Get off ACA's Back

This is the part of the ACA that is most positive.  One, the "portability" of insurance, that allows people to go to the exchange and get their own insurance.  Small businesses, that cannot afford to cover their employees, self employed entrepreneurs, now can get affordable insurance.  And those in their 50s and 60s, are not yet at Medicare age, now can get insurance at a time in their lives when they need medical insurance.

Look, we are the ONLY economy on earth, who ties health care to whether we are employed or not.  So, to lose a job, means disaster if you get sick.  This has been a huge drag on our economy, puts us at a competitive disadvantage in the global economy, and ruins careers.  I am an example of that damage.

I have a son in law, who has a bad back, and is dragging his feet to get insured.  There may be some red tape issues, but there is simply no excuse to not get insurance today....none.  My son in law is self employed and right now cannot work, has not obtained insurance yet, so he sits home, untreated.

I was one of the unlucky ones, who watched his wife die slowly of breast cancer.  The ONLY thing that saved us financially was that we had medical insurance.

But, in those days if you changed jobs, you fell victim to pre-existing conditions.

I needed to change work places for political reasons: I clashed with my boss.  But, I could not, even though I was in education and got "group insurance", move from one work place to another within the same town.  Moreover, the job was the same one I was doing (Human Resources), in public education.  And I practically was promised the other position.

But to move meant no insurance for my wife, who was dying of breast cancer.  The Human Resources Director, who was retiring, called me and said I could not apply for the job since I would not be able to get insurance for my wife.

So, I stayed in a job situation that ultimately became toxic.  Because I could not change jobs, my situation at work got so bad I had to resign, and was able to relocate after my wife passed away.  By that time, even though I was a Superintendent, my time to build a career was over, so I ultimately took an early retirement.

Today, I could have moved.  I could have gone to the exchange to get insurance, or more likely, pre-existing conditions now are covered, so a job move is now very possible.

For me it meant a dead end to my career.  For me, my career was harmed, in addition to losing my best friend.

But, what the heck right?  According to my conservative friends, the ACA is awful, socialism, terrible; etc.  We all are sucking off the government's teat...eating the candy; etc.

Ask some of the people  quoted in the article below.  Ask your kids.

Get off ACA's back!  And as for you cons...may you rot!

The Hate Does Not Stop!

Just get on the Internet anytime, and it takes but a few seconds to find the racism and hate.

I have a "buddy" who keeps saturating me with hate pieces.  The latest was of Michelle Obama who was "caught" gripping her crotch, or smoothing her dress, and the nasty crotch comments continued.

Some joke huh?  Never, never saw this crap about Laura Bush!

Next a "joke" about the President ladling bullshit.  Of course it was graphic. Of course, ha ha.

And then the con rants threatening impeachment, hanging, and death.

All fine, all part of politics?

Listen my  friends.  This country will NOT SURVIVE if anything happens like most of you want.  It will not.

Right now, many of you want a fight, and you will get it.  But it will mean the end of our way of life, and end to democracy, an end to many of us.

This country endured a civil war once before, and lost over 600,000 people.  The next one could mean 100 million.

Is that what you want?  Really?   Really?

So keep up your crap.  Keep wishing for tragedy, thinking it will mean a leg up politically, which is what you are all about anyway.  Political advantage and leverage is what this crap is all about, sometimes by force.

And you will lose.  Bigotry always loses in the end.

Lincoln was wrong in his forgiveness, I often think.  Racism and prejudice deserves what happened after WWII, a short noose!

So think long and hard the next time you send on a hate piece on the Internet...Because you are attacking the very essence of our democracy.

You can certainly politically argue as hard as you can, on issues,  but your racism and hate, is not funny!

The Commute Will Be Terrible What are We To Do?

The San Jose Mercury News today ran an article that while innocuous, simple, and superficially benign, holds ominous consequences for all.

The Bay Area's economy is booming.  While we in Northern California continue with our self imposed conservative austerity, waiting for the promise of prosperity that never comes, Silicon Valley, San Jose,  even Oakland, are more than revived economically.

Technology is fueling it, but this time it is  not a superficial dot com one time phenomenon;  rather, a global demand for software, hardware, robotics; electronics of every dimension.  And the brain power to invent, innovate, and build these gadgets lies in the Bay Area, with its multitude of educational institutions, and variety of populations.

Meanwhile, this bastion of progress, of economic growth, are once again blundering into a trap that will surely bring economic ruin and  civilization disaster.

The words are simple really.  And we have learned to even trust them even though we hate to do it, we all have.  The words are:  "The commute will be terrible, but what are you going to do?"

