Well…had some fun last night out with G and a really weird thing happened…T was at Great Lakes, too and the two of them met for the first time….can’t wait to have drinks with T tonight to see what she thinks….and I made some cash finally so I can actually buy food this week…feel pretty crappy today since we stayed at GL longer than expected and Stevie Y’s team beat the Pens in the 7th game of their series which I did have to stay up and watch with a couple of cocktails…not much to do today…I am going to get some food and supplies then back here to take it easy….need to nurse the wounds and rest up for later…more later….oh, one last thing..I was right about the birthers…every thing I said they would say they did….crazy idiots…
What’s “the Donald” going to talk about now?
Well…just a shorty to comment on the morning’s knife to the heart of the birther movement. If you haven’t yet heard, Obama released the long-form birth certificate that these idiots, including Donald Trump, have been clamoring for for over two years and that he hopes will end this moronic obsession with where he was born. Yeah….I know, the truth never matters to these people and now they will just move on to knowing that this new one is a fake…I’ll predict a few of the new attacks: Why did it take so long? the typeface wasn’t invented when he was born….that it looks like there are erasures, etc., etc., etc….you can’t reason with irrational people. But, it is going to be fun to watch them tie themselves into knots when their primary argument goes up in smoke…
Thanks, Manny…
Well…if you’ve been here before, you’ve heard me take issue with the idiotic rantings of the Detroit News’ Manny Lopez, and I have to say thanks again for his column in today’s paper…it’s not the only thing I want to talk about but it gets me started and, hopefully, gets the outrage meter moving up. Today, Manny goes on to take issue with Bob King’s comments (Bob is the president of the UAW) that the new financial manager law is an attack on democracy by allowing elected officials to be removed if their organization, be it a city, town, county, or school district runs into financial distress. What would you call subverting the election process by appointed overseers, Manny? What’s next? Removing a congressman or senator if he votes for financially unsound practices? That would put all of your repub buddies at risk for voting for tax cuts when it results in bankrupting the country, doesn’t it? It’s just another instance where the repubs and their lapdog writers scream socialism whenever the dems do anything that will benefit the middle class but then see nothing wrong with tearing at the core of our democracy when they lie to get voted into office. Who would have voted for our gov Snyder if he would have revealed his plans for the giveaway to business and the rich paid for by taxes on you and me? Liars all….
Okay…that is the only topic for this one….I will try to get another one out later but I do feel pretty crappy and want to make salmon for lunch….I have been better lately at getting these out before you come back from lunch….I’m better than Keith at it…oh, that is one thing I did want to talk about and forgot…Keith Olbermann is coming back with “Countdown” on the 20th of June…same time, different channel…..welcome back, Keith….
April 27th
Well…it was a long day yesterday and I do feel pretty crappy today…..nope, really crappy today…..stayed up late watching “Hud” with Paul Newman and had some cocktails…this, after being out with Tom and I won the night in a championship game after tying it up….so that’s the reason for feeling so crappy…I think there is a component of the lousy weather in there, too…I think I’m going to turn into a duck if it doesn’t stop raining….but it’s not going to so quack….I do need to get this place cleaned up for the furnace guys today but I have no motivation…what’s the opposite of motivation? Not much to do today…I do need to go to the bank and then buy stamps and send the electric bill but that’s about it….going to get moving now…more later….I think my hair hurts….
I was right about oil and gas prices…
Well…it’s red letter day here at “Overqualified & Unemployed” when I have been proven right by no less than the crooks at Goldman Sachs…should I feel good or bad about this? In today’s Free Press, there was a long article where it reported that the commodities people at this large trading house did a study of oil and gas prices and found that 27 dollars of the 110 dollar price of oil is directly attributable to speculators that are trading in the oil futures market…that is over 25% of the cost of a barrel of oil…and the traders have a neat little scam running on all of us….that when the traders bet that the price will go up in the future…it always goes up….you heard me right, these guys have so distorted the normal rules of supply and demand that they no longer have any bearing on the price of oil. I’m sure that with just a few phone calls amongst the big traders, they alternate daily who is going to be the one to bid the price up and who is going to just sit and rake in the profits. Now, who among you out there are for more deregulation of the economy? This crap started when the Bush administration pushed for rules that allowed traders to never take possession of the commodity they are trading…allowing oil and gas to be commoditized and made just another financial instrument like sub-prime mortgages and credit default swaps….where there is no risk for the traders and guaranteeing that all of the benefits fall to the traders while the rest of our country pays for it….geez….but what to do about it? Normally, I just bitch about this stuff but this time I’m going to offer suggestions….let’s make these guys that are paper trading actually take possession of the commodity they are trading and put up, in real dollars, the total amount of the transactions. This will push the risk back on the traders that are distorting the market and make them less likely to continue to rake in billions in profits off you and me….
