The Gilmer Mirror (Gilmer, Tex.), Vol. 137, No. 54, Ed. 1 Saturday, July 5, 2014 Page: 4 of 10
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Page 4A — THE GILMER MIRROR, Gilmer, Texas July 5, 2014
WsmpoMs
Spending less over the Fourth
Middle Class Americans say they’re tapped out
Backyards and beaches should be filled with holiday
celebrations this Fourth of July weekend. Americans will
be spending over $6 billion to celebrate our Independence,
but the largest group will be spending the least on Fourth
of July holiday and that may merit watching.
Offers.com surveyed shoppers to see where they would
be spending their American dollars.
Middle Class Americans are the group spending the
least over this weekend
Those with an income of $150,000+ will be spending
the most (28.6 percent) followed by:
$100,000-$149,999 (13.5 percent)
$75,000-$99,999 (11.9 percent)
$0-$24,999 (11.8 percent)
$$25,000-$49,000 (10.4 percent)
$50,000-$74,999 (8.4 percent)
Maybe it’s the price of beef that’s diverting dollars to
the grill. The USDA says beef prices are up 56 percent.
For those not investing in prime aged cuts, here’s where
some of the spending is going besides the barbecue.
More than one-third of consumers (34.2 percent) will
be shopping for clothing and accessories.
16.8 percent will shop for electronics.
12.6 percent are shopping for patio furniture.
Less than 10 percent will shop for grills (9.4 percent)
and appliances (8.8 percent).
For those who want to go beyond the backyard, there
are some real retail bargains out there.
“Consumers will be shopping smart this Fourth of
July,” says Howard Schaffer, Vice President of Offers.com.
“Spring Fashion deals reached discounts up to 75 percent
last year.”
Though Schaffer says the real bargains of summer
may lie just ahead.
“The further we get into Summer, the cheaper patio
furniture will get. The Fourth of July will bring dis-
counts as big as 65 percent, but there will still be better
deals later in the season. A lot of retailers are hoping the
middle class will rally with the important Back to School
sale season just ahead.”
About Offers.com
Offers.com, based in Austin, saves consumers time and
money by helping them find the best coupons, deals, and
offers from more than 7,000 online stores and brands.
238 YEARS LATER, WOULD
Americans still choose
FREEDOM OVER SLAVERY?
By JOHN W. WHITEHEAD
IMAGINE LIVING in a country where armed soldiers
crash through doors to arrest and imprison citizens merely
for criticizing government officials. Imagine that in this very
same country, you’re watched all the time, and if you look
even a little bit suspicious, the police stop and frisk you or
pull you over to search you on the off chance you’re doing
something illegal.
If you’re thinking this sounds like America
today, you wouldn’t be far wrong. However,
the scenario described above took place more
than 200 years ago, when American colonists
suffered under Great Britain’s version of an
early police state.
No document better states their grievances
than the Declaration of Independence. A
document seething with outrage over a gov-
ernment which had betrayed its citizens, the
Declaration of Independence was signed on
July 4,1776, by 56 men who laid everything on the line, pledged
it all—“our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor”—
because they believed in a radical idea: that all people are
created to be free.
Imagine the shock and outrage these 56 men would feel
were they to discover that 238 years later, the government they
had risked their lives to create has been transformed into a
militaristic police state in which exercising one’s freedoms is
often viewed as a flagrant act of defiance.
Indeed, as I document in my book A Government of Wolves:
The Emerging American Police State, a cursory review of the
true state of our freedoms as outlined in the Bill of Rights
shows exactly how dismal things have become:
The First Amendment says Americans cannot be silenced
by the government. Yet despite the clear protections found
in the First Amendment, the freedoms described therein are
under constant assault. Whether it’s a Marine detained for
criticizing the government on Facebook or a protester ar-
rested for standing silently in front of the U.S. Supreme Court,
these are dangerous times for those who choose to exercise
their rights.
The Second Amendment was intended to guarantee “the right
of the people to keep and bear arms.” Yet while gun ownership
has been recognized as an individual citizen right, Americans
continue to face an uphill battle in the courts when it comes
to defending themselves against militarized, weaponized
government agents armed to the hilt.
