Slow Burn

I don’t know who is going to take the trophy in November.  I know it probably won’t be the person I vote for.  All I know is that the game winner is going to have one hell of a lot of problems to deal with.

It looks like we’re heading into recession again.  Unemployment is up in 27 states this month.  The Fed has a dire outlook and insists Congress do something fast.  Housing cannot get any traction.  Wall Street is still completely out of control.  Gas is $3.50 per gallon.  We have a drought that has not been this bad in half a century.  Europe is in worse shape than we are.

We, and others, are in a shadow war with Iran.  The war drums are pounding louder all the time.  It seems only a matter of time before it escalates into full blown war.  We cannot afford this and I am not talking money.  Our service men and women are killing themselves in unprecedented numbers.  Our out of control government has forced this issue by letting the Iraq and Afghanistan wars go on far too long and not giving our people time to come home, rest, rejuvenate and relive what it’s like to be with family and friends (and get to take more than a two-minute cold shower every two weeks).  And beyond Iran, what about Syria?  Are we headed there also?

When 2014 rolls around, it is said that 30 million more people will have health care.  That’s 30 million more people who need to see primary physicians.  We have a shortage of primary physicians today.  What happens when you dump 30 million more people into the system without any planning for the obvious shortage?  This is going to rock our health care system.  If there is some sort of plan for how this is to be dealt with, it certainly has not been communicated to us at all.

Those are some major things that will have to be dealt with.  Those are things that we ourselves created and are aware of.  Now, of course, there is something else to throw into the mix.  What happens if we have another massive natural disaster like Katrina?  What if we have another terrorist attack like 9/11?  What if we have both?  We cannot plan for the unseen, folks.  That is why it is all the more important to deal with the issues we know we have at hand.  And yet, all we seem to have is the “do-nothing <fill in the blank>”.

We’re less than four months away from some team’s victory.  Less than six months from either four-more-years or four years of something else.  Regardless of which team wins, you can be sure they’ll be throwing high-fives and slapping butts.  The question is, will the spectators be wondering what all the partying is about or jumping up and down in unison?

Can we please get a break from the election time bullshit?  Mr. Obama, gee – thanks a lot for your asking Congress to look into gas price manipulation at this very convenient time .  For quite some time now gas prices have been at twice the price of what they were when you first took office.  Why all the concern now?  The fools will never know, right?  Sadly, many will not, so perhaps you’ll get away with this.

Seems funny to me, also, that virtually no one even brings your name or administration into the conversation when discussing gas prices.  Bush seemed to get the daily beating.  Granted, Americans have gotten used to much higher gas prices, but this polar shift in the blame game is quite blatant.  But of course there is no bias in the media as we all know.  In the rare instance when you are are asked about it, you crack some joke about people driving around in SUVs and give no real answer.  Your responses are as priceless as Gingrich saying he would have gas at $2.50/gal if he were in office.

I, for one, am all for higher gas prices, specifically by raising taxes on it – so I’ve got no dog in this fight.  It’s ridiculous that the federal gas tax has not risen at all since 1993.  We have crumbling roads and other infrastructure and yet we haven’t raised the federal gas tax in nearly two decades?  Can I get a big, solid “WTF?!” on that one, please?  Just remember, my fellow Americans, both sides would rather have shitty, crumbling roads and bridges than risk “their team losing the game” by raising valid, important taxes like the federal gas tax.

I said it a while back and I’ll say it again – it’s far past time to GTFO of Afghanistan.  OBL is dead and gone.  All we’ve had in the last six months (as far as the rest of the world knows) is activity which makes the US look like the enemy.  The US is burning Korans, urinating on deceased bodies and now gunning down innocent people (many of which were children).  We have to get out.  The bad apples are rotting the bushel.  Phone calls with apologies to leaders will not cut it with the general population.

Obama said he would fix our reputation.  It’s not gotten any better and in the last six months it’s probably the worst ever.  It’s been said by many that it’s Obama’s war.  It’s time to end it.

So this is all how it went down, right?

The big bad banks were bailed out.  It wasn’t for the banks’ sake, it was for the “system” – keeping it afloat – and really for you, the people.  Sure, the people still suffer.  But the government looks good because it saved the system, right?  It wasn’t their intention to just bail out bank execs (wink wink).

