Well…have my schedule a little backwards this morning…had my coffee and read the newspaper already…that’s why I’m late and it might be fun to see if the caffeine affects how and how much I write. Had a normal Saturday yesterday and had fun out at GR Brewing Co. with K and V for a couple…..then back here to watch the rest of the race but I am getting even more bored with nascar than last year…maybe the 500 today will be better but this whole 2 car draft thing is pretty annoying…I think it’s time to lose the restrictor plates and let them race…they were running at 215 in 1985 and aren’t speeds supposed to go up? And, don’t get me started on the car they are running now…are they trying to ruin the sport? Okay, driving off on a tangent there….get it? DRIVING off on a tangent….ha, ha,….I crack myself up sometimes. Not much to do today…of course, I have the race and the Wings game at the same time so there will be some flipping involved…no, I don’t have a dvr….I might have some topics for later today or maybe just another musing day…I guess I’m supposed to be cringing and stockpiling food for the winter storm we are supposed to get but…c’mon, this is Michigan in feb….what do you expect? More later….
All posts by James DeVol
Saturday morning musings….
Well….I have been going off on political topics all week and some of the posts have been a little screedish so I thought I’d change it up a bit for today and just let some thoughts flow out….and I will want to claim the invention of screedish…a brand new word…you’ve heard it here first, folks. But, on to other things…a thought hit me after lunch with T yesterday that I feel even more lonely after I meet up with people and go out….when I thought back to some of the recent outings, it appears to be pretty constant and I don’t know why. Hmmmmm…doesn’t really mean anything I guess…this was kind of triggered by hearing “Southern Cross” by CSN on Pandora this morning….maybe because it’s about love, loss, and bad choices that can stay with you throughout your life. Who Knows?
I have been struggling with getting the new novel going…I have the story kind of set but don’t have the big, grabber ending yet and it is getting frustrating….but I’ll figured this stuff out before and I know I will again….okay, “Wouldn’t it be nice” by the Beach Boys just came on…..just a great love song…it’s one of those days where my emotions are all over the map…do men have hormonal problems when they age? Sure seems like it….maybe I’ll have to change the station to Led Zeppelin….okay….someone at Pandora is reading my mind right now…”I can’t tell you why” by the Eagles just came on….do I have to put on the tin foil hat now? If they do it again, I’ll need to do something…
It’s 10:28 and this weird calmness just came over this place….and me…..it’s like the air is thicker and everything is muffled and slower….waiting for the next song…..okay, the Moody blues just came on so I can take the hat off….maybe that’s what they’re waiting for….yep, you know I’m a little nuts so you shouldn’t be surprised about this one..I do need to come up for air occasionally….I’ll probably do another one of these later since this one didn’t help….
February 19th
Well…running late for some reason and even I don’t know what it is….did have some weird dreams about people stealing flowers out of my backyard and there were dogs involved…yep, pretty weird….was a pretty good day yesterday with lunch with T and the a good Red Wings game later…we won again so that it 4 in a row, can’t wait for sunday’s game…I was a little concerned for a while when they weren’t playing well….a bit of good news came last evening…Steely Dan is touring again this year and I think I’ll write to their site and suggest they come to GR so I won’t have to travel across the state or to Chicago to see them. Now, I’ll just have to find someone to go with since G used to be my concert partner and that just won’t happen anymore. Not much to do today…meeting up with K for a couple at 1 to see her off before she goes to Florida….then back here to watch races if there are any…..I will have some topics for later since there is such an uproar here about the gov’s budget plans…more later…
Wisconsin tries to kill the unions…
Well…if you needed another example of the repubs concerted efforts to kill organized labor, look no farther than Wisconsin, where the repub governor and legislature are trying to take the collective bargaining rights away from all public employees, and you know who’s next..any other union that tries to keep it’s members in the middle class. This is being done on the pretext that they have a 137 million dollar budget deficit and something has to be done. but the only pertinent fact here is that, until they gave away a matching tax break to business, the state was running a surplus…just another example of these repub thieves trumping up crises that don’t exist to attack the middle class. I sense the beginning of a revolt here…where the repub plans are finally being exposed and getting the coverage that was lacking before the election…at least I hope so…the pie here in the US is big enough for everyone if the repubs would stop thinking they deserve it all….
Michigan, it’s a scam….
Well…I have a couple of predictions on the new budget proposals that have been put forth by the “CEO of Michigan”, and the idea that to keep our state solvent, we all need to “share the sacrifice” in lessening of services, higher taxes on individuals, and lowered expectations. Of course, the right wing press and the Chamber have come out salivating that one of their own is now governor and the proposals reflect their input…my question is: where was the people’s input? When did these folks talk to anyone but business? The answer is, they didn’t because they just don’t give a damn about you and me. This is just another example of the “long con” that the repubs are working on the people of Michigan and the rest of the US that purports to have the best interests of the people in mind, but any thought of the middle class is just a smoke screen to allow business to steal the rest of the country that they and their rich buddies don’t already own. For example, as I said yesterday, the proposed budget here in Michigan gives business a 1.8 billion tax break while raising taxes on individuals that same amount, another huge transfer of wealth from the workers to the rich, but that’s not the worst part of it. The new budget and the governor also say that they are going to phase out tax credits to retain and lure businesses to Michigan. But you and I both know that is a lie….the first time a business bitches about losing these credits, the repubs are going to fall all over themselves trying to give them more, more, more; so business taxes will continue to fall to zero while we’ll all pay for it. The repubs do nothing but lie, lie, lie, why would anyone believe them now?
