden-
tally, as of July 2013, the US national debt was $16.7 trillion.

One more thing,  Alexander Hamilton issued bonds to pay for a small portion
of the American Revolutionary war debt.  He paid-off the bonds through an
8% import tariff passed by Congress.

In today's dollars, the Revolutionary War Debt equaled $900 billion, and it was
30% of GDP at the time.  Only 4,000 fatalities occurred on the American side
throughout the eight year war.  Now, the imports of sweatshop labor, coupled
with two wars during tax cuts years, and exorbitant military spending, caused
the debt to spiral upwards.  Look at history for a few remedies.  More than one
remedy is needed, meaning that the Republicans lie when they claim that all
of the ills of America's economy will be solved by reducing the tax rates of the
rich. Those rates were reduced in the Bush II years.  It was one of the four ma-
jor causes of the Great Bush Recession.  During the Reagan Years, lowering
the tax rate of the rich resulted in a 10.8% unemployment rate.

Now, the pushy and quite obnoxious right winged conservative Republican
mouthpieces claim that the debt is caused by welfare and Social Security.
Well, there is a number of pieces of historic evidence which proves the
Republican assertion to be a complete falsehood.  All are focused on the
following history observation:

During the economically prosperous times, such as during the Gerald Ford 
Years, numerous people were on food stamps, welfare, and Social Security.
The economy did just fine in the aggregate, despite rising uneployment and
inflation, during the Ford years.  When it came to LBJ's Great Society of the
1960s, unemployment dropped to 3.4%, and ge was the one who engaged in
the war on poverty.  The economy, as a whole, wasn't collapsing on account
of it.  However, while George Bush II catered completely to rich individuals
and select corporations, the U.S. economy was falling apart.

The unemployment rate through the decades:
http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/data/UNRATE.txt

A graphed chart with a bit of added comments.
http://zfacts.com/p/318.html

Here is a table outlining deficits ... even per month since 1980.
http://www.davemanuel.com/history-of-deficits-and-surpluses-in-the-united-states.php

Government debt as a portion of GDP (Gross Domestic Product.)
http://www.tradingeconomics.com/united-states/government-debt-to-gdp

National Debt per presidential term, plus debt's rate of growth.
http://www.skymachines.com/US-National-Debt-Per-Capita-Percent-of-GDP-and-by-Presidental-Term.htm

An article from The Atlantic which contains a graph of the debt spanning from
1790 to the American Civil War.
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/11/the-long-story-of-us-debt-from-1790-to-2011-in-1-little-chart/265185/

A very insightful Washington Post article on the debt which erases from the
reasonable mind the false conclusions of the right wing conservative world.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/post/why-is-the-national-debt-16-trillion/2013/01/03/e2a85386-55fc-11e2-8b9e-dd8773594efc_blog.html

One very important note:  After WWII, the national debt was 121% of GDP.
Today, it is around 104% thereof.  If you abolish foreign sweatshop slavery
and the ensuing Trade Balance Deficit, you can save America.  If you do not
do so, you will not.  It's that simple.  The greed of few has been destroying
America, all along.  It's so simple that it's like a trick question.  But, there's
no trick involved; only greed and the lack of consciences amongst those
presently in seats of power and influence.  Such was the case with the
112th Congress, Newt Gingrich, etc.
_____________________________________________________________

January 10, 2019

Patrick Pontillo's Photographic Timeline Tower ... for anyone curious

    

Maroon: School Color
College Days.

West Virginia lass
Mississippi woman
Circa the Turn of the Century, on the grounds of the formerly world
famous J&L Steel Mill in Aliquippa, PA.  I was literally the last man to
perform demolition on that site.  I took out the remaining foundation slabs.

Michigan gal
MyAustralian  Outback Gal at one timea true woman of valor.




The Summer of 2010
Late Summer, 2010

November 2014 
January in  a well-heated construction office.  

International High IQ Society Certificate

                       One such induction/membership isn't sufficient.  But, when you add to it an
                       induction into the Phi Sigma Iota language honors society and a few literary
                       credits, it helps in the credential department.  No matter what, I'm no genius.

