Well…just a shorty to talk about one last thought I had about some other events that have defined the repub party here and across the entire US. Here in Michigan, the ultra right wing repubs had their hands slapped when they tried to involve the legislature in the working of the state universities who, by the constitution, are independent entities set up that way to make sure that the winds of political change don’t interfere with the charter of these institutions. What these guys tried this week was to impose their religious views on stem cell research on the universities by creating all kinds of new reporting regulations that would have the effect of chilling this important avenue of research along with making an unconstitutional power grab for the legislature. But, as we all know, the repubs don’t give a damn about the constitution except as a tool for political advantage. The second thing the new commissars of Michigan tried was to pass a bill that would prevent any university here from offering health benefits to same sex partners under penalty of withholding operating funds from any one who did…again, usurping the constitutional powers of the boards that govern the universities and trying to jam their far right craziness on the population who, by a large majority, approve of these benefits…but, that has never mattered to the repubs…they only govern for those who vote for them and the rest of us are just leeches to be punished in any and all ways at their disposal….can’t wait for 2012…and the Snyder recall petitions…
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Recalling Rick Snyder…
Well…have been thinking about this one for a while, ever since I heard that there are petitions being circulated to recall gov Snyder here in Michigan and while I think that recalls are not the most democratic way to run a government, I think it is justified in this case. There are many reasons why I feel this recall should go forward, the biggest one being the fact that Snyder would not answer any questions about his agenda during the campaign; knowing that if he had detailed his plans to give more away to business on the backs of the citizens, and to disenfranchise voters in communities in financial distress, he would never have been elected. We always see this pattern with the repubs, lie or conceal your true agenda, and then after you have duped the public with those lies, impose your far-right agenda on those dupes. The people of Michigan deserve better, they deserve to have honest politicians doing what is right for them, not just for the rich and business and I truly believe that the people here are tiring of those constant giveaways that do nothing to make their lives better….let’s take back our state from these liars and look for real new solutions; not just the same tired old policies of giving the state to the most well off that has never worked since the days of Reagan….geez….
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….
No politics today…
Well….have been trying all day to find a topic that I wanted to, or needed to write about…haven’t been successful but I do have some thoughts that I need to get down….i wanted to go on about the old, unemployed guy, but even I am bored with that so I won’t subject you to more of that…at least right now…maybe over the weekend. There was a story this week that I did want to comment on…and that is the the further decline of a once-great company from these parts…Steelcase…this week, they announced that they are basically shutting down the manufacturing of office furniture in the US to chase lower labor costs in Mexico. One of the things that has struck me as false in all of this outsourcing is the idea that labor costs are driving these moves….it’s just not true. As an engineer for the company…it was my job to know what these costs were…and, on average, the labor costs as a percentage of the selling price was never more than 10%. Yep, that’s right, even if they cut out all of the labor costs..it would amount to no more than a 10% savings for the company. But that’s not the least of it…the current CEO, who was the CEO when I was there, has been paid millions of dollars to shrink the company form 9K workers to 3K workers…something that does not take a visionary to do…a fricking monkey can just cut, cut, cut…but I think that is the problem with business in America these days….conventional wisdom has become dogma even when it’s not true…the rest of the furniture companies and the auto companies can make money with American labor, why can’t Steelcase? Geez….and yeah, this is a little sour grapes…it bugs the hell out of me when everyone but the big shots pay for their mistakes…they just GET paid…
Sorry everybody…
This is a placeholder about the facts on the new healthcare law…La Times article…small businesses…just putting notes down so I’ll remember it…now you see some of the guts of how this stuff comes together…
We can choose….
Well…I have been thinking about this one for a while and thought I’d put it down on paper so to speak. I guess it’s just a general comment on things I see every day…the over-reaction to almost everything. Have we lost all of our internal controls? When I see the daily stories of road rage, when I read the rantings that come with the comments of any political article online, and when I see peoples’ courtesy toward others opinions vanish like smoke, I have to wonder. I don’t know how we got here but it’s not a place I want to be…and the sad fact is that we can choose to not react this way….but we don’t.
