Why Didn't You Yell At Me

Today we were late for church. I lost track of time, reading the morning news which dealt endlessly with the riot in Washington D.C. My wife also lost track of time while applying her makeup. When she realized we were running late, she said to me, “We are late, why didn’t you yell at me?”

Why didn’t I yell indeed? In the first place, when I do yell at her (rarely) I get, “Don’t yell at me”, and it isn’t a mild request! To be serious, yelling is most clearly not a valid communication tool in most cases.

Oh sure, if someone absent mindedly walks into the path of oncoming traffic, a yell would be appropriate. But, too often yelling is used to make an emphatic point, or gain attention, or bully. Yelling politically is almost always inappropriate and does not lead to good decision making.

That has been the mode of communication for the past few weeks in Washington by conservatives. Tea Party Patriots (oxymoron), have been screaming about the debt “crisis”, warning of fiscal disaster, federal socialism, communism, you name it.

For sure the biggest yell of the “Patriots” is to weaken and shrink the federal government, because it spends too much and regulates too much and just does everything too much.

So they yell, they rant, they scream, and they sure don’t compromise.

The louder they yell, the further they get from reality, and from the ONLY remedy that has ever helped the United States get out of an economic downturn.

When people are thrown out of work, lose their homes, and go bankrupt they stop spending money. That lack of spending, “consumer demand depression ” decreases or “depresses” economic activity. A chain reaction takes place; more people lose their jobs, and if it goes on long enough and deep enough, a depression ensues.

Government spending contrary to the tea party yelling is NOT a huge part of America’s economy. At present all government spending makes up not more than 20% of GDP, which is NOT all economic activity.

Regardless, government stimulus can work to turn the tide of recessions, by encouraging marginal job creation and growth, thus partially encouraging consumer demand.

Government stimulus, as we have just recently witnessed with President Obama’s stimulus package, must be strategically planned and applied to have much effect, because the government can only affect the economy just so much. Contrary to the conservative rant the stimulus did work to lessen the impact of the recession, and in the opinion of most economists the recession is in fact over. Unfortunatley jobs creation and hiring is ALWAYS the last development of recessions ending. This lag is what is feeding tea party yelling; ironically because not one Tea Party Policy (if they have any) has a valid job creation component in it. The Republican promise of “jobs, jobs, jobs” that helped them win the House of Representatives in 2010, has not been kept in the least. All Republicans have been concerned about is the debt and balancing the budget, which in effect costs people their jobs.

In short, in 2010 Republicans simply lied about job creation.

I hear the yelling beginning right now.

The government must do something (anything), as in the Great Depression, to lessen human suffering, and in a sense tide people over through hard times. The private enterprise system in American is so much larger than the federal and state governments, this is about all the government can hope for even with the most effective public programs; getting more citizens through the hard times in one piece. In the 30s that is what the New Deal did, kept people from starving to death, tided the country over until the war changed everything. The New Deal did lessen suffering markedly, saved the capitalist system, and set the stage for an unprecedented economic growth after World War II.

The Tea Party’s demands for huge government spending cuts will for sure stall the economic recovery, and also mean more suffering for millions of Americans. Recent studies show that these will be minorities and the young, particularly children.

In a sense, the yelling is for more suffering, unfairly applied to those who can protect themselves the least.

The rich will not feel anything, because all of the conservatives’ proposals refuse to increase taxes or take away tax loopholes. Recent studies also show the top 1% of the America’s elite are making huge profits and increasing their wealth at record levels, while the rest of the nation gets poorer.

The Bush tax cuts and wars, which caused well over 70% of the present deficit, continue to basically starve the federal government, since trillions are still being paid to support the “war on terror” overseas (also don’t forget “Homeland Security” spending that amounts to billions of dollars with no revenue to offset the spending).

Bush was re-elected with a conservative strategy that is used by weak candidates; cut taxes and increase spending and nobody can beat you. Of course, this resulted in a fiscal nightmare for the country that is playing out today.

A “cuts only approach” is virtually being screamed at the American Public everyday, and even Democrats are talking about only cuts to deal with the deficit

This is crazy, since tax cuts and unpaid for wars are the vast majority of the cause of the debt we currently have. In fact, studies show that if the Bush tax cuts had been stopped last year when they should have, the deficit would be falling today.

Reducing the deficit will help the economy, no doubt about it. But revenue must be increased and cuts must be made for any valid debt reduction to take place. The cuts only that is being screamed at us will only depress the economy more, resulting in more recession, more debt, and ultimately the scorn of higher interest rates.

