Far Left or Far Out?

If you look at the map of the United States Las Vegas and California can be said to be on the left.

Naturally I am speaking literally and not politically but the following is a reprint of an email I received from a friend on the left side of America.

And this time I mean it both ways!

The view from Vegas:
Nationalize the oil companies.
Guaranteed job or income for everyone, put to work on infrastructure investment projects, alternative energy projects, retrofitting buildings to be energy efficient, etc.
Cradle-to-grave Medicare-For-All. 
Child care for all. 
Eldercare for all. 
6 week paid vacation for everyone. 
Triple Social Security's payments, lower retirement age to 55. 
Worker representatives on Boards of Directors. 
Limits to the how much of larger companies can be owned by a person or entity. 
When companies reach a certain size they become public entities. (Because they have so much effect on everything.) 
Companies responsible for externalized cost payback. 
A person whose job is replaced by technology receives for life a share of the savings. 
Bring back 90% top tax rates.  (OK I have been agitating for that one.) 
Very very high estate taxes on very large estates.  Maybe up to 99% on estates over $1 billion. 
Freedom from distraction.  We have a right to our own attention, free from advertising and commercialization.  The right to public spaces free from commercialization. 

How many of these are even "far left" ideas? I'd agree with most of these.
Basically I'm describing Europe here, not Maoist China. (And Europe is actually a bit to our right, I mean East!)

Thanks to Larry F from Henderson, just outside of Vegas for the list. (Send him your hate mail via my blog if you are so inclined.  I did not compile the list, Adrian, I'm just the messenger.)

Now I do not believe that all of the above could nor should be implemented in this country but when we even try to raise the Estate Tax to the still too low rate of 35% lawmakers who count on billionaires for bribe money almost have heart attacks!
But one careful look at this wish list should make everyone aware how our laws are terribly skewed toward the wealthy.
Ratification of any of the items so noted would cost the wealthy a tiny amount of their current and ever rising obscene profits.
The 'right' will tell you that in doing so we will hurt job growth.  But the argument does not hold water, or anything else for that matter when you realize that for the 8 years under the 'wealthy-friendly' administration of 'W' we lost more jobs than we gained!
Our nation should embrace the practice of compromise in a real and fair fashion.
It would be a wise thing to do.
After all a healthy give and take is, well healthy.
And while I don't know about early to bed and early to rise surely a healthy nation is wealthy and wise.

Fa La La La Laaaa...

Thanks to Perry Hall & Leo

For those of us feeling adrift
Or maybe just needing a lift
The following chorus
Is here to sing for us
An animal treat that's a gift!


Click This & Deck your Halls!

New Year's Eve 2010 Wish

Bills keep rising, spirits falling, our net worth’s down as well

As jobs elude us we are nervous, what will the future tell

Rules and laws come from our Congress helping those who’ve ‘got’

But these leaders miss the masses and millions who ‘have not’

Tis the time of year, it’s been said, give help to those in need

House the homeless, clothe the naked, the hungry surely feed

But still the wealthy seek out more wealth; ways to make it grow

Sitting on their self made perches; see not the world below

Some make a New Year's resolution to do a good and useful thing

But sadly those seem not to last; forgotten by the Spring

So for crowds in cold Manhattan, cheering the fall of the ‘ball’

I wish for peace, health and prosperity not just for one but ALL!

