Archives for July 2024

Friday, July 6, 2024

The night of the debate many people made an amazing discovery. Joe Biden is old!

Wow. Keen observation.

To which I say, “Yeah?”

“Well, can he do the job?”

“Has he?”

“Yes.“

“What’s the question?”

“Joe Biden is old.”

“Um, that’s not a question.”

This debate, if it can even be called that, reminds me of a decision I had to make about replacing a washing machine. A guy at work asked me, “What’s in their now?”

“A Maytag.”

“How long has it been in there?”

“Twenty five years?”

“What’s the question?”

I put in a Maytag and it lasted twenty some years.

Joe Biden is old … older than when he first took office (duh). He has led the greatest economic recovery this nation has seen since FDR. Just like in FDR’s time Republicans have stood in the way, blocking anything and everything. Yet, they gladly come to the bridge openings and highway rebuildings that they voted against and try to take credit for it.

So let me ask you, “Who’s in their now? … What’s your question?”

Oh yes, he’s old. Is he doing the job? … What’s your question?

Wednesday, July 3, 2024

I have a few suggestions. Or as Johnathan Swift would say, “Modest proposals.”

But first we must define our terms and here is where Mussolini, Angelou, the duck and the snake come in.

First Mussolini, who coined the term Fascist, he said it was the combining of companies and government,

or corporations and politics, as far as I’m concerned the terms are the same.

Maya Angelou said, “when a person shows you who they are, believe them the first time.”

The duck – remember the old argument, “if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck”? No? Well, the answer is “It must be a duck.” (Boy, do I have to explain everything to you?” Don’t answer that – it’s rhetorical. That means … nevermind. No, it doesn’t mean nevermind it means forget it. Forget what? OMG.)

The snake – this parable is apparently Trump’s favorite. It’s the story of a snake that convinces someone to pick him up and carry him down the mountain (See the snake had been sunning himself but now the sun was going down and it was getting cold.) That someone at first said no because he’s a snake (Yes, the snake is a snake. The “he” refers to the snake. OMG.) But the snake says, “I won’t bite you. Please take me off this moutain or I might die from the cold.” The kid (I guess it’s a kid who is the ‘someone’.) finally relents because who’s ever seen a talking snake? (Cut to the talking frog kiss becomes a prince? No. Okay.) They get to the bottom of the mountain and the snake bites the kid. As the kid lies dying (of course it’s a poisonous snake!) The kid asks, “Snake, why did you bite me?” and the snake replies, “You knew who I was and what I was before you picked me up.” Tah-Dah! (This is called a moral.) And a sub-moral (???) is “don’t pick up snakes.”

The parable of the snake is one of Donald Trump’s favorites. (How do I know? I read it on the internet.)

So if Fascism is the marriage of politics and corporations and if you see someone in our political structure that is bending over backwards to help corporations by their political manuevering then that person is a fascist. And if you see soeone trying to influence a politician by using their corporate or wealth to influence (ie “buying them off”) that person is also a fascist. A fascist coud be a politician or a rich corporate f*ck.

So if my terms are acceptable (Men in Black – the bug) then let’s look at various people on both the political and the corporate side of things and see if they are fascists. 

I think another simple way to determine this is to ask yourself if the person in question is at all interested in helping you (not you specifically but people like you – okay?)

Here’s a simple set of questions from the corporate side of fascism:

1. Are you a rich f*ck?

a. Have you ever done anything to help others?

(If no – you’re a fascist. If yes then probably not.”)

For example ask yourself this, “Do you think Elon Musk gives a sh*t about you?”

What about Mark Cuban?

(Answers: No and Yes) Cuban has helped a lot of people become rich. He still could be a fascist but there is evidence to say he is not because he seems to care about others. Musk? Do you think Musk cares about you?)

Let’s look at the political side of fascism. 

A. Do you live your political life to please the people or corporations?

(No examples here. Not necessary.)

So if we apply these questions and terms to various people we can drop the facade that there are “conservatives” in our political system. They are faciists. They probably would prefer to be called conservative, because it doesn’t sound as bad. To me conservative means you want to “conserve.” Conserve what? Conserve what you have be it food, water, money, gas – whatever. So, are these people whom we call conservative conserving anything? Maybe their money in that they work hard to not pay taxes and in the case of Trump he conserves his money by not paying anyone unless he has a gun to his head. That’s not conservative in my mind that’s fraud but lets not quibble. 

The people who advocate conserving land and water are riddiculed by these “conservatives.” 

Applying Maya’s principle of believing someone the first time when you see them for who they are ask yourself, “what are they?”