Regardless, the Tea Party Patriots continue to yell, scream, threaten and basically extort the United States with the threat of default to get their way. And their yelling “way” will lead the country further into economic collapse.

Don’t yell at me!

Do the Right Thing

Do the Right Thing

It is utterly amazing to watch the "debate" that is going on about raising the debt ceiling in what passes for the U.S. Congress.

Congress has raised the debt ceiling many times in the past. It is a sad, but true fact, that through most administrations and Congresses, there has not been the political or moral will to actually match expenditures with revenues.

Republicans, and their wing nut Tea Partiers, would have us believe this is ALL a spending problem. They ignore that the deficit is a product of over 50 years of government borrowing, though wars, other recessions, and yes, even "supply side" economics.

The truth is hard to determine, since both parties have done their share of borrowing. Democrats have started social programs but have not raised taxes nearly enough to pay for them. Republicans have cut taxes but have not cut programs near enough to pay for them.

In short, both sides are guilty of deception. However, their is a balance point of the deception. I would suggest about 2/3 deception Cons, about 1/3 deception progressives.

The engine that runs this deception is simple: Congress will not level with the American People about how much all this costs.

Americans are NOT taxed enough to pay for all the programs, wars, foreign aid, you name it, that we are constantly trying to accomplish. Republicans cut the taxes, Democrats fight for essential programs, but hold to the same fiction; ie., that cutting revenue is somehow neutral when you are trying to balance a budget.

It is the revenue almost all the time! You can go back to the Korean War, then Vietnam, then Iran/Contra, then Afghanistan, then Iraq, then Homeland Security; etc. These wars all cost money the government would not tax to fund. So, it borrowed. And it borrowed, again and again.

Progressives get angry, as President Obama did when he was a junior Senator, about spending on defense (war) by "charging it". Conservatives get incensed about almost everything; but particularly about a "crushing tax burden" while sponsoring the defense spending (and most other spending) that so upset the progressives.

And now, we are getting a "mia culpa", with both sides harping on spending cuts in the middle of a jobless recession. Of course, cutting spending and cutting taxes in such an environment is utterly ridiculous; we tried it in 1936-37 with disastrous results. In fact, many historians believe that by cutting spending then, and plunging the nation BACK into a depression, the nation turned inward, enabling Hitler to re-arm, and indirectly at least, enabling the aggression that led the world into war.

In short, there was NOTHING good about cutting spending and cutting taxes then, there is nothing good about it now.

Again, there is ABSOLUTELY NO EMPIRICAL HISTORICAL EVIDENCE THAT TAX CUTS STIMULATE ECONOMIC GROWTH IN ANYTHING BUT THE VERY SHORT TERM. In fact, the opposite may be the case.

By taxing with marginal tax rates (the rich don't get all their wealth confiscated by a long shot), the federal government can partially re-distribute the total wealth of the economy to the middle class, and re-employ millions. That is what was done in the thirties. And by the way, no rich people had their homes taken. In fact, many got richer because the economy picked up. The rich NEVER lose in America!

Yes, the revenue would be spent on government make work, called public works by some. But it does work to revitalize the economy in extreme times of recession (like we have now). It would only be a short term fix, not a long term one, to save what little respect the middle class has.

Cutting spending and continuing unfair and currency centralizing tax cuts, will NOT fix anything. In fact, it is making it worse.

So then, why the dance in Washington? Why won't they realize that they are playing with fire?

Because the myths have outgrown reality. Republicans especially are trapped by their rhetoric, few of them really believe the tax cutting mantra. But they don't have any other answers, so that is all then chant: cut taxes, cut spending! Democrats, who have been burned several times by being painted as the "tax and spend" party, ALSO cut taxes but won't touch entitlements. And this is for good reason. The "new reality" is that once taxes are cut they never can be put back to their former levels. Cons scream this is a "tax increase" by the tax and spend liberals.

So, a tax cut (like the Bush tax cuts) that were supposedly to stimulate in the short term economic growth, are slavishly continued even though they never worked. Do the wrong thing, then repeat it over and over, and expect a different result; Einstein called that "madness".

Look at recent history. President Obama foolishly went along with an extension of the Bush tax cuts, even taking a payroll tax holiday (directly reducing Social Security funds), with the goal of "stimulating the economy". Last month unemployment went UP, and it looks like we are close to a "double dip" recession. This very well could end President Obama's presidency. He got suckered into following the con, that tax cuts are sacred.

