The Will Power Report
WILL POWER COLUMNIST WILLIAM SCHWENT FOUND DEAD
"Will Power `Bill' would be the first one to say, `Never, never, never give up the fight." -- Robert Schwent
April 11, 2012 (San Diego) -- It is with a heavy heart that we must inform our readers that William "Bill" Gerald Schwent has died of a "circulatory event", his family has informed ECM.
Known to our readers as author of the acerbic and insightful "Will Power Report" column, Will was found by his wife, Jan, around 3 a.m. this morning.
THE WILL POWER REPORT: HOW ELEPHANTS LOST THEIR VOICE
Nothing but the truth!
By Will Power
April 8, 2012 (San Diego)--Long before the time of man, all animals used to talk. And they talked with each other, not just squirrels to squirrels and lions to lions. In fact, the animals did a lot of bitching and moaning behind each other’s back, which started all the trouble, as it usually does.
THE WILL POWER REPORT: SUPREME COURT SAYS “TAKE IT OFF!”
Nothing but the truth!
By Will Schwent
April 5, 2012 (San Diego)--Forget your license? Have a misdemeanor warrant for unpaid parking tickets? Make sure you have clean underwear. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that anyone arrested, even if in error, must be strip-searched.
WILL POWER REPORT: SOLAR POWER—MONOPOLY OR FREE?
Nothing but the Truth!
By Will Power
March 14, 2011 (San Diego)--As gasoline approaches $5.00 a gallon, the public continues to wonder “Where’s the Solar”? The fact is Big Oil and Big Energy has been dragging their feet to keep their energy monopoly alive.
THE WILL POWER REPORT: COURT LIMITS FOREST SERVICE ADVENTURE PASSES
Nothing but the Truth!
By Will Schwent
February 29, 2012 (San Diego’s East County)--The US Ninth Circuit Court has invalidated an unpopular U.S. Forest Service Program called the “Adventure Pass”. This scam charged U.S. citizens to drive, park, or hike in their own public lands and fined them if they did not buy an “Adventure Pass.”
Four hikers in Arizona challenged the Mount Lemmon Pass program and the court issued a scathing criticism of the double taxation of the Adventure Pass.
WILL POWER REPORT: REPUBLICAN WEAPON—GAS PRICES
Nothing but the Truth!
By Will Power
February 26, 2012 (San Diego)--The LA Times ran a story which criticized Obama for not keeping gas prices lower. That’s hilarious! A Democratic President can no more control gas pricing than control the weather. With the Conservatives in Congress blocking nearly all Climate Change and Alternative Energy programs it is easy to see the Oil Dinosaurs are in charge of US Energy Policy. In fact, a case could be made the Big Oil controls not only Foreign Policy, but the Beltway itself.
THE WILL POWER REPORT: EXTREME EATING ON TV
Nothing but the truth!
b
y Will Power
y Will PowerFebruary 23, 2012 (San Diego)--I enjoy a few cooking shows. But I dislike the ones where some poor fools have to cook a standing rib roast on a car exhaust manifold. Cooking should be an art, not a competitive sport.
WILL POWER REPORT: MITT ROMNEY’S TAXES
Nothing but the Truth!
By Will Power
January 30, 2012 (San Diego)-- It a time of deep recession, caused by Big Banking’s unregulated greed, deep dishonesty, and unconscionable conspiracy to create monopoly conditions in energy and health care, the public found out that Mitt Romney was an unregenerate , greedy, dishonest speculator who threw Americans out of work and profited from the same.
WILL POWER REPORT: ARMAGEDDON OUTTA HERE
Nothing but the truth!
By Will Power
January 3, 2012 (San Diego)--Watching TV yesterday, I learned that both the Mayan and Chinese Calendar predict the world will end sometime this year. I hope to not check out until I have exhausted my “To Do” list.
WILL POWER: MY KINDLE
Nothing but the truth!
By Will Power
January 1, 2012 (San Diego)--Perhaps because she is tired of tripping on books I leave in boxes throughout the house, my wife bought me a Kindle for Christmas. Curiously, the Kindle came in a brown box with NO instructions. But I managed to activate it anyway and spent one whole day figuring out the basic elements. That's how long it took just to get it running. For example, the directions say the Kindle needs four hours of charging before use. If you can activate it right away, good luck! You will run out of battery before you get up and running.
THE WILL POWER REPORT: ABOLISH THE EPA?
