Thoughts on the State of the Union Speech

Far be it for me to criticize President Obama [P O] (especially given the alternatives proffered by the rPUBLICAN pARTY). But I will say: At last. I suppose that P O felt that he had plenty of stuff to occupy him during the those first few weeks. When the GWiraqbush/Cheney administration had totally trashed the economy of the country, wrecked our standing among many of the countries of the rest of the world, [AND, may I add, that there are legions of fOX nEWS assholes that would have ripped him for even being honest about the crap he found left on the table]. He had to the maintain the fiction that the USA and it's transfer of power actually works smoothly. Given what Dumbdumb and the Torturer left him, we may learn that P O has saved the country like George Washington [when I say WE, and "will" I mean; in 50 years. Your children will learn it, not you, not me].
Those weeks turned into months (when he was still trying to get the rEPUBLICANS to agree to ANYTHING!) and then turned into years.... The level of fraud, misrepresentation, lies, tricks, wink wink winking that went on makes the Tea Pot Dome and other super rich guy's shenanigans of the 19th and early 20th centuries pale by comparison. I guess that he was afraid of being too ideologically left (right/correct) of the power bastards that were really running the country then (and may still be now, for all we know). Someday we may learn that P O had to be pragmatic and move in on the $money guy$ gradually...
But please! Romney, Gingrich, Santorum, Boehner, McConnell, Cantor? Did you hear the rebuttal that the rEPUBLICANS used? The term "trickle down"? - (now that trickle down is a bad word and a totally disproven concept) it's something that P O is guilty of. Did you heard about the 1/2 trillion $$$ that we're not spending in Iraq that maybe we could spend on ourselves? Iraq, remember why we invaded? No, me neither. Something Dumbdumb tried to say but English isn't in his repertoire.
I want GWiraqbush to give the key note speech at the Repub. Convention. Let's just pull out tapes of his "orations" at random. Let's remind everybody what we had for a president three years ago.

Merry Christmas from your Republican Congress

Did you hear what the Right Wing Nuts (RWNs) did to the Christmas Tree Farmers? You've heard of "Got Milk" and "Cotton, the fabric of our lives"? And "Beef, it's what's for dinner"? Well, the Christmas tree farmers of America tried to do the same voluntary deal(about 90% of them favored it)through the USDA; there are about 50 of these programs currently, not one of which has been seen as controversial in any way. But a RWN "think tank" (oxymoronic?), and elements of the Republican Congress decided to use the issue as a cudgel and brand the program as a "Tax on Christmas by the Obama Administration". Lots of misinformation and outright lies (paid for in ads by the RWNs). End of program. Obama successfully wounded, but the Tree Farmers? Completely screwed by the RWNs, bastions of support for the free market, capitalism, small business, and the true meaning of Christmas. Merry Christmas, Tree Farmers.

Oh! These most important first few primaries!

Oh my! Oh my! I hear the pundits talk about the political landscape. And most explicitly, the up coming primary season; they talk about the important momentum following the early contests... Please indulge me as I laugh so hard that milk come out of my nose.
We are supposed to consider the results of the Iowa Caucus [Caustic?] Where less than 0.3 % of the voters in the United States of America "voted" (the definition of "voting" being attending a tent carnival where your are given free food and entertainment) for Michelle Bachmann, and it was almost 200 votes more than those folks who "chose" Ron Paul? And then, the media declaim that Rick Perry was the "winner" because he garnered almost 02 % of the "votes" that Bachmann and Paul got combined??? Ah, but I digress.
Next we're supposed to pay attention to Nevada (a beautiful state, I love to visit it). But please! At the risk of being considered to be an "*IST " of some kind of other... I'll say that Nevada is the state of miners, ranchers, casinos, gamblers, and whores. Most definitely the exact demographic of the American dream (all you folks from Nevada, feel free to flame me early and often. Ah! but what is a primary campaign if it's not an opportunity to spout unfounded generalizations about folks you don't agree with?)
Then there's New Hampshire, another beautiful state; one that has a total population equal to about half that of the City of Saint Louis (you know where that is right)? And their opinions are really, really relevant to the future leadership of the federal government and appointments to the Supreme Court and all the wars we're fighting around the globe? Right? Yes, they are, but how much? How much?
Then there's South Carolina... I won't waste my time or yours repeating my opinion of the relevance of the opinions of the people of South Carolina about anything; see:

http://somelightsomeserious.blogspot.com/2011/08/why-im-not-going-back-to-south-carolina.html

So here we are, trying to choose an opponent to run against Barack Obama (and please give me credit for wanting an opponent to Barack Obama in the next election). I've heard some folks talk about a "permanent republican majority" but I really do believe in a two party system.
But the system of choosing that opponent seems to be just a little nuts. If a better mix of the American demographic was represented, if a larger portion of the population got into the process a little earlier; it might be OK. As it is, it's crazy. If we allow a few zealots from the Bible Belt, organizers from Sin City, a tiny group of folks from one tiny state, and then, the really, really, out of touch fundamentalists from South Carolina (please don't miss my explanation of THEIR relevance) to define the all important "momentum" of that all important leg up of that process... Well, then we've really got a stupid system.