Look….I used to be that guy…the one that would cut people off in traffic and flare like the sun when someone did that to me, the one that would treat someone with utter contempt if they had different political views; but it was rotting me from the inside out and just so damn much work to be pissed off constantly. I’m sure some of my friends think that I’ve gone overboard on the “navel gazing”, the necessary introspection that comes with wanting to be a better person, and, they could be right…but, I like myself a lot more now. Okay, I know you’re going to say “who cares” or “what’s your point”…and those are fair questions…all I’m trying to say it that the coarseness the permeates our society can be changed if we all just think…”we can choose”….it’s tough, sure, I still struggle with this crap everyday but, shouldn’t we at least try? Okay…enough soap box for the day….I promise there will be some politics later….crap, is this just more “navel gazing”? Oh, well….
It’s pretty predictable…
Well….as you know, the “bipartisan” group on the deficit leaked some of it’s initial recommendations the other day and I had to laugh with the predictability of them…these idiots feel that all of the financial problems that this country faces now and in the future are the fault of people like you and me…the people that worked all their lives and expect that the commitments made to you and that you paid for through taxes be kept. They go on to state that all of the social safety nets that make this a civilized country (and that have already been shredded by the repubs) need to be reduced or eliminated or we will never reduce the deficits. They also propose that the retirement age be raised to 69 since people are living longer…but they neglect to quote the statistics that clearly show that the only increase in life expectancy is in the group of upper income people…those of us in the rest of the classes have seen life expectancy stay flat or even reduce over the past decade.
You can look at this any way you want, but I see this as just another repub tactic to give cover to their plan to continue the redistribution of wealth upwards…since there was no mention of raising taxes on the rich or corporations but cutting their taxes more..even though their tax burden is the lowest its been in more than 50 years. If you listened to any of the rhetoric coming from the right during the election (before they were silenced by their handlers) their true plans were clear…they want all of the safety nets gone..they feel they are “socialism” and trick people into not taking care of themselves.
When are we going to fight back against this nonsense? A society is not a winner-take-all proposition where the rich and powerful get all of the rewards that the economy has to offer…it is supposed to be an entity where we take care of each other and revel in the success of the least advantaged….geez…
Tax cuts are Keynesian, government intervention…
this is a placeholder for an idea I just had about the demonization of Keynes by the right…again cherry picking parts of economic theory to further their political gains…
August 8 part two..
Well…out to Ada today to shoot pool with Tom and it was all I could do to keep from killing all of the brats that were running around the place….where the heck are their parents…they were just running wild and it is something the I never allowed my kids to do…geez…and to top that off, tom won for the 3rd time in a row…I’m going to have to pay attention next time and really work at it…but the shot to win this time was a good one so I don’t feel too bad….I know, I didn’t give you anything topical today, and probably won’t until later tomorrow since I have a lot to do at G’s tomorrow morning…work, work, work….but you never know…I may get my brain dried out and have a thought or two…
June 29th part two…
Okay…that was almost an outrage overload but I had to get that stuff out…you know how that feels. But I also feel conflicted that I am adding to the anger in everyday discourse but, at least in the examples I’ve cited, I think the anger is justified. There’s a difference in being angry about things that exist and just inventing things to be angry about…
Let’s move on to more fun stuff…did go fishing with Tom in the Grand River this aft…I caught two suckers, one of them almost 15 inches long, and Tom caught a smallmouth…drowned a dozen nightcrawlers to do it but it was kind of relaxing to be doing things we did from the same bank of the river 35 years ago. And, this time, there were no bubbles in the river from the runoff from Amway or the smell of soap that used to permeate the air in Ada. Yay!
I think I’ve used up all of my outrage for a couple of days…but don’t let that stop you from coming back..I’m still working on that change thing that I have been promising…maybe just a chronicling of what changes have happened? But change only exists as to it’s effect on people so I think that needs to be part of it. It’s gonna hurt but not talking about it is even worse….more later.