Fat Cats or Flat Out Rats

The world may be flat these days but do we in America have to 'flat-line?'
The majority of Americans are hurting and many are just holding on for dear life.  Jobs are scarce and the ones that people have are constantly under the microscope.  But they are not being reviewed because they are suspected of being incompetent but rather too costly for the wealthy business owners who are so much in the driver's seat these days as to be embarrassing!
The divide between the poor or middle class and the Uber Wealthy has never been wider.  And with a favorable Congress and Supreme Court it figures that the distance between the two groups will only increase.
We have long had the blooming obvious future of a world economic trade system but most of us had hoped for a bit of fairness toward the workers who allowed the wealthy ones to actually become so.
Boy were we naive!  Or should I say criminally insane?
Back in the 1990's I spoke to the textile industry about the future world where corporations would be sending American jobs overseas because they were not punished for doing so.  In fact they were almost implored to act in that un-American way lest they fell behind their competition who was most assuredly doing so.
When a corporation can get the same work output for less money it behooves the company to move and move quickly.
Unfortunately two things happen:
1.  Americans are laid off and unemployment rises in this country and
2.  The quality of the product produced by the newcomers from the foreign land is nowhere near that of the original worker's.
But the bottom line is who cares as long as the American consumer can buy the product for 25% less than before?
I'll tell you who cares - the consumer who no longer has a job here and cannot afford to buy the inferior product even if he wanted to!
When I first started working in the Textile industry a very smart savvy man told me that I should never tout our product as cheap but rather inexpensive.  "Cheap," he said "meant that the item was poorly made and not worthy of the market while inexpensive was a good deal that customers would naturally want!"
Well what we have in America these days is a sh*t load of CHEAP crap at relatively inexpensive prices.
But if you factor the fact that you will have to replace the cheap crap sooner into the equation the overall cost goes way up!
Sooner or later the corporation will have to start replacing inferior items at an annoying cost and they will have to pass along that cost to the consumer lest they lower their profit margin and not be able to take home their obscene profits!
At that point they will tell their retailers, "We've upped our pricing so up yours!"
All we have to do is look at many of the items brought back into America by these "multi-national" corporations that have caused health problems or dangers or even death to realize they moved too quickly or our Government was asleep at the switch in their closed-eyed pro-business way.
But in order to turn things around now will take time. It will take lots of time!
You see there are many American workers sitting at home surfing the internet or pounding the pavement looking for work.  The business world can have their pick of the litter.
And the word litter is an apropos word since that is what they think of those of us out of work for so long - Litter; garbage!
We are asked to fill jobs at less than half what we used to get if we are even asked in the first place!  And the corporations are raking in the profits and raping the public and still the government only shakes their collective heads.
Unemployment numbers are at near record levels and Congress debates how much money should be gifted to the wealthy people who caused most of the pain and suffering in the first place!
No matter what deal now comes out of Washington DC it is incredibly clear that those of us on the ground - the real Americans - the ones who were once considered the backbone of the country are looking toward a real and scary future that is nothing but flat!

What's Good for the Goose

Every time one of our bills goes up or a service upon which we rely is removed the phrase used to explain why includes the words, “due to these difficult economic times.”

But are not the difficult economic times affecting us all?

We the people who are paying taxes for services that heretofore were included are now being told to forget about them.

Our tax dollars are just not going as far anymore.

Starting in January of 2011 if you are involved in a car accident in New York City and you need help in any way shape or form you will receive a bill from the city’s Fire Department for services rendered.  They even have a menu of charges set to go into effect that measures the severity of your injuries and needs.

One possible scenario includes the fire chief standing over you just before the jaws of life are used to extricate your bleeding body from the gnarled wreckage of your vehicle asking you to sign the waiver and promissory note to ‘pay or stay.’

"Let’s see, one broken arm; a bleeding leg; a gash over the right eye and a small fire.  That comes to $1,285 plus tax.  Will that be cash or charge?  Or would you like to fry with that?”

Okay, it’s not to that extreme yet but just what's the point?

I understand that the City and State are in dire straits but aren’t we all?  And aren’t the people who live here paying taxes for these and other services?

Where is this heading and how long before the ridiculous scenario I note above becomes a reality?

If our tax dollars can not cover our day to day needs or even our safety then just why are we paying them at all?

All across America municipalities are starting to do this sort of 'backing out' of services from the public role.

Note that viral video about the man whose house burned to the ground while the firemen watched because he had not yet paid the required $75 bribe.