Nothing but the Truth!By Will Power
December 21, 2011 (San Diego) -- Newt Gingrich, the current Republican presidential frontrunner wants to "abolish the EPA". Gingrich characterizes the EPA as a "jobkiller".
WILL POWER REPORT: RICK PERRY’S SUPREME COURT
Nothing but the truth!
By Will Power
December 13, 2011 (San Diego)--Texas Governor Rick Perry made another major Senior Moment in a recent speech. Governor Perry said their were only eight judges on the US Supreme Court (The real total is nine!)
THE WILL POWER REPORT: FRACKING UP?
Nothing but the Truth!
By Will Power
November 16, 2011 (San Diego)--Recent unexpected earthquakes in Virginia, Oklahoma and England have been linked by some geologists to "fracking"- injecting liquids and sands into underground faults to increase natural gas production.
WILL POWER REPORT: PRIVATE PRISONS?
Nothing but the Truth!
By Will Power
October 27 , 2011 (San Diego)--The USA now has more people in prison than China and Russia combined. Sentencing enhancements and Three Strikes law can put an unemployed drug user into prison for life in a heartbeat. Many State prisons are so overcrowded that private prisons are used to house out-of-state prisoners who get no judicial review when they are shipped from one state to another.
WILL POWER REPORT: 60 VOTES? UNCONSTITUTIONAL!
Nothing but the truth!
By Will Power
October 17, 2011 (San Diego)-It is beyond my understanding why politicians of both parties continue to insist the US Constitution requires 60 votes to stop a filibuster and only 51 to pass legislations.
The US Constitution is quite clear- the majority required to pass legislation is only 51 votes. How did the current 60 vote logjam come about?
The Will Power Report: No Jury Trials?
Nothing but the truth!
September 29, 2011 (San Diego)--The US Constitution guarantees a trail by a jury of your peers, a guarantee that has lasted 235 years. But increasingly, the power of prosecutors to plea-bargain using sentencing enhancements means that jury trials are the exception rather than the rule.
WILL POWER REPORT: INEQUALITY OF WEALTH
Nothing but the truth!September 20, 2011--Since the election of Ronald Reagan, the percentage of wealth in the hands of the rich has increased, until today, 10% of the population controls 90% of the money. That would not be so bad in itself, but the rich now want the other 10%, which is what 90% of the people live on.
With wealth comes power, as the Corporate Media not only controls newspapers, magazines, and television, but is now buying up the Internet.
WILL POWER REPORT: CONSUMPTION TAX?
Nothing but the truth!
By Will Power
September 13, 2011 (San Diego)--The latest neo-con pipe dream to come down the pike is a Universal Consumption Tax. This is like a National Sales Tax, but instead of taxing luxuries like yachts, second homes , and luxury cars, this Consumption Tax would tax food, prescription drugs, gasoline, and electricity, gas and water.
WILL POWER REPORT: NO GLOBAL WARMING IN TEXAS?
Nothing but the truth!
By Will Power
September 8, 2011 (San Diego) -- Texas Governor Rick Perry denies there is such a thing as Global Warming, but this week the Governor had to quit the campaign trail to address a huge wildfire that burned 1,000 homes to the ground. Texas has been in a tremendous drought for several years, decimating the cattle industry and leaving most of Texas smoldering.
-- Texas Governor Rick Perry denies there is such a thing as Global Warming, but this week the Governor had to quit the campaign trail to address a huge wildfire that burned 1,000 homes to the ground. Texas has been in a tremendous drought for several years, decimating the cattle industry and leaving most of Texas smoldering.Now its the upscale hill country where the rich folks live that is burning. Perry had no choice but to come home and try tofight the fires.
WILL POWER REPORT: UNION-BASHING
Nothing but the Truth!
...Sadly, the history of labor strife in not taught in schools, and the union-bashers are hoping workers will forget what the Bad Old Days were all about.
By Will Power
September 5, 2011 (San Diego)--Corporate media and extremist neo-con think tanks recently have had great success bashing unions. As Americans celebrate Labor Day, it might be wise to think about the positive contributions of unions.
We no longer have 10-year-olds sorting stones out of coal mine races. There are no young girls losing their fingers changing bobbins in cotton mills. Workers now have the right to bargain collectively for better wages and benefits, in spite of recent efforts to deny them the fruits of their labor. Workers now have a 40 hour week, with overtime for extra work. Teachers no longer have to worry about being fired abruptly for their political beliefs.
