Well…I’ve had lunch and have been watching Man U play but it’s halftime and I thought I’d get a few more ideas down. Have been looking for the Chuck Krauthammer article from a couple of days ago but have had no luck….so I can’t comment on that idiot…I really don’t know what else to talk about……oh, there is one thing, why aren’t companies that are sitting on all that cash looking for ways to expand into new markets? If I remember my college econ….the way to maximize profit is to get into new markets first or to create new markets that no one else has recognized yet. It doesn’t take much work to just sit on your hands until all of the excess capacity in your business is taken up by the recovery, but it does take smarts, vision, and guts to go out and lead the market by making a bet on what you think is going to be the next big thing. That means building new plants, hiring new talent, and opening the checkbook to grow your business. I think it’s one of the things that is currently missing in our economy; no one is willing to take any risk since the ceo’s stand to lose if their ideas aren’t successful. But that’s the problem…the ceo’s get exorbitantly rewarded for caution so why would they do anything different? There is plenty of talent just sitting on the sidelines waiting for that vision but it won’t be there forever….geez…
All posts by James DeVol
This one’s a mish mash…
Well…I’ve got a bunch of things running around in my head today and they are stating to itch so I thought I’d get a few down here in what I call a mish mash of ideas and thoughts. First, I am really surprised at the industry of revising history that has arisen around ole GW….the latest idea that is being floated is that Mubarek leaving in Egypt can be attributed to GW’s policy of freedom and democracy for the Arab world. I am stunned by the gall of these folks, what’s next, are they going to take credit for the snow melting here in Michigan? For the record, the Egyptian uprising was not, and I’ll repeat, was not a result of anything that GW or his cronies did…I think it was set back by their inept and simplistic foreign policy and can only be the result of the Egyptian people saying enough and having the social media tools that allowed them to move faster than the Egyptian government could. No cigar for GW….
Next…you should be appalled at the focus of the cuts in government that are coming from the repub house…as always, these are going after the poorest and least powerful with these cuts…where is there proposed cut to the subsidies for the oil industry that total almost 20 billion dollars a year? What about the subsidies for the factory farms out there and the one for ethanol? They cry and cry about letting the market control this stuff but when it comes to doing whats right, money talks and you and I get screwed. People need to wise up to these lies…and I don’t mind cutting wasteful spending, but let’s not cut early childhood education and subsidies for college students while the rich keep getting theirs….they are setting us up for long term failure as a nation where only the rich will be able to afford the education we need to compete….okay, that was only two topics…don’t think that qualifies as a mish mash…I will have a couple more later….have to have lunch first…
February 14th
Well…a pretty much total veg day yesterday after the newspapers…just couldn’t get motivated to do anything…I did get out for a while since it was so warm and that was nice…it looks like the winter thaw is coming this week and I am going to get out on the bike Thursday since it is going to be around 50….just need the melt to happen before that so I can get on the trails…not anywhere near enough room to ride on the roads with the big snow piles out there. Need to wash the car this week, too so I can see out of the windows again…got reminded by T this morning that it is Valentines’s day today and I don’t know how I feel about it…it would be nice to have someone to go out to a nice dinner with…and the rest of it but it’s been so long since I’ve dated that I may have forgotten how it’s done. Oh, well….not much to do today…have to go out for supplies and the normal stuff of course….and the daily grind of resumes, resumes, resumes….but I am getting behind in my posts so I’ll try to do three today…including this one of course…more later…
February 13th
Well….had a fun day yesterday…hung out with some of the old group at Logan’s and laughed a lot then came home to watch the race….fell asleep during it but that was okay..it looks like racing with the new car changes that nascar has done over the winter is going to be even crappier than last year…oh, well…there is always the Wings. Not much to do today…no SF since K is going to riverdance tonight but there is a Wings game this aft so I think it’s going to be a lay low day even though I don’t feel that bad….more later…I have to have my coffee and read the paper…I will be back later for another one…I hope…
Okay..waiting for the Wings to get to the last perlod and I still feel like crap this time of the day…it’s warm enough to go out on the bike if the trails were clear today an I am a little antsy to get out again…and I may take it out this week on the streets if it keeps getting warmer. No political stuff today I don’t think….finally watched the entire documentary “Supersize Me” about the guy who only ate McDonald’s food for an entire month and the effects it had on his body….not pretty….okay, worn out again and I’m heading to the couch to watch the rest of the game….still have that damn bug and I will be really thankful when it is finally over…I’ll look at the paper and see if there is anything for a topic…
Enjoy the insurance I paid for….
Well….was just sitting here thinking after I paid my taxes this week and a thought came to me…and it is one that should anger everyone like me that is unemployed and struggling to keep their life together. Since employers get tax credits for supplying health insurance to their employees, you and I are buying health insurance with our tax dollars for those who are still employed, even though we can’t afford to buy our own…now, how sick is that system? According to a study that I read in the Post, if we stopped this subsidy right now and applied the cost to universal coverage, we could cover everyone in the entire US….that’s all I have to say right now…just wanted to share that little bit of the bizzaro world we live in…geez…
Februaruy 12th
Well…running late this morning for no reason other than I have been watching the documentary “the Cove” on my roku about the dolphin slaughter in Japan that won the oscar last year….not quite done yet but I needed to make coffee and get my newspapers. Had a fun day yesterday…did meet up with K for HH and she was the one who wanted me to watch the cove so we could talk about it the next time we meet up. The Wings looked good last night and finally played like they can and having a couple of cocktails watching them was fun…feel okay this morning so I must not have gone overboard…meeting up with C this aft to have a couple and it is nice to have some plans for a change. So, on that note, I’m going to get a cup of coffee and watch the rest of the movie before I tackle the papers…more later….oh, one last thing….it’s already almost 30 degrees already…yay!