Here is how we get out of this mess. Read history! Raise marginal tax rates over a three year period to where they were in 1998. Shut down our efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan. End the middle class tax cuts over a three year period. Phase it out. Reform Medicare, along the new Health Care lines but with more savings, aimed at a health care industry that is quite frankly ripping all of us off. Do not lay off anyone in federal employment for at least a year, in other words stop the job cuts. Establish a commission that has authority to investigate all major federal expenditures for waste and fraud. If it is found, charge the guilty and save the money.

The additional revenue that is derived spend 70% of it on job creation, yes make work, on the nation's infrastructure and energy conservation. Suspend all union contracts that have to do with public spending of any kind, and freeze wages and benefits for everyone for at least two years; that means C.E.Os!

You see, the options are endless. The goal is to increase revenue from the unfair distribution of wealth in the country, reform entitlements so they save money (which will take money away from the Health Insurance Industry and Medical Industry that have shown double digit inflation rates for years).

But all the changes need to be phased in and monitored. If they have unintended consequences then change them.

Oh, and finally, ban all lobbyists of any kind from Washington and the surrounding countryside by at least 50 miles. If a public official is caught talking to any lobbyist, they should be impeached.

Will we do this? Maybe, as we sink further into a depression the People will get fed up with it...and start to do the right thing. Blindly following the Tea Party is the WRONG THING!

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The Insanity

The insanity...the insanity...

On the Today show (today), we were treated to a hilarious weather routine reporting the endless drought that is affecting at least half of the nation. The weatherman joked, showed the obligatory video of children playing in the sprinklers, and talked about "another hot one".

One was reminded of hot summers with the ice cream man right around the corner.

Except, this time the jockular weatherman did not mention that the nice ice cream man that is coming right around the corner is hell, the devil himself!

That's right, the joking must stop because hell itself is right around the corner.

Ask central Africa, with thousands now dying in an endless drought and famine. These weather phenomena are not funny anymore. Global warming kills!

The great plains are being battered by relentless heat and drought. This is killing crops at a record pace. Already food prices are forecast to go up, battering an already fragile U.S. economy.

Can it get worse? Of course it will. All you have to do is read about the dust bowl and you realize it can get much worse. Nobody was telling stupid jokes about the hot weather then, as millions of people exited the arid plains and moved to California.

And what does the New York Times do? Why, it sticks its head in the sand, and calls the drought a product of "El Nina..or El Nino?".

What!? They even say that climatologists have made that call. That is patent nonsense!

The truth is climatologists have determined drought like the United States is now enduring as part of the warming of the planet; i.e., global warming. These things have been predicted for years. Now that they are happening, the press seeks to lessen their impact, making jokes out of farmers losing their crops, and dust storms obliterating Phoenix.

Meanwhile, the House of Representatives blindly is rescinding the "light bulb bill" that was saving consumers thousands of dollars and reducing the carbon footprint. The prior sponsor of the bill, under attack by the oil and coal industry, is actually trying to repeal the bill he sponsored and passed, because Rush Limbaugh called it a "nanny state" bill. I suppose "the free market" is to be again given the responsibility to produce low polluting light bulb technology; since in the past it produced the same light bulb basically that Edison invented. That's right, left to free market innovation, we have been basically using a 150 year old technology.

The new light bulbs burn cheaper, last much longer , and use far less electricity. Of course, this means less profits for the producers of electricity, so they oppose the bill.

The insanity of all this is beyond belief. Efficiency and good business practice are to be rejected so big coal and oil can make even more profit!

Look, Climate Change is real. Liberals are NOT advocating that climate change is real to grow government. Why on earth would progressives be rooting for something that could kill us all?

It is (as they say) what it is. I wish it was not. But it is.

People are dying all over the planet, and climate warming is scheduled to get only worse. This is just the preamble to a story of human stupidity and ultimate misery that will be the biggest one since...since..Noah!

The New York Times, the Times for God's sake, are denying climate change! I would expect "Good Morning America" to do that, they are owned by the wacko, right wing Disney Corporation.

I have wondered why big corporations, blindly oppose those who are warning that the human race is looking at possible extinction unless we act now to reduce the conditions that are wrecking the planet. Why would they do that?

How much oil and gas can you sell to dead people? How many consumer toys can people buy when they are broke, and spending all their money for food; while frantically traveling around looking for water? How much profit can you make if modern society ends? Why would Arizona, Texas and Oklahoma be "hotbeds" of climate change deniers, when their states stand to lose millions of dollars and citizens as they slowly decline into arid, hot, uninhabitable wastelands? What is the matter with these people?

Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.

Meanwhile, Los Angeles is in gridlock because they had to repair a large section of freeway and it makes national news. People have no other way to get to work, so the entire L.A. basin shuts down because one section of freeway is closed.

L.A., a national leader in transportation, essentially eliminated its trains and buses long ago, going "all in" for automobiles, sprawl and freeways. This, of course, has pumped trillions of pounds of CO2 and other pollutants into the air over the past eighty years, which right now is making a desert out of Texas.

When I was at Stanford, on the freshman football team, we traveled to L.A. to play U.S.C. While warming up for the game, I suddenly became short of breath with a dull pain in my chest. I reported this to the trainer, having never experienced this before in Northern California. He laughed and said, "Welcome to L.A., you are just sucking in smog".

My chest hurt, I actually could see the air, a dull gray, filled with smoke and dust. I had never seen this before.

And remember, this was 1965, BEFORE anti-pollution laws reduced what was a lung disease filled hell hole called L.A. into a hell hole choked with cars; cleaner air, stupid energy policy.

Insane! Absolutely insane!

Poor poor Amazon...

Facts are Distrubing

Sometimes, when we are not really on alert, we hear lies so much we begin to believe in an almost alternative reality. Conservatives have, through the constant bombardment of Fox News and talk radio, saturated political discourse with a stream of lies and mis-representations for years. Carl Rove and others have made public relations' manipulation into an art form.

It is totally acceptable for the conservative mindset to lie, or to exaggerate for effect. "The ends justify the means", or "just win baby" are the guiding principles to attain the conservative agenda.

The excuse for this is that the "liberal media" is so distorting reality that lying is a "reasonable response" to compete politically.

The problem is that the conservative cause has so much money and power behind it from corporations that are seeking to steer Congress their way, that there is a definite imbalance of power and influence in the right's direction. Money buys influence and power...ordinary people do not have the money; Roger Murdock does!

MSNBC is a good example. Its ratings are dwarfed by Fox News, who has attained the status of a major network. Fox, in a recent dust up with Jon Stewart, attacked on the basis of "fair and balanced" that means lying and distorting to "offset the liberal bias of the media". Of course, there is no "liberal bias" of the media, because Roger Murdock owns most of the media. Corporations that own the "major networks" (ABC) are owned by conservative bastions of power, the Disney family for example. There is not "media bias"; in fact just the opposite.

Nowhere is this more obvious than in the field of tax rates and the truth. I read a recent article that included 10 charts showing the comparative tax rates, corporate taxes and general tax burden of the top "wealthy countries" in the world.

A mainstay of conservative philosophy is that the liberals over the years since the New Deal have added thousands of useless programs that have required a tax burden that is discouraging the growth of business and jobs. Conservatives have pounded away at that both locally and nationally.

In California for example, dozens of initiatives have passed (starting with Prop 13) that have cut taxes, fees and every source of state revenue. Any new revenue "tax", even simply re-instating a rate to prior levels, is attacked as a "job killer", because it is a given that the liberal majority in the state is "unfriendly to business".

This position ignores that California is fifteenth in the nation in tax burden, and lower by other measures. Since California is the most populous state you would think it would at least be in the top five. Californians are NOT overtaxed!

The newest dustup is Amazon. Amazon has become an internet giant in retail sales, driving many local business under. California recently passed a law requiring Amazon to collect state sales tax. Remember, Amazon does millions of dollars of business in Californa. The Kindle, its revolutionary e-reader was invented in California and has its headquarters in California. And, Amazon won't be paying the sales tax, the consumer pays the tax, it will be required to collect the tax; just like all other retailers in California.

This is too much for Amazon. There is somehow a requirement to keep their unfair advantage over California businesses because they claim they don't have a physical presence in California. The Supreme Court decided years ago that states could tax business that had a "bricks and mortar" presence in the state. Affiliates to Amazon were used by the state as proof that physical presences (along with the Kindle headquarters).

So what does Amazon do? It attacks its affiliates and pulls its support from all of them, basically pulling out of Californa. This by a company that has made millions off the silicon valley innovations and inventions that form the core of its very business.

And what do conservatives do? They applaud of course. Nevermind the thousands of California businesses that have been driven out by Amazon's predatory and monopolistic practices, aided by not having to collect sales tax. Nevermind the truth. Big business ALWAYS wins!

