Republican Economic Polices Suck

By the way, I got something wrong... When I said "Michigan didn't have a hug bidget deficit last year, "that wasn't quite right. We actual had a rather large budget SURPLUS. So I ask again: WHY did this have to happen?!

And here is the KOS Article I mentioned: Minnesota Liberalism Trounces Wisconsin Conservatism
Well worth the read. Check it out. (Especially if you don't want to bother watching the video. LOL)

Gold Star Awards, October, 2011

It never fails.

I get some great comments, find some related articles and plan to do a whole mess of writing over the weekend and… life happens instead. So we had a fun and busy weekend with the kids, and I did NOT get to the Abortion / Contraception post as I had planned to. And now here I am on the last day of the month with a different post in mind, and several comments that need replying to, and instead of doing anything INTERESTING, I’ve got to put up my Gold Star’s for the month of October. (It’s a pet peeve, but I HATE posting these on the first of the following month!)

So, here we go. The year is 1968, and there was one BWAA inductee and two from the Veterans committee:


The Ducky Medwick Gold Star #40: Progressive Punch

Presumably so named because “Left Hook” was taken! ;)

Progressive Punch is a non-Partisan, yet strongly Progressive, web site that tracks the votes of members of congress on issues of concern to progressives. It rates and ranks MoC’s and is a great resource, if a bit overwhelming at times (and depressing at others!) Good information though. No reason that both parties whouldn’t be held accountable for their votes and actions!

The Goose Goslin Wooden Star: The Economnic Collapse

Believe it or not, this collection of Right Wing Propaganda was actually up for GOLD Star at one point. Now, it’s a throwaway. I did write-up on one of their articles a while back. They’re a great example of the most insidious kind of Right Wing writing: it SOUNDS principled and well-reasoned at first, but once you dig a little bit deeper, you find out how dishonest they’re being. I mention it here because the first couple of articles I came across DID do a fairly good job of blaming Republicans for the bad economy. So they did pique my interest… But once you see all of the “buy gold” and “food insurance” ads in the banners, you realize what their true agenda really is. (See... the Republicans weren't being Conservative enough, apparently!) Overall?  I'd descibe it as pessimistic alarmism to the point of being almost Right-Wing parody.  (Scary part?  They're so convinced they're right! Some pretty creepy sycophants in the comments section. I think I know where MMFA gets their trolls form now!) They have a comments section – mostly RW Nut-Jobs and the occasional Liberal talking sense. Personally, I’d like to see how long it would take me to get banned from there! LOL


The Kiki Cuyler Silver Star #38: Count Your Sheep

A long-running and thoroughly adorable web comic about a single-mom and her precocious little girl who share the same imaginary friend: “Ship,” a “counting sheep.” (If you count him, (“one,”) you IMMEDIATELY fall asleep.) The strips are most cute stuff – often enough to give you a sugar-high – and are reminiscent of “Calvin and Hobbes,” only with a female Calvin and a struggling, single mom (who sees and interacts with Ship) instead of Calvin’s nameless, and relatively comfortable, middle class parents (who only ever saw Hobbes as a stuffed toy.) It does on occasion, however, delve into social politics – lightly enough to remain inoffensive, yet enough to give it some topical relevance – and has stretches where it becomes darker, even depressing at times, bordering on tear-inducing. (Laurie was widowed while pregnant with Katie, and the strips where she talks about how much she loved Marty and misses him can be absolutely heart-wrenching.) (You’ve been warned!) Anyway… it’s completely wonderful and I highly recommend it. There’s no single, on-going storyline but, since I’m kind of aspie that way, I still recommend reading it from the beginning! XP

And Happy Halloween, everyone!!!

There was a cracked article yesterday that had the good sense to link to the following video by former Labor Secretary Robert Riech. The rest of the article had some feir criticisms of the OWS movement, but IMHO, is not really owrth cehcking out. This, OTOH is:



You tell 'em, Robert!

And the soloution to these 6 points?

1) Tax the rich
2) Tax the rich
3) Tax the rich
4) Tax the rich
5) Get a Progressive Candidate who isn't afraid to tax the rich, and lead from a progressive agenda.
6) Vote for said Progressive, and his progressive agenda. (And tax teh rich.)

Funny how that works out, huh?

Gladstone was right about one thing: the OWS people could learn to simplfy the message a bit.

Occupy Reality, part one

The Dow Jones Industrial Average "soared" 330 points today.  What does that mean?  Well... nothing, actually.  But there's an interesting story to the DJIA when take in context.  Here are the numbers over the past two months:

From July 21st to August 8th it lost 1914.26 points.  That's... a pretty substantial drop.  Now... Seeing as how it had been an almost consistently upward trend for over a year leading up to that point - up 6097.27 points since its low, about six weeks or so after Obama took office.  So... What was going on during that time period that might have given the economy some jitters?  Hmmm.... Let me think...

OH YEAH!

The whole stupid DEBT CEILING DEBATE!  Thank you, REPUBLICANS! I mean, GOD FORBID the recovery happen when there's a DEMOCRAT in the White House!  Keynes might make a comeback or something!  (Of course, by stiflingng the stimulus packages, and seeing the recovery falter, they basically PROVED Keynes was right, but don't expect that liberal media (*barf*) to tell you that!)  They couldn't bear to see that Obama (and Keynes) were RIGHT, so they invented an issue in order to shit-can the economy.  Way to go, Republicans!