I need to talk a little about Egypt…
Well…how can you not be proud of the human beings who rose up and took control of their own destiny in Egypt? I have been watching this story unfold and have been humbled by the dignity of the protesters that said enough; enough of being treated like children who were not mature enough to set their own course and run their own country. I am a little disappointed by the lag in our government’s response to the events there, but I also understand that diplomacy is usually deliberate and works in small increments.
But, things have changed….events move much faster these days and we need to adjust our foreign policy to be able to keep up…and I am tired of hedging our bets when people are trying to become free…it is one thing that we need to support anywhere that the flower starts to burst through the ground….let’s stop basing our actions on fear and and the belief that we are the only ones that know what freedom means…..
To the people of Egypt…Well Done!
TGIF….
Well…I think I’ve fallen into the trap of waiting for the idiots on the right to say or do something stupid and then writing about it…kind of like a counter puncher in boxing and while it has some value, does it stifle original thought? Is there even any original thoughts anymore? I mean the written word has been around for quite a long time and how can you meet the expectations of being original? It just seems to be too easy to just comment on things other people say and it does get to be a habit but I’m going to try over the weekend to be original and have some thoughts of my own. I do have thoughts of my own sometimes, I did write two original novels after all….no, you can’t see the first one….it was written back in the time of 5 1/4 inch discs and no electronic copy exists anymore….I have been trying to find the original…geez, there’s that word again…let’s not say original…let’s say hand written manuscript…yep, on legal pads in ink…had a stack of them about 2 feet high before I finished that one. I will say this…the writing process has never been painful or difficult for me…when it comes it comes fast and easy…but I’ll bet you’ll say it’s easy to write crap…and I’ll counter with no it isn’t. I’ve done it….
Enough of that….how about the weekend…I did title this one TGIF after all…the Wings play again tonight but I am concerned that they’ve lost their fire with losing 3 of the last 4….I do like the fact that Babcock has called them out on it and is pushing them with the extended practices….I’ll still watch tonight since it is cocktail night and it is fun to settle in on the couch and watch it with a few friends via text…tomorrow we have the start of the nascar season with the shootout from Daytona and I am trying mightily to still like the sport with the crappy cars and lousy competition…they just need to stop using the rules to make it homogenized and let the creativity of the builders come through again….where are you Smokey Yunick?
I need to text K and see if there is a SF this week….it would be nice to get out…although, the Peppino’s over here was so frickin loud last night I couldn’t hear a thing…so maybe the mex place instead….need to see the guys there anyway…..or Logan’s, haven’t been in there in a while…..and the car could use getting up to temp at least once this week…that’s about enough for now…I’ll get to the political masturbation that is the repubs agenda tomorrow or Sunday….
February 11th
Well…kind of a a good day yesterday…got the taxes done and a few things cleaned up around here and the fact that it is not 9 degrees this morning gives me hope that I’ll survive this winter. Okay, I know I’ll survive it but it is nice to see that it is going to be warming up some…yeah, when you get older, for some reason the weather becomes important…I would like to wash the car without it turning into a block of ice, though, and it would be good to be able to see out of the windows again. Did go out for a couple with G last night and it was good to see her…need to text K to see what she has going on…maybe a happy hour with her tonight would start the weekend out on the right foot. I do have some stuff to do today…groceries this morning and then the normal routine and it looks like the job market is picking up so I need to revise the resume and get a bunch of them out before I go completely broke….and cleaning, too…I’m surprised how much cleaning I have to do living alone….way too many cobwebs…oh, one thing, I found a live ladybug in my bathroom the other day…where do they come from in the winter? I guess I could ask the same thing about the spiders I still see…more later…
How can one guy be wrong all of the time?
Well…I do hate to pick on one person all of the time..no that’s not true, I love to call out the idiocies and inconsistencies on both the right and left…but if you’ve been here before, you’ve noticed I do tend to to go after those on the right more…but I should because they are the ones that have taken idiocy to a new level that I could not have imagined a few years ago. This morning I was reading the Detroit News again (I know, why should I keep reading that right wing rag?) and our boy Nolan Finley is at it again…taking the president to task for going to the chamber and asking them to take part in the recovery by hiring. Well..old Nolan goes on either to lie, or to show his ignorance of economic reporting saying that companies are not going to hire until they are profitable when, as you and I and almost everyone else in the US knows, retained corporate profits are at their highest level in the history of the world. He goes on to assert that they are not hiring because of the repub talking point about uncertainty keeping business from being able to plan and know what their costs are going to be down the road. Nolan, Nolan, Nolan….the only uncertainty that business cares about it whether or not the billions they spent buying a republican house is going to give them free reign to steal more from the pockets of workers. You guys have created the uncertainty about the healthcare law….spending almost all of your time since the new congress started trying to repeal the law when you know it won’t happen and snowing your business buddies that the money they gave you is going to get them something; all the while collaborating with them to keep from hiring to make sure you have a new talking point.
But that’s not the worst of it….here in Michigan the earned income tax credit for lower income folks is being eliminated while business is given a huge tax cut…this is a tax increase no matter how the right tries to spin it…and these guys are held up as fiscally responsible when any time the previous governor asked for more taxes to help cut the deficit she was tarred as a tax and spend liberal. I guess it’s okay if you raise taxes on those that have no money, power or lobbyists…another example of the hypocrites that reside in the modern repub party….geez…