Well…if this stuff keeps coming to me, it may be a record day here but I think this just may be compensation for the uncontrollable stuff that is happening in my life right now…could even be avoidance, but who knows? One thing that I am taking away from the protests that are happening across the midwest is hope, hope that the workers of this country are finally waking up to the organized assault on the middle class and are starting to do something about it…and I have to thank governor Walker for being so open about the right’s agenda, pulling the curtain back on the coordinated effort of the repubs to steal the entire country for themselves. My only fear is that this may fizzle out before it can be converted into electoral gains for those who value the middle class and the dignity of labor….
Category Archives: Misc
A strange class warfare…
Well…I promise this one will be shorter but it is something I need to get down before I forget it. I was musing about the class warfare aspect of the fights that are going on in statehouses across the country and one thing struck me: that this is a new kind of class war…one that is being fomented by the rich and powerful and uses working folks as the soldiers, pitting powerless people who have seen their pay, benefits, and security decline by the fake necessity of givebacks against those who have found at least a little protection of their status by their membership in unions. And, the puppet masters who are pulling the strings have been masterful in getting people to vote against their own interests, and to believe the lies that all of the economic problems in this country are caused by greedy workers. You have to hand it to them…first they gut funding for education so they get an ignorant populace, then they overwork them so they have no energy left to even think about how badly they’ve been deceived…..and the downward spiral for labor continues while the rich sit in their clubs and laugh their asses off at you and I….
Wisconsin tries to kill the unions…
Well…if you needed another example of the repubs concerted efforts to kill organized labor, look no farther than Wisconsin, where the repub governor and legislature are trying to take the collective bargaining rights away from all public employees, and you know who’s next..any other union that tries to keep it’s members in the middle class. This is being done on the pretext that they have a 137 million dollar budget deficit and something has to be done. but the only pertinent fact here is that, until they gave away a matching tax break to business, the state was running a surplus…just another example of these repub thieves trumping up crises that don’t exist to attack the middle class. I sense the beginning of a revolt here…where the repub plans are finally being exposed and getting the coverage that was lacking before the election…at least I hope so…the pie here in the US is big enough for everyone if the repubs would stop thinking they deserve it all….
The repubs idea of shared sacrifice…
Well…one of the themes that has come out of the budget nonsense here in Michigan is that of “shared sacrifice’ and is being sold that everyone needs to give a little to help our state survive. But, again, those that are being asked to sacrifice are only the workers and the retired folks here…and this increase in taxes on you and me is going to be used to give business billions in tax breaks since these idiots still believe that giving tax breaks preserves and grows jobs here in Michigan. Let’s take a look at one example that I am personally aware of here in GR where Steelcase was given huge tax breaks to keep jobs here and build state of the art manufacturing facilities…well…guess what was just announced a few weeks back? Steelcase is moving the remaining manufacturing jobs from Michigan to low wage states and Mexico. No matter what the state does, no matter how much the workers give up, it is never enough for business and the repubs that run them…they will never be happy until all of us work for minimum wage no matter what our education level or our contribution to the bottom line. I’ve never shared this from my personal work life; shared how I was treated by business that didn’t care about anything but the bonuses that the ceo’s get….in the week before I was axed…I gave that company over 5 million dollars in cost reduction that went right to the bottom line…and over my career, I was personally responsible for almost 100 million dollars of these lower costs…and they axe me because they were consciously trying to rid themselves of people over 40, my average salary of 60 K a year and 28 years of service meant absolutely nothing to them….
So, giving tax breaks to these fools is not going to ensure that jobs stay here….it will only result in you and I paying for their folly and huge executive bonuses…when will this nonsense stop? Geez….
Oh really, Chuck?
Well…had to get this one out while I’m still seething abut it…I hope you’ve read about and have the same outrage that I have about comments made by senator Chuck Grassley yesterday about the bonuses that GM is paying out to it’s hourly and salaried workers…they are going to pay out about 400 million dollars since the company is profitable again after the trip through bankruptcy. Ole Chuck is bitching about the fact that they have only paid back about half of what they owe to the US gov’t and feels that there should be no bonuses paid until all of the loans are paid back. Oh, really Chuck? Where the hell were you when the big banks that were bailed out by the TARP program were paying out 20 times more than that in bonuses before the TARP loans were paid back? Not a fricking peep from you, Chuck, because those bonuses went to the rich and connected and just shows your underlying hatred of the middle class and the workers of this country.
Why isn’t this inconvenient fact being reported in the media? I guess it’s now our job to hold these hypocrites accountable….geez…
One last inconvenient fact….the three top guys in the banking industry got more than 400 million dollars in bonuses….that’s three guys, folks…and old Chuck is pissed because 76 thousand workers are going to share 400 million…but, as you know, he was one of the ones on the right who wanted the auto companies to just fail and go away because they have unionized workers…no matter that they are American workers in the middle class..or is it because they are middle class…
I’ve had lunch….
Well…I’ve had lunch and have been watching Man U play but it’s halftime and I thought I’d get a few more ideas down. Have been looking for the Chuck Krauthammer article from a couple of days ago but have had no luck….so I can’t comment on that idiot…I really don’t know what else to talk about……oh, there is one thing, why aren’t companies that are sitting on all that cash looking for ways to expand into new markets? If I remember my college econ….the way to maximize profit is to get into new markets first or to create new markets that no one else has recognized yet. It doesn’t take much work to just sit on your hands until all of the excess capacity in your business is taken up by the recovery, but it does take smarts, vision, and guts to go out and lead the market by making a bet on what you think is going to be the next big thing. That means building new plants, hiring new talent, and opening the checkbook to grow your business. I think it’s one of the things that is currently missing in our economy; no one is willing to take any risk since the ceo’s stand to lose if their ideas aren’t successful. But that’s the problem…the ceo’s get exorbitantly rewarded for caution so why would they do anything different? There is plenty of talent just sitting on the sidelines waiting for that vision but it won’t be there forever….geez…
Enjoy the insurance I paid for….
