The Two Faced Party

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You knew sooner or later the GOP (Gang of Pretense) would start bringing out the big guns.  Thaddeus (I just want to be on MTV) McCotter, a guitar-playing congressman from Michigan has thrown his hat into the ring for President.  He says he wants to have his say about the National Debt. I’ll bet he does.  He is a five term congressman and was part of the “We will show those Democrats how to spend money” Republicans from the last decade (Better known as the Bush Debacle), but now he wants to cry about the debt that he helped run up.
  
Why is it that the ones who shout the loudest about gays are usually in the closet and the guy telling you how honest he is is actually picking your pocket?  Also those who bitch the most about Federal spending are down slopping it up at the trough.  Here are a few examples of a number of two-faced Tea Party Republicans who are taking home the cash while moaning loudly about the out of control spending in Congress.

Last week one Republican-run House committee approved bills diluting parts of the financial law requiring reports on corporate salaries and exempting some investment advisers from registering with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Another House panel voted to slice $200 million from Obama's $1.4 billion budget request for the SEC, which has a major enforcement role.  Yes sir, the GOP (Gang of Pinochios) do love those Wall Street bankers.

According to the latest financial reports Wall Street is once again rich and healthy, but unfortunately Main Street is not doing so good.   Now let’s see, where do most of us live, Wall Street or Main Street?  The recession which ended two years ago has left no lingering effects on Wall Street. The Stock Market rallied 90% since the recession and of course 80% of all stock is held by 10% of the people.  Corporate profits and CEO salaries are up, yet hourly workers are making less than a year ago.  Unemployment is the highest and for the longest since the end of World War II. What is wrong with this picture?


Today's good read is Flash Foresight by  Daniel Burrus.  One of the better non-fiction reads I have come across. It will make you think about problem solving in a different way.




 Stay tuned for future adventures.

Where Have All The Jobs Gone?

The number one question in the country today is where are the jobs? Well, there aren’t many and I’ll tell you why. In my opinion, one of our biggest problems is that we as a country have moved to a financial system where we only make money off of money. Many years ago we were based on being a productive system. We made, built or produced things. All kinds of things and we did it better than anyone else in the world. “Made In America,” really meant something.

Then we moved into being a creative system. We decided we would invent, create and design things, but let the rest of the world make, build or produce them. This was fine for a while as we transitioned from one kind of job to different kinds of jobs.

Now we have moved into being a financial system. We just make money off of money. We don’t build, make or produce hardly anything so there are fewer and fewer jobs. Most decisions in this country are being made by Wall Street, financial institutions and large corporations. These people and companies don’t make, build or produce anything. They don’t even come up with ideas of new things to make, build or produce. We were better off in the days of the robber barons than today because they at least produced jobs and products.

The stock market is nothing more than high stakes gambling. I’m sure it didn’t start out that way but it has certainly evolved to that. At one time a person invested (bought stock in a company) because they thought it was a good company and maybe they could make some money along with the company. If the company did well so did the investor, or at least didn’t lose money.

Now, the value of stock can change in a heartbeat, not because of something the company did, but because of something totally unrelated in another part of world. Also brokerage companies play little games that the investor knows nothing about. Buying short is one, like they did a couple of years ago which helped bring on the mortgage crisis.

There was a time when Wall Street and Main Street intersected, but no longer. Main Street is like that once thriving small town that is now dying on the vine after it got by-passed by the Interstate highway.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for capitalism. It’s still the best system in the world but it totally depends on us to keep buying stuff. That was alright as long as we were making most of it. That has changed and now we are seeing the results of that change.

Isn’t it ironic that the headlines scream about high un-employment, gas and food prices going through the roof, and how sad the economy is while the largest corporations enjoy some of their highest profits ever and the giant financial firms are handing out major bonuses? It is not capitalism that is ruing our country, it is corporatism.


Stay tuned for future adventures.

Harrumph Day

Have you heard about the dogs the Navy Seals are using? They are bulletproof, can hear through concrete and can record high-def video of missions, even in the dead of night.  I’m pretty sure one lives next door to me and has been working on night training for about six weeks now.

A Starbucks in El Paso has fired a dwarf that was working there. They said he didn’t come up to their standards.  I didn’t know when you interviewed for a job at Starbucks, they had a sign that says “You have to be this tall to serve.”  The dwarf is suing saying that he got the short end of the stick.  I guess it is ok to order a short drink but not from someone who is short. One of my readers on Facebook commented that Starbucks didn’t want you to know that coffee stunts your growth.

I see where the U.S. has reached its debt limit. Does that mean Visa is canceling Congress's credit card?

The Don has taken all the fun out of the upcoming Presidential race by dropping out.  I was looking forward to seeing him debate that thing on his head.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who is accused of raping a hotel maid, is known as the IMF Chief.  If you are not sure what IMF stands for, I’ll give you a hint, the “I” stands for idiot.  You can fill in the MF.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was one of the provisions of the sweeping Dodd-Frank financial reform bill enacted in 2010. This watchdog agency was designed to fix many of the regulatory loopholes that allowed big banks to take on too much risk. Well guess what? Congress is considering measures that would substantially weaken it before it writes its first new rule.  Just another case of Wall Street over Main Street in Washington D.C.  Your tax dollars at work.

Today’s good read is The Gods Of Greenwich  by Norb Vonnegut.  This is his second novel and is a real page turner set in the middle of the smarmy world of Wall Street and Hedge Funds.  Norb Vonnegut is to Wall Street what John Grisham is to Law.




 Stay tuned for future adventures

All Fired Up

Hundreds of students walked out of Morton Ranch High school in the Katy School District in protest of teachers being laid off. Good for them. The teachers were pulled out of class, fired and then sent back into classroom which was a very upsetting situation for both the kids and the teachers. Katy ISD officials said it was standard procedure to give layoff notification during work hours. 

So the administrators couldn’t wait until the end of the day to do their dirty work?

"They're seeing firsthand where a budget situation in Austin on the state level is impacting the teachers that they love and they hate to see go," school district spokesman Steve Stanford said. "We understand that emotion, the superintendent understands that emotion and, in fact, he shares that emotion." 

Well no, Steve, you and your dipshit superintendent obviously don’t understand. Why aren’t boneheads like you losing your job instead of teachers?


Here is a pinhead politician who deserves to lose his gig.

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker made a little trip to Washington this week and spoke to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.  When asked how much did weakening government workers' collective bargaining rights save the state of Wisconsin?  He replied that it doesn’t save any.  In earlier testimony he had said that it would save the state $700 million dollars.  Wow, that is a little more than small discrepancy. I would say that you make Pinocchio look like a dummy.

There are of course plenty of Wall Street bankers and money managers, who should have lost their gigs or gone to jail, but here it is several years after the financial crisis, which was caused in large part by reckless lending and excessive risk taking by major financial institutions, and no senior executives have been charged or imprisoned. I guess crime does pay.

Let’s not forget about sports figures.

And finally,  Kobe Bryant, part-time basketball player and full-time jerk.  But I’m sure none of these fine folks will be losing their gigs anytime soon.  The old adage, “Shit rises to the top,” couldn’t apply to a better bunch.




Stay tuned for future adventures.