It's all about selling SOAP?

In July 2011, Sarah Palin's documentary The Undefeated opened to an empty theater in Orange County (READ MORE). While on the surface, the movie's box office failure was rather humorous, unfortunately, a majority of journalists missed the point on why the film was released in the first place. It's the same reason why Newt Gingrich, despite getting destroyed at the ballot box, stayed in the race. 

When this blogger lived and worked in the People's Republic of China, I discovered that cigarettes and alcohol were used to bribe government officials. Indeed, the central government actually monitors the sell of expensive cigarettes to gauge the level of corruption in different cities. While the average price per pack was LESS than a dollar, several brands from Yunnan Province cost more than $110s a cartoon. 

Why? Well, cigarettes are a form of hard currency which cannot be individually traced by the government. Thus, local officials accept cartoons of cigarettes, as bribes, without drawing the attention of the central government. 

Economic crimes, such as tax fraud and corruption, routinely appear among the criminal dockets of those given the death penalty READ MORE...

Intead of cigarettes, in the United States, 527 special interest groups purchase books and DVDs (in bulk) to support politicians and so-called journalists who support their specific agenda. For example, the reason Sarah Palin toured Iowa during the primary season was to SELL books and DVDs. She earns more than six figures a year giving speeches. As long as she remains a political celebrity, she'll continue selling SOAP. While this blogger respects Senator John McCain, somebody spiked his political Kool-Aid in 2008.

Suggested Reading:
Money Unlimited ~ How Chief Justice John Roberts orchestrated the Citizens United decision.
Read More...
Covert Operations ~ The billionaire brothers who are waging a war against Obama.
Read More...

Lord Voldemort apologizes for phone-hacking scandal?

Fifty years from now, historians may reflect back on this period of media history and compare Rupert Murdoch to William Randolph Hearst and Glenn Beck with Father Charles Coughlin.

Beyond the whole Media Matters campaign targeting Beck's advertisers (READ MORE), I believe there's another reason for the show's dramatic rise and fall in daily viewership.

Before Glenn Beck's final farewell from Faux News, this blogger sat down and watched a rerun of his show.

Instead of focusing on the conservative flavor of the show itself, I stepped backed and evaluated how the various visually manufactured elements were formulated to tell a story. Basically, Beck's television program resembled a poorly constructed, G-rated version of "Swimming to Cambodia" (without all the juicy sex, drugs and rock-n-roll). Monologues, as a dramatic element, should contain some deeper level of "self-discovery". What I witnessed was an extended verbal diatribe of rhetorical self-aggrandizing behavior. In a word: BORING.

Yes, despite his political views, at the end of the day, P.T. Beck lost his SOAP BOX because his show was (dramatic pause) BORING.

“When fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.” ~ Sinclair Lewis

NASA's next Space Mission is to search for intelligent life on Capital Hill?

"To compromise is to make a deal where one person gives up part of his or her demand. In arguments, compromise is a concept of finding agreement through communication, through a mutual acceptance of terms—often involving variations from an original goal or desire." ~ Wikipedia

NASA: The Complete Illustrated History

Class Warfare against the Ruling Class?

On Faux News Sunday (September 18, 2011), Representative Paul Ryan (R-WI) spoke with Chris Wallace about President Obama's plan to reduce the budget deficit and fund the proposed American Jobs Act.

"Class warfare Chris may make for good politics but it makes for rotten economics. We don't need a system that divides people."
~ Rep. Paul Ryan

Considering the GOP has been waging a non-stop war against the right of workers to engage in collective bargaining, for this blogger, this Wisconsin Representative's comments framing the latest tax battle as class warfare sounded a bit like Rick Santorum lecturing Senator John McCain about the benefits of water boarding.

Who is Paul Ryan?
Representative Ryan is the quintessential, professional Beltway Baby.

How much money has he earned working in the public sector? Based on the Congressional Pay Table, since being elected to Congress in 1998 (at the age of 28), he has earned $2,078,100 (base salary). This figure does not include yearly travel expenses or the random $50 special interest group luncheon.

Prior to earning his own Congressional Franking Privileges, Ryan worked for Wisconsin Sen. Bob Kasten and Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback. 

