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…
Well…with the latest numbers that have come out on family income over the past couple of weeks showing that poverty and income inequality is skyrocketing in the US, and the connection between this inequality and the lackluster recovery, I think it is time to do something radical. But first let’s place the responsibility for these changes squarely where they belong, on the repub policies over the past thirty years that have resulted in the top 1% doing well and everyone else going backward. I know, I’ve railed about this before just because what I was seeing an feeling felt wrong, but with numbers like these it is time to stop nibbling at the corners and take a huge bite out of the core problems. First, I would propose an immediate change in ceo pay to 1 dollar per year and structural changes that would prevent any ceo from being compensated more than 50 times the average of the people that work for him or her…this would give them the incentive to raise all boats as the saying goes since rising pay of his workers would also raise the ceo’s pay. Second, I would propose worker representation on every corporate board to break the cycle of cronyism and incestous relationships that pervade corporate America and give all stakeholders a voice in their livelihoods….third, I would immediately raise the pay of all of the workers to the difference of the 1 dollar ceo pay proposed and what the average of the pay has been over the past 5 years….putting billions if not trillions of dollars in the hands of people that will spend it and giving a huge boost to our manufacturing and service industries; creating a truly self-sustaining recovery that will be spread across the economic spectrum….
Okay, I know this is really quite radical and will be branded as socialist, communist, and maybe even Martian…but, what we are currently doing is not working due in large part to the desire of the repubs to ensure that Obama doesn’t get a second term….so we need to do something new…
Well…as every day goes by, I have more and more hope that the right will continue is descent into the delusions they have been experiencing since the start of the primary season. The latest in this long list is the idea that, if re-elected, Obama will “wage war” on the Catholic church and somehow cause an institution that has survived for almost 2,000 years to disappear…whether is should or not is not a topic for today but when it and it’s supporters on the right coordinate attacks on Obama for a reasonable rule on contraception saying that as a matter of faith, the Catholic institutions should not have to abide by rules that are already the law of the land in over 30 states, it is the right that is denigrating religion by cynically using it as a ploy for political advantage. So, the right, who wraps itself in the Constitution on a daily basis thinks every law should be subject to a matter of faith; only following those that match their religious beliefs? I defy them to find that kind of nonsense in the Constitution…since the founding of this country, people have been free to practice whatever religion they see fit but never has religion trumped the law of the land…and this comes from the party of laws against Sharia and it’s use in the legal system…but, we all know they would love to have the US become a theocracy…just like the Muslim countries they love to hate…geez…
As a moderate progressive who wants this country to succeed for everyone, I just hope they keep this nonsense up all the way to their convention…by then, they will have shown their true colors to the independents and other moderates that will swing the election and we will send all of these crazies home for another 4 years and maybe get back to making an America for all Americans, not just the wealthy and connected…
Well…it has been a crushingly boring day today so I’m back to just do anything to get my brain working again…I’m just not a basketball fan but that is the only thing that is on…I’ve even read the paper twice already so that is done for the day and it is only 3…and it is 4 1/2 more hours until the Wings come on…there has been no help on the political side, either, so I can’t really report anything there…so, what to do? I’ve got the Post up on another tab so maybe I’ll go over there and look for a minute…okay, I’m back from there and I could write one about the whole contraception controversy…one of the things that I find startling is that all of the repub candidates are against women’s contraception…how can this be in 2012? How can the party of limited government want to take away a basic right from 50% of the population? I guess it’s because they always want to limit the rights of people they don’t agree with….and that, I think, is the problem with the repubs these days…when they get elected, they only govern for those who voted for them…they lack the big vision necessary for such a complex country but also continue with the damn doom and gloom every day…I just don’t want to hear it anymore…geez…
Well…if you have been following politics at all over the past couple of weeks, you can see that a change is brewing in the tactics of the repub party….the tired old nonsense of the culture war has risen it’s ugly head again but this time, I think they may have miscalculated and it is not going to work except for with their base. We’ve seen that the republicans look worried with their current crop of candidates and their lack of competitiveness in a head to head matchup with Obama…so what do we see again? The GOP rolling out the gay marriage card…the repubs trotting out the faked battle on contraception, and the continued attacks on Planned Parenthood that are designed to appeal to the ignorant haters in their base…but, what they are failing to see in 2012 is that base is the only place these attacks resound…all of the polls show us that America has become more tolerant and accepting and we are tired of the nonsense the repubs are peddling…but, I hope they continue it since these shenanigans have driven the approval of the repub controlled congress down to historically low levels at 10%…only 10% of the people in the US approve of the obstructionist crap the repubs are using to keep the economy from improving…and I hope they pay for it by losing control of the house this fall…they deserve it….geez…