This is an organized scam where business and the repubs have mapped it all out over a few year span…play on the patriotism of the people of Michigan to get them to buy into the “shared sacrifice” and then pay off business with larger and larger tax breaks and higher and higher profits so these repub legislators will have their next jobs assured after term limits force them to stop stealing from the people here….geez…
February 18th
Well…the day didn’t turn out as I expected….the nascar race was kind of boring and with the water being off here all day, I didn’t want to take the bike out and get all muddy. No night out with G, either, since she had a work function but that was okay..running low on cash and didn’t really need to spend any. I’ll bet you’re getting tired of me saying I feel crappy but I still do and I know it has to be a new bug…I did get the car washed and feel good about being able to see out of the windows again. Not much to do today…groceries this morning and then lunch with T which I’m really looking forward to…another Wings game tonight and I think it will be home with a couple of cocktails…oh, and the Wings won convincingly last night…have not seen them play like this all year and it looks like a good playoff run is going to happen this year…yay! I will have topics for later with all of the controversy here in Michigan…as you know, the repubs are trying to give the state away to business while taking more and more from the rest of us….more later….
The repubs idea of shared sacrifice…
Well…one of the themes that has come out of the budget nonsense here in Michigan is that of “shared sacrifice’ and is being sold that everyone needs to give a little to help our state survive. But, again, those that are being asked to sacrifice are only the workers and the retired folks here…and this increase in taxes on you and me is going to be used to give business billions in tax breaks since these idiots still believe that giving tax breaks preserves and grows jobs here in Michigan. Let’s take a look at one example that I am personally aware of here in GR where Steelcase was given huge tax breaks to keep jobs here and build state of the art manufacturing facilities…well…guess what was just announced a few weeks back? Steelcase is moving the remaining manufacturing jobs from Michigan to low wage states and Mexico. No matter what the state does, no matter how much the workers give up, it is never enough for business and the repubs that run them…they will never be happy until all of us work for minimum wage no matter what our education level or our contribution to the bottom line. I’ve never shared this from my personal work life; shared how I was treated by business that didn’t care about anything but the bonuses that the ceo’s get….in the week before I was axed…I gave that company over 5 million dollars in cost reduction that went right to the bottom line…and over my career, I was personally responsible for almost 100 million dollars of these lower costs…and they axe me because they were consciously trying to rid themselves of people over 40, my average salary of 60 K a year and 28 years of service meant absolutely nothing to them….
So, giving tax breaks to these fools is not going to ensure that jobs stay here….it will only result in you and I paying for their folly and huge executive bonuses…when will this nonsense stop? Geez….
February 17th
Well…not sure why I have feeling so lousy lately but I do have hope that today will be better….yesterday was a veg day almost…did get a few things done around here but wasn’t really motivated to do more….didn’t even cook and If you know me, that’s like not breathing but maybe today I’ll fire up the slow cooker for some chicken….today looks kind of busy with the warmer weather…I am going
to wash the wreck to get the salt off and try to get out on the bike if it’s going to be in the 50′s….then there are the qualifying races from Daytona and maybe meeting up with G for a couple…then the Wings play later so finally, I have a day that I don’t have to think, I can just do the mindless things that most people do. I am really looking forward to that….I will get a couple out later since it is looking like the repubs have taken their stupidity to the next level and I will have to comment…do you expect anything less? More later….
John Boehner: “Let them eat cake”
Well…the tanned one had his Marie Antoinette moment this morning when he was asked if the cuts he is proposing will mean the loss of jobs in the USA….and his answer was ‘so be it” that he doesn’t care that these cuts will potentially cost a million jobs and has the real possibility of plunging the country back into recession. I’m sure you can see his reasoning here which is the reasoning of the repub party….keep the economy bad and unemployment high and the repubs take back the White House in 2012. Another example that the repubs don’t care a bit about you or I…but Boehners case has a nice little twist to it…he’s perfectly happy to cut jobs anyplace but his home state of Ohio, where he is using the earmark process to continue a spare jet engine that no one else wants…not the pentagon or anyone else wants this bit of wasteful spending to continue…but Boehner does since the engine is being made in Ohio and continuing it will protect 7,000 jobs and his re-election status next year….can anyone say pork, pork, pork? Geez….
The hypocrisy disease has spread to Michigan…
Well…I hope you got the chance to read some of the news coming out of Michigan today…Gov Rick Snyder unveiled one of the primary ways he proposes to balance the budget here…and guess whose backs that one is going to be carried on? While proposing the repubs cut taxes on corporations here, his new proposal raises taxes on every retired person in Michigan by raising taxes on pensions, IRA’s, and Social Security. Nope, I’m not making this up folks, the tax cuts for the rich party, who blew a gasket when Granholm proposed higher taxes as a part of the deficit solution, now propose that people that worked their whole lives to get their meager pensions subsidize business by paying more taxes. And, that is exactly what this is, you and I and the rest of us workers are being asked to build better roads, utilities, and other infrastructure for business to take advantage of while they get to retain more of the highest profits in the history of the world as they continue to send jobs overseas and ask for more, and more, and more, concessions from you and I. Where is the outcry from the right who constantly spew that taxes are too high and who sabotaged the Granholm administration for 8 years ensuring we’d end up with an untenable financial position?
I hope this bunch of hypocrites are seen for what they truly are, lying shills for business who will be taken care of by business when they leave…..to make millions from the companies they have just rewarded…geez…