From battling paper cuts as a Congressional mail room intern, to joining the staffs of two Senators, to eventually being elected to Congress himself, Representative Ryan has spent the majority of his adult life walking the corridors of Capital Hill (as well as collecting a government paycheck). So, when this Beltway Baby gives a supply side economics tax lecture about the Millionaire Club, please forgive this blogger for laughing.

Considering he's already banked over $2,000,000 as a public servant, taken advantage of 12 years of government sponsored health care, did not serve in Afghanistan or Iraq and has already qualified for the Congressional retirement package (not including Social Security), how on earth did this Washington Insider become the so-called Poster Child for the Tea Party Movement? 

All politicians sell SOAP. In the case of Representative Ryan, he is the SOAP. He is an actual product created by and for the Washington Beltway.

It's easy for a member of the GOP to go on Faux News. It's quite another to give an extended interview with someone like Rachael Maddox. As I've already written, there is no silver bullet for fixing this economy. Should the tax code be simplified? Yes. But with more than 12,000 lobbyists knocking on Congressional doors, I seriously doubt any reform package (which tackles tax loopholes and exemptions) will survive the Tsunami of special interest money.

Class Warfare? Please. The Koch Brothers have already spent more than $100,000,000 selling their Libertarian brand of corporate soap. Power is crack. Money buys crack. Tax reform without serious political reform still leaves a majority of Americans sitting on the sidelines. Confused? What political reforms? Read More...

REPOST: Can you name the first time in American history that the government cut taxes and decreased revenue as it marched off to war?

How many millionaires and billionaires served in Afghanistan or Iraq? How many of these same folks made money off these wars? Anyhow, the term Job Creators has a nicer ring to it than Campaign Contributors.



IF Ryan wants to talk about Class Warfare, bringing back compulsory military service (with a public service option for conscientious objectors) would be a great place to start the conversation.

During this latest debt ceiling debate, President Obama made a serious linguistic blunder. Instead of calling the expiration of Bush-era tax cuts - for the wealthiest Americans - the Buffett Rule, he should have named it the Two War Rule. In 2003, the Bush Administration projected the cost of military operations for Iraq between $50 billion to $60 billion dollars. Where was Ryan when the Congressional Budget Office was crunching those numbers for funding Dick's Halliburton War? Ryan voted for both wars and the Bush-era Tax cuts. 10 years & $1.3 trillion dollars later, this Congressman (now supported by the Tea Party) still refuses to pay the bills for Afghanistan & Iraq. Read Here & Here...

Sadly, even if the President had chosen a different package of words to sell his latest proposal, at the end of the day, Congressman Ryan would still have called it Class Warfare. And you know something...maybe he's right. Being born and raised inside the Washington Beltway gives a person a special interest perspective of this world. Read More...

Photos by Peter Rimar
Total Lobbying: What Lobbyists Want (and How They Try to Get It) 
(See all Political Lobbying Books)

etc. etc. etc.

Tax Breaks for Job Creators?

Really? Who came up with this talking point? Some K Street lobbyist? According to CelebrityNetWorth.com, on July 2, 2008, Rush Limbaugh signed an eight-year contract with Clear Channel Communications for $400 million. The conservative talk show host "broadcasts his show from a $26 million ocean front home in West Palm Beach, which has 7 bedrooms, 12 bathrooms and an elevator".

Between January and May 2009, Clear Channel Communications eliminated 2,440 positions (roughly a 12% drop from its December 2008 workforce). Read More...

Still confused?
Here's what Seattle billionaire Nick Hanauer wrote in Bloomberg's op-eds section in November, "When businesspeople take credit for creating jobs, it is like squirrels taking credit for creating evolution. In fact, it’s the other way around." Read More...

At what point will the GOP wake up and finally retire its silly "job creator" talking point?

Every person who spends money is a job creator. Every person with money deposited in a savings account is an investor. At the end of October 2011, one month after the start of #Occupy Wall Street Protests, the Congressional Budget Office published a detailed report on the distribution of household income between 1979 and 2007. The raw numbers are alarming. Read More...