You see, the employees of this economic growth cannot afford to live where they work.  Rents are skyrocketing, the price of a house in Palo Also averages well over $500,000.   Homes that in Redding, or Medford, sell for $200,000 sell for $700,000 in the Bay Area.

And many are priced out of the market.

So, to hold middle class jobs, the middle class has to move to Salinas, to Tracy, to far flung commutes.

Meanwhile, with a drought raging in the state, against objections from practically every environmentalist and geologist who realizes earthquake danger and water resource scarcity,  fracking proceeds to mine the "huge" Monterrey  Shale.

And we are still running out of gas.  

As the world economy begins to grow again, China and other "developing nations" copy the American urban sprawl model, fueled by the commute.  And more and more, this commute is provided by a single passenger automobile.   And that was never predicted by the Peak Oil scenerio.  China and India joining the commute, only means world oil reserves have peaked times two...it is only going to get worse!

"Its the commute", will sadly be our modern civilization's epitaph.  

We really are running out.  What is really frightening, is nobody seems to give a damn.  

Think about it.  If we are now fracking to get oil and natural gas, sucking every spare drop out of already depleted oil and gas reserves (the key word is reserves), then WHAT IS PLAN B?

We are already using Plan B.  During the oil embargo of the 1970s, many oil companies started to turn to what is the world's only last gasp oil reserve, tar sands and shale.  Oil companies started to ramp up production, but the embargo ended too soon, and efforts were abandoned because it was too expensive; besides there was still vast reserves of sweet crude.  That was in 1975!   

The oil would have been heavier, and more polluting than the sweet crude of the Middle East, and much more expensive.

But, as every oil resource expert knows, it is there, there is a lot tar sands and shale (by 1970 standards), and it is the last reserve.

And right now, with the Keystone Pipeline about to be approved, with fracking going on all over the place, the world is blithely using up this last reserve, and pouring CO2 into the atmosphere!  

Most sweet crude oil wells only can harvest about 50% of the actual oil reserve miles below the surface of the earth.  Fracking can recover about 10 to 20% more, and that is it.  After that, nothing.

Nothing, nada, its over soon, the car in your driveway will be the hood ornament!

The "Peak Oil" predictions, that EVERYBODY, including environmentalists ignore, provided for fracking!   Peak oil is only getting worse!

There have been no new oil reserves found since Peak Oil was postulated.  All we are doing is tapping the world's last reserves.

And now, when we should be conserving, the Bay Area lights up, and commuters endure two hour car commutes one way, by themselves, single passengers on their way to environmental hell!

High Speed Rail is attacked by conservatives, farmers, as impracticable.  Lawsuits are filed, backed by oil companies, to reduce rather than add to commuter mass transportation.

So we troop into our cars every morning, move further away from our jobs because we have to, and suck the last oil reserves of the planet up.  

And what is Plan C?  What happens when the Monterey  Shale is used up (oh, it will provide enough oil for three to four years of the entire United States consumption)!  Oh boy!

What a bonanza!  And what happens after the three years?  

Living day to day is alright, it is certainly less stressful, and more beneficial for Me, Me, Me.  But we are sociological, historical creatures.  We can look forward and predict.  We have the intelligence to see a train wreck when it is coming.

And it is coming, sooner than most of us think.  

We have no choice,  we have to develop renewable energy sources NOW.  We have to figure out ways to keep workers closer to their jobs now, even if it means rental and housing market constraints.

The free market always has done a horrible job when faced with limited resources.  Anthropologists can tell you that.  Every kingdom, empire; you name it, that has collapsed, did so because of scarcity of resources in one way or another.  Either drought, or war, caused depletions of resources that strangled the empire to death.  We have never seen this on a world scale.  We are about to!

Every time, I mean every freaking time, free markets deplete resources, scorch the earth, and move on.  

Regardless of what some cons say, there is no move on left; in spite of one loon toon who wants to mine the Moon, there is no Plan C.

 Once the oil reserves are gone, they are gone; that means no more commute even if there are trains (no oil for trains, planes, or automobiles).  

And we will be looking at global economic meltdown or worse.

Don't settle for the damn commute.  Demand that housing and rental prices come down.  Stay close to your  job.  Quit shrugging your shoulders and muddling through, by sitting in your car burning up your children's futures with a four hour commute.

"The commute will be terrible, but what are we to do?"   PLENTY!

The Great Con

Just say it...come out and say it, you hate the ACA.  Quit with the baseless arguments of religious freedom. Nowhere in the ACA does it mandate coverage for abortion, nowhere.  This was taken out, stupidly by the way, to placate Republicans who are cynically using religious freedom to nullify a black man's presidency.