Despicable events like this will soon become the norm if we sit back and allow the situation to continue.

Insurance companies have been pulling stunts like this for years.  Without a public outcry and push back it will continue and fester until the infection is everywhere.

Homeowners insurance used to cover anything that could go wrong and cause damage to your home.  But the underwriters realized that if they specified certain possible events in the definition of coverage they could effectively make them ‘riders’ and force homeowners to pay extra to keep them. Such was the inception of flood insurance which used to be part of everyone’s policy as a matter of course.  Not anymore!

We wonder where all our tax dollars are actually going.  We rightly complain that there has to be enough to go around especially since so many people have been laid off and the few who get rehired are receiving much less in compensation.  So businesses have to be raking in the profits.

Our individual taxes have not gone down even though we are hurting at every turn.  At best our taxes may stay the same but one must surely expect corporations to make up the difference needed since they just reported their highest profits ever.

But that did not happen because of the loopholes and tax laws and continued kowtowing to the wealthy by the puppets in D.C. and the friendly Supreme Court.

Does anyone like the subsidy being offered to billionaires that allows them to pay taxes at a lower rate than their secretaries?  Even many billionaires have stated the Bush tax gift should expire for those in the top brackets.

Or how about the fact that when these wealthiest of the wealthy pass away their heirs will get obscene amounts of cash bequeathed in the wills and pay taxes on this unearned income at a ridiculously low rate?

The fact that we will have to cut some spending and curtail parts of some services for the masses in order to get our fiscal houses in order is inevitable.  But cutting taxes on the wealthiest among us who are already paying at a lower rate is past absurd and borderline criminal.

Perhaps the middle class should stop paying taxes completely and request a menu of charges from the City, State and Federal governments as to which services we are comfortable with and which we no longer wish to receive.

I personally take my dangerous pollutants to a drop off point for proper disposal and would have no problem also carrying my trash there as well.  So I no longer wish to pay for the garbage removal in my area.  I realize that others still wish to have that service and that’s fine with me.  However I want that portion removed from my taxes.

It sounds absurd, right?

But unfortunately I must make that request ‘due to these hard economic times.’

Road Map to 2012

Okay so here’s the deal.  I will give you the keys to the brand new Rolls Royce of your choice if you can complete one simple task.  But if you cannot complete the task you will be tossed out on your ear and the opportunity will be given to someone else.

The task is simply that you must drive a car, any standard car from the easternmost tip of Long Island to the western end of the Santa Monica Pier without using paved roads.  And you must complete the trip in 12 hours.

Clearly it is not possible to drive from one end of America to the other in 12 hours on paved roads, let alone dirt ones given our current technology.  So any sane individual would conclude the task is not only silly but ridiculously unfair.

However a similar task is given to every law maker we vote into office these days.

We tell these men and women that they must fix whatever it is that is broken in the country and do it within a year and a half.  We then allow others to stand in their way.

And the penalty for failing to complete the task is the same as in the car scenario, they will be tossed out on their ears and their opponents, the ones standing in the way will be given a shot at completing the impossible task.  And the cycle will continue biennially on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November.

Last month we saw many Democrats tossed out of Congress and the President’s approval ratings drop because that majority party could not right all the wrongs that were put in place over the previous 8 years under the Bush administration.

Of course the main obstacles the Democrats had to put up with were roadblocks placed every few feet by that minority party.  And instead of crashing through the barriers as many wished they had the Democrats demurely attempted to drive around them.  And for that strategy they paid a steep toll.

And therein lay the main problem in the American political system today. The party in power is asked to drive cross country but do so without a full tank of gas.

Earlier today on one of the ubiquitous cable television political shows a pundit inadvertently laid out the Republican plan for the next two years.  He did so while discussing the efficacy of a Sarah Palin run for the White House in 2012.

Forgetting the fact that the woman, who could not even complete one term as the Governor of Alaska is not Presidential caliber the question was merely, could she win.

