July Week Four

What's the price of gas at your station? What's it going to cost you to heat and/or air condition in the next year? Lots. It could be worse. No gasoline at all.

Shooting Wars: During World War II, England started with a ration for gas to limit driving to 1,800 miles per year. Later, England closed 90% of the gas stations in eastern and southeastern England. As Daniel Yergin wrote, "The authorities wanted to see the family car up on blocks in the garage, and not on the road. As a result, there was a great boom in bicycling." (See Daniel Yergin's Pulitzer Prize-winning book,  The Prize.) The United States had it better: Gas sales only during the day; no gas sales on Sunday; gas rationing.

In a shooting war, the alliance which won the battle for petroleum would win the war. Britain was totally dependent on imports. Germany was independent. The latter manufactured its own petroleum from coal and was completely independent. Germany's cost was higher than oil from a well, but Britain on its own had none at any price. Britain was kaputt.

Global Economic Wars: Energy independence for America is the motto and the goal. That means eliminating imports of foreign oil. Good for you in America. Good for the world. The words are fine, but the action is missing.

The main obstacle is the "conventional wisdom" that we get from our "leaders" in global industry and the politicians: "Well, petroleum and fossil fuel are just cheaper than alternative energy." Why is that? In the next paragraph, you can learn all you need to know about why that is shallow propaganda. It leads you to believe that that is all you need to know. That is just the start of what we need to know.

OPEC guru Sheik Yamani said: "It should be remembered that oil is not an ordinary commodity like tea or coffee. It is a strategic commodity." And OPEC is a cartel, having a general monopoly on this commodity. First, OPEC wants to control the price by use of the market itself, playing off one buyer against another. Second, OPEC manipulates the supply by adjusting production up or down. The result is that America and the other world consumers can find themselves at the mercy of the Arabs, the Russians, and even the Texans.

Yamani might say it this way: 'Wheaties, corn flakes, and Cheerios are ordinary commodities. If the price of corn rises, you can switch to Wheaties and Cheerios.' The OPEC economists and strategists moderate their targets to make sure oil prices do not invite competition. The only thing standing in the way of OPEC's driving gas prices to $20.00 per gallon is the price of "competing" energy strategies, e.g. solar energy.

The answer to America and the world taking more control of its destiny is to create smart competitive strategies like these:

• Conservation.
• Substitutes.
• Alternatives.

This is hard-ball economics and smart geopolitics. A by-product of a smart competitive strategy may include cleaner air and a reduction in global warming. However, the goal is to put money in your pocket and strengthen America. Sounds downright patriotic, does it not?

Conservation can be accomplished many ways. Insulating your home and office works. Buying an auto that is dramatically more fuel efficient works and saves you money. Substitution may include manufacturing petroleum products from oil shale and promoting gasohol from renewable sources like corn. Alternatives are very attractive. In the Plains states, wind power is plentiful. Below the Mason-Dixon line, the sun could be harnessed. Why buy electricity to heat water? The sun raises it to a temperature that is painful to the touch. How about replacing your shingle roof with a solar panel roof? It both insulates and generates electricity. It all works.

See? It's pretty simple. You do not have to have a Ph.D. in economics. Just understand that today, the fix is in. The oil cartel did it. So where have our Congress and presidents been for the last 50 years? Snoozing? Just looking the other way? Or, ....??? At the end of each term, it is clear they just don't get the job done. It's up to you to change that. You can do it with your pocketbook and your vote. And, you can join the Hundred Network. All you have to do is motivate 10 other people who in turn recruit 10 other people. You can make  The Hundred work. You make a difference for yourself and your country.

July Week Three

Are you enjoying the summer months? Do you get a vacation? In Sweden, every working person is guaranteed 5 weeks paid vacation each year. In France, it's 6 weeks. Every person gets it. Which workers are the most productive in the world? The French! ( Don't even count the additional 20+ paid holidays in Sweden! )

In the United States, there is no universal paid vacation, no universal free health care, and a federal minimum wage that is poor. The minimum wage is $5.15 per hour. It hasn't been raised for many years even though purchasing power declines each year. For decades it was set at about half the average hourly manufacturing wage. By that standard, the minimum should be at $7.50 per hour. This is the target you see in  The Fair Deal.