And since then, check it out:

UP 429.82
DOWN 519.83
UP 423.37
UP 125.71
UP 213.88
DOWN 77.707
UP 5.017
DOWN 419.63
DOWN 172.93
UP 37
UP 322.11
UP 143.95
DOWN 170.89
UP 134.72
UP 254.71
UP 20.7
UP 53.58
DOWN 119.96
DOWN 369.31
UP 15.04
UP 275.56
DOWN 119.05
DOWN 303.68
UP 68.99
UP 44.73
UP 140.88
UP 186.45
UP 75.91
DOWN 108.08
UP 7.65
DOWN 283.82
DOWN 391.01
UP 37.65
UP 272.38
UP 146.83
DOWN 179.79
UP 143.08
DOWN 240.6
DOWN 258.08
UP 153.41
UP 131.24
UP 183.38
DOWN 20.21
UP 330.06

Now, the trend? On average? Since, August 8th? Is DOWNWARD.  OK, yeah, the index is actually UP 193.41 points since the start period, but the trend-line says that we'll lose about 4.65 points per trading day.  The thing is?  Do you notice how many days there are that the CHANGE (up or down) was in the triple digits?  Because I did. Don't bother counting, I'm going to tell you: 32 out of 44.  That 72% of the time that the Index changed by roughly 1% of it's overall value.  To put that in context - a 1% change in a single day - if it went UP every day by 1%, in a year you'd have roughly THIRTEEN TIMES the money you started with.  Now, obviously, that's never going to happen.  Down days will cancel out up days and vice-versa.  But more than EVER OTHER DAY? THREE OUT OF EVERY FOUR?!  That's extraordinary.

So... what does it mean?

Well... You have to understand that the DJIA is nothing but a handful of stocks (30) that the Dow Jones Company picks because they feel that they are a good indicator of the countries overall economic health.  (It's actually one of THREE indices for this purpose, but it the only one anyone every talks about, so it's what we're going to talk about.)   And you also have to understand what a stock's price actually means.  What it is, is the net present value (which assumes some arbitrary inflation rate) of all future dividends (profits) divided by the number of shares.  IOW, it's a predictive value of how a company will do.  And, obviously, as new information comes in (like quarterly reports?) both that projection, and the price, will change accordingly.

So... what does it mean that "the experts" keep changing their prediction by such a significant amount every day, up and down? 

Well, for a start, it may seem that they don't what the hell they're bloody doing! But ACTUALLY, it merely means that there's a lot of economic instability at the moment.  Now the Republcians will balme it on all kinds of things that eitehr haven't happened yet (like tax increases) or things that have no chance of happeneing. (Like tax increases.)

But I have an alternate theory, and it's fairly simple.

The economy is trying to recover.  It really wants to.  There is pent up demand and people are starting to spend money again. Sales of Halloween Candy/Decorations/Cosutems/etc..., for example, is WAY up from the last two years.  I can tell you that Automotive sales (and profits) are generally up as well. But then...

HERE COME THE REPUBLICANS...

Debt crisis = higher interest rates = harder to borrow = lousy economy
No More Stimulus = hampers demand = lousy economy

Raise taxes on THE POOR (a favorite of Fox News these days!) = hampers demand = lousy economy
Cut Social Security and Entitlements = hampers demand = lousy economy

Cut Government Salaries and jobs = hampers demand = lousy economy


You see the trend?

The ECONOMY? Would be doing just fine if the Republicans did what they always say the Government should do: STOP FUCKING WITH IT!

All of this instability is due to Washington's (read: REPUBLICANS) refusal to simply DO WHAT IS NECESSARY to make things better.

Now... You might hear the Right tell you that their thinking LONG TERM instead of SHORT TERM.

To which I'll answer, "Yeah..." and point out that, to a Republican, "Short term" means the next fourteen months, while "Long term" meand 2013 through 2016.

If I had my way, I'd execute every one of these scumbags for treason. As it is, they should be impeached and jailed for theft, fraud and corruption. But, at a minimum? THEY SHOULD ALL BE VOTED OUT OF OFFICE. EVERY LAST MOTHERFUCKING ONE OF THEM!

I've said it many times on MMFA, and probably once or twice here, and I'll say it again:

Anyone making less than $250,000 a year who votes Republican is either clinically psychotic or functionally retarded.  The rest? Are just greedy.

A little research goes a LOOONG way...

This goes for both Progressives and Regressives alike, the difference being that we're actually willing to DO a little research from time to time, rather than just blindly posting and linking to every email that hits our in-box. And, yes, I am aware that I have made some mistakes here as well. Again, the difference is that when someone points them out to me, I'm far more likely to say "Huh, yeah, good point!" or "Thanks for the tip" than I am to go off on on a tirade, asking why people are "defending the enemy" or some such thing.  IOW: It's is important to me to get it RIGHT. First and foremost, I want my arguments to be based in fact more than I care about whether or not they're Liberal.  So, seriously: If someone sees something here that's bullshit, by all means: CALL ME OUT ON IT!  (You don't usually get that offer from most Right Wing Bloggers!)

So... What's this all about? Well... a couple weeks back I came across a blog called The Economic Collapse. And by what I can only describe as blind luck the first two articles I came across blamed [the economic mess du jour] largely on Republicans and the Democrats that went along with them.  So I though 'whoa-hey! Another liberal blog!'  And I was all set to put it up for a Gold Star.  Yeah... Um... Good thing I dug a little deeper. LOL. The first tell-tale sign was all the ads for Silver, Gold and Platinum Coins and 'Emergency Food' across the top.  That's... a little bit too Glenn Beck-ish for me.  So I read further, and... Yeah... This one's a hall of SHAMER, big time. 

Hoo-boy... 

Article after article of intellectual dishonesty, writ large.  And don't get me wrong... Some of these? DO manage to make some good points!  But these are lost in a sea of blaming Liberals ("Socialists," actually) and distorting the claims just enough to take them beyond the realm of 'interesting examples' and right into the territory of the truly absurd.  And there is one such post that I want to use to show you just how low-down and intellectually dishonest they are.  This is from "Suffocated By Red Tape - 12 Ridiculous Regulations That Are Almost Too Bizarre To Believe."  I'd like to take this on, point by point, to show how they operate and display exactly what the author is NOT telling you.  Because... if you're making a "good point" there should be no reason to be intellectually dishonest about it!  If you're RIGHT, you shouldn't have to LIE.  Also, I'm going to *star* some of these. The ones that get *starred* I'll have a little more to say about at the end.  And remember: These are all (supposedly) the fault of LIBERALS, those damned Socialists!