Our knights-in-shining-armor politicians bring the big bad banks to the roundtable.  They scold them and suggest that they change their ways.  The banks boldly proclaim, laughing, “not gonna happen.”  Well, the government tried and looked good doing this, didn’t they?  See what we do for you America (wink wink)?

So the knight takes it one step further.  Now the iron fist is brought down.  Laws are passed and bank fees are capped.  A victory for the people!  But alas, the banks simply start charging fees for other things to make up the lost revenue.   Oh, my, how could this have slipped by (wink wink)?  The mighty knight Durbin damns the banks for the  fees, oh how he fights for the people (wink wink)!

So when exactly does the good cop/bad cop shit end with these two juggernauts?  When everyone wakes up to the obvious?  I welcome you, America, to the W2C – the Washington/Wall Street Complex.

We’ve heard it before, Mr. Obama.  Your tone of voice has not changed, that is exactly what I was looking for.  I don’t give a shit about the content of your speeches anymore, as they are the same verbal regurgitation and cliches time after time.  You want to spend another half trillion dollars to blah blah blah.

The only time that I believe your tone to have changed was the “shellacking” monologue.

I turn back the clock, I look at what I and so many others said would and would not happen, what would not work and we were right.  Time after time.   Oh, how I kid myself and keep thinking that you’re just ignorant to everything.  But you know what you’re doing, you know who benefits from all this.  How I wish day after day that that was not the case, how I wish you were just ignorant.  But time after time I see you throw punches at the middle class, the meat of America.  I just don’t understand it – from you, your predecessors or those forthcoming.  Why are we such a target, a parasite’s host, a punching bag?

I am developing thought experiment #2.  It’s America’s salvation as seen from a middle class dope who isn’t doing so bad himself but vicariously feels the pain, agony, desertion and desperation of the middle class that is supporting the rich and the poor.  It will be  a high-level, simpleton view without much detail but it is 100% genuine in its foundation and goals.  It is compromised of ideals which no one in our federal government has the courage to pursue.  It is what we deserve.

So in one hour’s time after Mr. Obama’s big speech on the credit rating downturn, the DJI average is down basically another 200 points (about 500 total for the day).  I don’t think that says much about confidence in what he had to say.  Maybe it’s time for less talk and more walk.  Trot.  Run.

For the first time in history the United States’ credit rating has been downgraded.  Our politicians and banks continue to do to us what Osama bin Laden wanted to do but failed to do, how incredibly fucked up is that?  What, WHAT does this say about them?  These asshole politicians are so concerned about their team winning that they go so far as to forsake all common sense.  What is so fucking hard about cutting spending in our government?  Cut the pork.  Stop the misappropriations.  Put qualifications on the entitlements.  End the wars that no longer have any purpose.

Remember what the energy and telecommunications giants did to our 401k nest eggs a decade ago?  Remember what the big banks did to our nest eggs three years ago?  Remember how the government “scolded” these industries?  Let’s see if it ends up on Monday that the government has not managed to do the very same thing to us.

Today, I am proud ashamed to be an American.  Taking one “for the team.”  Being destroyed from within.

I don’t know all of what they discussed at the U.S. Conference of Mayors, but they got one thing right.  In a nutshell, they said we should quit spending money on our now purposeless wars and redirect it to domestic priorities.   Someone will certainly pay for this brash display of common sense.

As I’ve mentioned previously, we’re done in Iraq and Afghanistan.  There is no longer a reason for us to be there.  Neither our forces nor our money should be appropriated for rebuilding.  The mayors said that $126 billion per year is being spent on these wars.  Check out this quote from the conference:

“That we would build bridges in Baghdad and Kandahar and not Baltimore and Kansas City, absolutely boggles the mind.”

Is that not the truth or what?  We have collapsing bridges, crumbling roads and leaking plumbing in our nuclear power plants.  It’s true that Mr. Obama threw us a line of bullshit when he spoke of “shovel ready jobs” when selling his stimulus plan to us  (later laughing at that very phrase and the American people as he spoke of it again).  Imagine how that might have been different if we had more money and politicians with courage to get things done.

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