Can you name the first time in American history that the government cut revenue as it marched off to war? Once again, President Obama needs to stop calling his proposal to raise revenue to address the budget deficit the Buffet Rule. It needs to be called the After 9-11 Tax. Dear Mr. and Mrs. Tea Party, can the country do its collective Patriotic Duty and pay for the ongoing Wars? Speaking of which, how many millionaires and billionaires served in Iraq or Afghanistan? 1%?
Read More...

"I Pledge of Allegiance to Grover Norquist"?

In case you missed it, according to the latest Gallup, only 11% of Americans approve of the job U.S. Congress is doing. The 86% disapproval rating for the 112th Congress is the highest since Gallup started asking the question in 1974. Read More...

Public service is NOT about being a Republican or a Democrat. It's not about being a liberal or conservative. It's about doing the right things for the right reasons. It's about being a citizen. And believe it or not, the word Compromise is NOT one of George Carlin's original seven dirty words.

Understanding the latest political games being played out in Washington D.C. is not complicated. Power is crack. Money buys crack. Perhaps it's time for this country to take a serious look at enacting a 28th Amendment to the Constitution which overturns the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission case (perhaps the worst decision in America's judicial history since Dred Scott).

"94% of elections in America are won by the candidate with the most money. Is this how we want to pick our leaders?"
~ Buddy Roemer

...life in contrast...

Dirty Blue Jeans in Broken Window, Changsha, PRC (December 2008)

‎"It is a well know fact that reality has a liberal bias" ~ Stephen Colbert

Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann's call to ABOLISH the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and allow corporates to police themselves is like firing every correction officer and placing the inmates in charge of guarding the prisons. READ MORE...

For a majority of Americans, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq (along with the follow up extended military occupations) were viewed through the abstract lens of our digitally connected, 24/7, talking head e-world. Some people learn about American foreign policy from reading a book or from watching CNN. This blogger was lucky enough to get my first taste of our wonderful geopolitical world sitting inside a sandbagged CONEX (shipping storage container) at the Port of Mogadishu, Somalia. After 9-11, I took several taxpayer funded vacations to Kabul and Baghdad.

After more than 26 years in uniform, I retired and moved to the People's Republic of China. For six weeks (July & August 2008), I taught summer school in the city of Huadu. After just a few days, my wife and I started developing serious, painful skin rashes from the local water supply. After looking at the arms and legs of my students, it was visually evident that EVERYONE in the city had some degree of skin problems. Indeed, EVERY DAY, one or two students would cry from the rashes. Why?

Well, the Communist Party's version of the EPA has no real authority. Second, and perhaps more importantly, the world continues to ship its e-waste (along with its dirty industries) to China. Unknowingly, my wife and I had moved downstream from an e-waste generated ecological disaster.

Can you say "Love Canal"?

Thankfully, once we relocated to the city of Shenzhen, our skin problems quickly cleared up. So, when a candidate talks about "abolishing" the EPA, I question that individual's political motives. Are guys like the Koch Brothers pulling the candidate's strings? Anyhow, this blogger asks this simple question, "what kind of world do we want to leave our children's children?"
Biologic Pollution Mask

"A hypocrite is the kind of politician who would cut down a redwood tree, then mount the stump and make a speech for conservation." ~ Adlai Stevenson

...another perspective...

If you're a Ron Paul for President supporter, please stop reading this post. For this blogger, this Libertarian's continued misguided belief that corporations will somehow police themselves in a pure free market economy is Utopian lunacy.

If you're a Newt Gingrich for President supporter, PLEASE see a doctor. Poor students cleaning up rich kids urine and shit is a jobs plan? Having children competing with their parents for the handful of jobs in poor neighborhoods will somehow "morally" fix the country? WTF?

Here's an idea:
Army Private Paris Hilton.

YES, there are real reasons why this country was a world leader in creating and then enforcing Child Labor Laws. The current GOP Flavor of the Month REALLY needs another HISTORY lesson.
Read More...

Anyhow, please forgive this blogger for temporarily straying away from the original topic of this specific post.

In the People's Republic of China, while the Chinese government claims goose stepping adherence to its version of Communist ideology (socialism with Chinese characteristics), when it comes to actually enforcing the country's weak environmental laws, the free market reigns supreme. Beyond the token measures taken by the Central Government prior to the Beijing Olympics in 2008, when it comes to protecting the manufacturing engine which drives the country's economic growth, both Chinese and foreign-based corporations enjoy a free market with ZERO environmental accountability. Can you say limited government in its purest form? Can you say profits before people?

