Well….if you’ve read the papers or turned on the tv lately, you’ve no doubt seen the increasing deification of Ronald Reagan that has surrounded the 100th anniversary of his birth. You would think this guy was the second coming the way his legacy is being scrubbed and polished by the right as they bow to the altar of tax cuts. There is only one thing that this mediocre at best president should be remembered for and that was his fervent belief in tax cuts for the rich and the whole trickle-down economic voodoo that has been foist upon the country by the repubs ever since. The one thing these idiots don’t want anyone to remember is that those tax cuts that exploded the deficit in the 80’s never resulted in any additional growth in jobs or standard of living for the vast majority of Americans; exactly the same thing we saw with the Bush tax cuts…no job growth and an exploding deficit that the repubs now say is a bad thing when, up to the last year or so, they chanted the mantra that “deficits don’t matter” only to change their tune when the dems took the White House. I hope you remember that this whole tax cut nonsense was based on theories by the disgraced economist Arthur Laffer….and his “Laffer Curve” that proposed that cutting taxes would increase revenue….never happened and yet the repubs are still clinging to those old, thoroughly discredited ideas and trying the same thing again expecting different results.
So, let’s stop this nonsense that he was one of the best presidents in history…best for his party, maybe, but for the vast majority of Americans he was and still is a failure. One note of disclosure here…I voted for this guy…now I cringe at that thought.
Well…a fun night out with G last night but had a small argument on whether tornados can travel along hilly or mountainous terrain…yep, pretty weird but it was nice to get out again….weird dreams again, too…could not find my place since the normal way into the lot was blocked by large orange dogs…when I came in another way all of the numbers and colors of the buildings were wrong. I know…it’s pretty scary in my head at times. Not much to do today…have lunch with T and that will be cool since I haven’t seen her in a few weeks and, I overdid it last night, so back here to just veg the rest of the day. I will have a few more today….well…maybe….not sure right now…
Well…just had a thought and I may have shared it before but I’m going to get this down again since I think it’s an important one. Did you notice that while the repubs are always screaming about “activist” judges and courts, it is the first place they turn when they don’t get their way? And, they always make sure that their lawsuits will get heard by judges that can be relied upon to tread the repub line when they are supposed to follow the law and precedent. This crap started with Bush V. Gore and continues to this day with the healthcare law that most of the people in this country don’t want repealed. But, the repubs want to undue the will of the people for their corporate masters, as always….I think they should be sued for malfeasance in office and have them have to pay damages to you and me…
Well….I had hope that with a new governor who ran on the premise that he was going to be the “CEO” of Michigan and was going to tell the truth, we were going to get something different than the standard issue repub. That hope is now gone with the issuance of his financial road map for Michigan’s future and the blatant skewing of statistics that is being used to attack the unionized public sector workers here. I don’t think these guys are going to be happy until everyone here in Michigan is working for minimum wage and then they’ll take that away. So, let’s get to the lie…and it is a whopper….to prove that the public sector workers are the biggest part of the budget problem here, they compared these full time workers with some benefits to the population as a whole that includes part time and under employed workers and then shouted from the rooftops that “see, these people are overpaid by almost 20%” compared to the general population. No effort to normalize by age, education, or even to using similar private sector jobs.
But, as you know, these are the same, tired old tactics that the repubs always use…and now Snyder is trying to walk back from the comments, just like they always do….say something really outrageous and then the merely unreasonable appears to be a compromise while they stand up and say how terrible the other side is because the repubs have offered to move on the issue. Liars all….
Well…pretty amazing Wings game last night with Frantzen getting 5 goals…but we needed it since the d couldn’t stop anything….went out to hang out with K and J for a while and the bar was the only place around here that was busy….didn’t do much else yesterday but hibernate and dig the car out…they still haven’t cleaned the lot here so my car is parked so far away I can’t see it..feel like crap today but I think it’s from not eating enough..okay..cocktails, too, but isn’t that what you do on snow days? Not much to do today…have to go out and get groceries this morning and then maybe out with G for a couple later but I’m not really planning on it…didn’t sleep well and will have to take a nap later, too so big plans today….I will get a couple more out later today…I hope…
Well…I have tried to get something started all day today and have had no luck at all…three are plenty of things to write about but I don’t know….I may be running into the writers block thing that gets me at times but what if it’s permanent….just another thing for me to worry about on top of the rest….oh, well…the Wings are coming back tonight after the all star break and with Pavel and Cleary coming back it will be fun to watch…I have unburied my car and moved it to a cleared spot so I can take that if I want to go out tonight but I don’t know if I have the energy for that…just feel sluggy today and probably should stop before you lose all faith in my abilities..if you even had any….maybe more later….
