Well…I usually don’t do these…oh, I guess I do…so I think I’ll just keep going…it was sad news when I heard yesterday that James Gandolfini had died of a heart attack with his 13 year son old at his side….I feel just awful for that poor kid….when I was out with G last night she reminded me of the “Sopranos” marathons that we used to have when we first met and that a part of our memories had just died, too….not sure if I believe that but anytime a 51 year old dies, that is just too damn early…and I think of my own mortality….not much else to say right now so I’ll just end with rest in peace….
Monthly Archives: June 2013
June 20th
Well…had a surprise night out with G last night so I feel like crap today and am running late because of it…..slept okay but that doesn’t help after a night out…and I am running late for an appointment out in Dorr so I need to work out and get the bike ride in right now so I’ll have to come back later and finish this…I do need to make a comment out on Kos first, though….
Okay…I’m back for a few minutes…got the run to Dorr done but he HLA’s were ticking like crazy when I got over to HF to get my brake bleeder…but it went away after the drive back here but I do know it needs an oil change…have to do that next week…I did get a ride in but the bike is squeaking again…damn….might just be the shock, though, since I can feel it through the seat…okay…not feeling it…I will try to get a political one in later….
Walmart…part two…
Well…have been thinking about this more this aft and have come up with an even simpler solution…every company in the US that pays wages so low that their employees have to have government assistance of any kind should be required to pay the assistance back as a sort of tax to take away the incentive to cheat their employees out of a living wage while enriching the owners. This would be classic economics at work and since the repubs are so hot about eliminating government assistance for anyone, how could they disagree? It’s all a a matter of eliminating the distortions in markets that are cause by a big company like Walmart and it’s political power…Walmart is essentially stealing from you and me and so the Waltons can get richer and richer…it would at least claw back the 3.5 billion dollars in silent subsidies that come from their employees being eligible for Medicaid and food stamps and stop the greedy Waltons from pushing these costs onto you and me…geez…
Here’s how to solve the Walmart problem…
Well….have been thinking about this for a while now…how do we solve the problem of each every Walmart store’s low wages being subsidized to the tune of almost a million dollars a year in Medicaid and food stamps? I know that people say that if the employees don’t want to work there, they should go find better jobs…but that is a just nonsense, many of the employees at Walmart have no other choices for work since Walmart drove the businesses they used to work for into the ground. So, let’s just get past that…and you know that every dime of the Walmart tax, as I call it, is going into the pockets of the Walton family and the upper management of the company; the worst kind of corporate welfare. So my idea is to make companies like Walmart and many in the restaurant industry pay their fair share is to fine them the difference between what they pay their employees and the amount that makes them eligible for benefits….if they want to pay someone 10 dollars an hour and the poverty wage calculates to at least 15…then we fine them 5 dollars for every hour that they force people to work for less…we need to take the incentive away for Walmart to leech off the rest of the country and make them pay the real cost of their labor…after all you and I subsidize each and every store to the tune of almost a million dollars a year…take that away and we take away the power these thugs have to suppress wages across the US…and I’m sure we never agreed to pay this “Walmart tax”…geez…
June 19th
Well…it was another day yesterday and I did get some stuff done…the papers are gone, finally, and I did clean the car but am having a hell of a time getting the haze off the glass…remembered that it is probably the type of paper towel that I used so I will try to fix that today…slept okay last night but I am still tired so I guess I’ll have to remember to eat more…one good thing from last night was that the Griffins won the Calder Cup for the first time and that was pretty cool….not much to do today…going to do a grocery run today since I am really tired of eating the same old crap and need some variety to jumpstart the taste buds….and then re-do the glass to see if I am right about the paper towel….more later…
Still trying to write…
Well…have been trying to figure out what to write about today and I have been having little luck….I am just so burned out writing about the crazy on the right….the legislator in New England that thinks his “man’s brain” is the only way to understand healthcare…saying that women are too emotional to think straight….and then the craziest thing I have ever heard from another repub saying that we should ban abortion since fetuses masturbate…yeah, not making this up but the daily toxicity of this nonsense is taking a toll on me….how are people so stupid? What do we do? Just hang on until we can vote some of these idiots out of office…it used to be that if any congressman said any of this stuff, his own party would put an end to it and marginalize them until they were gone..but, it seems to me that the entire purpose of the right and conservatives these days is the grift, the payoff that comes from being crazy…and you just have to look at people like Palin, Bachmann, Gohmert and Cruz who are out to make their bones so they can then leach off the stupid on the right for the rest of their lives while the people that voted for them eat catfood to survive as the safety net is cut….it’s not going to be th UN that is the end of the US…it is going to be the stupid….geez…
June 18th
Well…it was another day yesterday but at least lunch with T was fun…but, the rest of the day was the same old bore that it normally is…I should be used to that by now but it still bugs me…slept okay last night but I had dreams that the Miata was rusting away so fast that you could see it and that was really weird…but no plot or anything so it was unsatisfying….it looks like the weather is going to cooperate today so I think I’ll do a complete clean up of the car…just don’t have much else to do so I may just as well be productive there….I might clean, too…the freezer needs to be done and then all the rest of it…yadda, yadda…
A little on the supremes…
Well…it is decision time at the supreme court and there have been a couple of notable ones that came out today…and they even decided them the right way….first, they struck down the law that the righties passed in Arizona that forced people to prove their citizenship before they could register to vote…one aimed at ensuring that the poor and those that normally vote for dems would be disproportionately affected and the court said no to this blatant voter suppression…good for them…second, they ruled that the practice where big pharma companies pay generic manufacturers to NOT make generic versions of their cash cow drugs when the patents expire…ensuring that the prices stay high are illegal….well, duh….I just don’t get why it takes the supremes so long to come to the obvious….well, at least they finally get some right…geez…
June 17th
Well…having a hard time getting started today for some reason…and I really need to get moving since there may be lunch with T today and I have to get the workout and ride in before that…the HLA noise is back in the car and I think it’s gently telling me to change the oil…which I will try to do later in the week….it was an okay day yesterday but I have to break the malaise that I’m in and get some work done around here….didn’t get to the papers and probably won’t today either….but, I will get to some things today which will mean I’m going to have to run some errands…but, first, the workout…
A Pink Floyd day with weirdness…
Well…just got back from the bike ride and I was pleasantly surprised with Pink Floyd as the musical selections and how well it fit how the day looked…PF to me has always meant a cloudy, foggy day with some mystery to it….like you don’t know what is going to happen and the anticipation of it or the sense of foreboding that comes with it always means PF….but, that was not the only thing about the day…there was some weirdness…or coolness depending on your point of view…as I was at my last water stop in the park, a hummingbird came in across my right shoulder to stop at the weeds that were just across the path and then just flitted from weed to weed for a couple of minutes while I watched…I can’t remember ever seeing one other than at peoples feeders and it was just neat to see the speed and agility….pretty cool…