It’s Not Left vs Right, It’s Right vs Wrong

Tags

economy, editorial, GOP, poor, race, rant, teaparty

A movement is arising.

It began with Occupy Wall  Street.

It arose with Moral Mondays in North Carolina.

It’s spreading.

Throughout the South.

It’s moving to Wisconsin, and there are murmurings in Missouri.

People are getting tired of being tired.

And it’s not Democrats although no doubt most are. It includes Republicans and Independents and people who have little to do with politics. It includes some business folk, but probably not so many as people who are working stiffs. And poor. Lots of the poor.

And they come to state legislatures and stand in silent witness that these bodies of Republican control are unjust and immoral.

Yes immoral.

Republican extremism known by the name of Tea Party, is an immoral wound in America and people are not going to take it any more.

Let us be clear. Like it or not, believe it or not, (and the extremists are very good at refusing to accept reality), big business (aka Koch brothers) organized and funded the Tea Party movement. Their intentions were not made known of course but their intentions are clear: reduce taxes on the rich, reduce corporate taxes, reduce regulation on business, and continue to subsidize business so we can continue to laud “free market economies” (which of course given all this are not even close to being free, but are protected by government itself) as the best thing on earth.

To the Tea Party they formed, the message went: your taxes are going to takers not makers. You have worked hard and deserve that money yourselves. All you need do is fund the military so we can continue to enforce our will of “right” on the world. We can create the jobs if you just do your part and give us a free hand. That’s what democracy is all about, that is capitalism. It’s the government and its incessant socialistic welfare mentality that is destroying this country.

Now some of the Tea Party are well-educated business types. They are tiny business operations for the most part, but they like to think of themselves as “entrepreneurs” which makes them sound like the Kochs, and Trumps and those kind. But most of the Tea Party consists of not very well-educated white aging men and their overly made up and coiffed wives who like that idea that more money should be in their hands and not going to “those” people. You know “those” people, the ones are required to called “black” now, when in the day it was fine to call them “N*****”? And all those Mexicans, which are still just Mexicans, even though plenty of “them” actually come from Guatemala and Nicaragua and other places called Latin America. And then there are those “Orientals” from the “Orient” since Asian is still not de rigueur in this culture, and it’s all one big country isn’t it? After all, Sarah thought Africa might be a country, right?

Then in the ultimate hypocrisy of all hypocrisies, there in a dose of “Christianity” to hide that racism/downright hatred underneath. “See, it’s not me, it’s God who has a problem with fags!” And if that makes them feel vulnerable, well, throw in a dose of the 2nd Amendment was made for you and me, and voila, we have a mess of a human being filled with self-righteous hate, little actual knowledge of the world, but a gun-defended arrogance to do everything but call it publicly what they call it privately.

But ordinary folks are getting tired. Ordinary decent people who don’t have to wave a bible around to know what is right and what is wrong. And they are tired of watching years of work being undone by barely literate Republican senate and house members who pass insane laws one after another, making it safe and right for white America to live in their fantasy of the “good ole days”.

So people are marching. And more of them march every week.

IN NORTH CAROLINA THE GOP HAS SINCE 2010:

1. Raised taxes on the lowest 80% of it’s citizens
2. Removed a tax credit on 900,000 working families
3. Enforced restrictive voter laws
4. Blocked increased Medicaid coverage for the poor
5. Cut Pre-Kindergarten funding
6. Cut unemployment benefits
7. Voted itself a right to intervene in abortion lawsuits
8. Repealed a law that allowed death row inmates to challenge their convictions on racial grounds
9. Increased the standards at abortion clinics to that of surgical centers and made it illegal to offer abortion coverage if you are a public health insurance company.
10. Offered no increase in base salary to school teachers even though they are paid at the lowest rate in the country.
11. Tenure is to be phased out and no salary increases are to be given for master’s degrees. Teachers aides are severely cut.

IN GEORGIA, THE GOP HAS:

1. Refused to grant increase in Medicaid coverage affecting some 600,000 Georgians and made it a crime to assist someone who is seeking ACA coverage.
2. Cut more than 7.6 BILLION dollars to public education over the last 10 years.
3. Restricted workers rights and benefits
4. Promoted more stand your ground and like gun legislation.
5. Cut unemployment benefits
6. Promoting enforcement of voter suppression laws.