With that said, it appears the Chinese people themselves are beginning to question the government's laissez faire response to the country's rapidity developing environmental crisis.
Read More...

Blue Beijing Skies?

March 2008

Photo by Peter Rimar

Update: (1/21/12)
Beijing releases pollution data after public pressure?
Read More...

Duverger's Law?

I've always found it rather strange that a majority of Democrats & Republicans fail to understand the historical roots of each respective party. The Constitution DID NOT create America's two-party system. While I've witnessed firsthand the corruption & abuse of a one-party system in the People's Republic of China), today's polarized political landscape has "Republicrats" displaying more goose stepping loyalty to "THE PARTY" then "OUR COUNTRY".
Former Congressman Weiner is still wondering how men like Thomas Jefferson & Benjamin Franklin would have survived an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer.

Dateline: 12/22/2011
#Occupy the GOP?
"It is not called the Grand Old Party without good reason."
Read More...


Alice in Wonderland Mad Hatter Hat with Hair

Need more "BANG for the BUCK"?

Heck, this blogger needs more BANG from that jar of pennies, nickles & dimes!

It appears that the political formula for a candidate is perfecting a single ideological pitch & then repeat it over and over AND over again. It doesn't matter if it's the truth, as long as what's being said contains enough FEAR & HATE verbiage to keep the audience happy & ignorant.

The Art Of Money Getting (Paperback)

Happy 125th B-Day Lady Liberty!

The New Colossus

by Emma Lazarus (1883)

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,

With conquering limbs astride from land to land;

Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand

A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame

Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name

Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand

Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command

The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she

With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

Enlightening the World: The Creation of the Statue of Liberty (Hardcover)

Tea party group to Bachmann:
Quit the presidential race?

Back in July, this blogger wrote:
"IF you want to sell books, land a job on FauX News, go Dancing with the Stars, earn six figures on the talk show circuit, use PAC money to finance a family BUS vacation & STAR in your own Reality TV show, RUN for President."


Evidently, I'm not the only one who reached the political opinion that the Bachmann campaign is about the candidate's own financial, self-promotion.


In a written statement issued by American Majority President Ned Ryun, he questioned the motives of Bachmann's continued run for the White House:

"In Bachmann's case, it is clear that the campaign has become less about reform and more about her personal effort to stay relevant and sell books; a harsh commentary, but true," Ryun wrote. "While other campaigns are diving into the substance, the supposed tea party candidate Bachmann is sticking to thin talking points and hanging on for dear life."
Read More...

#Occupy North Dakota

First Amendment to the United States Constitution


"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."

“The Tea Party is very different. The Tea Party were individuals that were attempting to redress their grievances from the government that they elected. It’s not pitting one part of our country against another.”
~ House Majority Leader Eric Cantor

REALLY?

Bob, the man in the following video, attended a Tea Party Rally in Columbus, Ohio in 2010. He is 60 years old and was first diagnosed with Parkinsons 15 years ago. He has two masters degrees and a Ph.D. from Cornell. He taught at the University of Michigan and worked as a nuclear engineer:


“When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross.” ~ Sinclair Lewis

Note to Reader: Judging this blogger's political views based on this specific POST is like reading a single page in the middle of a book. For the record, I'm an Independent. I believe the two-party system no longer serves the interests of a vast majority of Americans. Indeed, in my view, a candidate's political affiliation and party should be left off an election ballot.

Stimulated Numbers?

Compare: This FY (fiscal year), DoD will receive approximately $126 billion for sustaining military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. How does this dollar amount compare to added domestic spending under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009?

Contrast: It included $53.6 billion in direct financial aid for local school districts to prevent massive layoffs & cutbacks, with the flexibility to use Stimulus Funds for school modernization and repairs (State Fiscal Stabilization Fund). Basically, it was the Federal Government's 50 State BAIL OUT in order to keep PUBLIC SCHOOLS across this country OPEN for business.
READ MORE...

In 2009, while GOP candidates hammered the Obama administration on the auto industry bail out, ZIP was said regarding the school district BAIL OUT. IF you're a school teacher or auto worker, ask yourself, "does the GOP really care about protecting my job?"
READ MORE...