The answer was short but spoke volumes.  “If the unemployment rate in America is still above 8.5% in 18 months then Sarah Palin or just about any Republican will beat Obama.”

Well there you have it sports fans the country should brace itself for the continued "No" tactics of the Republican Party as they maintain their efforts to keep many of us out of work.
In fact they could hope for a landslide in their direction if they can keep the rate above 9%.

In other words if you get jobs they lose theirs!  That's quite an incentive, no?

And if you don’t think they can do it you haven’t been paying attention for the past few years.

With a majority in the House and continued growth in the Senate vis a vie the skittish meek Democrats they have more control over what happens in America so, job seekers fuggedaboutit.

It is clear that Congress is either out of touch with the needs of the average citizen or just does not care.  Most of the Republicans and many Democrats realize that their campaigns are funded by the wealthiest 1 to 2 % of the country. These people also use unique and devious methods to send money to 'friends' of their causes.
And while the other 98% do vote they have shown a talent for being manipulated by clever and misleading ads.  Ads paid for with the money from that small but influential group of nameless faceless corporations and individual billionaires empowered by new rulings from a Supreme Court hand picked by the Republicans.

They say ‘the squeaky wheel gets the grease.’

But it is also said that ‘money talks, nobody walks.’

Or as Franklin Delano Roosevelt said, “A full wallet groans louder than an empty stomach.”

And in DC those fat wallets are screaming!

At midnight on January 1^st we will have a new Congress taking the wheel of our nation's economic car.  Does anyone really believe they will get to Santa Monica by noon?

Were He Alive Today

In the 1930s America moved at a slower pace than today.
Information came via the paper delivered in the morning or picked up at the newsstand on the way to work.
If something momentous happened the news would be disseminated over the airwaves on the new and miraculous Marconi wireless.
Nearly every household had one of those lovely pieces of furniture in their living room.
We might enjoy the Sunday Chase and Sanborn hour or The Lucky Strike Show.
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Eddie Cantor entertained us while Orson Welles' 1938 reenactment of the classic "War of the Worlds" scared the living daylights out of us.
But a full 69 years ago tomorrow Americans huddled around the family radio for a different type of terror, a real one!
Dubbed as 'a date which will live in infamy' December 7th was in fact the day the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and officially invited us into World War II.
President Roosevelt's impassioned speech in front of both houses of Congress merely repeated the obvious, that a state of war had already existed as a result of the attack.
The rest is, as they say history.
But most of us are under attack again.
This time by a far more sneaky foe.
Were President Roosevelt alive today perhaps he would address Congress in the following manner.