When you go nation wide, the results are the same. GOP-led legislatures are doing the Koch’s bidding everywhere, often with bills written by the KOCH legislative arm, ALEC. Everywhere the tune is the same–lower taxes on the rich, cut out programs for the poor, all with the promise to Mr. and Mrs. White OLD people–this will all benefit you, we promise. Just wait for it.

Let me repeat. There is nothing Christian in any of this. People who are TEA PARTY adherents and claim they are Christian are lying. They are at best Christianists, people who use the bible and their own personal interpretation of it to hide behind while they endorse and argue for a denial of health care for the poor (they can use the emergency ward if they need to — duh who pays for that stupid?), a denial public education to the poor (let’s have vouchers, and the poor will end up with the poorest of poor systems but they had their “choice”), a denial of food, unemployment insurance (that breeds dependence and doesn’t teach work ethic–yeah hungry babies are eager to work), a denial of voting rights (everybody can get a voter ID–yeah except for the cost and the travel to a distance center, and oh yeah, lots of people can’t get a birth certificate any more because records are lost, but a gun permit is okay, but  student ID is not), a denial of basic rights to undocumented workers (since they steal our jobs–yeah we were wondering where you were in the bean fields yesterday and even the little one’s can pick can’t they?), a denial of fair wage (business can pay whatever it wants to, that’s the American way–along with child labor, and unsafe working conditions right?), and on and on…

They say all this and have the temerity, the audacity, the chutzpah, to suggest that Jesus would approve! Jesus hated government they say, and Jesus hated the minimum wage. Jesus loved guns and self-defense. Jesus is nothing more than a malleable dummy used while these vile gutless wonders shrink in horror at their own diseased and flesh eaten faces staring out from the dead sockets from which they look upon a world they hate as it slips from their nail-torn fingers.

Lord save me from the Christianists and though I don’t believe in Hell, but God, sometimes I wish there was one, for these puke excuses of humanity.

Other than that, I’m having a great Sunday.

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I Wish I Could Work THERE!

Tags

business, workers rights

No, I’m not saying I wish I could work at Google.

But plenty of people do.

In fact, Google won the top spot for “best place to work” in Fortune’s annual list just released today.

Now, I don’t know that much about Google, except that I pretty much like their search engine, and I like their Images search engine. I didn’t care so much for Chrome, but hey, you can’t hit the jackpot on everything.

They were interviewing someone from Fortune who announced this years top 10 this morning on Morning Joe. The question was inevitably asked: what do all the companies in the top ten have in common. The interviewee responded immediately: they care about their employees, actually they put employees first.

Now we have all heard that the mantra of any company is supposed to be “the customer is always right” which essentially means that customers come first. We know that this is a lie mostly, unless there is fierce competition. But the first goal of most companies seems to be to destroy the competition so you can force the consumer to take what they are offered because there ain’t no alternative. It was surely Rockefeller’s goal that if you wanted kerosene to light your lamps, it’s was either his or sit in the dark, so pay what he demanded.

Those of us not in the top 1% have long known that the real power and the real value in business is the employee. Ideas are essential to the success of any business, but in the end, it is the employees who make it happen. They produce the “product” whatever that may be, and they interact with the public however that is defined. So it is in the end a no brainer: happy employee = successful business (all other things remaining equal of course).

Fortune and others who study this sort of thing seem to agree. Robin Hartman, who helps companies achieve “a great place to work” gives a list of things a good company does:

• They treat employees like grown-ups. They share information with employees, listen to their ideas (or better yet, actively seek out and act upon their ideas) and assume they are responsible enough to manage their own time.

•  They treat people fairly. They pay people decently and give them good benefits, including not only decent healthcare but other even rarer essentials, like paid parental leave. And they use lay-offs as a last resort.

•  They help employees with their careers and understand that not all careers are built the same. They have strong training programs, reimburse tuition for education outside of work, have active, well-thought out platforms for mentoring–especially for women and minorities–and provide pathways for non-traditional career paths.

•  They understand that people have lives outside of work, and that these lives might sometimes impinge on (or even take over) their time and attention. They realize that allowing for some work-life give and take means not only that they won’t waste time and money on unnecessary turnover, but that they’ll build loyalty and commitment. They know it’s give and take, not give or take.

