Can we stop pissing on each other for a minute?

I haven't squawked for a while but I need an outlet for this.  Every time ANY tragedy occurs, we Americans have to attach it to our political view, confirm we are and have always been correct and that this tragedy confirms our moral and intellectual superiority over the people  with which we disagree.

STOP IT!!  People are dying because our society is lost.  We have no common goals.  We've lost our sense of community and replaced it with relativism and supreme self-interest.  We are not teaching empathy or identity with a positive group.

Once we get past this event by a few days, I will have an opinion on the Aurora case.  But can we first come together to find a solution and stop this from ever happening?  It's not guns alone.  It's not the Republicans and it's not the Democrats and shame on you for trading in the blood of innocent people to say it is.  Its the sense of nihilism that we are cultivating in young people that leads many of the more fragile psyches to snap.  Certainly the gunman is responsible for his actions and should be punished.  But can we stop drawing up the battle lines and pissing on our political opposites for a while?  It's obscene!!

Throwing the 2012 Race

Prediction:  The GOP is going to throw this election.  And maybe they should.  Most of them don't like Romney.  Whether you like him or not he really is out of touch with most Americans.  (Not that he's a bad person, he's just never experienced typical American life.) And I think the GOP status quo would prefer Chris Christie.  If they hold back their support now (they being the party leaders) they can spend four years blaming Obama and get their pick in the next race.

If Romney wins, their outcome is not good.
Bad GOP Scenario 1: Romney wins, nobody is happy with him and he loses in 2016.  Hillary is elected in a landslide.
Bad GOP Scenario 2: Romney wins two terms.  They have eight years with a guy they don't like and can't fight against publicly.
Good GOP Scenario: Romney loses, they spend a relatively short four years with a guy they can throw stones at and the country grows weary of the Dems in power and elect a Repub.

The smart money is on the Elephant throwing the fight in the second round.
Stay tuned!

OCCUPY THE TEA PARTY!!

Watching Frontline's series Money Power and Wall Street gave me a new sense of what happened to America during and after the near depression that started in 2007.  George Bush started it! No.  Barack Obama made it worse!  No.  Bush cut taxes and went to war in Iraq and we still don't have a good reason why.  Yes.  Barack Obama focused on reforming healthcare when reforming Wall Street was more vital at the time.  Yes.

In reality Bill Cinton is more to blame for the economic meltdown.  Just before leaving office he and the financial experts in his cabinet and lets face it Wall Streeters who lobbied them repealed Glass-Steagall.  These were reforms created after the Great Depression to keep banks from merging with investment entities and causing another Depression.  (In the 1920s banks had been allowed to do this which led to their investing for themselves and preying on their clients.) So when Clinton repealed Glass-Steagall it happened all over again.  A friend commented to me recently 'Clinton couldn't have foreseen this.'  CLINTON WAS A RHODES SCHOLAR!!!  If I can understand this why couldn't he and Larry Summers et al?  They saw it as at least a possibility.  They may have been naive to think we had modernized to the point where Glass-Steagall was obsolete.  But considering the size of the egos in question, I'd say they were just arrogant and self serving.  And leaving office to someone in the other party, they didn't much care if they left a ticking financial time bomb.  Do I think they expected the economic downturn to be this bad?  No.  But that doesn't change the fact that it was.

Did Bush squander the surplus? Yes.  Should a government run a surplus?  I don't think so, but that's up to you to decide.  A surplus comes from taxes (eg. your money, the money you send them every April--that was two weeks ago.  How happy were you to send that in?  No, really.).

I think the government should take what we NEED and let the people who make the money keep the rest.  That's just me.  It's valid to say if there is a surplus the government should use it to help citizens. But it's just as valuable to say they should give it back.  And think about who THEY are.  Imagine your least favorite sleaze-bag politician.  Now imagine he/she is in your favorite party because he/she IS!  You don't really know your favorite politician in most cases.  Regardless of party, would you hand your newborn to a politician you didn't know personally and say, 'Do with her what you will and have fun!?'  Then why do you trust him/her with anything else?

BTW: How much was the bailout?  We've been told $700-$800 billion.  According to Frontline,  Bloomberg L.P. had to sue to find out the real numbers the Fed loaned or guaranteed to banks.  Any guesses?  It came to $7.77 TRILLION in loans and guarantees.  I was shocked too.

At the moment the financial sector is flourishing.  They were bailed out by us!  But WE on Main Street are stuck in a relentless jobless recession.  Small business which employs half of all US private sector employees (see SBA.gov) has still not recovered, though big business is headed that way.