We are doing ourselves a diservice by calling the Supreme Court justices who side with corporations most of the time “conservative.” They are not. They aren’t conserving anything. Not our rights, our resources, our way of life – nothing. In fact, one could argue they are recklessly spending our democracy. Giving away our rights, our freedoms, and our way of life to help a few who want to rule over us.

They are fascists.

So let’s call them what they are.

Monday, July 1, 2024

I was watching John Oliver’s latest episode of his show Last Week Tonight which aired June 24th 2024. He discussed the UK Elections and reviewed the most recent batch of UK Prime Ministers and their economic decisions. 

These decisions are the kind of thing that conservatives advocate, be it there or in the USA. The idea is to cut taxes (mainly on the rich) and the belief is that by doing so the economy will get better. 

In our country this kind of thinking has been a mainstay of the Republican Party since Reagan. And in Britain since Thatcher, who was in charge when Reagan was our President.

Here’s the fascinating thing. It hasn’t worked. Since the 1980s this idea has been a guiding principle a mainstream party in each country. Everytime they cut taxes the debt goes up and the economy goes down, yet they keep advocating it.

Oliver pointed out that from Cameron on these PMs have insisted on cutting taxes and doing other economically suicidal things like getting out of trade deals. When they don’t have any money they insist on cutting programs and benefits. This with devasting consequences. Children in Britain are shorter then their parents. Why? They are under nourished. Their health care system has been decmiated. Their trade has gone way way down. The country is a disater. These were all choices that were made – consciously, despite being warned, and told exactly what woud happen.

It kind of remids me of Galloping Gertie. A bridge in Tacoma, Washington (state) that collapsed in 1940.

My dad told me that the folks in charge were warned that the bridge wasn’t strong enough. Those people didn’t believe that a bridge made of steel and concrete could be twisted and the roadway flap like a ribbon and then collapse. Not only were they warned they were shown models of what would happen. Four months after it opened the wind twisted it and the roadway heaved up and down like a ribbon being flapped at one end, and it collapsd and fell into the sound.

Kind of like the economy of Britain after Brexit. John had a video of one company owner. She sold tea. Many of her customers were in Europe. Before Brexit she could ship tea all over Europe. After Brexit it was so difficult because it required paperwork, paying duties, and then the stuff sat for weeks or months waiting to be cleared. Finally, she moved her business to the European Continent.

Who was it that said, “the definiton of crazy is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result?” Since 1980 the mantra of what are called conservatives is to cut taxes. There are two parts to this: one, somehow the economy will get better. This is known as “trickle down.” Two, although taxes get cut the reality is that most people don’t see any reduction in their taxes. It seems only the rich and corporations see their taxes get cut. Yet, the politicians who advocate this keep saying it works, despite no evidence that it does. When faced with no money these same politicians then say,, “Well, we have to cut services.” This leads to the rich getting richer. They don’t need these services. And the poor, who desperately need these services, get poorer and less able to cope. This isn’t some pie in the sky “Well maybe …” kind of thing, statistics show this is exactly what is happening.

One of the recent Prime Ministers presented a plan for the economy of Britain. It was hailed on Fox Business and elsewhere as a great conservative plan. She lasted the least amount of time of any prime minister. The apparent destructive nature of her plan was so obvious that it never got off the ground, and she was gone a few weeks later.

Ah me, what to do? Maybe, we should embrace these ideas of the so called conservatives. 

Price of gas too high? Eliminate the gas tax. 

Roads and bridges falling apart? Get rid of them. Sell them off to private investors and let them collect tolls. then everyone pays, especially those electric vehicles that don’t use gas and the bikers (not the motorcycle people those pedal power people who are trying to save the Earth by not using gas.)

Wake up. What are you talking about?

Football stadiums. I just saw where the owner of the Jaguars is getting a new stadium courtesy of the folks down there, or at least their politicians. I’m for quid pro quo. I do something for you; you do something for me. You want a new stadium and you want me to pay for it? Fine. Then I get to go to events in that stadium for free, deal? No? Putting in a stadium is a huge drain on the municipality’s resources, and it doesn’t add anything positive to the local economy. (Check the statistics.) You have to improve roads and bridges (oh wait, we gave those away to someone who is backing up traffic collecting tolls.) And all the foreigners, I mean out-of-towners, are coming in trampling over everything and making a mess of the place and you want me to pay you so they can do this? What is wrong with you? Yeah, that would mean that everyone who put up the money for you gets to go to events there for free. Oh, you’ll pay for it yourself? Great. I can’t wait to tax you for the privlege of putting a stadium up there.

Should I go on?

No?

Okay.