•  They see fun, humor and relaxation not as the enemies of hard work, but as its allies.

•  They have a purpose — a mission — that everyone understands. Even better, every employee can tell you the role he or she plays in achieving that purpose.

•  They are good citizens of their communities and of the world. Not just according to their P.R. campaigns, but for real. They think about their carbon footprint, they come up with creative ways to support local projects or small businesses, they actively promote volunteerism among their employees.

Tony Schwartz, CEO of The Energy Project has his own list.

1. Commit to paying every employee a living wage. To see examples of how much that is, depending on where you live, go to this site. Many companies do not meet that standard for many of their jobs. It’s nothing short of obscene to pay a CEO millions of dollars a year while paying any employee a sum for full time work that falls below the poverty line.
2. Give all employees a stake in the company’s success, in the form of profit sharing, or stock options, or bonuses tied to performance. If the company does well, all employees should share in the success, in meaningful ways.
3. Design working environments that are safe, comfortable and appealing to work in. In offices, include a range of physical spaces that allow for privacy, collaboration, and simply hanging out.
4. Provide healthy, high quality food, at the lowest possible prices, including in vending machines.
5. Create places for employees to rest and renew during the course of the working day and encourage them to take intermittent breaks. Ideally, leaders would permit afternoon naps, which fuel higher productivity in the several hours that follow.
6. Offer a well equipped gym and other facilities that encourage employees to move physically and stay fit. Provide incentives for employees to use the facilities, including during the work day as a source of renewal.
7. Define clear and specific expectations for what success looks like in any given job. Then, treat employees as adults by giving them as much autonomy as possible to choose when they work, where they do their work, and how best to get it accomplished.
8. Institute two-way performance reviews, so that employees not only receive regular feedback about how they’re doing, in ways that support their growth, but are also given the opportunity to provide feedback to their supervisors, anonymously if they so choose, to avoid recrimination.
9. Hold leaders and managers accountable for treating all employees with respect and care, all of the time, and encourage them to regularly recognize those they supervise for the positive contributions they make.
10. Create policies that encourage employees to set aside time to focus without interruption on their most important priorities, including long-term projects and more strategic and creative thinking. Ideally, give them a designated amount of time to pursue projects they’re especially passionate about and which have the potential to add value to the company.
11. Provide employees with ongoing opportunities and incentives to learn, develop and grow, both in establishing new job-specific hard skills, as well as softer skills that serve them well as individuals, and as managers and leaders.
12. Stand for something beyond simply increasing profits. Create products or provide services or serve causes that clearly add value in the world, making it possible for employees to derive a sense of meaning from their work, and to feel good about the companies for which they work.

Interestingly, Schwartz’s list was compiled in 2012, and he stated that no company can do all of these perfectly, but Google probably does the best job. Hence, Google‘s number one position in the Fortune list appears to be no fluke.

All this is mildly interesting, for in fact, those of us who have been mostly employees rather than employers already know all this stuff.

But in a world where we are told that employers are “job creators” and thus should expect everyone else to cut them all the monetary slack they need to get on with that job, we are reminded anew that we, the worker is what really counts. Make no mistake, business is still in the business to make money, but the surest way to get there is to create a happy work force, not just with “gifts of money and benefits” but to be cherished as part of a team, and valuable for their brains as well as their brawn.

We all know that Wal-Mart and McDonald’s can pay a living wage. We know they can but won’t because nobody has yet forced them to. Jobs are so scarce that people hold on for dear life those puny jobs that force them to apply for food stamps in order to feed their kids. They continue to call these jobs “entry-level” for which there somehow is supposed to be low remuneration in return for the “gift” of a job at all. That is nonsense. There is no greater learning curve to flipping a burger than there is to learning how to integrate into a company’s bookkeeping framework. One is called “entry-level” the other surely not.

Little by little, we are educating the public to what they used to know. Workers matter.

 

 

 

 

A New Perspective on Tea

Tags

budget, GOP, tea party

Yes, I know, it’s been my general  belief that the Tea Crustaceans are largely a rag-tag motley crew of uninformed, uneducated, old, white men who are angry at not being able to retire to a tropical island with the requisite trophy wife half his age, and who choose, are directed to blame all that on government, Negroes, Muslims, and various illegals of the brown complexion.