#1 The state of Louisiana says that monks must be fully licensed as funeral directors and actually convert their monasteries into licensed funeral homes before they will be allowed to sell their handmade wooden caskets.

(*) This is a prime example of a BARRIER TO ENTRY.  I'll explain what that is at the bottom.  Is it bullshit? Usually, yes. Is it LIBERAL? Oh, hell no! But, more on that farther down.

#2 The city of Philadelphia now requires all bloggers to purchase a $300 business privilege license. The city even went after one poor woman who had earned only $11 from her blog over the past two years.

(*) This also falls under the 'barrier to entry' category, but there's some intellectually dishonesty thrown in for good measure.  See... take a good look at the story he linked to.  First of all, it's $50 per year or $300 for life. Second of all, it's not a tax on BLOGGERS, it's a licensing fee for BUSINESSES.  Is it excessive, when applied to bloggers?  Well... sure USUALLY.  But how much money do Arianna Huffington or Matt Drudge make from their blogs?  If you're GOOD AT IT, then it might not be so excessive.  And? If you don't want to pay? Just don't sell ads. No big deal there - especially if those ads only net you $11 a year! In Google's AdSense's terms, it would take you just over NINE YEARS to get paid AT ALL at that rate! So why even bother? (Disclosure: I should make my first hundred, and finally get paid, after 2 years of blogging, in about a month or so.)  Just take the ads down and your "Free Speech" is completely untouchable. (Remember: It's "free" speech, not "paid" speech!)  And, OK, fine... Do I think it's a dumb law? Or one that needs to be altered or amended? YES. Yes, I do. But if you're going to argue that - and I think it SHOULD be argued - WHY do you have to be dishonest about it?  The law is absurd enough on its own!  If you have to distort the reality even more to make your point, MAYBE YOU DON'T HAVE A POINT!

#3 In the state of Massachusetts, all children in daycare centers are mandated by state law to brush their teeth after lunch. In fact, the state even provides the fluoride toothpaste for the children.

Nanny-state bullshit? Perhaps.  (Although after recently going through crown-extension surgery, and getting three different holes drilled in the same tooth by a guy who I thought was being pretty chincy with the Novocaine?  Man: BRUSH YOUR TEETH, KIDS! Because that SUX!)  Here's the thing... If the STATE provides the toothpaste? And the kids (presumably) own toothbrushes?  HOW, exactly, is this "suffocating" the day-care businesses?  Seems to me that this is actually a GOOD program, that works JUST FINE, and it's the John Stossel Conservatives who are whining over nothing. And considering that Medicaid covers dental, it would seem this is a good cost-savings measure as well. But.. you know... never let facts get in the way of a good story, right?

#4 If you attempt to give a tour of our nation's capital without a license, you could be put in prison for 90 days.

All I can say is, one: (*). And two: The sentence is absurd, but the motivation behind ALL of the (*)'s entries is hardly a LIBERAL one.  (I'll get to that at the end.)

#5 A reader named Gene recently shared his regulatory horror story with us....

I'm not going to dignify "Gene's story" with a response, other than to say that "anecdotal evidence sure is convincing, isn't it?"  I can't verify ANY of these claims, nor do I know ANYTHING about "Gene" or his "Business." If there's any legitimacy to this, maybe they should have found an example from a verifiable source, no? Just sayin'. 

Also? (*)

#6 Federal agents recently raided an Amish farm at 5 A.M. in the morning because they were selling "unauthorized" raw milk.

Damn! I'm never even UP by 5 O'Clock in the morning! Although... I suppose that's what makes it a such a good time to have a raid!  OK, putting aside that the link provided is to the "World Nut Daily," I was able find this story elsewhere, so we can assume it's legit.  First of all: You can sell Raw Milk, if you slap a warning label on it. DID they? I don't know. It doesn't say. They say they don't sell to the public, but it's unclear if that's true or not.  (And the fed's had to find out SOME HOW, right?)  And while I'm all for letting people make their own choices - bad as those choices may be - I'm going to take on these "natural food" whack-jobs (many of whom are Liberal, yes, I know) right now and recommend that they look up a guy name Louis Pasteur, and learn a little bit more about what the world was like before he came along.  Raw milk, unregulated, is dangerous. Period. And arguing otherwise is the closest thing Liberals have to dogma. (Actually, I'll come right out and say it: Vegan, Organic, Gluten-Free, All-Natural, etc...? Is nothing more than Un-Scientific Liberal dogma. And it's every bit as full-of-shit as Conservative Dogma is.) But whatever. Maybe their milk wasn't germ infested. OK, fine. But what about everyone else's? Folks, these regulations are in place for a GOOD REASON: Public Health.  Do I have a problem with some aspects of the corporate dairy industry? You betcha: The use of Hormones, for example. But PASTEURIZATION is not one of my qualms. (And the "raw eggs" example is just stupid, because pretty much everyone COOKS their eggs before they eat them.) In any case, this is a perfect example of a regulation that a LIBERAL GROUP (crunchy vegan's, whole-food hippies) would be perfectly happy to strike down!  (But which this liberal would disagree with them on.) And that shows two things: (1) "Liberals" are an intellectually and philosophically diverse bunch, unlike the single-minded Conservatives. And (2) You can therefore hardly blame Liberals, in general, for this regulation no matter how you feel about it!  There's COMMON GROUND here between Libertarians and certain (somewhat extreme) Liberal Sub-Groups! (Although this is one time I'm thanking God that they haven't bothered to find it!)

Also? (*)

#7 In Lake Elmo, Minnesota farmers can be fined $1,000 and put in jail for 90 days for selling pumpkins or Christmas trees that are grown outside city limits.

(*). Just... (*). 

(That's a *star*, BTW, not an asshole! The asshole is they guy who wrote this drivel!)

