Well….I have been just trying to get my strength back all day without much luck but I thought I’d share this dream from last night before I forget it…and it is kind of political since ole Mitt is in it….okay, the dream was basically a set of vignettes where I followed ole Mitt around Michigan being an obnoxious jerk about all of his lies and blowing up the idea that he will move to the center if he is elected….got him so pissed at me that he that he had his tea party thugs drag me out a bunch of times and then barred me…but, that didn’t stop me and he and his followers got so annoyed that I was getting the press to start questioning as I was that they planted a bomb that I avoided but got the hint…..and then, I woke up at 4 and have been up since…I know, not really political but I thought it was interesting….I will try to get back later for another but I can’t promise anything…
Category Archives: Misc
Walmat’s brand of capitalism…
Well…just a short one to talk about the recent revelations that Walmart and it’s managers in Mexico spent 24 million dollars in bribes to allow them to build more stores there…in direct violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices act that prohibits payments of any sort to foreign governments or their agents to gain an economic advantage. But, that’s not even the worst part….while this was going on, Walmart was part of a lobbying group that was working on diluting the law so they wouldn’t be liable for their actions in Mexico. Do you need any other reason to stop shopping at Walmart? Other than the predatory practices that kill local businesses wherever they locate their stores and the fact that they regularly abuse their employees by making them work off clock and not paying overtime pay…and have been found to have insidious policies that discriminate against women and minorities? I have been really trying to work up outrage about this stuff today but I think I’m moving into overload since this kind of crap seems to be what capitalism here in the US has degenerated into…a winner take all battle where there is no sharing of the pie anymore…and that is going to ruin this country…geez…
Just some musings on Apple…
Well…there was an interesting and spirited argument that I caught on the Guardian’s site yesterday that I wanted to comment on about the possibility that Apple could or should bring it’s manufacturing back to the US since, even paying American wages, they would still be more profitable than most other US companies. I was a little amazed that most of the people that were commenting basically said “to hell with American workers”; that they brought on their joblessness on themselves and drove manufacturing to Asia because they were so greedy…and that Apple can’t really afford to pay more than the slave wages they pay in China….one of the first things that came to mind reading these comments was “when did American workers, our neighbors and friends, become such a hated group?” Then, the second thing that came to mind was “they can’t afford to pay their workers more but they can give one guy, the ceo, 376 million dollars a year?” Until we can grow some empathy in the 1% and cut back on their entitlement mentality that they “earn” every penny of their compensation, the economy here is going to just drift and the middle class will continue to die….geez…
Another short one on tax cuts…
Well…while cruising my online papers for the second time today, a thought came to me that should put the “tax cuts make tax revenues grow” nonsense that is still a staple of all of the economic plans of the repubs across the country to rest. If that is the case, why did the Bush tax cuts take the economy from the surplus that he was handed when “elected”, to the huge deficits that we now see? Shouldn’t those cuts have driven tax revenues so high that even today there would be no deficits? Just asking….
I just can’t resist…
Well….I was going to abandon the idea of a Rush watch counting the number of sponsors he has lost since his idiotic comments of last week, but I just can’t resist…the pull of seeing this moron go down in flames, finally, is just too hard to ignore…especially when the count has reached 50 and shows no signs of abating. So, now he is relegated to the same sort of sponsors that were left when Glenn Beck was circling the drain…gold sellers and herbal ED supplements….and it just makes me laugh so damn hard that I’d better stop before I choke….bye bye Rush….
I am a little torn…
Well…I was going to do the whole Rushwatch thing but I’m bored with it already….I will say that the advertisers that have left has reached 30 this morning and I can understand why…but then the question that immediately comes to mind is: “what took so long?” Ole rush has been doing this same type of nonsense for 20 years and it never bothered anyone before so why now? I think it may have to do with attacking a private citizen; not a public figure who should expect some vitriol at times…especially when they make statements that most people find abhorrent….but, that brings me to the reason why I’m a little torn with the happenings over the past week or so….that included the Rush nonsense along with the Patrica Heaton comments, and those made by Kirk Cameron bashing gays…being the huge supporter of a strict reading of the rights in the Constitution….I find it troubling that the speech of these folks is being subject to so much pressure in disregard of their first amendment rights. People have the right in the US to say outrageous things and to be stupid….and I do agree with the quote that is attributed to Voltaire but may be from other sources: I disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it…” Just some thoughts….