Well…fun night out shooting pool in Ada…didn’t win but it was close so that’s okay….I kind of laugh about the “blizzard” that we had last night..there is a cool drift around my car but I don’t see it as any worse than the normal storms we get all the time here….I guess the news people just need something to talk about. I do feel kind of crappy because I wasn’t a good boy when I got home but I’m still going out for newspapers and coffee….the lots here were cleaned all night long so it should be easy….I might have to walk it but I don’t think so…not much to do today….going to take it easy and recover and try to get a couple of posts out…I know I haven’t been too prolific lately but nothing has grabbed me in the last couple of days…more later…
UPDATE…I did decide to walk out to Kava and it was a good idea..they have started to plow here in our lots but the lot at Kava was ridiculous and I would have buried the Mazda….there were some cool drifts on the way to get the papers that were almost waist deep and I felt like a wilderness explorer by the time I got through them…I did forget that there wouldn’t be any of today’s newspapers so I had to make do with yesterdays NY times and GR Press….but that was okay….it was only George and I in Kava and I don’t understand why he even opened since you can only get there in a 4 wheel drive….maybe more later…
Well…another month starts and it is one of the most painful days in it when I have to write the rent check….oh, well….and there is a huge blizzard coming our way for later today and tomorrow that is going to be a pain…but this is Michigan after all and we all have to expect this at least once in a winter. So, this might throw a wrench in the plans for today since it is supposed to start about 4 or so and I don’t want to be out shooting pool and have to take the back roads home after a few cocktails…we’ll see. Tomorrow will be a hibernation day I’m sure but I may walk out to watch the Wings game if it gets really bad…should be able to get a seat…not much to do today…stayed in last night since G was working late so I feel okay today…have some work to do at her house this morning but then the rest of the day hinges on the weather. I have plans for later in the week but I’m not going to share those right now…I have to keep a few things for subsequent posts…so I can shoot for more than 70 of these for the month…didn’t do too bad last month….I should have more posts for later but with the work at G’s, It won’t be until after lunch….
Well…it has been such a huge pain that there is nothing really going on in the world, or at least politically here….haven’t had any topics that have really grabbed me and gotten the old outrage machine in my head going…but, of course, you see that and I have been looking really hard for work and that does take some time. There is one thing that did kind of materialize over the past couple of days..or I remembered it…I think I thought about this a couple of weeks ago but all of my ram is being used for other things and I have to forget something for something new to come in. I think the divide that is becoming permanent in this country is partially the fault of the segmented media and the fact that with the explosion of choice in the media and the blatant disregard for the truth in some of them, we can select media that only reinforces the ideas we already have…avoiding anything that can challenge those beliefs and give us the other side of the story. When I was growing up, news outlets prided themselves in their objectivity and tackling issues that were important to all of us…with a more eclectic mix of stories from both the US and around the world. I have even stopped watching the news since it is so superficial these days, being dumbed down since the people running the shows have been led to believe that it is more entertainment than informative. I fear that this is leading us to a permanent state of divide where our differences are the story; not the things that we Americans have in common….don’t know what to do about it….
Well….I know I promised one last one about sister Sarah but I am really bored with her and don’t think I should waste any more time writing anything about someone who is only famous for being famous….no accomplishments other than to lead the other far right crazies out from under the rocks where they live…as I’ve said before, in this media saturated environment where we live, folks who were left to howl at the moon and shout their craziness on street corners now have an outlet in fox news who have done their best to make it appear that these people are speaking for the majority if us when it is just not true. But, I detect a falloff of the novelty of their views and with that falloff comes the movement to the next crazy thing…so Sarah…your 15 minutes are up…go back to Alaska….no, that’s not what I wanted to say….I will never want to silence anyone for any thing they say or any views they may have that differ from my own….so, I won’t talk about her anymore but I hope she keeps up her comedy act…we all need to laugh more and I’m sure her self-important parody of a national figure will give us a few more good ones….