#8 A U.S. District Court judge slapped a 5oo dollar fine on Massachusetts fisherman Robert J. Eldridge for untangling a giant whale from his nets and setting it free. So what was his crime? Well, according to the court, Eldridge was supposed to call state authorities and wait for them do it.

This the one that REALLY pissed me off.  $500 fine, just for being a good guy, huh? No good deed goes unpunished, huh?  Well, buried deep down in this more honest story about what happened is a little detail that the Right-wing blogger left out: Far from freeing the netted whale properly, he found that he was unable to do this and merely cut his lines, letting the whale swim away still tangled in the nets!  Hmmm... It seems to me that if the guy couldn't do the job PROPERLY, maybe, just maybe, he should have, oh... I don't know... called state authorities and waited for them do it!  Also not mentioned? The fact that the fine was reduced from $100,000 (holy crap!) down to $500. So, again, far from this being a case of the State Bureaucracy running amok, it is actually an example of the use of discretion to make sure the laws don't get applied inappropriately. Can we have a debate about the necessity of these laws? Sure we can.  Can we have a debate about the appropriateness of the penalties? Absolutely. But WHY can't we at least have an intellectually honest one?!

#9 In the state of Texas, it doesn't matter how much formal interior design education you have - only individuals with government licenses may refer to themselves as "interior designers" or use the term "interior design" to describe their work.

Another classic case of (*).

#10 Deeply hidden in the 2,409-page health reform bill passed by Congress was a new regulation that will require U.S. businesses to file millions more 1099s each year. In fact, it is estimated that the average small business will now have to file 200 additional 1099s every single year. Talk about a nightmare of red tape! But don't try to avoid this rule - it is being reported that the IRS has hired approximately 2,000 new auditors to audit as many of these 1099s as possible.

Part of me would love to say, "See? The stimulus worked! Thousands of new jobs!"  But, I'm afraid that some asshat from another other blog might come by and read what I have to say, and I'd hate for them to use that [throw-away joke] as an example of "how Liberal's think." (But watch someone do it anyway!) And another part of me would be perfectly have to concede this one single point and agree that it's bullshit.  And yet another part of me wants to say "boo-frickin-hoo..." A little bit of paperwork, "oh my farquing guard!" 

But we're right back to classic intellectual dishonestly, writ large.  A few points, from that very same story they linked, that were left out? (1) This this really all started in provisions under the 2008 GEORGE BUSH budget. (That damned liberal!)  and (2) There's a floor that leaves out the smaller retailers.  As usual, this is another classic case of them exaggerating the effects of something that BUSH did, and then blaming it on "liberals."  And fine... maybe Obama contributed to it further. Fine. But again: Why can't we just be honest and tell the whole story if we're going to debate it?! WHY DO THEY HAVE TO LIE?!

#11 The city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin makes it incredibly difficult to go out of business. In order to close down a business. Milwaukee requires you to purchase an expensive license, you must submit a huge pile of paperwork to the city regarding the inventory you wish to sell off, and you must pay a fee based on the length of your "going out of business sale" plus a two dollar charge for every $1,000 worth of inventory that you are attempting to sell off.

Finally a point I might concede.  This one does seem a bit stupid.  Unfortunately I wasn't able to find much else on it, so I guess I'll just have to leave it at that. I am left wondering, however, how this can possible be enforced.  My lease is up, I close my doors, I walk away.  If that's really a crime? The yeah, I'll give them this one.  But hitting 1 for 11 (.091) won't keep you a roster spot in any league that I'm aware of! (And tongue-in-cheek I might quip that this might keep some business from going under!) (Sorry, couldn't resist.)

#12 The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is projecting that the food service industry will have to spend an additional 14 million hours every single year just to comply with new federal regulations that mandate that all vending machine operators and chain restaurants must label all products that they sell with a calorie count in a location visible to the consumer.

First, the joking: LOOK! The Stimulus is working!  All that overtime!  (And in all seriousness? This WOULD have that effect. And that's not necessarily a bad thing!)

Second, all kidding aside? Why do these people have a problem with their customer's being able to make an informed decision?!  I mean... back in the disease-infested milk example, they though people could make informed decision on their own.  So fine: I can choose to eat crap out of a vending machine.  Or... maybe I won't...  If I know how many empty calories are in that shit!  This isn't about the overtime, or the regulations. This is about business doing less volume if people start making MORE INFORMED CHOICES. That is why this is a problem for the Right. 

Sorry folks, between the overtime and cost avoidance by getting the obesity problem under control, I'm filing this under the "DAMNED GOOD IDEA" category.

And thirdly: Every single year? I seriously doubt that.  The calorie count of the Snickers Bar has been a universal constant since 1947. (Yeah, I just made that up.)  I don't think they'll ever offer that much variety.

He goes on to say that "no matter what changes are made a lot of companies will still not want to set up shop in the United States until something is done about all of these ridiculous regulations."  Umm... My company does business in Europe, Japan, the Gulf Coast Countries (GCC) and China. And I can assure you that ALL of them have just as many regulations as we do and then some.  (Socialist Europe? Communist China?) India's 10 times as bad as we!  The only places with LESS regulations?  Africa and South & Central America.  IOW: 3rd world shit-holes where the people largely get screwed over by the utter LACK of regulations! And yeah, I'm generalizing, and there are lots of very nice places in those regions as well.  But the overall standard of living is MUCH LOWER than it is in the U.S., Europe, Japan and even China and India.  And - as I work in the field of automotive safety - I can tell you, as a matter of absolute, verifiable fact - that the cars sold in those markets are a LOT LESS safe that they are in the U.S. or Canada.  They sell shit in Mexico that would fail FMVSS regulations big time. I know of cars there that are guaranteed to severely injure or kill you in the case of a crash.That's something else these John Stossel types will never tell you!

OK... so what's the deal with all the (*)'s?

Well... Licensing and fees and professional requirements and regulations are something that B-Schools call, "Barriers to entry."  (MBA, University of Michigan, 2006, with Honors - if you're wondering.)