Well…I was vacillating quite a bit whether to write one about this topic but I felt I had to…I’m sure you’ve heard of the huge fiasco between the Susan Komen foundation and Planned Parenthood that has played out over the past few days where Komen decided to stop funding womens health services through Planned Parenthood for some reason that kept changing as the week went by…which, to me, stinks of trumped up nonsense. The initial reason was that they will no longer fund any organization that is under investigation…and, it just so happens, that some obscure, extreme right wing congressman has opened a “personal” investigation into Planned Parenthood on whether they are paying for abortions through illegal means. What I think happened is a coordinated attack on Planned Parenthood by this congressman and people at Komen who colluded to give cover to the right wing pressure that has been building on Komen to cut ties with PP since it is the right’s favorite target in it’s attempt to put women back in their place and deny them the care that is sometimes only available through PP. How many more times do we have to see and listen to these right wing idiots who are hell bent on making life harder on the poor? When are women from the right and left going to say enough, that their bodies belong to them and for everyone else to butt out? I hope it’s soon, and I hope that Komen collapses with the loss of it’s backbone…geez…
Well…it has been really quite comical seeing the repub candidates try to one-up each other on the toughness of their proposed foreign policy…to hear them talk there will be no nuance or discussion with either our friends or enemies and under the repubs foreign policy will be reduced to one mantra “shoot first and ask questions later”. But, the reasons why are so varied and include the rise of other powers in the world both economically and militarily. I did read an article in the Washington Post today by Fareed Zakaria that does a much better job than I can in explaining these changes…here’s the link….http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-post-american-world-demands-a-new-approach-from-the-us/2012/02/01/gIQAba5ziQ_story.html?hpid=z3
Well…this is going to be a short one while I wait for the laundry to finish so I can get out on the bike before lunch….there was an interesting little article about a poll taken over the past week that asked small business owners what their largest impediment to growth and adding jobs was…and, guess what? It wasn’t the old repub screed about too much regulation…in fact a majority of those polled felt that good regulation helps level the playing field for them…something I have been saying since I started this thing almost two years ago…but, the surprise of the poll was that, by a large majority, these small business owners said that lack of demand was the biggest barrier to them growing their companies…and where do we get demand? By increases in the disposable income of consumers that is driven by sharing the stellar growth in productivity that big business has hoarded for the top 1%….and more stimulus from the government….so, the next time you hear a repub cry about too much regulation in the economy…just shout “nonsense” at them and let’s call out these “truths” that are anything but…geez…
Well…it has been a weird synthesis that has happened over the day today with reading a bunch of articles the were seemingly unrelated, but then a light came on and an idea slowly came to me about the controversy where union members don’t have any say when their dues are used for political donations and the repubs howling about it and trying to write laws to eliminate this use of those dues. Then it came to me…what is the difference between unions using their dues to support political candidates they like and corporations cutting peoples pay and then taking the money they save and giving it to their candidates? I’ve never heard a repub bitch about corporate giving or proposing any laws that would restrict it…and I’ve never heard of any corporation asking their employees to vote on what candidates or causes are supported….so, again, the hypocrites on the right have it wrong..but they are so used to having it both ways that they can’t see their hypocrisy…or better yet, they won’t see it because they don’t believe in truth…geez…
Well…just looked at the count for the month and realized that I’ve already made my goal of two per day for the month…but, I thought I’d do another one just for the hell of it..don’t know if I have very much to say but I’m going to say it anyway…I did get the papers out for recycling as I said I would but that is about it…I think I’m going to stay on this topic for a while…that the intelligence and memory of the people in the US must be questioned when polls come out that put Romney and Obama almost even in the general election….I can still remember the Bush years…the unfunded wars we were lied into, the erosion of our civil liberties, the shredding of the constitution, the continued concentration of wealth in the top 1% while the rest of the country struggles….let’s say it again…all of the problems we have now are a direct result of repub policies and they are promising more of the same if elected…they are planning to gut social security and medicare while giving tax breaks to the rich that will give them an AVERAGE of $146,000 cut while raising them on everyone else. No society can survive when one percent of the country controls everything….
I have one question to ask…why can’t ceo’s take only half of their outrageous pay and give pay raises to the people that work for them? This one move would put billions if not trillions of dollars into the hands of people who would spend it, increasing demand across the entire economy and putting people back to work….just saying….