That is the reason behind all this. How can you, as a con, REALLY be against the ACA when it was thought up by the Heritage Foundation?  

And the mandatory contraceptive baloney, really?  Even if those poor catholic sisters are held at the point of a gun to include rubbers in their insurance, IT DOES  NOT FORCE ANYONE TO USE THEM!

I know lots of guys, when I was young, giving out cigars to celebrate a new born, and opening up their wallet to show a condom fresh in Its pack.

"Oh well", and a shrug was what they said.  "God will provide".  

Nowhere does any ACA tyrannical prose, mandate the use of contraceptives.

To once again let the Catholic Church wag its tail, and impose its will on the rest of us; producing rampant overpopulation in every Third World country is madness and the 12century position of the Catholic Church is the cause!

And what about the immorality of the cons, who make up stuff all the time to discredit the ACA?    The same ACA we progressives compromised massively every day to support by the way,because it ain't no Medicare that's for sure.

What about our principles?

You my lady lie in every one of these hit pieces.  The real reason for con opposition has NOTHING to do with philosophy, nothing to so with free market purity.

It has everything to do with politics, and racial backlash to a President who got the progressives in his party to pass a conservative idea, to BEGIN to address our health care crisis.

Quit lying, stand up and declare the real reason for opposing the ACA.  

Gutlessness

Your article on Jack Kemp and his courage regarding immigrants was telling.  It was telling for the gutlessness of American Conservative leaders.

That's right and that includes YOU.

President Obama has guts to address the issues of the day.  The Democratic Party, once again, has the guts to take on the health care mess, the minimum wage, income disparity, women's rights, and finally immigration reform.

And where is the party of Lincoln; the party of the Great Emancipator?  Well, they are stuck in reaction to a base made of of southern bigots.

The Democratic Party had the same problem for years, until 1964.  In 1964, by passing the Civil Rights Act, Democrats lost the racist south.  And, much to the Republican shame,  the GOP took them in, lock, stock and barrel.

So now, immigration reform is impossible.  Cons like yourself publish articles whining about the straight racist reaction of conservatives to a Coke commercial, that yes, was the best Super Bowl commercial of them all.

Democrats learned the hard way, after all southern Democrats led secession, that there can be no compromise with racism.

People know when they are not welcome, you are right.  People also know gutlessness when they see it, and that would be Boehner.

We put a real dent in institutionalized racism with the Civil Rights and Voter Rights Acts.  Republicans, to their everlasting shame, have worked to detract from these laws, for sheer political expediency.

People know that hypocrisy, and keep punishing you and yours when they can vote.

But what you needed to say, was that you do not tolerate the racist behavior.  Stop pandering to these bigots, because they are bigots.

Your position on limited government is compromised, moderates have left your party in droves, because you pander to racists.

Water carriers

I am amazed every day by the conservative water carriers I meet.

In spite of statistics, and anecdotal evidence, showing a growing huge gap between the very few rich and the many poor, the water carrier middle class, usually aging white men, continue to support class warfare.

That's right, the term class warfare, used by Republicans to thwart Democrats criticism of income inequities, is really what is being waged by the rich class against the rest of us.

The financial sector is the most glaring example.  Movies are made on the madness of Wall Street, criticizing the greed and glaring acquisition of wealth in unproductive work..  Financial manipulators simply move numbers, gamble with other people's money, cheat, and acquire speculator wealth beyond imagination.

"The Wolf of Wall Street" is a recent example.  I was reminded of the pictures of former presidential candidate Mitt Romney, that shamelessly showed he and his partners awash in money, clutching it in their teeth, taking a bath in the green bounty of the top 1%.  It made me sick!

Meanwhile, the rest of us are relegated to increasing flattened incomes, lost pensions, and spreading poverty.   And, to top it all, the rich have convinced the water carriers that the ACA is evil, no health care for the rest of us.....only the hopelessly unfair present system that provides only for the rich.

And what do the middle class white men do?   They cheer the cheats on.  They bitch about the 47%, coached almost word for word by Fox News, to chant "takers" "takers" versus their heroes the "producers".

The problem is the "producers" are increasingly producing nothing but paper profits to increase their own wealth.

The great swindle is that  "trickle down" does NOT WORK.  Regardless, cons continue to repeat the con:  that tax cuts and reducing government and regulations will mean increased prosperity.

This flies in the face of empirical evidence, that the cons hate since they have become anti-science for obvious reasons.  The facts do not support their economic policies.