April 26th
Well…another night at home last night since G went home and fell asleep…something I think she needed so I’m okay with that…and it saved some cash so that’s not all bad. I was quite bored with a no cocktail night and I didn’t sleep much but that’s just how it goes these days….I did get some resumes out yesterday but I think I have to broaden my search and get ready to move out of state…but that’s okay, too…I have one more start over in me and I probably should get to it. How do you get achilles tendon problems when you don’t run? I could barely walk yesterday with the pain in my right foot…it is better today but still is tender and stiff…and don’t have a clue how the heck I hurt it….I hope it doesn’t develop into the same pain I had in my elbow last year that lasted most of the summer….not much to do today…pool with Tom and more cleaning but that’s about it….more later….
A couple of musings…
Well…if you don’t live in Michigan, you’ve probably not heard of the huge controversy we have going on in the East side of the state concerning the new US/Canada bridge that has been proposed to alleviate the congestion at the privately held Ambassador Bridge that connects Detroit and Windsor, Ontario. Today’s article in the Detroit Free Press sheds a lot of light on why the Mattouns, the owners of the bridge, are spending so much money on trying to prevent another span being built…a big part being that they own the fuel sales rights on the bridge plazas and have a sweetheart deal where they don’t pay taxes on any of those sales…yep, they make a profit of almost 60 cents per gallon on each and every gallon of gas or diesel sold there, along with the money from tolls. A license to print money that they will fight to the death to protect…no matter what is good for the people of Michigan or the country….just another instance of the rich not giving a damn about anything but their money and power….who allows important border crossings to be privately owned anyway? This is one of only two in the US and needs to be run for the benefit of the country….not just one family.
The other thing that I wanted to talk about today is a neat article by E.J. Dionne in the Washington Post this morning where he notes that people are starting to tire of the false choices that the repubs have been presenting to the country that are increasingly framed in the “either/or” and not the “both/and” that the country wants to hear…and the earlier presents a pessimistic view of the countries future that is not how you run a democracy. E. J. goes on to assert that this type of political rhetoric is one of the big reasons why we can’t find compromises anymore….I ask the question: why can’t we have a social safety net and lower deficits? Why can’t we cut government spending and still have the services that the majority of the country expects from government? I think it’s because politicians have gotten lazy and dogmatic and I agree with E.J. again that this type of false choice has substituted for thought and is the real reason that we can’t seem to solve any of the countries problems…geez…
April 25th
Well…it was just a lump day yesterday and I didn’t do a whole lot but watch movies and ride the bike….not even any cooking; just leftover chicken so the boredom quotient was quite high…and I feel that bleeding over into today since I really have no plans for anything. I do need to clean this place up since they are coming to work on the furnace Wed and that means lots of work for me…but that’s not bad being forced into doing something that I should do anyway….and it will give me something to pass the time other than just watching the tv….not much to do today….just resumes and coffee….and the bike, of course…there will be topics later since I have discovered I don’t really need to be spurred on by current events; I can actually have ideas of my own…you’re surprised too, huh? More later…
I understand this one….
Well…just reading an article that, in the weird way my head works, brought to light other small articles and congealed into something I want to talk about. I know, still burying the lead in some of these but this isn’t a newspaper and those rules don’t apply here….and, how long does it take to read a couple of sentences? So, on to the subject….the whole thing was started by an article about a guy who couldn’t figure out how to get the security to work on a new wireless router, gave up, and left the thing running overnight. Later that night, a pedophile neighbor logged on to his router and downloaded millions of child porn pictures. Of course, the police and their captive judges don’t really need probable cause anymore and issued a warrant for the guy whose only crime was that he couldn’t figure out a wireless router. But that’s not the worst part…the FBI, ICE, and local police then had to form up a swat team that kicked in his door, threw him down some stairs and held him at gunpoint until they took him in to be charged, tearing up the house and confiscating all of the electronics in the house; many of those belonged to his wife. The question I want to ask is “when did every police action in the US become one that these thugs have to abuse American citizens? What is wrong with a couple of detectives just walking up to the door, knocking politely, and asking if they can talk? What, in this man’s history, would make them think he was violent? The answer to that one is nothing….that’s right, never in trouble, no violence, no nothing. and, if the police would have done the very simple job of checking out the username that was involved…they would have seen that it was not him…but that doesn’t matter to the thugs that infest our police today.
There are too many stories like this in our country today…that the citizens are more scared of the police and government than they are of terrorists….if that is the case, then who are the terrorists? And, to those that always come back with the tired old saw “if you aren’t doing anything wrong, you have nothing to fear”…..that’s just not true anymore….if this man would have defended his home and his family, he would be dead…dead for an unprotected wireless router…is that what we’ve come to in this country?
April 24th
Well…another night with cocktails so I am running a little late this morning…I did have a little fun yesterday with going out to have a couple with K and V but that was the extent of the variation from the normal Saturday routine….it is nice that it has gotten back out of the forties again and I can get back into shorts….I wonder if you can get dyslexia in your fingers? I have had a heck of a time typing the word from lately..it always comes out form and then I have to go back and correct it…yep, you knew I was weird when you started reading this thing…not much to do today…I do have a movie to watch and I will be getting on the bike for a nice leisure ride this morning, but right now, the coffee is done and I need to read the paper…more later…