Free Traders practicing "Protectionism" against labor

Many like to talk social justice when it comes to Free Trade and Globalization and like to use the term Protectionism as something dirty. Protectionism has lost its meaning years ago. Free Traders tell us Smoot-Hawley (tariff) Act caused the Great Depression. They say the high tariffs of Protectionism are the blame for things like the Depression. ( They kept saying it even when Huricane Katrina in New Orleans exposed an unreported Silent Depression and a vast underclass in the USA.) However, the Smoot-Hawley Act was enacted after the Depression began and never was put into effect since the wars in Europe took over. As a matter of fact , prior to the Depression and going back to era before World War One, the U.S had periods of so called Free Trade mixed with periods of tariffs. The only real changes came with World War 2 with American production workers being the ones who actually won the war which was triggered by real Free Trade -the Lend Lease program. After the war , The Marshall Plan kick started economies in Europe and Asia by duplicating success and not chopping up good economies into pieces as the Free Traders have done in our era.
( See series of reviews of Alan Greenspan book The Age of Turbulence starting with )http://www.bizarrepolitics.com/confessions-for-history
(And our most popular ezine article - Lend Lease was real Free Trade and not Chopped Liver as in the Globalist world at http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Ray_Tapajna )
Neither way curtailed the Great Depression. The Great Depression came because the giants in the investment community wanted to make money on money rather than on making things much like it is today.

The variables that affect economies are technology, productivity, efficiency and labor costs. The only real variable is the cost of labor. The cost of labor repesents a vast difference compared to any of the other factors.
The money on money giants in the world chose labor costs as the main deterrent in their goals of making money on money and doing it in a giant way. The giants of the investment community and industry first invested in ways to control government to serve their isolated needs and succeeded. Teddy Roosevelt said it worst fear for America was when big government and big business merge. This is what Free Trade and Globalizaiton is all about with the U.S. Federal Government leading the way in moving factories and production out of the USA starting in 1956. Since then the giants rule the game based on their own version of "protectionism". The little known fact of history where the U.S. thrived for more than a hundred years on tariffs as the main source of taxation receives little attention. Income tax was unheard of during this time. Somewhere along the line, the giants were successful in putting tariffs on work through income and payroll taxes. The real term that should apply is work tariffs on work and labor instead of the term protectionism. The term now applys to protecting the tariffs on work.

( In our next post we will tell you a story about those who did the walk before they talk and who do it now with even working mothers homeless. ) We will tell you about top journalist Elizabeth Sullivan of the Cleveland Plain Dealer who digs into the facts behind every story behind the story until it involves so called "Protectionism".
I guess everyone has to do the walk before they talk with what really counts in life.

Conspiracy Theories go Mainstream

The Pearl Harbor Attack on Workers. President Clinton leads the way joining Dole, Gingrich and Limbaugh in 1993 with President Bush joining the attack in 2000 as the new Doctor Strangelove of our times.


And now we have mainstream media bringing up conspiracy theories and masking the real New World Order ( Dis-Order ).

Many will read this post and will end up not understanding the theme. However some will and I am writing this for them. ( An expanded version of this article is at http://www.bizarrepolitics.com/mainstream-media-conspiracy-theories/ )

I usually stay away from the conspiracy theories surrounding the elder President Bush announcing the New World Order in 1991. Usually, no matter what I say or try to prove about this will end up being a detour in my advocacy for workers' dignity, fair trade and restoring the American Dream.

However, a top mainstream columnist mentioned it his article flowing from the current Russian Georgia conflict. Kevin O'Brien, Assistant Editor for the Cleveland Plain Dealer bounces the term New World Order in his coverage of the conflict saying " The bear is awake and hungry". He uses this as a way to bring down the conspiracy theory that elite groupings like the Tri-Lateral Commission, the Council on Foreign Relations and the Bilderbergers are steering the world into a one world goverment, Kevin O'Brien says the Russian Georgia conflict proves the competition between democracy and authoritarianism of a power like Russia stops the New World Order or a one world government in its tracks. He says neither the European Union nor NATO is going to answer the invasion against a small democracy. The invasion stands as a orchestrated statement that Russia is through tolerating neighboring states' challenges to their authoritarian system built by the current Czar Vladimir Putin.