Now... are these Liberal? Well... the Right wants to tell you they are because most of them are revenue streams for Cities and States.  Plus, supposedly, no Liberal ever saw a piece of Red Tape (or a tax) that they didn't like.  And I suppose... from a certain point of view... in some instances, there might be some validity to that. (You know, in the binary world of the Right Wing Conservative.)

But ask yourself this: Why does a Liberal care about how many interior decorators there are in Texas? Why does a Liberal care about how many tour guides operate in Washington D.C.? Why does a Liberal care about how many sources there are for hand-made caskets?

Really? WE DON'T. 

Liberals don't have a shit to give about where the Pumpkins and Christmas Trees in Lake Elmo, Minnesota come from.

Seriously.

These are nothing more than BARRIERS TO ENTRY.  These are things that BIG BUSINESS sets up to deter potential new competitors from entering the market!  $300 (or whatever the licensing fee is) is nothing to an established firm.  But if it prevents a new firm from starting up? THAT could be worth big money in terms of decreased completion.  (Less advertising needed, higher prices can be charged, etc...)

But... But... Isn't that PROTECTIONISM? And isn't protectionism a LIBERAL thing?

Yes, I suppose it could be called protectionism.  But if you call it that, then you've already disproven that protectionism is something that's engaged in only by Liberals!  And keeping smaller competitors out of a given market is night-and-day next to to trying to keep jobs from going to China. NAFTA? Not Liberal. (Global) Free Trade? Not Liberal!  These are anti-protectionism measures that screw over American Workers and they were written by Republicans, backed by Big Business!  Clinton may have signed them into law, but who ever accused Bill Clinton of being a Liberal?! (Other than the same idiots who call Obama one?!)

And remember the Right's own narrative: Liberals hate Big Corporations, right? We hate Big Business!

Then... Why is it our fault when Big Business pushes for licensing fees and regulations that keep smaller competitors out of the market?

Answer? IT ISN'T!

And if these fools would get their heads out of their asses for just two seconds and turn of Fox news, they might realize that there are plenty of Liberals who would be more than happy to GET RID of a lot of these regulations!  (Save for those that protect consumers, but that still leaves a TON of common ground!)  See.. By blaming LIBERALS, more and more Conservatives get elected.  And (remember our narrative) those are the pro-Big Business types. And contrary to what this Right-Wing blogger is telling you, these "absurd regulations" are mostly things that deter competition for Big Business.

Now is that bullshit? Yes, it certainly IS.

But is it LIBERAL? Um... NO FUCKING WAY!!!

We want to STOP big business's influence on the Government!

No one wants to disentangle Corporatism and Corporate Interests from Government more than LIBERALS do!  And you don't hear the big companies complaining about these things! It's always the LITTLE GUY!  Well, you know how we always say that 98% of America is voting against their economic interests? Well, this is a perfect example of that! Big Business backs Republicans. Republicans talk a good game, but do NOTHING to eliminate the regulations, and the Little Guy gets screwed because he's so convinced that LIBERALS are behind all this!  SINCE WHEN DID LIBERALS START RULING THE WORLD?! (Especially the parts of it called "LOUISIANA" and "TEXAS!") Blaming Liberals is just propaganda by those same Big Businesses trying to prevent the very people they're screwing over from ever electing the right people to fix the mess!  As long as the little guy keeps thinking the Democrats are against him, he'll keep voting for the Party who's REALLY against him!

Some of the regulations actually make sense, and were merely misrepresented, as I pointed out.  But the rest of them are barriers to entry, nothing more.  They're things that mostly benefit Big Business. Again: To a huge company the cost is minuscule.  But keeping out smaller, nimbler, cheaper competitors? THAT'S key to their very survival! Yet they try to blame these anti-competitions measures on the OPPOSITION of the very Party that Big Business generally backs! And to the extent that Democrats do this too? Shoot... That's just Democrats acting like Republicans! And we hate them just as much!

And don't let some Right Wing Liar (or Fool) try to tell you otherwise!

I Don't Believe in Miracles

Nobel Laureate and one of a very few people who “get it” (or tell the truth) anymore, Paul Krugman, wrote an excellent piece the other day in the NYT debunking the myth of the “Texas Miracle” that has supposedly happened under Governor Rick / General Robert E. Perry. It’s great piece and although it doesn’t go far enough (to use one of his own famous critiques) I recommend that everyone read it, just I as Recommend reading pretty much ANYTHNG this man writes. (Barry? Are you listening?)

And last night the Gym some ass-hat two machines down from me not only had Fox News On, but had it turned UP. (Usually the TV's are muted and just show subtitles.) So I got to listen to a marvelously fact-free response from the four members of the Fox Panel who HAVE NOT won Nobel Prizes in Economics. Devoid of rational response, or evidence to support their so called “miracle,” they report to calling [Krugman's analysis] the “Alien Invasion” theory suggesting either that Krugman credits illegal immigration ALONE for ALL of Texas’ growth, or that he was suggesting that little green men, perhaps from Mars, were somehow to thank. And of course, the average Fox viewer is more likely to hear that explanation and think, “Wow, that Krugman sure is a nut!” rather than, “Wow, these Fox peoples sure are stupid!” Because remember:

A LIBERAL WILL TELL YOU WHY YOUR ARGUMENT IS WRONG.


A CONSERVATIVE WILL TELL YOU WHY YOUR ARGUMENT IS LIBERAL.

(As an aside, between how pissed off I was getting listening to Fox and the Trainer playing the Greatest Hits of the Rocky movies with one his clients, I did have a really good workout!)

(Another aside - I couldn't find a transcript of the Fox segment, but while looking for one, I found almost the next best thing: This Idiot's Blog.  Check it out, although preferably not right after you've eaten! We got a future Hall of Shamer here, for sure. I'm curious to see if he has the balls to let my comments post(he did! good on him!), and the chops to respond to them. Or come here! If he does, who knows? It might get interesting.)