They want “government out of their lives and pocketbooks” all the while demanding that government keep it’s hands off their medicare, but incongruity aside, peering up women’s lady parts to determine the state of her pregnancy and then explaining in patient and slow detail what is going on up there that she is of course quite incapable (because of her sex) to understand fully and competently.

That they are led around by the nose by the likes of very important and wealthy Republicans, aka Koch brothers, who have a most different agenda, is well-known too. Since they have gone to some lengths to allow the lemmings to believe it was all their idea, aided and abetted by Foxy Noise, they have successfully pushed their real agenda of low taxes, no regulation, all the while allowing the mob to rant about all manner of things social that the powers that be care nothing about by and large. They are also allowed to rant long and hard on any “safety net” program that they themselves don’t partake in, i.e. NOT social security and not medicare, all the while not having a clue that in fact their handlers do verily intend to destroy those too once they are in the ascendency.

This has all been my general belief.

Until I read this. Michael Lind’s contention is that the Tea Party is anything but “new” but really just the latest manifestation of a really old Right. He argues that the true base of the fringe group is decidedly Southern and upscale. Once these white town leaders had driven the Reconstructionists out of the South, they put in play a variety mechanisms that gave them control such as segregation, disenfranchisement, bloc voting, and federally the filibuster, to maintain control of local affairs. This state of affairs was upset by the civil rights movement of the 60’s driving a lot of white working class into the arms of the Republicans. They managed because of this,  to gain control of the federal government and basically through 2008, had their way.

With the growing Latino presence, and Blacks now firmly in the Democratic camp, they are looking at a very different demographic in the future. Since they don’t really want Latinos and African-Americans in their wheelhouse, the best solution for them is to dismantle as best they can, the federal government in the hopes of regaining/retaining local control. Their new methodology is to use the filibuster to prevent any more “liberal” and federal control, disenfranchisement of as many Democrats as possible, and the continuing call to privatize federal programs to obtain local control over them once again.

Lind argues that all this is rational and goal-oriented.

This argument is essentially echoed by Zack Beauchamp at Think Progress. He strikes the epicenter of the shift closer to the New Deal, but essentially ends at the same place, these people have always been around in one guise or another and their aim is to maintain power and control over their region and over their lives without federal (read non-white at this point) interference.

Beauchamp takes us on a long and rich history ride to make his point, and though long, this article is a really lesson to us all.

If you think that his government shut down or debt ceiling issue has “just come up” and the GOP through its champion Ted Cruz, “just came up with this unique strategy”, think again. In reality, these uber conservative Republicans met literally within days of Obama’s re-election mapping out the strategy for shutting down the government and holding the debt ceiling hostage to destroy Obamacare. It was not done because they think the program is “damaging  to the economy” or any other such nonsense, but because it will work and work all too well. It will become put another nail in the coffin of local control of people and economies.

It should be noted that the Democratic budget bill was scrapped and the House (sequestration level budget) was accepted precisely because Boehner, said that if the Democrats did so, he could pass a clean bill. The minute Democrats acceded to that, the goal post was moved and we got into the “defund Obamacare too” and all that has followed. So the negotiations have gone on and it was the GOP who refused up until the “crisis” occurred to meet and discuss differences. More than 20 times Republicans refused to attend a conference between the House and Senate bills to reconcile differences.

This is where we are, and this is how we got there I believe. There are lots of opinions out there as to what comes next. Some say that Boehner has promised that he will put a clean bill on the floor at the last minute. Some say he was very pissed when the media outed this position, and this caused him to backtrack to his hardline position of demanding a concession of some sort. Some say he will still put the bill on the floor at the last minute. Others think he is so in love with his gavel that he will see the country go down before giving it up.

We are all waiting to find out. Because one thing we know.

We are not in control.

Unless we decide that enough is enough and throw these idiots out.

Anybody’s guess if we are there yet.

Stuff You Might Want to Take A Look At

Tags

economics, enthicity, GOP, homelands, Humor, nationalism, Politics, right-wing Christianists, teabaggers

The Contrarian pointed me at this. One article led to another, and boy will you be shocked to realize that people (intelligent political pundits) were talking about the craziness of the Right way back in the 60’s.