Economics 101
Until Americans start voting with their wallets, it'll be almost impossible to create new manufacturing jobs in a tight global marketplace.

Toyota BUILT a billion dollar Tundra assembly plant in San Antonio, Texas because market research shows a large segment of the American truck buying public actually values where a product is manufactured.

Corporations like IBM, Microsoft, GE, Apple, GM, BP & Exxon-Mobil ONLY salute one flag: PROFITS!

Americans need to start making informed decisions about the products they buy. IF consumers value products "Made in the USA", corporations like Target & Wal-Mart will respond to the economic benefits of stocking more home grown products. Small changes in individual buying habits will eventually send a loud dollars & cents message to the world's multi-national corporations.

Once again, in case this blogger failed to hit home the central message of this particular post, IF American consumers don't value the country of origin of a product or service, why should a corporation? Free Market? What Free Market? Read More...

Photo of Portable Toilet by Peter Rimar, Baghdad, Iraq (March 2004).

A Year Without "Made in China":

One Family's True Life Adventure in the Global Economy (Paperback)

Dear Congressman Ron Paul (aka Dr. No)

While some of your Libertarian ideas sound great on paper, in practice, it's scares the hell out of this blogger. Every time you talk about your vision of the world, it describes a place I've actually visited. A once peaceful, clean & beautiful city (with modern infrastructure) completely destroyed by a limited government, free market economy.

Image a world with...

No public libraries or city parks, road repairs,
Interstate Highway System, State or National Parks, Federal Income Tax, Health Care for Veterans, functioning police force (except for private citizens with AK-47s), lawyers or judges (replaced with religious street justice), flush toilets or sewage plants, Social Security or Medicare, Fish & Wildlife Service, farm support or subsidies, government mandated auto insurance for drivers, building codes or zoning ordinances, government regulations, factories, collective bargaining, workplace safety, environmental standards, minimum wage, electricity (except for gas power generators), Hoover Dam or NASA, indoor running water (only shared community water pumps), home telephones or broadband internet, universities to train doctors or nurses, Pell Grants or Student Loans, a CDC or medical research facilities, Wal-Marts or K-Marts, food inspectors or FDA, McDonald's or Burger Kings, city streetlights or traffic signals, national bank or currency (Euros, dollars, gold, silver & goats).

A city with limited government in country where the free-market & money is KING. And the best part of this whole Libertarian brew, charity organizations provide the health care. 

The place? Well, it's in the news again.
Mogadishu, Somalia.

The sad truth is a lot of folks actually believe your dog-ma-nomics crap. Is there Fraud, Waste & Abuse in every agency of the Federal Government? Yes. Can the Federal Bureaucracy be streamlined and made more efficient? Yes. Does this country need to wrap up its military operations in Afghanistan & Iraq? Yes. With that said, this whole ideological brew which suggests that limited government is the only solution for every social and economic problem borders on the political absurd. Hell, let's just go ahead and repeal the whole 20th Century.

America is NOT bankrupt. You really could learn something from Medal of Honor Recipient Dakota Meyer (who risked his life to do the right thing for the rights reason). IMHO, you've spent too many years walking around the Washington Beltway and selling SOAP on the Presidential Campaign Trail. You've completely forgotten the things that made this country great.

Update: After spending more than an hour writing this POST, Bill Clinton comes along and capsulizes this blogger's original message in a single sentence:

"There's not a single example on our planet, not one, where an anti-government strategy has produced a vibrant economy with strong and broad-based growth and prosperity."
~ Bill Clinton 
Read More...



Photo taken at the Port of Mogadishu, Somalia by Peter Rimar (January 1994).
Pirate State: Inside Somalia's Terrorism at Sea

Dear Mitt Romney

First, if you're going to use a visual prop to roll out a 59 point jobs plan, it's a good idea to think about where that product is actually made. Apple iPhones & iPads are assembled in the People's Republic of China via Foxcomm (a Taiwanese-based company).

Additionally, at the end of July, Apple ($76 billion) was sitting on more CASH than the U.S. Treasury ($74 billion). Which means the second largest American company in the world in market value (after Exxon-Mobil) has the financial means to help create new manufacturing jobs in this country. 