You have a right to be angry.  Who created TARP?  Bush or Obama?  It was Bush and Obama continued it.  Was it the right thing to do?  I believe it was.  But it was a blank check with no requirements on how it was spent, given to the thieves who caused the problem in the first place.  OF COURSE THEY TOOK THE MONEY AND RAN!  THAT"S WHAT THEY DO!!!  You don't blame a rat for being a rat.  It's in his nature.  You put out traps and if you can find one, hire a mongoose to track him down.

Ok, that being said one thing struck me as vital and at the same time very unlikely.  Two groups emerged from this crisis.  The Tea Partiers and the Occupiers.  Both are vilified by their opponents.  They are divided.  Are they necessary?  I think so.  Both of them.  Two polar ends of the political spectrum who called 'bullshit' on the power brokers in Washington and on Wall Street. (yes both groups have large numbers of useless pricks who make the entire group look bad.)

Here's a BIG WHAT IF:  What if they merged?  Pissed of twenty-somethings and pissed off sixty-somethings from across the nation.  'But those Tea Partiers are a bunch of uneducated red neck bigots trying to take down Obama!'  'No it's those lazy good for nothing dirty wannabe hippy Occupiers who expect redistribution of wealth and a free ride on my hard work!'  Maybe you're both right.  Maybe you're both wrong.  But you both started with the same purpose, fighting the people who live off of your money and keep you out of the payday.  Also the people who consider your vote a coin in their pocket to use for their own purposes.  And now they have you fighting each other on 24 hour cable, while they live happily on your bailouts.

Take your coin back!  Require politicians to come back to you every time they want to borrow it.  Don't just hand it to them for free and let them run off for four years!  Don't give absolute allegiance to EITHER party because what is their incentive to do anything for you?

Our American divide is not so great left and right.  IT IS GREATER UP and DOWN!!!!
We have more in common right and left in America than we do up and down!  That doesn't mean people who earned wealth owe it to anyone.  Let's create a level playing field.

Unite for a common purpose America and you'll win.  Divide because FOX NEWS and MSNBC tell you too and you will undoubtedly lose.  It's your choice.

TMI

Let's just be honest we get too much information.  Now before your civil libertarian sensibilities are offended, let me say I think all of  the information we get and more should be instantly AVAILABLE, we just have to stop allowing jerk-offs on 24 hour cable news from cramming it down everyone's throat.

Maybe you've experienced this (in jr. high if nowhere else), a chatterbox friend who tells you every bit of news, gossip and conjecture about EVERYONE in the world.  Some of these people you don't even know!  But she tells you with such fervor that it sounds like a life or death situation.  Before you know it your blood pressure is racing and you are planning your revenge on some dude named Fernando who you're being told just keyed your new Porsche because you stole his Strawberry Pop Tart collection.  It doesn't occur to you in the moment that you drive a Nissan, you've never in your life touched a Pop Tart except once at the strip club and...who the hell is this Fernando?

This all sounds trivial until you realize it's a perfect metaphor for 24 hour cable news.  Not just Fox and their inane ranting, ALL 24 hour news.  I don't need to know that it rained in Belize today causing a man on a bicycle to crash into a fruit cart resulting in the senseless destruction of seventeen pineapples and a kiwi.  SERIOUSLY?

Do you really think all of the animosity in this country is a result of Obama or Boehner?  They're just playing to the cameras.  That's how you get "real Americans" on your side and get re-elected!  We'll never  do anything about oil, or climate change because before the sound byte ends their are seventeen "experts" on the air rallying the Jersey Shore audience to write their congressman!

The Obama administration is trying to make a deal to drill off Alaska and create some effective oversight of fracking for natural gas.  Both of these things could make us able one day to tell the middle east to piss off and handle their own issues because we're cool over here with our Nat Gas Camaros that get 400 miles to the gallon.  It would solve our economic AND political nightmares.  But before he can do it, some grass roots group in Listentomybullshit, Oregon is marching on Washington.  Imagine next time
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says "We will cut off your oil!" we could say, "Cool, babe.  Let me know when you guys find the right anxiety meds.  You're harshing my mellow."

And what about the markets?  The fact that two million bits of financial "information" are thrown at us all day every day makes it no wonder the markets are schizophrenic.  It's like trying to drive through DC rush hour traffic with eight clones of your mother in the car telling you to "watch out for that squirrel three blocks up and for God's sake step on it!"

Again, we need more and more accurate info available to us, but for the love of Edward R. Murrow could everyone just shut the hell up until we ask?

22 from 6

At least 22 members from SEAL Team Six were apparently killed today in Afghanistan.  The first report I heard was that they were on a NATO transport but other reports say they were shot down by Taliban forces during battle.  The blogosphere is divided between condolences and bravado.  One tweet I read said, "Nobody messes with SEAL Team Six and gets away with it."  The reason SEALs exist is to take on nearly impossible fights.  As I understand it SEAL Team Six is comprised of the elite among SEALs, which is a mind boggling thing to imagine.  It's damned near impossible to make it into the SEALs and SEAL Team Six is comprised the best of those who do.