According to O'Brien, there will always be divisions stopping any tendency towards a New World Order.

However, lets take this a few steps further and go behind the scenes.
Kevin O'Brien is a Conservative ( I call myself a Populist Conservative which is distinctly removed from the Republican connotation of Conservatism these days ). Most Conservatives these days have a mindset that rests on a military solution to power struggles which is very different from the old Republican Conservatives who believed in the balance of power before making war. It seems impossible for these days for Conservatives to get past a world view where geopolitical struggles need to be settled by force. The Bush family and the Clintons threw the history books and military manuals away in their wars in the Middle East and the Balkans.

Let's face it - the U.S. has been in a series of wars since the elder President Bush proclaimed a New World Order. The U.S. has bomb Iraq on a weekly basis for ten years. President Clinton took over where the elder Bush left off. Clinton also acted as the water boy for the Bush family in radically promoting Free Trade and Globalization. The wars in Africa and the Balkans

wars followed with 750,000 Serbians and Gypsies fleeing for their lives in the Balkan wars creating a new kind of ethnic cleansing which replaced the old ethnic cleansing which was the reason given for going to war in the first place. General Wesley Clark bombed civilians in Belgrade and Kosovo with no one asking the question of who was practicing authoritarianism or democracy in all this. The New World Order could put on a disguise hiding the real core of its nature. The real core of its nature is not in military conflicts but there is another area of weapons of mass distruction and it is in economics. The New World Order is in another global arena and it is the global economic arena where many things are happening outside the will of the people with international entities like theWTO ruling the flow of money and commerce outside of any democratic process. International entities are already acting as a one world government and you can call it Globalism. It is a new "ism" that combines all other "isms" into one where a few practice greed at the altar of Globalization. This new "ism" includes Communism, raw Capitalism, Socialism etc where money is the new king. Workers are put in their place and sacrificed at the altar of greed. Making money on money becomes the economy with making things taking a back seat.

In this New World Order millions already have felt the economic weapons of mass destruction with millions losing their jobs. The U.S. has gone through the most massive dislocation of jobs in its history. A new working poor class has been created in the U.S. and an impoverished working class in other lands. It is obvious that none of this evolved in any normal economic fashion but has been driven by powerful forces. The U.S. Federal Government sponsored the moving of factories and production outside the USA starting in 1956 and most adminstrations since then participated in the funding of these programs that first led to the Maquiladora factory program in Mexico using impoverished workers while putting subsistent living farmers off their lands. This then evolved into what is called Free Trade today. After the Free Trade agreements were passed, trans-national corporate leaders reportedly stated that the people of the United States have to give up their old notions of sovereignty. In this New World economic Order ( we call it Dis-Order) labor and workers were forced into a new proper order under the new "ism" of Globalism where money and greed rule the game and workers across the globe. Workers will conform or else.

People like Kevin O'Brien are knowingly or unknowingly part of the process and his article was a mask over the real situation and behing those masks are more masks. The Free Enterprise system is under attack. The destiny of workers to enjoy a good life is too. There is a New World Order processing right now and it is really all about you in the global economic arena.