This post may become a weekly thing that just alerts you to stuff I think you may find enlightening or interesting, beyond the usual outrage at idiots that we read about seemingly every day.

So peruse the list and see if anything interests you.

First on the list is a two-parter from the Salon and Kim Messick. Part one is entitled, The Tea Party Paranoid Aesthetic and explores the psychological underpinnings of the movement. If you get headachy every time you try to discern some logic to their madness, then this may help you understand. Warning: one must delve in the mad mad world of Glenn Beck to understand these folks.

While you are at it, you’ll want to slip back to read Richard Hofstadter’s perhaps most brilliant piece, The Paranoid Style of American Politics. This was written in 1963 and is now available in PDF format. Does this sound familiar to you?

The central image is that of a vast and sinister conspiracy, a gigantic and yet subtle machinery of influence set in motion to undermine and destroy a way of life. One may object that there are

conspiratorial acts in history, and there is nothing paranoid about taking note of them. This is true… The distinguishing thing about the paranoid style is not that its exponents see conspiracies or plots here and there in history, but that they regard a ‘vast’ or ‘gigantic’ conspiracy as the motive force in historical events. History is a conspiracy, set in motion by demonic forces of almost transcendent power, and what is felt to be needed to defeat it is… an all-out crusade. The paranoid spokesman sees the fate of this conspiracy in apocalyptic terms— he traffics in the birth and death of whole worlds, whole political orders, whole systems of human values.

Freaky isn’t it? Messick applies this theme to the Tea Party rather effectively. See if you don’t agree.

The second part of Messick’s essay involves how the Tea Party came to gain control of what had heretofore been a responsible political party of multiple factions and interests, one that understood the necessity of compromise. It is entitled The Conservative Crackup: How the Republican Party Lost It’s Mind.

To my mind at least, this explains the political battlefield we now inhabit better than anything else I’ve read. I suggest you will learn a very good deal about the Republican Party should you dive into these articles.

♦

If you are still wandering in the desert when it comes to understanding the economics of “free markets” and the mantra of the Far Right, which is burn baby burn, all the “social welfare” institutions to the ground (SNAP is just a start), then there is no better place to go than our very own Larry over at Woodgate’s View.  He has a great post up called The Croupiers of Libertarian Free Markets that is anything but dull and surely will educate you on what’s what. Larry has a unique ability to research well, and write well. In combination, well, just go at take a look at it.

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There is a piece called Homelands over at Aeon that is a bit heavy for our normal fodder, but actually speaks to a subject not alluded to in its writing. The rather absurd (to my mind at least) idea of nationalistic boundaries is explored. How they come about is simply a matter of historical fact, why we continue with them is fraught with political intrigue. But what happens, (as it so often does) when old lines, or new ones for that matter, make little sense given the ethnic composition of the inhabitants?

I’d suggest much bad happens. What is not alluded to is how the (largely) British muddling in the Middle East has resulted in a hodgepodge of “states” most of them making little or no sense. And guess what? No where is there more upheaval than here, and much of that upheaval is due to unnatural boundaries, controlled by minority ethnic dictators.

No answers of course, but the first step is understanding the problem is it not?

♦

And now, just because I love ya, something to tickle the funny bone. Linked from Salon who picked it up from AlterNet, this essay lists the 10 Weirdest Right-Wing Christian Conspiracy theories. I am, as you know, in a love/hate relationship with fundamentalist Christians. I want to tear my hear out at their breathtaking stupidity and lock them away from any voting booth, while at the same time, I see them as little children muddling along in an adult world as cute little simplistic munchkins who need to be petting on the head often.

Anyway, these are a hoot.

Are You Ready?

Tags

2nd Amendment, budget, cartoons, corporate America, CPAC, economy, filibuster, gay rights, GOP, Humor, Individual Rights, minimum wage

Have you been keeping up on CPAC, the GOP answer to absolutely nothing? It’s been a “business as usual” kinda thing so far. Trump gets up there and trashes Jindal, and babbles about himself and how great he is. Rick Perry says they have to reach out to Latinos and is booed. Rubio says just because he supports traditional marriage doesn’t make him a bigot. (yeah actually it does).