WILL POWER REPORT: SAVE THE U.S. POSTAL SERVICE
Nothing but the truth!
September 4, 2011 (San Diego)--Since Ben Franklin organized the U.S. Postal Service, the mailman has been a fixture in U.S. culture. But now the internet and private delivery service has forced the U.S. mail into a deficit. Thousands of small Post Offices are closed, and many rural communities are losing their common connecter of culture.
WILL POWER REPORT: SOLAR JOBS
Nothing but the truth!By Will Power
August 22, 2011 (San Diego)--How could the US put five million unskilled workers on the job in three months without raising taxes? Simple- invest in a self-payout revolving fund which would underwrite putting solar panels on residential roofs all over America. Much of this labor is pretty much unskilled labor. You certainly don't need a college degree to haul solar panels onto a roof and screw them down.
WILL POWER REPORT: POVERTY IS NOT HEREDITARY
Nothing but the truth!
By Will Power
August 20, 2011 (San Diego)--In Eighteenth Century England, not only was poverty illegal but a few pounds of unpaid debt could get you sent to Australia or prison. In those days, people actually thought poverty was hereditary, and that bad genes made you poor.
WILL POWER REPORT: THE LIQUIDITY TRAP
Nothing but the truth!
By Will Power
August 19, 2011 (San Diego)--Here's the definition: The liquidity trap, in Keynesian economics, is a situation where monetary policy is unable to stimulate an economy, either through lowering interest rates or increasing the money supply. Liquidity traps typically occur when expectations of adverse events (e.g., deflation, insufficient aggregate demand, or civil or international war) make persons with liquid assets unwilling to invest.
WILL POWER REPORT: WHAT IS A JOB?
Nothing but the truth!
By Will Power
August 12, 2011 (San Diego) --The U.S. government says currently we have around 11% "unemployed." But that figure just means these people are receiving unemployment compensation. Millions of other Americans have given up on finding work, gone into premature "retirement", or simply dropped out of the job market completely. The real rate is over 20%.
What exactly is "work'?
WILL POWER REPORT: S&P'S $2 TRILLION TAX ERROR?
Nothing but the truth!
By Will Power
August 8, 2011 (San Diego)--The downgrading of the U.S. credit rating by Standard and Poor was thrown into limbo when a $2 trillion dollar math error was found in their calculations. I wish my bank would make the at kind of mistake on my bank account!
Thankfully, other credit-rating agencies have not followed Standard and Poor's bad math. Moody's, another credit agency, still lists U.S. securities as AAA. How could Standard and Poor make such bad mathematical errors? Here's a clue.
WILL POWER REPORT: THE POLICE, POLITICIANS AND THE PRESS
Nothing but the truth!
By Will Power
July 30, 2011 (San Diego)--It's no secret that politicians attempt to control the press. It's been happening forever. But when the press, politicians. and the police start working together secretly, you can get into a hell of a mess.
WILL POWER REPORT: WHERE ARE THE JOBS?
Nothing but the truth!
By Will Power
Ju
WILL POWER REPORT: THE INVISIBLE HAND
Nothing but the truth!
By Will Power
July 11, 2011 (San Diego)--Capitalism, which is based on the classical economic model of Adam Smith, has morphed into a form of State Socialism, whereby the profits of private corporations are guaranteed by the Full Faith and Credit of the US taxpayers. This has resulted in a huge national debt of $11 trillion and counting.
What's worse, the separation of the US Fed and the US Congress means the financial rules have been fixed. The game is rigged in the favor of Big Banks and Brokers.
WILL POWER REPORT: SUPREME COURT ON DRUGS?
Nothing but the truth!
By Will Power
June 29, 2011 (San Diego)--The US Supreme Court made two important health care rulings last week. The first ruling was that consumers harmed by the use of a generic drug cannot sue the drug manufacturer. Generic drugs are copies of drugs which are out of patent. This means anybody can manufacture these copycat drugs, and often quality control can become a problem. Another problem is because many of these drugs are made in India or China, issues of counterfeit drugs become an issue.
Recent comments
5 hours 13 min ago
8 hours 19 min ago
1 day 22 hours ago
2 days 8 hours ago
2 days 8 hours ago
2 days 9 hours ago
3 days 3 hours ago
3 days 6 hours ago
3 days 6 hours ago
3 days 7 hours ago