The original Clinton Years American Dream Reversed

This is Ray Tapajna's most popular thought provoking Topical Artwork with more than 4 million search results referenced on Yahoo under the artwork title - Clinton Years, American Dream Reversed. See more at post below about it also being certified as BIAM ( Bank of International Art Money in Copenhagen Denmark ( example below ) and it is currently on a world tour as a poster along with other of Ray's Topical Artwork including
The American Dream is Burning,
Locked Out Workers Bearing their Cross,
The Cross 9/11 Tangle of Terror,
Pearl Harbor Attack on Workers,
Who has the Key? - Workers are Handcuffed and more.
For more information and the story behind the art, see http://tapsearch.com/clinton/ http://www.graphicsforum.com/public.list.asp?id=1247 where it is rated worldwide and at http://www.bizarrepolitics.com/clinton-years-american-dream-reversed
Feel free to contact us at newsworld@fastmail.net with any questions of requests about this thought provoking artwork.
To view most of Ray's art featured at Tapart News and Art that Talks at http://tapsearch.com/tapartnews/ see http://arklineart.fotopages.com/ or The Fields of Broken Dreams at http://tapsearch.com/id12.html
(You will see some of Ray's Sports Art and Postage Stamp art too.

Clinton Years American Dream Reversed Art most popular artwork

This artwork - Soldiers on Patrol - was originally drawn in 1949 and is available as a limited edition 8x10 print along with a Free actual U.S.Postage Stamp with the art on the stamp. It is also available as certified BIAM ( Bank of International Art Money ) in their standard format and certification at their current standard value of $34.00 U.S. Dollars or $27.00 Euro. For more information feel free to contact us at newsworld@fastmail.net

Help support our advocacy and enjoy a collectible that should grow in value over the years. See Links of our advocacy sites in right hand column.

(See example of Clinton Years - American Dream Reversed Artmoney below with a Free U.S. Postage Stamp with Ray's artwork on the stamp.)
Art Galleries at http://tapsearch.com/id12.html http://arklineart.fotopages.com/ or http://tapsearch.com/raresportsartstore/

Ray's most popular Topical artwork in his Art that Talks series is the Clinton Years American Dream Reversed. It is not part of more than 4 million search results under this title referenced at Yahoo and Alat Vista.

It is also certified as BIAM ( Bank of International Art Money ) in Copenhagen, Denmark in their prescribed standard format and certification. It currently has the standard BIAM value of $34.00 U.S. Dollars and $27.000 Euro. It is sold out at the BIAM site at http://www.artmoney.org/user/1801 but it is still available directly from us. Contact newsworld@fastmail.net Each is numbered, dated, certified and finished by the artist to be one of a kind.

The Clinton Years American Dream Reversed artwork is currently on a world tour some of Ray's other Topical Artworks including The American Dream is Burning. All of Ray's art is available as BIAM ArtMoney.

The Clinton Years... is also rated worldwide at http://www.graphicsforums.com/public/list.asp?id=1247

The little Tugboat that could - Features

Following up our last post about the Tugboat of hope, here are some features, all in the world should note:

Great Lakes Shipyard, an Affiliate of Great Lakes Towing calls their Tugboat built in Cleveland Ohio - a "HandySize" Class Green model.

This new tug design is for harbor and coastal towing and is just the right size, just the right power, environmental sound, fuel efficient and versatile enough to accomplish most tug jobs at the lowest operating cost " when bigger is too big, and smaller is more than enough."

This little Tugboat of hope could do it...... and is a example of what local value added economies can accomplish and export around the world. Tugboats have been around a long time but here is a new innovation for the times we live in now. See http://www.seafarers.org/HeardAtHQ/2008Q3/tug.xml for more of an independent review. And search under Frank Bentayou Cleveland Plain Dealer Great Lakes story.

Extra note: Besides creating local jobs and a $3 - $4 million dollar payroll, the company supports nearby Max Hayes high school, hiring tradesmen who graduate from the institution. Great Lakes Towing - Shipyard truly is thinking global but acting local. Pass this historical happening to all in the USA and the world.

Tug Boat Hope

Announcement to the whole world!
A Tug Boat of HOPE from Great Lakes Shipyards, Affiliate of Great Lakes Towing in Cleveland Ohio USA. ( To all in the world -Do not delay, put your order in now - Call 216-621-4854 - and we as an advocate for local value added economies and real fair trade , will send you our rare sports or topical artwork - see http://www.tapsearch.com/id12.html or http://arklineart.fotopages.com/ )

This historical happening in Cleveland Ohio that should have received national attention.