My favorite was a clip from a “workshop” wherein a younger type white dude talked about being proud of his “demographic” (code for white supremacist) and claiming that the federal government was disenfranchising same, and that he thought his “demographic” had a great culture to be preserved.

When the moderator who was black, noted that Frederick Douglass sent a letter to his “owner” many years after he had escaped, and forgave him, the young man piped up and said, “for what? For receiving food and a home?” This was met with a couple audible gasps, but far too much applause. He was heard to utter under his breath, “we just need to go back to segregation.”

Yes, that’s the state of the GOP.

You have all heard the stories in the press. As the President and rational folks in the Democratic Party responded to the upswell of opinion that favored background checks for gun buyers and at least some restrictions on the types of guns available and large capacity clips, the gun stores have been doing a booming business.

It is now an undeniable fact that a significant majority of our fellow citizens are building up arsenals for the coming Armageddon that they are sure is on the way.

Given that these people are mentally unstable and delusional, it should come as no surprise that they actually think they can fend off the American military with their pretend assault weapons. They are so effectual against tanks and drones. What they do is pose a significant danger to the poor neighbors who unbeknownst, live near them.

No doubt you noted that the Dow has hit an all-time high. That is certainly cause for much celebration.

Business feels good about itself apparently. Business is good. During the recession they spent their money on ways to improve productivity with a smaller work force.

They were successful.

They aren’t hiring much because they don’t have to.

The fools believed that they were “job creators.”

They are profit creators dummy. Always were. The last thing they want to do is hire workers. Workers are much more expensive to keep than a robot riveter.

Yet the Right continues the mantra, and the kool-aid drinkers keep repeating it.

Need I say more?

The mantra for this one is that it depresses employment because business lays off workers rather than pay them a living wage.

Yeah, business is usually known for cutting of its nose to spite its face. I can just hear them now.

“Sorry Ms Customer, you will have to wait an extra 45 minutes for service. If you don’t like it leave. I’m not going to hire another worker at $10 an hour. So take your $150 dress and rehang it. I have principles you know.”

Yeah, I’m sure that’s what they will do.

Actual studies show they do lay off workers, for a hot minute, and then hire them back when, you know, they have more customers than their current work force can handle.

And guess what? That happens across the country. And guess what? All that extra cash earned by workers? It’s SPENT for goods and services, and that causes more demand, and more hiring. Amazing how that happens.

We’ve been hearing this whine for a long time from the Right.

And under rational and normal circumstances, it might just have some validity.

Of course it doesn’t have any validity today and everybody who bothers to be alive knows that.

Why?

Because Mitch McConnell will prevent any budget bill offered by the Democrats from reaching the floor of the Senate for actual debate.

He will filibuster.

He promised he wouldn’t do that.

He lied.

What’s new?

Forgive me if I’m not suitably impressed.

Rob Portman was against it before he was for it.

Seems his personal situation, impressed him enough to consider a change of mind.

Now, I’m glad that Portman has seen the light. I really am.

But as I said, forgive me if it’s just a bit too self-serving.

As a few have said, perhaps it would help if Portman woke up with a poor son, or a senior son. Maybe then he would be in favor of SNAP, and Pell grants, and Medicare, and well, you get the idea.

His hopes of being nominated are shall we say, in trouble?

It’s a glorious day here, with the high going into the mid 80’s. Sun is shining. Time to get busy in the yard with clean up. Diego is a messy boy. He has pieces of wood and bits of things he’s torn up scattered everywhere. To day nothing of poo. Saturday is poo clean up day.

I’m cooking my corned beef today in a slow-cooker kinda way, bathed in beer. I made a couple of loaves of soda bread. I made a white cake that I will trim with green lime frosting. Tomorrow when I get home from church I can make the colcannon. It’s a St. Paddy’s Day kinda meal!

Have a great one yourselves.

 

 

Yeah It’s Good For Some

Tags

corporations, drones, economy, Individual Rights, North Korea, Scalia, SCOTUS, wealthy

The Stock Market hit a new high.

Corporate profits are probably at all-time highs as well.

The people who do the work? Not so much.