Let’s do a Rush watch…
Well…got this idea just a few secs ago and thought it sounded like a good idea at the time…let’s do a daily watch on ole Rush and count the advertisers who have left the show…right now, as of March 6th, the count is up to 20 and shows no signs of stopping…and, I for one, am reveling in the bully getting what’s coming to him….now I urge Clear Channel who is essentially Rush’s boss to at least suspend him…and, to Clear Channel, who thinks ole Rush is the top rated show in most of his markets, take a look at the latest metered results on listeners, not just the paper diaries that Arbitron uses…ole Rush comes in 8th in DC..far behind even NPR….maybe it’s time to send this bully back to his pill mills in Florida…okay, that’s not really fair….I’ll try to stop the personal attacks…but he does deserve it…after all, I didn’t call him a fat f*** loser…
One last thing…I think we should boycott any show that Patricia Heaton is in…during the attacks by Rush…she did the same thing on her Twitter account, although not quite as despicable as Rush’s comments, it again showed the ignorance and mean streak that the right displays every day and should not be supported….
I should be able to think of something..
Well…after doing almost 1500 of these things over the past two years, you would think I’d have it pretty much down by now…one of the strange things that I just noticed is that the letters on the keys of my computer are starting to wear off from use with the N and the D being the worst ones and the M not far behind…I guess you can tell that this one is not going to be the political one that you were probably expecting but there is just nothing that is cranking me up these days on that subject…how many times can you call the repubs idiots and not sound like it’s the only thing you say? You and I both know they are, but it is getting to be a little like stealing candy from a baby…anyone can do it and it’s not really special anymore. Was this ever special? Not sure…but, I am going to try to get back in the groove later this afternoon and do another one….
Just a short one on economics…
Well…I had this idea after reading quite a few articles on what is happening in Europe with the bailout in Greece and the continued focus on austerity and cutting spending. All of the statistics that we see from studies there that cite lower growth and the distinct possibility that Europe will fall back into recession (Portugal and Spain are already there) do nothing but to confirm what Keynes said about spending cuts….that in a recessionary environment government should deficit spend to replace consumer spending and keep the economy growing. But, what all of the governments of Europe have done is listen to the fiction about the bond hawks and the crazy notion that cutting spending will make economies grow…what they have done with the massive contraction of government spending and the severe cuts to wages and benefits of the workers is to ensure that their economies will contract…forcing another round of austerity that will further feed this downward spiral. At least here in the US, we have made a half-hearted attempt at a stimulus and have not listened to the nonsense of the repubs that cutting spending will spur growth…this only works when the economy is growing at a sustainable pace and inflation is a threat….and that is not true here with only a .2% increase in prices on January…leaving an acceptable 2.4% inflation projected for the year…geez…
A placeholder for faith based health decisions
Yep… a placeholder but it could be a good one so come on back tomorrow morning…it’s another no cocktail night so I may be lucid early…
Okay…it’s early but I thought I’d better get on this one before I get to the daily update…I hope you’ve heard of the latest repub response to the contraception controversy…well…they are going to propose a bill that will allow any employer to refuse health coverage for any reason if it is based on the faith of the employer..yep, you heard it right…this bill will allow employers to stop offering coverage to any group or individual they don’t like…this means that if they don’t think interracial couples should be allowed to marry, they can refuse to cover them….if they don’t think any one should have surgery (which some sects do)…they will be able to prevent coverage under this bill….I hope everyone else here is as outraged as I am and if this attack on America is passed, I hope it will end up in the courts and rejected as soon as possible….it is another case where the repubs think that government should not be involved in anyone’s life except when they want it to be to enforce their warped view of the world…I am almost speechless on this idiocy…another in the long line of cases for eliminating employer sponsored healthcare and moving to a single payer, medicare for all world so the politics can be taken out of it forever…