The Third Amendment reinforces the principle that civilian-
elected officials are superior to the military by prohibiting
the military from entering any citizen’s home without “the
consent of the owner.” Unfortunately, the wall of separation
between civilian and military policing has been torn down in
recent years, as militarized SWAT teams are now allowed to
burst into homes unannounced in order to investigate minor
crimes.
The Fourth Amendment prohibits government agents from
touching you or placing you under surveillance or entering
your property without probable cause and even then, only
with a court-sanctioned warrant. Unfortunately, the Fourth
Amendment has been all but eviscerated in recent years by
court rulings and government programs that sanction all
manner of intrusions, including giving police carte blanche
authority to break into homes or apartments without a warrant,
conduct roadside strip searches, and generally manhandle
any person in manner they see fit.
The Fifth Amendment is supposed to ensure that you are
innocent until proven guilty, and government authorities
cannot deprive you of your life, your liberty or your property
without following strict legal guidelines. Unfortunately, those
protections have been largely extinguished in recent years,
especially in the wake of Congress’ passage of the National
Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which allows the president
and the military to arrest and detain Americans indefinitely
without due process.
The Sixth Amendment was intended to not only ensure a
“speedy and public trial,” but it was supposed to prevent the
government from keeping someone in jail for unspecified of-
fenses. That too has been a casualty of the so-called war on
terror.
The Seventh Amendment guarantees citizens the right to a
See WHITEHEAD, Page 5A
Mirror Photo / Mary Laschinger Kirby
CORI BEASLEY leads the participants in singing the National Anthem with Scouts from Troop
314 backing her at a gathering of the TEA Party on July 4, 2009. The Scouts led the Pledge of
Allegiance. Speakers at the rally outside the Upshur County Courthouse, attended by an esti-
mated 200 persons, decried the growth of government and protested that they were “Taxed
Enough Already.” This photo was on the front page of The Mirror on July 8, 2009. It was the
second TEA Party rally. The first had been held on April 15, 2009.
What is this Country about Anymore?
By KATHERINE MCFATE
MEET MARK. He’s a 58-
year-old, college-educated
veteran who lives in Oregon.
He was laid off last Sep-
tember and has been unable
to find work since. Mark’s
state unem-
1 ployment
benefits
ran out in
May. Since
funding for
the federal
Emergency
Unemploy-
ment Com-
pensation
program was cut last Decem-
ber, Mark and more than three
million other Americans,
including nearly 300,000 veter-
ans, have been denied access
to a second six months of sup-
port —a vital financial lifeline
in this tough economy.
MARK IS way behind in
his rent, is selling everything
of value he owns and fears he
will be homeless soon.
“We spend trillions bail-
ing out banks, and provide
Wall Street bonuses for those
that created this challenging
economy, but for a highly
skilled worker, a veteran with
a family, this country has
nothing,” writes Mark. “What
is this country about any-
more? Our military service
personnel risk their lives to
save and protect the freedoms
of our country and this land,
but when we need help there
isn’t enough?”
My organization, the Cen-
ter for Effective Government,
is collecting stories from
people like Mark reporting
how the loss of emergency
unemployment benefits is
wrecking their lives. Un-
employment benefits only
provide about $300 a week,
barely enough for the rent or
mortgage in many places, but
it keeps the utilities on, pays
for a phone, gas money and
an Internet connection — so
the job search can continue.
Employers won’t hire some-
one without an address and
phone number.
THE STORIES follow a
common trajectory. First,
families drain their savings.
Then, their retirement ac-
counts to keep paying rent
or the mortgage. That’s fol-
lowed by resorting to credit
card debt to buy food, keep
the phone and utilities on and
pay for gas money. As families
become more desperate, they
start selling their possessions
and move in with friends and
relatives, if they have that
option.
Some families end up sleep-
ing in tents and cars, leaving
parents to worry that the au-
thorities will take away their
children until they’re back on
their feet.
Almost all our stories end
with some version of Mark’s
question, especially the sto-
ries from veterans: What is
this country about anymore?
They feel betrayed by elected
officials who put partisan
politics above their needs,
betrayed by the nation that
ignores their plight.
