Commentary written by: Lyle Rapacki

The picture of the Grand Canyon with a storm raging over it is a beautiful sight I have witnessed many times.  There is a certain awesome regal beauty in the power and violence of the lightening flashing against a backdrop of such serene beauty and color emanating from the canyon walls.  There is a storm raging within our Nation that is equally violent and powerful but not at all regal or beautiful.  The still growing storm of economic collapse is beginning to crash over the lives of people who have even faithfully served our Nation, our leaders, our citizens.  This still developing storm will prove catastrophic; not useful as even thunderstorms over the Grand Canyon can be useful.  The economic storm, which is still intensifying, will level much in its path including people.  Americans at a deep level sense this but continue to go about their lives thinking if they pay it no attention the storm will pass, little to no damage will occur, especially to them personally and a new election will simply bring new people with new ideas and new plans to return us to normal.  As long as Americans can still go to McDonalds, Starbucks, movies, and watch their favorite sports or shows there is no need to worry while the storm rages outside – we’re on the inside nice and dry and comfy. 

Warnings have been issued.  Several more will be coming but probably will be ignored or scoffed at as being alarmist and sensational only.  Please do not ignore the growing signs of the impending storm.  Read below the story of a highly decorated and educated retired Air Force Colonel.  The coming storm will not be a respecter of positions, titles, awards, and all the rest society deems important. 

After a 30-year military career in which he earned three graduate degrees, rose to the rank of colonel, and served as an aide to Pentagon brass, Robert Freniere can guess what people might say when they learn he’s unemployed and lives out of his van:

Why doesn’t this guy get a job as a janitor?

Freniere answers his own question: “Well, I’ve tried that.”

Freniere, 59, says that his plea for help, to a janitor he once praised when the man was mopping the floors of his Washington office, went unfulfilled. So have dozens of job applications, he says, the ones he has filled out six hours a day, day after day, on public library computers.

So Freniere, a man who braved multiple combat zones and was hailed as “a leading light” by an admiral, is now fighting a new battle: homelessness.

Earlier last year, the 59-year-old Shields lost her townhouse and now rents a single room in her Southern California town. At one point, she managed a team of 60 people for a large retailer. She lost that job in 2011 but took another one—and a 20 percent pay cut—some months later. When that store closed in 2012, her luck ran out, and she has been looking for work ever since.

“My federal [unemployment] benefits (were) about $1,200 a month, and that’s all I get. … I have been very dependent on the generosity of my family members,” Shields said.

Her retirement savings exhausted, Shields said she doesn’t know what she’ll do if Congress doesn’t eventually authorize an extension.

Massachusetts resident Vera Volk also has a master’s degree, but the 53-year-old biotech researcher lost her job at the end of May and has been selling prized possessions in order to stay afloat.

“We’ve had to cash in everything that we could potentially cash in,” Volk said. “We’ve got our water heater down to the lowest we could potentially tolerate.” Volk’s extended unemployment benefits of $480 a week are the couple’s sole source of income. They’re four months behind on their mortgage, and although she and her husband have chronic health conditions, they couldn’t afford to keep paying for health insurance.

The pickup truck will probably be the first thing to go.

It’s the first new car that Jeremy Botta has ever bought, using his savings from working for more than 14 years at the same auto repair shop. “I bent over backwards—I worked almost a 100 hours a week on my salary to turn that store around,” said Botta, 37, who was laid off in April after the shop changed owners.

“If it comes down to it, I’ll have to sell the house,” says Botta, who bought the place in Bend, Ore., just months before he suddenly lost his job, which netted him as much as $60,000 in a good year. Having already raided his retirement savings, Botta thinks he’ll need to take three or four part-time jobs, working 60 to 70 hours a week just to get by without the unemployment checks.

“I don’t know how people make it on minimum wage,” says Botta. Having applied for nearly 100 jobs without luck—including cashier’s positions at Home Depot and Lowe’s—Botta expects he’ll be pumping gas if he’s lucky.

Arizona Restaurant Systems Inc., a Scottsdale, Ariz., company that operates 28 Sonic locations in the state, allows workers to take out loans ranging from $150 to $500 that typically last two weeks.

The fees, ranging from $8 to $25 plus interest, don’t go to the restaurant franchisee, but to a lender called Think Finance Inc., which makes the loans. Based on the fees, the loans carry an effective annual percentage rate of 100% to 165%.