Security Clearance History Confirmation

The Need to Clear the Air   (Pun intended.)

The following is here, should someone need to familiarize himself/herself with me
ASAP.  It starts with Jpegs of my three 2014 security clearance certificates.  I've
had a little more than a half dozen security clearances in my life.  So, if you need
to know about me and make a quick assessment, this is where you start.

The 2014 FBI Clearance below literally states: "A search of the fingerprints on
the above individual has revealed no prior arrest data."  The source is marked
as CJIS Division, Federal Bureau of Investigation, July 2, 2014.  CJIS stands
for Criminal Justice Information Services, and the security clearance was issued
out of Pasadena, California.
FBI Clearance, July 2014
Needless to say, above is the Pennsylvania State Police background check security clearance
This is the Act 151 Clearance - the child abuse background check security clearance.
The certification is of a yellow tint.  It's not something printed on white paper.


In order to get a concealed weapons license, you must pass a dual-layered
background check.  Now, I do NOT believe in guns.  In fact, I believe
that gun possession hould be limited to cases of reasonable peril (such 
as death threats), to citizens living in isolated sectors, and those who
already have security clearances, such as myself.  I do NOT believe
in random gun selling.  I'm HUGE on gun control.

Second Proof of PA D.O.C. Security Clearance


Note from Contracting Officer

I didn't stop traveling after the 12,000 mile road trip; nor stop learning.

For those unfamiliar, in the Summer of Year 2012, I road traveled solo for six-
ty days, covering 12,000 miles in the process.  My travels didn't end with the
12,000 road trip, even though I intended it to be so.  I eventually ended up in
the Shenandoah Valley early in 2013, for a couple of months, after a stay in
Pittsburgh.  I then went to the Midwest, in the general Great Lakes vicinity,
and next back to Pittsburgh, only to take an unplanned trip into Florida.  In
fact, my trip to the Shenandoah Valley was due to the death of an individual
whose longevity evaporated, due to a medical condition that accompanied him
at birth. 

The Long Distance Learning Session

In having covered the distance that I did, I learned things that aren't learned
by politicians who show-up at airports, in order to stay in comfortable hotels
and give campaign speeches on what needs to be done in today's world in a
world to which they're completely out of touch, outside of listening to lobby-
ists who don't lobby for the common good, but only for self-seeking interests.

Below are photographic mementos of my recent travels, after the 12,000 mile
road trip of 2012.  If time permits, I'll include those one-line lessons I learned
on the road which I wouldn't have learned otherwise.  It's that which the Newt
Gingriches & Rush Limbaughes, as well as the John Kerries & the Joe Bidens
of this world, won't otherwise perceive & absorb.

As a score-keeper's note:  I traveled as far north & east as Boston/Cambridge,
as far west as Oxnard California, and as far south as the Space Coast of Florida.
My travels took me through:  1} Massachusetts, 2} Connecticut, 3} New York,
4} Pennsylvania,  5} Maryland,  6} West Virginia,  7} Virginia,  8} N.Carolina,
9} South Carolina,  10} Georgia,  11} Florida,  12} Alabama,  13} Mississippi,
14} Louisiana,  15} Tennessee,  16} Arkansas,  17} Texas,  18} Oklahoma,
19} New Mexico,  20} Arizona,  21} California,  22} Missouri,  23} Iowa,
24} Illinois,  25} Indiana,  26}Ohio.

If I ever come to have the time do so, I guess that I could state which state had
the best & worst of this & that.  For now, prudence.
The northeast coast of Florida.
Downtown Saint Augustine, oldest city in the United States.
At port, in downtown Saint Augustine.
Metropolitan psychedelia, via sunlight & plate glass, Downtown Pittsburgh.
More psychedelia in the Pittsburgh region.
Progressive Field, Cleveland, in contrast to ...
... Heinz Field, in Pittsburgh
The Space Coast of Florida
The famous race track is on the main highway, in plain sight.
Baltimore trolley
A Chesapeake area suspension bridge
One of my alma maters: Located at the Gulf coast of Florida.
Add Chicago to the equation