Why didn't you put Apple's feet to the fire for outsourcing American jobs?

But then again, why should a multi-national corporation pay health insurance, provide its workers with decent wages or adhere to basic environmental standards when the Chinese government is ready, willing and able to undercut the competition. America is getting its butt kicked in the global economy. There's an ARMY of migrant workers (somewhere between 170 to 200 million indentured men, women & children) who work 350 days a year for $150s a month (along with basic room & board). IF a Chinese worker complains about the health & safety in a factory, the CCP's Public Security Bureau offers that worker a FREE, all-expense paid vacation to a lovely re-education camp in Inner Mongolia.

While the Tea Party screams about the Federal Budget Deficit, I wonder why this conservative movement has avoided discussing this country's continued unbalanced trade relationship with the People's Republic of China. It's rather curious that a so-called grass roots movements (bankrolled by the Koch Brothers) advocates Free Trade instead of Fair Trade.
Read More...

Second, during this Press Conference, you discussed holding the Chinese government accountable for its unfair trade practices and manipulation of its currency.

"I will not stand by while China pursues an economic development policy that relies on the unfair treatment of U.S. companies and the theft of their intellectual property. I have no interest in starting a trade war with China, but I cannot accept our current trade surrender."

You're right. No debate. However, maintaining peace in Asia has reached a critical juncture. You need to understand that the DPRK is a proxy of the CCP and PLA. Period. Also, American corporations, which over the last ten years happily relocated part of this country's industrial-capacity to Asia, share some of the economic blame.

Could you please sit down and have a conversation with Jon Huntsman about how things work in the real world?

One problem the West has with dealing with the People's Republic of China involves how the Chinese people generally view their own society. The country's vast educational system feeds its students a steady diet of historic, foreign victimization (i.e. the Opium Wars). 

Unfortunately, its created an US vs. THEM mentality which borders on xenophobic cultural nationalism. It shares some of the same political characteristics of Islamic Fundamentalism without the theologically based underpinnings.


Instead of painting the Chinese people as the enemy, your campaign message should be BUY Made in the USA. How hard can it be to turn a negative message into a positive one? Once again, IF American consumers don't value the country of origin of a product or service, why should a corporation? IF you're elected President, you'll have to confront the Chinese government on Human Rights, state-sponsored cyber-attacks, the South China Sea, Taiwan, Rare Earth Minerals and the DPRK. The best way to keep the CCP off-balanced is to speak about freedom of expression and human rights.

"An army of principles can penetrate where an army of soldiers cannot."
~ Thomas Paine

Prior to 1979, the CCP spent 30 years trying to erase Chinese history & culture. Today, it's a different story. The only way to counter this political, social, economic and cultural linkage is to address the Chinese People and the Communist Party as separate institutions.

A global trade war targeting poor Chinese workers will only feed the Communist Party's vast propaganda machine. Many folks forget that during the Cold War, leaders in this country linked trade with the Soviet Union with the ideals of freedom of expression and a respect for human rights. It's a bit curious that today's crop of leaders don't hold foreign governments (along with American corporations) to ANY political, economic, social or environmental standards of conduct.

China Watch Update :
(9/27/11)
Taiwanese Officer arrested for spying for the CCP
Read More...


Power, Trade, and War (Paperback)

Romney Foreign Policy Update:
(10/7/11)
This blogger actually sat down and watched this candidate's televised speech from the Citadel. Afterwards, I questioned whether this man actually understood the global implications of his remarks. Evidently, I was not alone.
Read More...

...perspective...

Beijing, PRC (May 2008).

Apple Update:
(1/29/2012)
When this blogger originally posted the above commentary about this technology giant, it was to point out that if you're running for President (a.k.a. Mitt Romney), and you're concerned about turning around the economy (which is slowly recovering after the worse economic downturn since the Great Depression), Apple is the WRONG so-called American company (?) to use as a Made in the USA economic model for creating new manufacturing opportunities (i.e. jobs) in this country.

In 2008, this blogger lived in Shenzhen, China for six weeks. The information and analysis contained in the following CBS News report highlighting Apple's manufacturing operations in this Chinese city is both factual and accurate:

CBS News
The dark side of shiny Apple products
Read More...

Photos by Peter Rimar.