Today, December 7^th, 2010 the date Congress proved they have 'it in for me' - - The United States middle class was suddenly and deliberately attacked by representatives of the Empire of the wealthy and their Republican puppet regime.
The average citizen was at peace readying for a holiday season while representatives of the people from the Democratic Party were still in conversation with the emperors of the Republican Party.  Hope was still alive for peace from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
Indeed within an hour of the meetings Republican Party members commenced bombarding the airwaves with a continued and continual assault on the American middle class.  This act was in direct contrast to their words of possible bipartisanship deal making when speaking behind closed doors.
It will be recorded that the distance from the Oval Office to the multi media microphone podium was short and that therefore the attack on the public was deliberate and the Party meant to deceive United States middle class by false statements and expression of hope for continued peace.
The attack on the middle class has caused and will continue to cause severe damage to the economy of the average citizen of this country.
I regret to inform you that many American jobs and homes have been lost and more will join their ranks as the Republican Party and their benefactors continue to torpedo any attempt aimed at helping the average Joe from Honolulu to San Francisco and across this great nation to the Eastern seaboard.
I submit that the Republican Party:
will continue to attack Medicare;
will continue to attack unemployment assistance;
will continue to attack fair taxes on the wealthy;
will continue to attack all so-called middle class entitlements;
And therefore will continue to attack my beloved Social Security.
The Republican Party has therefore undertaken a not so surprising offensive throughout the entire American theater.
Their actions today and yesterday and for that matter all the yesterdays speak for themselves.
The people of the United States should have already formed their opinions and must well understand the implications to the very life and safety of our nation!
As your commander in chief it is up to the President to direct that all measures be taken for the defense of the public at large.  But always must our nation and especially the middle class remember the character or lack thereof of the onslaught against us.
No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion into our pocketbooks and our lives by the ever increasing power of the wealthy base of the Republican Party the American people in their righteous might and fortitude shall win through to absolute victory.
I believe that I interpret the will of the Democrats in Congress and of the people when I assert that we will not only defend ourselves to the uttermost, but will make it very certain that this form of treachery shall never again endanger us.
Hostilities exist. There is no blinking at the fact that our people, our territory, our jobs and homes, our interests, and our very lives are in grave danger.
With confidence in our representatives in Congress, with the unbounding determination of our people, we will gain the inevitable triumph -- so help us God.
I ask that the Congress declare that since the unprovoked and dastardly attack by the Republican Party and their wealthy benefactors in the private banking and corporate sector on Tuesday, December 7th, 2010, a state of war has existed between the United States middle class and the Republican Empire of the wealthy.

I hereby give up any rights to the above should anyone care to forward this to President Obama.

Vicious vs. Precious

One of the most frustrating things in life is the feeling of helplessness.  For example when we know something bad is about to happen but we are unable to effect a change.

It is akin to watching an impending car accident with no way to warn the drivers.

Or how about hearing someone tell a lie and knowing that they themselves realize they are lying!

This one is particularly irksome when nobody ever seems willing to point out their lie.

It is this last example that is frustrating Americans or at least middle class Americans when it comes to our political leaders these days.

Many of these talking heads use sound bites to convey a message that they probably do not believe themselves.  They do so for political expediency.  They know the message will stick.

A few years back a candidate for the office of President used a ridiculous ad on television that showed his opponent riding an ever turning ‘sailboard’ (similar to the one shown here) to describe the man as a “flip-flopper.”  He claimed that the guy said one thing one time and then changed his mind to say something else later.

The odd thing is the message worked and the lying candidate was able to squeak into office, with the help of a few other oddities but that’s for another time.

But the ‘flip-flop’ charge is absurd.

Sans flight suit W claims victory!

Suppose the President is following a policy that he or she realizes at a later date is wrong?  For example say the President starts a war for a reason that turns out to be an out and out lie.  Would we want that leader to ‘stay the course’ or would we expect him to take a step back and change direction?

I certainly hope it would be the latter choice lest many lives be lost unnecessarily.

Flip-flopping goes with the territory of being human.  Information helps us make decisions and wrong information clouds our judgment.

But the fact that telling lies and saying what we think the listener wants to hear gets us elected to office means that lying is not only here to stay but is an integral part of the process.

Wouldn’t it be refreshing to have a truthful politician?

The odds of that happening are about the same as me winning the Kentucky Derby - without a horse to ride – barefoot – in the rain – at night - blindfolded.

So we are stuck listening to a never ending procession of inane reasons why the economy is the other guys fault.

And that brings me to the current pressing argument about taxes.

For years the Republican Party has been helping the wealthiest people of the country find loopholes in the tax structure as well as pushing for even more tax breaks with every session of Congress.

The argument is a simple one, in more than one way; “The wealthy create jobs and hire people so they must have tax breaks to give them more money with which to do so.”

That and ‘I’ll respect you in the morning’ are probably two of the biggest lies you will ever hear in your lifetime. (For men the latter is probably the biggest lie.)

We are stuck in a vicious cycle that has the wealthy moving farther into the financial stratosphere while the poor and middle class head toward poverty.

But there is still a chance to turn that vicious cycle into a precious one.