Well, anyway, I’m all for debunking “Miracles” as anyone who understands my Humanist and Skeptical Philosophy already knows. And I heard an EXCELLENT story on NPR this morning that started where Krugman left off and ran with it, showing even more reasons why the “Texas Miracle” is unlikely to apply to the broader economy. You can find a transcript and audio HERE, but here are some of the highlights:

1) Population Growth: Texas has had an influx of immigrants, both legal and illegal, yes, but also many people moving there from other States. And, as Mister Krugman pointed out, it’s not like EVERY STATE’S population can grow based on people moving there from OTHER STATES. So, either it IS (or will have to be) an actual “Alien Invasion,” as Fox sarcastically put it, or it won’t work. Nice work there, Fox.

2) Public Sector growth has been every bit as robust as Private Sector growth. Liberals would be neither surprised nor bothered by this, but remember: He’s promising small Government. Apparently what’s been good for Texas will NOT in fact be good for the rest of the Country – at least according to him and his Tea-Backers.

3) The overwhelming majority of the private sector jobs have paid minimum-wage or less. Governor Perry, please, despite what your Tea-Backer and Supply-Side buddies will tell you, we don’t just want jobs. We want GOOD PAYING JOBS. Filling the economy with part-time, minimum wage jobs (or worse) is NOT what we’re looking for!

4) Despite all that Public Sector Growth – that the Right isn’t even prescribing? Texas ranks 49th in per pupil public school spending, and 50th – tied with Mississ-fucking-ssippi (or as my father-in-law calls it: The states that keep West Virginia from being LAST in anything) in the percentage of adults that go without health insurance.

5) Texas residence still go without many of the services that residents of every other state enjoy. Remember folks, because this is his recipe for success: Sub-Minimum Wage Jobs, and no Public Services. THAT’s the Texas “Miracle.”

6) Perry's “Enterprise Fund,” which gives taxpayer money to companies to come to, or expand in, Texas. *ugh* OK, putting aside that this is little more than Rick Perry giving tax-payer money to the company’s that back his campaign (alone enough to warrant his removal from office) this might sound a bit familiar. In one of the rare instance in which I agree with the tea-baggers, another word for this is… duh-dah-daaaaaah: STIMULUS. (You know: That thing they want to GET RID OF so we can have MORE JOBS?) (Idiots.) And in one of those rare instances that I agree with Rick Perry, depending on how this is administered this can be a good thing. Of course, I’d prefer public works projects to strait corporate giveaways, but, in a rare instance where Paul Krugman and Rick Perry would agree, the economic effect is largely the same: IT CREATES JOBS. But, of course, this will likely be off the table when it comes to the rest of the country.  The Tea Party Republican Retards have no intention of spending any money to fix anything. (At least, not while Obama's in office.)

And finally, the one that PISSES ME OFF THE MOST…

7) What kind of companies thrive in Texas? What are the biggest employers there, the ones driving most of that jobs growth? Well… Enron, ExxonMobil, Halliburton, Marathon Oil, Shell Oil, Texaco… You see the pattern yet? Mostly Oil Companies and other Energy Companies. And those guys have been doing great while the rest of the country’s economy remains in the shitter. Why? BOWEL-BASHINGLY HIGH GAS PRICES, THAT’S HOW!!!! These companies have made it their business model to siphon off as much of the rest of country's growth as possible! Well… OK… I’ll say potential growth, because with these greedy little fuckwads operating the way they do, they rest of the country will basically NEVER GROW AGAIN. Does that sound alarmist? Think about it. Since ~2005 or thereabouts (I've noticed it pretty clearly since the days after Hurricane Katrina) the pattern has gone in lockstep perfection:

1: Gas prices go up =>the economy slows.

2: Slow economy => no jobs => less demand => gas prices drop.

3: Low gas prices mean people have more money, as they are no longer being strangled by the oil companies. (Thank you, Mister Keyenes!)

4: More money => more demand => economy starts to improve.

5: Economy improves, demand goes up => GAS PRICES GO UP.

6: GOTO 1

And it doesn’t make a difference whether the oil is foreign or not. (Shell is a Dutch company. They still employ a lot of Texan-Americans.) The problem is that oil and gas (energy) prices will ALWAYS act as drag on the economy. They will ALWAYS be a negatively correlated indicator. Until we break their stranglehold we will not be able to escape this pattern. It’s like a tax on the rest of the economy, but one who’s rate actually goes up to the point that it kills growth as soon as there IS any. And nowhere has this kick-in-the-balls been more evident than in my home state of Michigan. High gas prices killed the SUV. That’s great for the environment, don’t get me wrong. It needed to happen, and it was inevitable that big-Auto would need to transition off of them. But the gas prices have gone back down since then! They slowed the economy and were really what kicked off the mortgage crisis. (Not the kindling, of course, just the spark.) And the two brought the Big Three automakers to the brink of bankruptcy. And we haven’t had a robust recovery – because the Republicans and big oil won’t LTE US!

Nice going.

Oh yeah… and as for the whole Low-Tax, low Regulation business environment?

8) Texas job growth has not kept pace with its population growth: They have higher unemployment that the high-tax, highly regulated, robust public service providing states of New York and Massachusetts. (You remember Massachusetts, right? The state with near-universal health care coverage, compared to Texas’ rank of dead last?)

So THAT’S his recipe folks:

• Shitty, Low paying jobs

• No public services

• Little to no health insurance

• Underfunded schools

• High gas prices

You know what? If THAT shit works? I just might start believing in “miracles!”

I’m furious!

Seriously: I’m furious!