But wait, the national minimum wage law has awful exceptions. For example, a "training wage" can be lower. A waitress, due to the "opportunity" to earn tips, has a different minimum wage. It's $2.50 per hour in some places!

It seems that there is no debate and no attention at the national level. The Congress just "looks the other way." The action is at the local and state level. Florida passed a new higher, inflation-adjusting minimum wage by an overwhelming vote in a state referendum. Cities have required their contractors to pay $9.50 per hour to employees working on government projects. It's underway throughout the country. Here is what you can promote as a member of The Hundred Network:

• Your county commission can increase the minimum wage.
• Your state legislature can increase the minimum wage.
• Government can set the minimum wage for government contracts.
• Unions can negotiate a higher minimum wage.
• Benefits like health insurance can be required.

In the period between 1990 and 2000, the American worker had no real income growth. Corporate America kept the rising profits created by rising worker productivity. Jonathan Tasini says:

1) The link between productivity gains and wages has been broken. Recently, the Economic Policy Institute showed that productivity has grown almost three times faster than wages since 2001.

What To Do?  If you have read this far, you are in the thoughtful elite. Do you have a friend or acquaintance who shares your thoughts and concerns? Send this page link in an email.  MailPage. And make sure to register and vote. Elections are just around the corner as you can see on  Countdown Clock  to the midterm elections.

Welcome to the Swedes and the French!  "Hej, Sverige!" and "Bienvenu, France!" All at once, this site's top foreign visitors are logging in from Sweden and France in surprising numbers. MyHundred and the Hundred Network is directed to an American audience. Most visitors are of course coming from the United States. But Sweden is number two, and France is number three. Wherever you are, please feel free to let us hear from you via email. In addition to "Good Day", "Godag", "Bonjour", and "Guten Tag" are understood here. Stay tuned. The best is yet to come.

July Week Two

And you thought no one was paying attention to the Supreme Court's decision on your property rights. The Court had decided that it is quite okay for a local government to take homes of citizens and turn them over to a corporate developer. The feedback is that lots of folks are paying attention and are mad as hell. The anger cuts across every part of the political spectrum.

The issue is perfect for you and for anyone else in your Hundred. You can take up the cause with your county commissioner, your state representative, and/or your Congress Critter. (Jim Hightower calls them all critters.) Ask them one simple question: "When are you going to pass the law which stops the greed and stupidity?"

The Hundred Network complained mightily (see more below). Then Molly Ivins wrote a  great column on this outrageous decision. Judge Sandra O'Connor wrote this in opposing the decision: "The beneficiaries are likely to be those citizens with disproportionate influence and power in the political process, including large corporations and development firms. As for the victims, the government now has license to transfer property from those with fewer resources to those with more. The Founders cannot have intended this perverse result." Perverse is much too mild a word!

Jay Leno had this to say: "As you know, Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor is stepping down. She didn't want to resign ... she just wants to make sure she's home so nobody can seize her house."

As usual, a political cartoonist gets right to the heart of the matter. Check out Chip Bok's offering called  Eminent Domain.

There are dozens of problems with the direction the country is taking. It's so bad you might conclude that "the fix is in." (Maybe it is.) Our solution is for YOU to pick the one issue that is most important to you. Start talking with just one person you know. Within a month you can talk with ten people. You don't have to quit your day job to do it. Then those ten people get agitated and motivated and make a point to talk turkey with ten more. Ten times ten means a hundred people who support your agenda. At the end of the month, you have a movement. Think global! Think big! Act local! You have the power to change your world.

Next Issue Idea: Schools make big decisions. You might get most energized about what's going on in the school cafeteria. Are your kids eating hamburger and meat loaf and other beef products? What all is in that food? Every person who works in the beef factories knows about DES. The full name is Diethylstilbesterol, stilbesterol for short. This negative conclusion is from this researcher's conclusion on DES:

A synthetic female hormone given to beef animals by injection and by putting it into their feed. Causes cancer of the reproductive organs. (FDA) Found in 85% of the beef in the U.S. Banned in Europe and Canada.