The first tugboat to be constructed in a U.S. domestic ship yard on the Great Lakes was completed and be readied for shipping to Honduras. It is what the global economy and free trade should be all about. In a U.S. city

a major product was manufactured in a local economy with several layers of value added in the process from raw product to the final end user level with the end user being outside the USA. It is a real export and not something contrived in as one in the global economic arena. It is a Tug Boat of Hope in more ways than one. And all in the world should be aware of this venture in Cleveland Ohio USA. What better way to invite good attitudes about free trade than to really trade a real product like this. Now , we ship parts as exports to factories that were once in the USA.

I am an advocate for fair trade and local value added economies with human dignity in the workday being the priority. I am also a former army officer in the army's navy serving in the Transportation Corp and our company supplied ships out in the ocean. So this is truly a real happening for me in more ways than one.

We will provide more of a background story in our next post or you can go to http://www.seafarers.org/HeardAtHQ/2008/Q3/tug.xml or search under tug boat story cleveland plain dealer . Pass on this historical happening to all in the world.

The Global Economic Arena and The Rationale

At The Rationale Com at http://www.therationale.com/, we explore the voids in philosophy and religion when it comes to workers and labor. We call workers and labor the "stepchildren" of philosophy and relgion where human dignity is generalized but never seems to be defined in terms of individual labor or workers environments.

With the surge of Globalization and Free Trade driven by powerful forces outside the will of the people, human dignity has suffered further setbacks during a time when it should have advanced.

My own individual experience goes back to a core experience while working in a factory while going to a Jesuit University. It was an individual experience but it was part of a universal one too because so many people were involved. The specific experience was a conclusion of other experiences up to that time and from that time on.

I started college more than a year after graduating from high school. I never trusted the academic community and still have a problem with it. By the time I graduated from college at age 23, I had more work experience than most fellow graduates. I had more than ten years working in our family food store and did some of the purchasing. I worked at the largest advertising art studio in our city and by chance was a " 18 year old account executive to some of the largest advertising agencies in the city and nation while I attended college art classes at night. I also spent a few months setting up three assembly lines for an oil furnaces manufacturer. So by the time I started college, I had a background that was different from the academic world and found it deepening with most every college class I took.

I then worked at more than four factories while going to college. The specific experience surrounded my being harnessed at a punch press. An operator of this punch press had to wear a leather harness to pull their arms back as the punch press came down bending a metal part. ( I could stop here and discuss what Peter Maurin would say about this in terms of human dignity - he, perhaps, came closest to anyone I know in the philosophical relationship of workers and spoke against the industrial revolution accordingly. However this would take too long and I have taken too long to get to my point anyway. ) After being harnessed to a machine, I spent days in philosophy classes with the top Jesuit profs. who were most likely some of the best in the world, studying things like Ethics. My Ethics professor , a Jesuit, flunked about one fourth of the class on a regular basis. He excelled in logic and demanded the same of his students. I had already rejected the business school which was one the best for being out of it related to my real world business experience up to that time. However, I felt the philosophy department should provide me with answers about the contradictions of being harnassed to a machine at night while being taught about the top philosophers and their philosophy by some of the top educators in the field.

This was the core experience that followed me for most of my work days. With Globalization and Free Trade, the voids are even greater with seemingly no one stepping in to make things right or at least moderate the degradation of workers' dignity. We live at a time when consumerism governs economics and the workers related to it. The global economy main priority is making money on money and workers are the tools used and the real commodities being traded. Aristotle said making money on money was an unnatural thing to do.

However this is where we are today with the gold standard replaced by oil mixed with blood. It is a time when workers are being traded in a new kind of slave trade as production is moved from place to place for the sake of the cheapest labor down to wage slave and child labor. Again we ask , who said we had to compete like this in a global economic arena. And why do some of the best academics promote it supporting the tenets of The Flat World authored by Thomas Friedman from the New York Times . It is not a level playing field scenario. It is a deepening race to the bottom. I wonder what Peter Maurin would say if he was alive today. This question follows many added years in the business world from the factory floors the highest echelons in corporate management. There was a time in Rome when it was better to be a slave than a freeman. Are we seeing history repeating itself?