America needs this to happen.

We must take the bull by the horns (not the tail) and face the problem.

Here is a fantasy involving a high ranking member of the Republican Party, for ease of use I choose John Boehner talking questions at a news conference after being given a shot of sodium pentothal:

Reporter: Sir, do you feel that the Bush tax cuts should be continued for all Americans?

Boehner: Absolutely.

R: Really?  For every American? Even those making over a million dollars a year?

A rare photo of Boehner
without his signature
orange glow.

B: Of course. (He takes out a card from his pocket and reads.) The wealthy people in this country create jobs and if we keep stealing money from them they won’t have enough left to hire anyone. And the uncertainty of the Obama tax law is killing their incentive. And without knowing how much they will have to pay for the constitutionally illegal Obamacare health insurance policies how can they hire new workers?  The last election gave us a mandate and the people spoke and we heard them and we want to help them.  It is the policies of Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid that are stagnating this great nation and the Barney Franks who are trying to turn our wonderful wealthy citizens into demons. They should be lauded as great people who will turn this country around and make it the greatest nation in the world once again and that’s why…

R: EXCUSE ME SIR? Are you okay?

B: What?  Huh?  Of course I am.  What do you mean?  Why do you ask?

R: Well your eyes seemed to glaze over there for a bit and your speech started to slow near the end of your rant.

B: (Confused and sweating profusely) I’m fine.

R: Glad to hear that.  So now I’d like to get back to the issue at hand.  And if you wouldn’t mind I’d like you to answer with just a yes or a no.  Do you think you can handle that?

B: I suppose, I mean yes.

R: First I ask that you put away the cliff notes.

(B places the folded card back in his pocket.  At this point the drug has finally taken hold and the Congressman’s voice becomes monotone.)

R: Thank you.  I’m going to put forth two scenarios. I want you to state which one works better, okay?

B: Yes.

R: First one: We keep the Bush tax cuts going for all, allowing the wealthiest people to continue to keep nearly all their money as they have been doing for the last ten years.  We then hope they will start to spend some on hiring new workers who in turn will use some of their new salary to buy the products that the wealthy business owners produce even though to date they have not done so nor show signs of wanting to do so as yet.  Okay, that’s the first one.  Can you remember that while I tell you the second one?

B: Yes.

R: Instead of giving the wealthy a continued gift we continue the tax cuts only for the lower or middle class worker. In other words people with incomes of say $250K to $300K per year or less.

Going back to the pre-Bush tax rate on the wealthy, an undisputed time of national prosperity, will afford the government enough money to start fixing the nation’s infrastructure, something the Republicans used to feel was important.

The people hired to fill the newly created jobs will suddenly have an income and extra money to spend.

The spending spurs businesses to produce more and in effect allows them to make more profits, hiring more workers to cover the new orders.

The cycle continues as all involved are now making more money and as a result paying more in taxes which in turn will go toward the government’s bottom line.

This then would aid in lowering the National Debt.  And a lower deficit is another supposed pet project of the Republicans.

So in the long run which scenario do you think would work better for the country and every citizen as a whole?

B: The second one.

R: Thank you sir, that’s all.

A loud roar of elation comes from the room as the reporters joyously leave to celebrate an unexpected productive press conference.

Angry McConnell about to
plant one on Boehner.

John Boehner is greeted by Mitch McConnell who promptly punches him squarely in the nose while the rest of the Republican Party members present at their Waterloo yell and shout that he has really screwed things up.

Multi-national corporations go into closed door meetings to decide how to spin the fiasco.

Fox News who understandably switched to a repeat of “The Best of NASCAR” during the press conference gets ready to report that they have evidence of an imposter being planted in a John Boehner costume.

Andrew Breitbart, at the behest of Roger Ailes, is already working on a fake documentary showing the above to be true.

And somewhere an adviser is translating all that just happened into one-syllable words for Sarah Palin.