Between 1979 and 2007 59.9% of gains in income went to the top 1%, 36.7% alone going to the top 0.1%. During that period, gains by the 90%? A mere 8.6%.

Productivity has increased since 1950 by 254%. During that same period, wages went up 113%, and most of that increase occurred by 1975. Productivity, on the other hand, has risen steadily and continues to rise.

The response of the corporate board room to the recession has been to find more efficient ways to accomplish their target goals. They devote their R and D to the purpose of creating a cheaper way to make their product. Cheaper never involves hiring workers. They would make their products devoid of human workers if that were possible. Machines don’t require health care benefits and pensions. They don’t need money devoted to safe working conditions and lunch breaks.

Don’t tell me, please that corporations are job creators. They are profit creators, and hiring is now the last resort to accomplishing that goal. That’s why Wall Street is doing so well, and yet the unemployment figures are still so high. It’s got zero to do with regulations or very little. It’s got very little to do with “uncertainty” about what the buffoons in Congress are going to do. It’s got to do with profit. There is no morality here. It’s not part of the capitalistic model.

Meanwhile, there was this farcical drama in North Korea.

The pity is that the media thought any of this worthy to report upon. Dennis Rodman is a delightful entertainer. As an intellectual, well, he leaves a great deal to be desired.

His “opinion” is about as useful as that of a three-year-old. And I like the dude. He’s had a tough life as a kid, and he’s managed to make a good life for himself. I give him credit.

Kim? Oh good lord, he never got spanked as a child, that is certain. And I’m not much for corporal punishment either.

But he definitely needed spanking. In fact he needs spanking now. He’s always in the middle of a tantrum.

And dude, find a new barber. That haircut is silly. Seriously.

It’s hard to judge this Supreme Court. I’m not sure if we haven’t had this kind of horror before, when the Court was filled with really nutty people who make a mockery of the Constitution.

The Dred Scot Court comes to mind. That must have been an awful one.

But it would be hard to argue that this one is close to the top of the list of really awful benches.

Scalia is an intellectual joke, playing word games about original intent of the Framers, when all it comes down to is his personal disgusting beliefs.

Calling the right to vote a “racial entitlement”. And then suggesting that instead of testing a law against the Constitution, he has a new job–doing the dirty work for Congress, meaning that Congress is too beholden to special interests and can’t do the “right” thing because it might cost them an election.

So Scalia to the rescue. Doing the “right” thing. What a douche.

Let me get this straight.

Some Republicans are all upset at the use of drones against US citizens.

Got that.

No Republicans ever raised this issue when Bush starting using them.

Don’t get that.

In American courts, EVERYone, citizen or not, is gets the same rights.

Got that.

Sulaiman Abu Ghaith is arrested in Turkey. He is moved from Turkey to Jordan (Turkey prohibits the extradition of prisoners to those few countries that still practice the use of the death penalty and we are one of THOSE countries) and then transported from Jordan to the US for trial.

Got that.

Republicans are incensed because he can’t be interrogated properly except at Guantanamo (he was interrogated by an elite force of experts in Turkey and talked to the tune of some 20 pages), and because he is a bad dude and has no right to the rights granted him in our civilian courts.

Don’t get that.

Morality sure winds a crooked course in the Republican mind. And incidentally, in a good many Democratic ones as well.

Just a word about something I care about.

I am now the Sunday morning cat adoption “cleaner” for Pet Smart. I do this through a local adoption group in my area called A.W.A.R.E. What I learned is that Pet Smart joins with local animal groups across the country to adopt out animals. That’s a good thing.

My job is to clean the cages, feed and water where these cats live, and to play with them as much as I wish while I’m there. This is done twice a day, seven days a week, all serviced by volunteers.

My only point here, is that if you are interested in adopting a kitten, think of them as a source. You are not getting a “kitten” mill animal, but one that has been rescued and needs a good home. Prices are typically $50, and all animals are already spayed or neutered and have all their shots. In some cases the animals may come from the local shelter. You will probably get a bit better animal, since these kittens get more socialization than those typically housed in shelters.

I have no agreements of any kind with Pet Smart or A.W.A.R.E. in return for these statements. It’s only because I care about the animals. Perhaps other pet stores do the same. I haven’t inquired.