Well….was just sitting here thinking after I paid my taxes this week and a thought came to me…and it is one that should anger everyone like me that is unemployed and struggling to keep their life together. Since employers get tax credits for supplying health insurance to their employees, you and I are buying health insurance with our tax dollars for those who are still employed, even though we can’t afford to buy our own…now, how sick is that system? According to a study that I read in the Post, if we stopped this subsidy right now and applied the cost to universal coverage, we could cover everyone in the entire US….that’s all I have to say right now…just wanted to share that little bit of the bizzaro world we live in…geez…
I need to talk a little about Egypt…
Well…how can you not be proud of the human beings who rose up and took control of their own destiny in Egypt? I have been watching this story unfold and have been humbled by the dignity of the protesters that said enough; enough of being treated like children who were not mature enough to set their own course and run their own country. I am a little disappointed by the lag in our government’s response to the events there, but I also understand that diplomacy is usually deliberate and works in small increments.
But, things have changed….events move much faster these days and we need to adjust our foreign policy to be able to keep up…and I am tired of hedging our bets when people are trying to become free…it is one thing that we need to support anywhere that the flower starts to burst through the ground….let’s stop basing our actions on fear and and the belief that we are the only ones that know what freedom means…..
To the people of Egypt…Well Done!
TGIF….
Well…I think I’ve fallen into the trap of waiting for the idiots on the right to say or do something stupid and then writing about it…kind of like a counter puncher in boxing and while it has some value, does it stifle original thought? Is there even any original thoughts anymore? I mean the written word has been around for quite a long time and how can you meet the expectations of being original? It just seems to be too easy to just comment on things other people say and it does get to be a habit but I’m going to try over the weekend to be original and have some thoughts of my own. I do have thoughts of my own sometimes, I did write two original novels after all….no, you can’t see the first one….it was written back in the time of 5 1/4 inch discs and no electronic copy exists anymore….I have been trying to find the original…geez, there’s that word again…let’s not say original…let’s say hand written manuscript…yep, on legal pads in ink…had a stack of them about 2 feet high before I finished that one. I will say this…the writing process has never been painful or difficult for me…when it comes it comes fast and easy…but I’ll bet you’ll say it’s easy to write crap…and I’ll counter with no it isn’t. I’ve done it….
Enough of that….how about the weekend…I did title this one TGIF after all…the Wings play again tonight but I am concerned that they’ve lost their fire with losing 3 of the last 4….I do like the fact that Babcock has called them out on it and is pushing them with the extended practices….I’ll still watch tonight since it is cocktail night and it is fun to settle in on the couch and watch it with a few friends via text…tomorrow we have the start of the nascar season with the shootout from Daytona and I am trying mightily to still like the sport with the crappy cars and lousy competition…they just need to stop using the rules to make it homogenized and let the creativity of the builders come through again….where are you Smokey Yunick?
I need to text K and see if there is a SF this week….it would be nice to get out…although, the Peppino’s over here was so frickin loud last night I couldn’t hear a thing…so maybe the mex place instead….need to see the guys there anyway…..or Logan’s, haven’t been in there in a while…..and the car could use getting up to temp at least once this week…that’s about enough for now…I’ll get to the political masturbation that is the repubs agenda tomorrow or Sunday….
Just can’t get thinking…
Well…it’s been a tough day on the brain and with no topics that have grabbed me, I suppose I’ll just muse a little bit and do a little free form writing. I did see one news item that brightened up my day….Keith Olbermann has a new job at Al Gore’s Current TV channel where he will be news director and then have a new show later in the year…I have not turned on MSNBC since they fired him and that is both good and bad….my outrage level has certainly decreased but it has also resulted in having fewer topics to write about since he covered things that weren’t getting normal media coverage. I wish him well and can’t wait to see what the new show will look like. It looks like the job market may be brightening a little…two people I know that have been out of work long term have recently found jobs so that is starting to give me hope….it would be nice to get back to work before the car dies and I can’t wait to get out of this place and buy a house….it has been okay to not have the maint headaches but I do miss having a place to work on the car….or just wash it…
I laugh so much at the idolatry that the Reagan worshipers have trotted out in the last week…especially from “the one who shall not be named” but it just shows that with the repubs, faith still trumps facts or reality and I have to remind myself constantly that though it may be funny, there are policy decisions being made on this faith that are going to hurt the middle class and give more of the country to the rich and powerful…maybe I should create a shorthand so I don’t have to keep saying rich and powerful, What do you think?
Haven’t really touched on the super bowl yet but I didn’t think it was a very good game…and the halftime show was one of the worst things I have ever seen…that, after all of the bitching that was done about the Who last year, too. I would much rather see geezer rockers with talent than the trendy new thing they tried this year….talent is talent after all, and the Who has been around for 40+ years with many iconic songs that will always be remembered as long as anyone still listens to rock. Where will the black eyed peas be in 5 years? Where is their Baba O’Reilly, or Won’t Get fooled Again, or Who Are You, or Tommy?
That’s about it for now….I’ll try to be more topical later or tomorrow..or you may get another one of these..who knows?