Cancer agents in the food supply? If DES concerns you, you don't have to get an act of Congress to stop it. You and your Hundred can get your local schools to buy beef grown without the injection of the DES chemical. Act local!

And by the way, what other side effects could a female hormone cause? Obesity in humans? Early puberty in girls? Homosexuality in boys? Canada and European countries banned stilbesterol. Why is it acceptable for us Americans?

Got Milk? Or, shall we ask: "Got BGH, the Bovine Growth Hormone?" Here's one conclusion about BGH:

Injected into milk cows to increase milk production. Causes cancer. (Prostate, colon, and breast.) Reduces the life span of the cow by many years. Banned in Europe and all industrialized countries, EXCEPT the U.S.

Hightower Explains: The problems you just read about have been getting worse since World War II. To read more about why America's government works against you, start with Jim Hightower. The best writer in America today is Jim Hightower. He covers serious issues that just don't make the corporate news. Remember Red Dye #2? It was known to cause cancer. Hightower points out that it took 20 years for the government to take it off the market. On every page, Hightower has a humorous story or analogy that is absolutely priceless. Click here to see the "must-read and easy-to-read"  Hightower books. You'll find simple serious solutions by checking out  The Fair Deal.

What's next? It's up to you. Here are two easy steps. First, you can spread the word. Who would be most interested in the issues we are raising? Send this page link in an email.  MailPage.

Second, let us hear from you. What topic would you like to see on this site? Send us your suggestion via email. Stay tuned for the next edition.

July Week of American Freedom

This Fourth of July one might pause to think of the enormous sacrifices and loss of life and limb in the bloody Revolutionary War. What were they fighting for? More power for another king? More power for a corporation? Of course not. One might say they were fighting for justice and fairness under a democratic system of law designed and run by free citizens. The Revolutionary soldiers, with immense support from the French government, won their victory. Here is just a sampler taken from three documents that shaped America today.

Magna Carta, 1215 A.D.: 

For a trivial offence, a free man shall be fined only in proportion to the degree of his offence, and for a serious offence correspondingly, but not so heavily as to deprive him of his livelihood. In the same way, a merchant shall be spared his merchandise, and a husbandman the implements of his husbandry, if they fall upon the mercy of a royal court. None of these fines shall be imposed except by the assessment on oath of reputable men of the neighbourhood.

Declaration of Independence, 1776 A.D.: 

He (King George III) has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He (King George III) has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.

Bill of Rights, 1791 A.D.: 

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

(No person shall . . .) be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

How far have we come over the centuries? If one watches the Supreme Court, the United States of America is still a work in progress. To just pick two items in the news now, the goals of the law seem to have unexpected outcomes. Item One: the Court says reporters can be sent to jail for their work as part of the "free press." The Constitution says clearly that Congress shall make NO law abridging the freedom of the press. Does the Constitution not say that?

Item Two: the Supreme Court decided that it is quite okay for a local government to take homes of citizens and turn them over to a corporate developer. For a park? No. For a school? No. For any direct public purpose? No. The words of the Constitution above seem to require that. The neighborhood homes are being taken for project leased and built by private developers. The "public use", says the Supreme Court, is that the commercial development will increase tax revenues to the city of New London, Connecticut. Now, let's get this straight . . . developers are known to make large political contributions to your city and county councils. So, local politicians can condemn ANYTHING they want IF the government can collect more taxes from the corporate property. Is that okay with you?

How far have we come this Fourth of July? Here is the story that comes to mind this Fourth of July. After months of secret deliberation, the delegates to the first Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia came to a unanimous agreement. As Benjamin Franklin left the hall, a Mrs. Powel ran up to him in a state of excitement. She asked, 'What type of government have you delegates given us?' Ben Franklin replied, "A republic, madam, if you can keep it."

What's next? What topic would you like to see on this site? Send us your suggestion via email.