Garbage in, garbage out. A Priori Errors are impossible to correct later on....

An Economic Recovery Plan

Several times in the last three years a large percentage of the "money" in the stock market has disappeared pretty much overnight. When I say "money" I mean that definition of money that comes from the 2000 year old adage: "Everything is worth what it's purchaser will pay for it." Publilius Syrus, first century BC. Every cent (every one of which is a number written on a piece of paper or some 001110001011's stored in a computer file) invested in the stock market is that kind of money. It has no intrinsic value of it's own; it's only as valuable as you can convince someone it is... IF and when they buy it. The money that the brokers "earn" comes from moving these numbers around and keeping a little (or sometimes a lot) of the numbers for themselves (then they sell it, quick). The numbers go up and down, up and down.
A bubble pops, some mega crook gets exposed, the 100 year old Emperor of Japan dies of natural causes, a mega speculator gets out of the market suddenly; there can be many causes. Recently, we had the idiots in the Tea Party trying to get the U.S. Government to default on it's debt... But I've always said that if someone on the floor of the NYSE just yelled, "The president's been shot!" loudly enough, you could watch the big board spiral down. Is this a great system or what?
A few years ago I got lucky. I bought something with real money a week before the 2008 crash. I might have bought some stock with that money but instead I bought solar panels for my roof. Guess what? They're still up there, 100% as good as they were the day I bought them. The market lost 40% of it's "value" over the next few weeks.
Take your money out of the market now and buy something durable that the bastards can't turn into a valueless piece of paper tomorrow. If everyone with $25K in the market bought an American car tomorrow, the economy would boom and half of the overpaid, under regulated, and under taxed money moving stock brokers would have to get a real job. Maybe even making cars.

It's really very simple

Then: In the year 0030, Jesus told us a few things about brotherhood and charity. Since then those in power have been reinterpreting God's words. In 1850, God made me white and made you black, that's why you're my slave, he must have wanted it that way. In 1900: God made me a man and made you a woman, that's why I can vote and you can't, He must want it that way. In 1980; God made me heterosexual and He made some other people homosexual.  While He was at it He made the majority straight men in Congress restrict marriage to themselves, He must want it that way.

Now: God made me rich and made you poor, he must want it that way.

How very convenient for me.

Some business models work better than others

There are some new innovative businesses out there but there are also lots of mature ones too. There are several ways to run businesses that can't grow, the ones that you wouldn't want to reinvest funds in the company. You can put company profits into stock dividends and CEO salaries, or you can put profits into employee benefits and salaries. Which one works best for the good old USA? Trickle down or trickle up? Then I happened to see my Amerigas Propane delivery guy on the street the other day. I waved him down and we had a little chat. I told him that I had recently learned that my new neighbors, who had moved in three years ago, had been contacted by his company and been told that since they were such good customers that they were entitled to a significant reduction in their gas bill, from $4.99 down to $ 3.49 per gallon, about 30% less. I mentioned to him that my wife and I have been paying the same $4.99 per gallon assiduously on time for the last 25 years. I didn't even ask him if he was aware of this situation, but I did ask him to do something for me. I asked him to go back to his office and ask his boss if this was company policy, and if the boss was OK with the situation. I suggested that if the boss said it was OK with him, then maybe all the delivery guys who work there might start looking for new jobs. I said that in this economy, some businesses were going to make it and some weren't. I opined that the companies that didn't screw their very best long term and loyal customers were likely to be the ones that will be around a few years down the road. I was pleasant and friendly the whole time and we parted as friends. Then I happened to see the Dish Network installation guy across the street.... Hey!

Simply Wonderful

Michelle Bachmann says she has always believed in small federal government (even when she was an IRS lawyer) but as President Bachmann she promises to wave her wand and bring back $ 2 a gallon gas. Now THAT'S gas. Forget the fact that the last time gas was that low, the BUSH recession had the US economy in free fall. That means businesses weren't burning up the highways with deliveries, people couldn't afford vacation travel, and demand for gas was at an all time low.
Even pulling out all the stops, all the predictions of the possible increase in gas and oil production in and by the USA are in the ½ million barrels a day range. The world is using about a HUNDRED million barrels a day. So DRILL BABY DRILL (Sarah! Sarah!). It wouldn't make any difference in gas prices (especially since OPEC would reduce THEIR production to keep prices high). Oh, if only things were as simple as the so-called "populist" Tea Party folks say they are.