As we’ve learned with the all of the hope that accompanied the election of Barack Obama and the massive betrayal and letdown that followed, nothing is worse that the disappointment ones feel immediately after allowing oneself a moment of misguided optimism. Here’s how my [political] week went…

On Monday, I hear an NPR story about the Debt Ceiling “Deal.” Craig Fahle had a pretty interesting take on the new debt commission. With the huge budget triggers looming over both Defense and Medicare if something else isn’t done, neither party is going to want THOSE negotiations to deadlock. And since (1) It’s a 6-Democrat, 6-Republican Committee and (2) Congress will not be able to amend, or filibuster, their proposal – merely give it and up or down vote – you have taken away two of the key advantages the Republicans have had lately: Their ability to organize a filibuster in the Senate and their Majority in the House. And while I’m still furious that the Republicans pulled this shit (and Obama and the Democrats LET THEM, and LET THEM GET AWAY WITH IT) I had to admit: It’s was an interesting point. Of course, it would depend greatly on who was APPOINTED to the panel, but still: If there was one way to get the Right to budge on taxes? This seemed to be it.

It wasn’t much, but given what unmitigated failure as a Progressive Obama has proven to be so far, I’ll take what I can get.

Then on Wednesday, I hear NPR talking about the 2012 election and I hear something that, by itself, could have ruined my whole week/month/administration term:

“In doing what he has, President Obama has positioned himself in the CENTER of American Politics.”

OK first of all…

THE CENTER HAS BEEN GETTING PULLED TO THE RIGTH FOR THRITY YEARS NOW AND AMERICA HAS SUFFERED AND WITHERED AND DWINDELD AS A DIRECT RESULT OF IT!!! WE ELECETD A QUOTE-UNOTE “LIBERAL” SPECIFICALLY TO STOP THAT!!!  TO CHANGE IT!!! REMEBER?! Not to give the Right everything they want so that he can run as a CENTRIST!!!

Second of all…

As Harry Truman said: Given a choice between a Republican and a Democrat who acts like a Republican, they’ll pick the Republican every time. And we now live in a world where Barry Fucking Goldwater would be called a RINO! (That’s how you say “centrist” in conserva-speak.) There is no virtue in being a “centrist” when the “right” is represented by the Sociopathic, Religious Funny-Mentalist, Absolute Money-Grubbing Corporate WHORES that the Modern American Right is. When the National Discourse is between Paul Krugman and Rush Limbaugh, between Robert Reich and Glenn Beck, between Robert Kuttner and Sean Hannity, between John Stewart and Bill O’Reilly, between Eric Boehlert and Ann Coulter, no remotely sane, minimally educated person can conclude that there is merely a difference of opinion going on here! Or that both sides represent position of remotely equal merit, validity and dignity! Watching the political discourse for the last 20 years in this country is like watching physicists debate quantum string theory with rodeo clowns!

Being a Centrist? Being able to broker a compromise? Is only a valid, admirable position when BOTH SIDES' positions has some merit! ANY merit! When the other side represents something reprehensible that, on a purely objective level, devoid of any emotion or hyperbole, can be described as evil? Then it is not to your credit to do anything but put a boot to their necks and choke the last bit of life out of them!

In the previous comments section, JLarue referred to Obama as an American Neville Chamberlain. I like that. I think it’s very apt. BUt their IS a problem with it... Chamberlain catches a lot of shit that he doesn’t really deserve. Seriously. You have to remember: Adolph Hilter wasn’t really “Hilter” until after the war started. And he wasn’t really “HITLER” until after the War was over and the mass graves of 6 Million Jews started turning up. Hindsight is always 20/20 and Chamberlain can hardly be blamed for his failure to realize that the man he was talking to was a Psycopthatic Villain of previously unimaginable, historic, demonic and near-comic book proportions. I mean… Who really could have reasonably imagined that, before it actualy happened?

Obama does not have the luxury of that defesne. In the 1930’s, Hitler made a great effort to try and sell his position, and to NOT look like a madman. The Republicans (who, of course, are not Hitler!) have made no effort to hide their profoundly un-American agenda; Their agenda of Bigorty, of Religious Fundamentalism, of Xenophobia, and of orchestrated Economic Collapse so that they can take power and set about systematically dismantling the Government’s ability to protect any of our rights against the Corporations who would usurp them. And if you don’t believe me, if you think I’m just blowing smoke, Mitch McConnell himself said that his party’s TOP PRIORITY was making Barack Obama a one-term president! With all the problems we faced, DEFEATING OBAMA –not jobs, not the deficit, not the economy, not the environment, not health care, not terrorism, not immigration, not national security, not anything else - was his STATED “top priority.”

And THESE are the UTTER BASTARDS this GOD-DAMNED FOOL we elected is NEGOTIONG WITH! Shit, “NEGOTIATING?!” That’s WAY too generous. More like CAVING, CAPITULATING and PANDERING TO!

Now, I’m not saying that Republicans are Nazi’s. That’s just moronic. And only an idiot would conclude that this is the point I'm trying to make. My point is just that if Adolph Hilter had looked Neville Chamberlain in the eye and said “My top priority is the domination of the whole of Europe and eventually the World,” there’s no way Chamberlain would have compromised or negotiated with him. If Hitler had been as transparent about his intentions with Chamblerain as the Republicans have been with Obama, there’s simply no way that Chamberlain would have given him the time of day.

So Obama is worse than Chamberlain.

Obama? Is HENRY CLAY.

History is pretty kind to Clay, actually. But Henry Clay is my [Glenn Beck’s Woodrow Wilson.] Because Clay was known as the great compromiser. That's his legacy: His great, historically important skill was his ability to broker a compromise. And his compromises are credited with avoiding Civil War for decades. And seeing as how the Civil War was the bloodiest in our history, any efforts to avoid it should seem worthwhile, no? Well, back in high school, I certainly thought so. I actually ADMIRED Clay for this skill! But, just as Neville Chamberlain’s detractors will tell you, NO, his ability to broker a compromise in this case were NOT to his great credit. Because who was Clay compromising with? What great cause was being maintained while he helped us avoid what was basically an inevitable conflict?

SLAVERY.

