My Son Has More Money in Beverly Bank Than the Nation of Zimbabwe

 My Son Conor on the Far Right with Two Boon Chums, celebrating Conor's Bank Account!

There are cash-strapped governments and there are broke governments. And then there's Zimbabwe, which, after paying last week's government salaries, has just $217 left in the bank. No, we didn't forget any zeroes to the end of that figure. Zimbabwe, the country that's home to some of the world's largest platinum and diamond reserves, literally has the same financial standing as a 14-year-old girl after a really good birthday party. The country's finance minister admitted as much in a press conference on Tuesday. "Last week when we paid civil servants there was $217 [left] in government coffers," Tendai Biti told reporters. "The government finances are in paralysis state at the present moment. We are failing to meet our targets."

Tendai, old son, them  targets must be the size of a gnat's nuts.  If all you got $ 217 in the old cartera.

My son is 22 years old.  Conor is a big strapping handsome guy ( Mom's DNA) with a ready smile and , in the manner Hickey,quick with a buck!  Nevertheless, the lad has some fundamental thrift.  An apprentice tradesman, Conor is doing alright.  He is on the path to a debt free young manhood.  No college debt.

An apprentice does not make a great deal of money, but Conor lives at home and only needs to pay his union dues, class fees, car insurance and car payments. Of course, there is dispensable capital.   Like most of his contemporaries, the lad has few cares and fewer sleep-depriving responsibilities.


Zimbabwe* is an idiotic piece of Africa that stands as a metaphor of liberal thought.   It is nation run by a blood-thirsty idiot, Robert Mugabe, and for idiots - only people like Bill Ayers, Jimmy carter, Rammsey Ckark, Rev. Al Sharpton, Bill Moyers and MSNBC have deep admiration for this folly on wheels of a nation.

To quote Conor Oliver Hickey, "Hey, You can't spend everything!"

Not so, says Old Bob Mugabe!



Zimbabwe is nine years older than my son Conor, but it has only $ 217 left in its bank account.  Conor could buy three Zimbabwe's and have enough to buy a round at Dubliner, Keegans and Cork & Kerry. Beverly Bank and Trust is a neighbor friendly institution.

Stout fellow and sound dollar husbandry, my son!

If an old guy named  Bob Mugabe tries to put the bite on you for a touch, my son, explain that you give only to Catholic Charities.


*

WELCOME TO ZIMBABWE

The country of Zimbabwe is 390,580 sq km and is bordered on all sides by other countries. Zambia lies to the northwest with the Zambezi river and its Victoria Falls forming the border. Mozambique lies to the northeast with its border formed by the Eastern Highlands. Botswana lies to the southwest and South Africa to the south (its border formed by the Limpopo River)

Why Skilled and Industrial Trades Languish at 12-19% UnEmployment - Read Joel Kotkin's Real Teachable Moment

My family is comprised of very skilled trades workers ( men and women) who voted for Barack Obama. I am the only Hickey to back McCain. I did so because I did not and do not believe that Barack Obama was up to the job as President and that he had some very dicey people pouring poisonous ideas into his very willing ears.

I am a school teacher. I read and my relations work with their hands, heads and hearts. They are stationary engineers, electricians, carpenters, plumbers and pipefitters. Even the Hickey's( Brennans, Walshs, Winters, & etc.)with law degrees hold union cards.

When I work with tools bad things happen - to me and others. Hence, there is an ideological Mason/Dixon line drawn between me and my kin folk born of an inability and avoidance of genuine work on my part.

Hickeys are union people. I am as well - real unions. Politically, the skilled trades unions have historically made pacts with the devil in order to advance the prospects for workers to live with dignity and in safety.

In last forty years, politics betrayed the workers more than any Pinkerton agent or capitalist goon. Political Action Cadres (PACs) masquerading as Labor have co-opted Labor with sheer numbers.

Skilled Trades and Industrial Trades became enthralled by and to tax-payer salaried unions most notably Services Employee International Union (SEIU) which dictates policy to the National Democratic Committee ( Howard Dean) and the White House ( President Obama).

Our economic turmoil is not some glitch, but a planned operation - witness the recent remarks on Health Care by the daffy dimwitted Rep. Jan Schakowsky -

SCHAKOWSKY: “I know many of you here today are single payer advocates and so am I … and those of us who are pushing for a public health insurance don’t disagree with this goal. This is not a principled fight. This is a fight about strategy for getting there and I believe we will.” ( Emphasis my own -You got that right, Jan.)

Single payer ( The Government) Health Reform is the stated end game.

Likewise, One Big Union is the end game for SEIU. Skilled Trades will lose all autonomy and influence, as the jobs continue to disappear. Joel Kotkin a Social Demographer who trained under Michael Harrington and learned the dangers of creeping socialism has long been a critic of the economics of modern Progressives.

His article in Politico is a must read for all Labor People. Click my post title for the full article. Here is a bit of it.

This is Kotkin's genuine teachable moment. Real Labor might learn something.

As a recent New America Foundation report makes clear, precious little has gone to the productive side of the economy that determines the country’s competitiveness and creates many high-paying blue-collar jobs. Infrastructure, a critical component of any productivity-enhancing strategy, has accounted for barely 10 percent of the package.


The results have not been pretty for the productive sectors of the economy. Construction workers now have higher than 19 percent unemployment; jobs in this sector have fallen during the past year in 333 out of 352 metropolitan areas, with more than 200 plunging by double digits. Meanwhile, the hard-pressed manufacturing sector suffers more than 12 percent unemployment.


Why this disinclination to fund the tangible parts of the economy? One reason may be that those working in construction and manufacturing — both blue-collar workers and white-collar professionals — do not wield the same influence in this law review administration as college professors, Service Employees International Union-organized workers or unionized teachers.


One also senses that some militant environmentalists in the administration may be less than enthusiastic about anything associated with the entire carbon-creating part of the economy. Certainly, new factories, natural gas facilities, roads, ports and waterways don’t fit the professed passion of the president’s own science adviser, John Holdren, for the gradual “de-development” of the U.S. and other advanced economies.

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