Oh, those charts on United States tax burden I forgot to finish; predictably every one of them showed the United States in the last five or six in tax burden, corporate tax burden, inheritance tax (the U.S. was last since last year the number was zero). By every measure and standard the United States is NOT over taxed; not even close.

So, as the conservatives rail against government spending and the deficit, remember that deficit is a direct product of one of the lowest tax revenue producing system in the world.

This by a nation that has the largest defense budget in the world and is currently involved in three military operations overseas that cost billions each year.

The deficit is NOT a spending problem, as Fox and its watercarriers love to say, it is a revenue problem.

California's deficit is NOT a spending problem. State spending has dropped the past five years and is at twenty year lows today.

But the lies continue. And today, the President announced he is willing to talk about Medicare and Social Security cuts. If those occur, remember good old Amazon, refusing to collect taxes that by any standard of fairness it should collect.

We continue to reward corporate bad behavior and unethical nonsense so they won't "get mad at us". And corporate America continues to sit on record profits, pay their CEOs small fortunes, and cut jobs, send work overseas, and dodge paying taxes at every turn.

And we let them do it!

Governor Perry of Texas announces that he believes that the federal government exists to serve the states. The states are supreme according to the good governor.

Meanwhile Perry constantly brags on Texas’ economic superiority to the rest of the Unites States; especially comparing Texas to California. Too much government regulation in California he cries; damn liberals raising taxes and stifling business he lectures; and so forth.

Meanwhile he completely ignores the deplorable living conditions for the majority of the citizens of Texas; an infant mortality rate that is one of the worst in the nation, poverty rate off the charts, pollution that is stifling, and one of the lowest wage scales in the United States.

But the biggest caveat to Perry’s nonsense lays in the wildfires and the drought that continue to plague (good word plague) the Lone Star State.

Texas is the home of good ole U.S.A. (now Saudi Arabian) oil. The oil industry owns the state; especially Governor Perry. They say jump, he jumps. Ironically, Texas itself ran out of oil a long time ago; just the companies (multi-nationals all) occupy Texas. Offshore drilling still exists, but the production of oil in Texas drops everyday.

America is NOT self-sufficient in oil, and never will be again. The world market dwarfs the available supply, and regardless of all the “natural gas will save us” propaganda from big oil, there is no way the United States can run its economy on domestic oil reserves. The time we could, if “foreign” oil supplies were suddenly cut off, is measured in days not in years.

So, a world war, like WWII for example, in today’s oil market, would have put the U.S.A. in the same boat as Japan and Germany, access to oil far outside their borders and inaccessible. Japan and Germany lost WWII for many reasons; especially the incredible courage and bravery of the U.S. soldier, but one main reason was THEY RAN OUT OF GAS!

Texas ran out of gas a long time ago.

However, that is not the Achilles heel that is sinking Texas in spite of Perry’s P.R. campaign (and perish the though, possible Presidential bid).

Texas helped poison the atmosphere years ago, by tying America forever to conspicuous consumption of oil and gas. For years lead poisoning and smog killed America’s children. Now, the CO2 emissions are killing the planet.

In a tragic twist, Texas and other states of the midwest and south, are predicted to become arid wastelands in the not so distant future.

Presently, Texas is enduring a record predicted drought that has Perry declaring days of Prayer, hoping for divine intervention; so far, no luck. Now, some are praying for a Hurricane (of all things) to bring rain. So, follow a disaster with a catastrophe to bring water.

What Perry missed, along with the incredible arrogance of fellow Texans, is that nature bites back. Pouring CO2 and other contaminants into the atmosphere will, and is, changing the climate in catastrophic ways.

So, Texas burns as Perry brags. Texas has ridiculously low tax rates, with high poverty rates and human misery as the result. But Texas oil, over the last century, changed the climate that will ultimately destroy the Lone Star state.

Watch for Perry, as this thing gets worse, to beg the federal government for help; in fact he already has by asking for a “state of emergency”. There was a minor dust up over this, with a Texas Republican claiming the federal government dragged its feet to send aid because Perry famously threatened to secede Texas out of the union. There was no basis to this charge, in fact federal aid is going to Texas to assist with the huge financial damage caused by climate change…I would be shot in Texas for using that phrase since all Texans are armed it seems (at school, in bars, in cars; you name it).

Gee, I thought the conservative’s hero stood for states’ rights with no central government (until there is a problem).

Let’s see how Texas weathers the weather that it helped ruin. Let's see if the "economic miracle" (didn't George W. use the same myth to get elected?) of Texas survives going years without adequate H20!