Slavery! I don’t know whether Clay was more pro-Slavery or Anti-War, but he was compromising with the Slave-States of the South! The very States that would eventually secede and start the Civil Way ANYWAY! And it’s not like MAINTING THE INSTITUTION OF SLAVERY was some kind of secret agenda for Southern States! It was their ENTIRE AGENDA! Very little else separated North from South (or Republican from Democrat) in those days! Neither really opposed to genocide of the Native Americas. Neither really differed in any great way on foreign policy. Neither the Progressive Republicans, nor the Conservative Democrats (what a world, huh?) had enough party unity on tariffs or national banking or civil service to draw any other great distinctions. I’m not saying they didn’t differ, only that any differences on any other issues were orders of magnitude less in importance, and priority than SLAVERY.

The Conservative (and Democratic) South saw Slavery as a necessity to their economic and social survival.

The Progressive (and Republican) North saw slavery as EVIL. (And fine, yes, I realize that it was far from ALL of the North, but work with me here!)

And, as usual, The Conservatives were wrong in their judgment and the Progressives were right. (You can look at any chapter in History and see this BTW. After all – Chamberlain himself was a Conservative! They Right always seems to forget that fact!) And thus of Henry Clay’s great powers of compromise were put to work to MAINTAINING an EVIL INSTITUTION just to avoid an INEVITABLE UNPLEASANTRY.

Sound familiar?

So, IMHO, Obama is HENRY CLAY.

Finally, back to the original point of there being no merit, no credit to Obama for “positioning himself in the center,” does ANYONE (other than Obama) really think that story will be told? Does anyone (other than Obama) think that any part of the Conservative Electorate (let alone the Conservative media) is going to stop thinking about him as anything but a Marxist, Socialist, Communist, Fascist (WTF?!), Secret Islamist, Outsider who’s here to destroy everything that makes their country great? (And I say “their country” because they one they perceive in there puny little minds and “our country” – the one we all share, in this place called REALITY – are two different things.) Puh-lease. Nothing he’s done has forced any part of Fox or Talk Radio or the Right Wing Fringe or Conservative Blogs to even change their LIES! They’re STILL harping about “Government takeovers of health care,” (never happened, never even on the table,) “taxes going up,” (never happened, never even on the table, the OPPOSITE in fact) “Socialist-this” and “Communist-that” and “birth certificates” and “secret Muslim,” etc… It seems completely lost on Obama, and yes, I guess on some of the staff at NPR as well, that what Obama has done IN REALITY isn’t important because his relentless opposition DOESN’T LIVE THERE! He has stabbed PROGRESSIVES in the back in an effort to court people who will only, ever, STAB HIM IN THE BACK!!!

Which brings me to Thursday and Friday:

And NPR’s and the Detroit Free Press’s new headlines:

WORST DAY ON WALL STREEY SINCE 2008!


ALL 2011 MARKET GAINS WIPED OUT!

ARE WE HEADING FOR A SECOND RECESSION?

And the story on MSN managed to capture the entire couse of this in one simple line:

“The market rout was prompted in part by concerns that the Federal Reserve won't try to boost the economy again and the prospects of little -- if any -- help on the way from the federal government.”

Well done, Republicans. You finally managed to sink the economy. Again. You finally managed to bring about the orcastrated financial ruin of this country, just to make Barack Obama a one-term president. Because this isn’t about austerity folks, and this isn’t about deficits. I don’t want to sidetrack this post again, but I have written several pieces already showing just how absurd the idea that Republican give a tadpole’s turd about fiscal Responsibility.

No. There’s a reason that they never talk about Austerity when there’s a Republican in the White House. Because Austerity at a Federal level can only, possibly, bring about disaster. They know this. There is no historical precedent that shows otherwise. Nor is there any historical precedent for blaming anyone but the PRESIDENT for a bad economy. Indeed, even as NPR and the Free Press and MSN point out the POLICIES that contributed to this, not one of them points out the it is the REPUBLICANS who are championing these or that they are, in fact, CONSERVATIVE policies by their very nature and philosophy. Those two words are conspicuously absent from there stories! Behold: Your LIBERAL MEDIA!

And when he is inevitably blamed for what now looks like an inevitable recession, does anyone here believe, for even a minute that it will noted that the polices he followed were ones of fiscal austerity? Were, in fact, grounded in CONSERVTIASM?! Yeah, right. No, he’ll be blamed and the story that will be told will be one that blames his failure on all the “liberal policies” that he supposedly championed. Solely by the virtue of his being a Democrat, LIBERALISM will be blamed for the economic failure brought about by REPUBLICAN OBSTRUCTION and CONSERVATIVE FISCAL AUSTERITY.

Well done, Obama. You’ve now fucked over this country for generations to come. It would have been easier to undo the damage done by Republicans if McCain had won. If we’re lucky, President Bachman will over-reach early in her term and spend for years being stymied by a Democratic Congress lead by the NEXT President, who might FINALLY get us back on the path of reason again.

So, for letting them do this – for HELPING them do it – congratulations Barack Obama: In addition to Neville Chamberlain and Henry Clay you now have a third epithet:

HERBET HOOVER

I hope you’re happy, you fat, pussy, toad!

(see my next post, for an explanation of that last epithet.)

Jim Jubak's recipe for recovery

I don’t consider myself to be a huge fan of Jim Jubak. It’s not that I think he’s conservatively or liberally biased, it’s just that he’s always struck me as a bit of an alarmist. When I read him, it always seems like the sky is falling. He’s not Glenn Beck crazy, mind you. His analysis is usually pretty sound. It’s just that his presentation always seems to have the tone of “OH MY GOD!” At least to me anyway.
But he wrote a fantastic piece yesterday about how we should fix the US economy, and I think it’s well worth a read. He has a lot to say about our place in the world, our need to get over our xenophobia and ‘exceptional’ delusions of grandeur. In short, he prescribes a good dose of reality that I don’t think ANY politician out there, of ANY party is prepared to deal with. So please check it out, because he really makes some critically important points.