 

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abortion, economic theory, economy, GOP, John McCain, Lindsey Graham, Rand Paul, school prayer, teabaggers

The jobs numbers came out this morning. Everything is on the uptick. The upturn in the economy continues unabated. This in spite of the naysayers who of course claim that things would be even better if we would do things their way (the business way). They offer no proof of this, but they assure you that if you would just lower corporate taxes to zero and remove all regulations, boards of directors across the country would be voting to “hire as many as will fit in the building” and things will be rosy in no time.

This engenders the usual arguments between Keynesians and Hayekians. If you are not so sure you know who these men are, or what they stand for, well, I have a good place to start.

I am not sure when this came out on PBS, but it is based on the book of the same name written by Daniel Yergin and Joseph Stanislaw. That came out in around 2003 I believe.

It is not for the faint of heart. It’s a six-hour committment. But on the upside, it’s well done and satisfies all the usual desires of one watching a documentary. You can get the DVD or you can watch the entire thing online, and I’ll provide the links at the bottom.

Let me caution you that I don’t at all agree with much of what they say, or at least the inferences they, I think deliberately, urge you to draw. They have a very definite point of view and they avoid a few facts that might cut against their opinion. (Pay especial attention to who is promoting the show at the beginning). That said, it provides a pretty good explanation of what Hayek believed and what Keynes believed. It provides a good foundation to understanding the basics that you will need should you choose to really try to get a handle on what the Krugman’s of the world believe is best for the economy versus the now deceased Milton Friedman.

We’ve only watched the first part, so I’m leaving off any further comments lest I influence your viewing. I’ll post a piece on my views in a couple of weeks or so. So if you are interested, put your feet up and grab a beer or cuppa joe and begin watching. It is entertaining and informative, just not accurate in all respects in my view. Links at the bottom of the page.

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Republicans continue to waste taxpayer money on crap that has nothing to do with economic recovery. Over the Governor’s veto, Arkansas just passed a law making it illegal to abort a fetus after twelve weeks. That’s of course unconstitutional on its face and seems destined to offer the SCOTUS an opportunity to either overturn Roe or restrict it. Idaho’s twenty week law was just struck down by a federal district court.

Meanwhile, in Mississippi, another bastion of free thought, the senate has just passed a bill that would allow school prayer again, most especially before classes start (during morning announcements) and before athletic events. Students would also be allowed to freely discuss religious faith issues during class time. This is also unconstitutional on its face.

What is ironic here, is that the very people who support this crap are the same folks who are hellbent to tell you that Democrats and the present administration have no faith let allow adherence to the Constitution and are violating it every day. Of course, they are not. They are just redressing their grievances that the damn document doesn’t say what they want, and making sure that it’s altered to accomplish that.

It all depends, is their answer to “do you believe we should follow the Constitution as interpreted by the Supreme Court?”

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The water pressure dropped severely yesterday in Washington D.C. as John McCain and Lindsey Graham both spend a long time washing off the icky after finding themselves supporting the black guy in the White House against the strange man from Kentucky, Ru Paul, I mean Randy Paul on the drones issue. Two finer hawks were never born than McCain the man who continually drove planes into the ground, and the Lindsey, a man who one can’t begin to imagine in a uniform except as part of a sexual liaison in the bedroom.

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The best response to anyone who tries to tell you that homosexuality is a “choice” is to ask them what was the date when they “chose” to be heterosexual. What them sputter and try to get out of that dilemma.

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I think Romney’s the right choice for speechifying at CPAC. After watching his interview with Wallace the other night, it appears he’s still living in the delusions that caused his defeat. That should be right up the alley of the teabibbers doncha think?

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This just tickled me. John McCain was quoted as saying this:

“It’s always the wacko birds on right and left that get the media megaphone.”

I mean I hear the Oxford Dictionary calling to get that photo of John to place next to the word: IRONY.

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From Don of Massachusetts:

Our life is shaped by our mind; we become what we think. Suffering follows an evil thought as the wheels of a cart follow the oxen that draws it. Our life is shaped by our mind; we become what we think. Joy follows a pure thought like a shadow that never leaves.

– The Buddha

This seems a good place to say, HAVE A GOOD DAY!

Commanding Heights Pt 1

Commanding Heights Pt 2

Commanding Heights Pt 3

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