They're not superhuman, which is what makes them heroes.  Many of their deeds and some of their names will never be known to the public.  That's the way it is.  I guess the thing that made me want to write this is that when SEAL Team Six took down Bin Laden, everybody went SEAL crazy.  Books, movies, etc were rushed into production.  Now they've had a tragedy.  This is when real men stand up and say they are proud of them and the SOAR pilots who died with them.  So to the arm chair SEALs out there, stop pounding your chest and say a prayer for these heroes, their Afghan counterparts, the civilian interpreter and their families.  If you don't pray, it's cool, give the fallen a moment of silent admiration for an impossible job well done.

Check out these lyrics to a song that will play around the country next week:


Eternal Father strong to save
Whose arm has bound the restless wave,
Who bids the mighty ocean deep
It's own appointed limits keep,
O hear us when we cry to Thee
For those in Peril on the sea.

Oh Christ, the Lord of hill and plain,
O'er which our traffic runs amain.
By mountain pass or valley low,
Wherever, Lord our brethren go,
Protect them by Thy guarding hand
From every peril on the land

O Spirit, whom the Father sent
To spread abroad the firmament.
Oh wind of heaven, by Thy might
Save all who dare the eagle's flight.
And keep them by thy watchful care
From every peril in the air

O Trinity of love and power,
Our brethren shield in danger's hour.
From rock and tempest, fire, and foe
Protect them wheresoe'er they go.
That evermore shall rise to Thee,
Glad praise from air and land and sea


Alternate lyrics


Eternal Father strong to save
Whose arm has bound the restless wave
Who bids the mighty ocean deep
It's own appointed limits keep
O hear us when we cry to Thee
For those in Peril on the sea

Oh Christ whose voice the waters heard
And hushed their raging at Thy word
Who walkest on the foamy deep
And how amidst the storm did sleep
O hear us when we cry to Thee
For those in Peril on the sea

PARABLE of the Donkephant

A donkey and an elephant had been in an arranged marriage for a very long time.  They hated each other but they were also cut from the same cloth.  No one else would have them or had any real use for them.  Their children (donkephants) were often forced to watched as they railed against each other at the dinner table.  They would repent and promise to get along for the good of the family, but after enough broken promises the kids knew it was just talk.  Their real goal was for one to turn the kids against the other.

They spent wildly, the elephant always blaming the donkey and the donkey blaming the elephant right back when the paychecks were too small to cover the bills.  They always paid the minimum on their credit cards and when they reached the limit, they simply raised their credit limit.  And they always waited until the last day of the month, but the mortgage always got paid.

They had an odd habit of getting divorced every four years and then getting remarried two months later.  Like I said, it was an arranged marriage and no one else would have them.

Now they really didn't care what got paid for, the truth is neither of them had ever held a job.  Their ten kids were the bread winners.  Two of them were out of work because the donkey and the elephant had been caught stealing from the kids' place of employment.  The business nearly went bankrupt until the other eight repaid the debt.

This summer the donkey decided (arbitrarily) it would not sign the checks to pay the mortgage or the credit card bills until the elephant parent agreed that they could only buy what the donkey wanted from now on.  "Funny said the elephant (arbitrarily)," I won't sign my name until you agree we can only buy the things I want.

"Why are you doing this?" their children asked.  "Because," the parents explained, "we're getting another divorce in fifteen months and we want you to choose again which one of us you want to live with for the next four years."  "So, you would risk our home and future to win some contest that happens every four years?"  "That's about the size of it," said the parents.  "Not only that, it doesn't matter which one of us you choose, we're the same in every way except our name and our pet projects.  Either way you choose, it's about us, not you."

The kids finally had no choice, five went with the donkey and five with the elephant.  The cycle that had been going on for generations continued until one kid from each side one day realized, maybe there are parents out there who will just do things the right way for us.  Maybe we could put ourselves up for adoption.  Anything would be better than this...TO BE CONTINUED

The meat

In any good sandwich the most important thing is the stuff between the bread.  Nobody says 'I had a GREAT baked multigrain sandwich around some sliced cured meat.'  No they say 'I had a great pastrami sandwich!'  In our nation we have liberals and conservatives; the bread.  And here I mean the most outspoken among us.  It has occurred to me that these bread slices are pretty much the same, they are both looking for conformity from the rest of us, and they want you punished if you don't fall in line.  On the  right, if you don't DO THINGS the way they do they want you punished.  While on the left, if you don't THINK the the way they do they want you punished.  Not much of an option.

I'm gonna have a salad.