In April, the Senate passed
a retroactive extension of
emergency unemployment
assistance. House leaders
refused to allow a vote on the
bill, so it expired.
A more modest proposal
has emerged: It would pro-
vide assistance to those who
apply for emergency aid in
the future. It would provide
no retroactive relief to the
millions of workers who have
exhausted their resources
as they continue to search
for work. But those jobless
Americans need retroactive
benefits to catch up on the
rent and pay off their credit
card debt.
It looks like this bipartisan
new bill co-sponsored by Reps.
Dan Kildee (D-MI) and Frank
LoBiondo (R-N J) could garner
a House majority. That would
mark a step forward.
BUT THIS “half a loaf”
won’t be enough to stabilize
the lives of the millions of
Americans who worked hard,
played by the rules, took care
of their families and have been
felled by a poor economy.
This Independence Day,
let’s all ask ourselves: “What
is this country about any-
more?” What country allows
almost 300,000 unemployed
veterans and their families
(and another 2.9 million
Americans) to sink into pov-
erty?
The Declaration of Inde-
pendence begins by asserting
our right to “life, liberty and
the pursuit of happiness. ” For
the long-term unemployed, the
ending may be more relevant:
“we mutually pledge to each
other our lives, our fortunes,
and our sacred honor.”
The pledge to support and
protect each other captures
the essence of patriotism. This
Independence Day, we need to
open our hearts to our neigh-
bors and honor our common
humanity by extending a hand
to our fellow Americans as
they struggle to navigate our
tough economy.
Katherine McFate is the
President and CEO of the Cen-
ter for Effective Government, a
nonprofit public interest orga-
nization. ForEffectiveGov.org
Distributedvia OtherWords
(OtherWords. org)
Risky Business in Ukraine
By WILLIAM A. COLLINS
THANKS TO Iraq’s latest
woes, it’s getting pretty hard
to pay attention to all that
unrest in the former Soviet
Union.
Remem-
ber those
poor Ukrai-
nians? All
they want is
to be inde-
pendent and
left alone. Or
at least that’s
what they claim.
In truth, many also want
natural gas from Russia,
but simultaneously desire
access to Europe’s energetic
economy and open borders.
Conversely, some prefer
closer ties with their Russian
ancestry and that skimpy but
real safety net that comes
with the Russian economic
system. Still others, it’s pain-
ful to say, wish to reprise the
fascist governance of the
Nazis and early post-war
eras.
But that’s just the Ukraini-
ans themselves. Other, more
powerful, forces have their
own plans for the country,
and are mobilizing. The Unit-
ed States has already sta-
tioned ground and air patrols
in Poland, Romania, Latvia,
Lithuania and Estonia. The
Pentagon believes Russia is
heavily arming Ukrainian
separatists and estimates
that as many as 50,000 Rus-
sian troops are now stationed
on the border.
And now, Washington sees
the conflict as heralding a
promising new market for
American fracked natural
gas.
Also, it looks like Ukraine
is splitting into separate
geographic segments. A U.S.-
backed billionaire won elec-
tion to Ukraine’s presidency,
though only people in the
western half of the country
seem to have voted. In the
eastern half, Russia orches-
trated a referendum, which
overwhelmingly called for
the independence of that
region.
THE WESTERN segment
seems pretty much under the
control of Ukraine’s ama-
teur army, supported by the
CIA, various U.S. mercenary
forces and the fascist militias
who for some reason thrive
in that region. After this fac-
tion massacred all those pro-
Russian protesters in such
startlingly brutal fashion
in the Odessa Trade Union
Building, the starch seemed
to go out of the opposition.
Anyhow, it sure looks like
the Obama administration
helped to forcibly drive out
a duly elected corrupt pro-
Russian government and
replaced it with an interim
and fascist-laden corrupt
government.
And a newly elected third
government has prudently
assigned the fascists to
important but lower vis-
ibility posts. Will this proxy
U.S.-NATO amalgam, led
by “chocolate king” Petro
Poroshenko, be able to con-
solidate control over the
Russian-leaning East? Prob-
ably. In time, we can supply
the massive money and guns
to eventually do the trick,
unless the Russians get re-
ally testy. This could happen
with their arch enemy right
on their border.