It's really all about you in the global economic arena

Ray Tapajna, Editor, Artist and Advocate for human dignity in the workday and fair trade has chronicals of articles, published commentaries, thought provoking art that talks global issues and several blogs relating to the great betrayal of workers in our times. The U.S. has gone through the most massive dislocation of workers in its history with millions losing their jobs and with a new working poor class created in the USA and a impoverished working class created in other lands. It is supported by consumerism but it is not balancing out with the workers making the products in far away places can not even afford to buy the things they make let alone have any money left over to buy the things the more prosperous nations have left to sell.

Who said we had to compete like this in a global economic arena. We can start with the U.S. Federal Government which sponsored the moving of factories outside the USA starting in 1956. Since then most of all the adminstrations have funded programs like the Maquiladora factory program in Mexico that use impoverished workers. Free Trade is not new. It just confirms what has been going on for a long time and it is a history of failures.

Ray Tapajna's main site is Tapart News and Art that Talks at http://tapsearch.com/tapartnews/ with his published commentaries, letters and articles mixed with his Art that Talks since 1994.
His review of The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman is a "corker" at http://tapsearch.com/flatworld where he confronts Thomas Friedman from the New York Times based on the streets of USA and real life experiences from the factory production floors to the highest echelons of corporate management.

You can search under tapsearch, tapart news, tapsearcher or arkline art for many more references and sites.
A summary is at http://tapsearch.com/tapartnews/id40.html which includes http://tapsearch.com/globalization/
Ray's bio can be found at http://tapsearch.com/tapartnews/id18.html

Ray is also the moderator of Bizarre Politics with untold stories behind the news in the global economic arena at http://www.bizarrepolitics.com/ where he has a series of reviews of Alan Greenspan's book The Age of Turbulence. Again he confronts Alan Greenspan based on the real world of the streets of USA and actual living experiences. For a start , see http://www.bizarrepolitics.com/confessions-for-history/

He is also the moderator at his most popular blog so far at http://www.therationale.com/ which explores the "stepchildren" of philosophy and religion - workers and labor- and the subsequent voids.
At http://www.ethicsbox.com , he explores personality and character in terms of self-improvement in the global economic arena where the "unnetted" are outside looking in at the celebration by the Globalist Free Traders.

His most popular ezine articles is Lend Lease was real Free Trade and Not Chop Liver as in the Globalist Free Trade world is at http://ezinearticles.com/?id=390710/ This is a common sense reality check related to the dysfunctional globalists of our times.

His most popular artwork is Clinton Years American Dream Reversed which is now part of more than 4 million search results referenced at Yahoo and Alta-Vista - searching under the title. You can view it at http://www.graphicsforums.com/public/list.asp?id=1247 where it is rate worldwide or see it along with most of his art at http://arklineart.fotopages.com/ or http://tapsearch.com/id12.html

His American Dream is Burning artwork was featured in the Cleveland Plain Dealer Sunday Magazine and the article can be read at http://tapsnewstory.filetap.com/

Globalization and Free Trade have not evolved in any natural economic fashion but have been driven my powerful forces outside the will of the people. It is obvious now that when a nation that does not make the things they use, they are under the power of the nations that do. It is equally obvious that an economy that is based on making money on money eventually runs out of steam as the U.S. economy is doing now as in the housing and banking crisis today. It is time to prepare for the post - globalizaton era as history tells us - only local value added economies work where value is added from raw product up through several levels to the retail and end-user stage and then recycles back down again. A nation can not chop up their economy and send the parts about the globe. They soon find themselves in a new kind of colonialism where they have to protect their interests around the globe. As we are finding out , the value of oil has replaced the gold standard but in the global economic arena is now oil mixed with bloods.