IS THIS really a resump-
tion of the Cold War? Mostly,
no, because of the lack of a
Communist context. But in
the sense that the Cold War
was always chiefly about
empire, yes indeed. The West
gaining control of Ukraine
reduces Russia’s empire and
expands ours. It’s like a giant
game of Risk.
Even Presidents Barack
Obama and Vladimir Putin
are mere chess pieces, just
like those Ukrainians whose
names we’re unlikely to
learn.
Whether the conflict is in
Europe, the Middle East, or
anywhere else, it’s the em-
pire that calls the shots.
OtherWords columnist Wil-
liam A. Collins is a former state
representative and a former
mayor of Norwalk, Conn.
OtherWords.org
Sanctions
and Sarcasm
By JIM “PAPPY” MOORE
SANCTION is one of the
most interesting words in
the English language. It is
among the very small group
of words which can be used
to express thoughts which
are the opposite of each
other. A sanction can be a
punishment, as in “the ulti-
mate sanction for premedi-
tatedmurder
is the death
penalty.” A
sanction can
also mean an
action which
has approv-
al, support
or an official blessing, as
in “the taking out of the
terrorist was sanctioned by
the United States govern-
ment.”
In sports, we have organi-
zations which set rules for
their member groups, such
as the National Basketball
Association, or “NBA”, as
it is known. The games
played by the members of
the league are sanctioned
by the league; i.e., they are
sponsored and approved by
the league. But if a team,
its owner, its coach, or its
players violate NBA league
policies, they can be sanc-
tioned—punished—by the
league. We saw this recently
when the league banned for
life Donald Sterling, the
owner of the Los Angeles
Clippers. Mr. Sterling, who
apparently thinks he is still
living in the 1950s, made
some very racist comments
about African Americans.
The league ruled that Mr.
Sterling had to pay a fine of
$2.5 million, sell the team,
and was banned from all
NBA games for life. The
league imposed the most
serious sanction in its his-
tory.
Sanction pops up in legal
cases frequently. When
the United States Supreme
Court rules that a par-
ticular police method is ap-
proved, we will read or hear
such comments as “the U.S.
Supreme Court has sanc-
tioned the use by police of
devices which gather data
on vehicle licenses.” But if
the Supreme Court rules
that some form of evidence
gathering is not allowed
under the Constitution,
we might read that “the
Supreme Court ruled that
the evidence was not prop-
erly obtained, imposing as
a sanction the dismissal
of the criminal charges
which resulted from such
evidence.”
Sanction is a reminder
that context is everything
in the use of words. Sar-
casm is built around con-
text. If one reads a sarcastic
statement with no clue that
it is intended to be taken as
sarcasm, the entire under-
standing of the statement is
the opposite of its intended
meaning. “Thanks for be-
ing so helpful” might be
the comment of a customer
dealing with an unhelpful
sales clerk at a big retail
outlet. Hearing the com-
ment, its inflection, and
seeing the expressions of
the person making it help
us realize the comment
was made sarcastically, not
literally.
Some people lack a sar-
casm detector in a world
where sarcasm is common.
This can lead to serious mis-
understandings, since some
people love to use sarcasm
and do so regularly. That’s
the reason sarcasm is best
used around those with
whom we have personal his-
tory. If we understand their
sarcasm, we can better
know which of their com-
ments to sanction (accept
and approve) and which of
their comments to sanction
(disapprove and penalize).
Sanction and sarcasm.
Two words which help make
the English language end-
lessly amusing.
©2014, Jim “Pappy”Moore,
All Rights Reserved.
Jim “Pappy” Moore is a
native son of East Texas who
still makes thePiney Woods his
home, oaktreefm58@juno.com
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Overton, Mac. The Gilmer Mirror (Gilmer, Tex.), Vol. 137, No. 54, Ed. 1 Saturday, July 5, 2014, newspaper, July 5, 2014; Gilmer, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth879375/m1/4/?q=green+energy: accessed July 1, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Upshur County Library.