But, we have the Tea Party, who has taken over the Republican Party, backed by the Koch Brothers' Fascism, that pushes unceasingly right wing agendas down our poor throats.

So keep it up water carriers...keep up the good work....licking the boots of your masters, making sure your children and grandchildren make less, you have to work until you die, all for a damned myth of trickle down, and that  rich are nice guys.

They HATE YOUR PATHETIC WATER CARRYING!

Nay say Nay Again

We have been treated once again to a State of the Union Speech, and the wack-nut reaction to it from what is becoming the core of the Republican Party. 

There are a host of issues and problems that should occupy the interest of the Congress of the United States.  The recession is still present in many rural states and counties in the country; our own Shasta County being one.

The President talked, finally, about the effects of technology on the economy and unemployment.

 The Great Recession was deepened, no doubt, by robotics (a topic that economists gloss over with the wonders of technology). 

The manufacturing sector in the United States has been affected by two things:  outsourcing jobs to cheaper labor markets, and robotics. 

Yes, that's right, robotics.

Recently Amazon caused quite a stir, by announcing that it was considering short flight drones to deliver its smaller packages.  While an extreme example, this is yet another threat to jobs.

Robots put together our automobiles, pack trucks for shipping.  And, the internet has streamlined shopping, wrecking havoc with the retail sales industry.  Computers have savaged the postal service, substituting email for letters, spam for newspaper advertising.  Newsweek magazine, Life and many newspapers are gone along with thousands of jobs.

This is all being caused by technology, that has massively  reduced labor costs, increasing productivity (the amount of product created by worker) to unprecedented heights. 

This simply means fewer people create more productivity.  And the result is increased unemployment and the cheapening of the work force.

Minimum wage jobs are held by not just teenagers entering the workforce (the latest excuse used conservatives to ignore the real roots of underemployment), but by middle aged Americans who simply cannot find anything else.

Conservatives, who have decided to be against everything, and I mean everything the President and the Democrats are for, use every excuse in the book to deal with the impact of technology and robotics on the job market.

Conservatives came out after the President's speech, slamming him while doing lip service to bi-partisanship. 

The truth is they are spending all of their time and effort trying to sabotage the Affordable Care Act, refusing to even consider immigration reform, and keeping every  jobs bill hostage in the House of Representatives.

Technology and the global economy have created an economic reality in the world unlike any before.  In many ways it is as impactful as the industrial revolution was in the 1800s.  Huge areas of the economy have been revolutionized, creating less jobs that produce more products.

This has meant a bonanza of cheap hd televisions, smart phones, clothing; etc.  It also has meant a huge gap between the rich and the poor.  We read with astonishment that less that 1% of the world's population control over 80% of the worlds wealth.  In fact  only80 people in the world control over 80% of the wealth!  This makes France before the Revolution look like a socialist paradise!

This centralization of wealth cannot be ignored; except by the conservatives.  They say its big governments' fault. 

That is patently false and they know it.  What government has done is encourage technology at every turn, aided and abetted by investor interests, that has driven a disparity between rich and poor that grows every day.   Both Democratic administrations and Republican have supported economic growth by encouraging technological advances that massively reduce jobs.

Government has failed everywhere to take steps to mitigate the damage to labor markets by mass robotic and technological production and distribution innovations.  Every robot takes 10 jobs, every news app, lays off another reporter. 

We need another progressive era to evolve quickly.  We need our economic experts to figure out ways of fixing this inequity, before revolutions begin.  We need to stop being in awe of technology an realize the basic threats to human health and happiness its spin offs cause.  Revolution and war are the alternatives. 

That's right, revolutions.  No social/political/economic system can long exist with huge disparities between rich and poor.  The French Revolution, the Russian Revolution are two examples of what happens when economic inequities are allowed to fester.

And the rise of fascism is also a product of this imbalance between productivity and labor.  I have postulated here many times, that a fascist threat very much exists in the United States.  Conservatives have long ago crossed the line into fascist ideology, supporting plutocracy, which produces a violent reaction eventually from people who are damaged and threatened by technology change. 

This tension leads to violence, conflict and the destruction of democratic states. 

But what do we get from the right?  "Let them eat cake", is basically their response.  Leave the free market economy alone and it will result in prosperity for all. 

This is bull and they know it.   The free market economy is fueling the inequity of wealth, adding to the misery, and aiming all of us to violent upheavals throughout the world. 

I really think they have no valid response, because typical of conservatives they look backward rather than forward.  Progressives do the opposite and that was at the core of the President's speech.

We simply cannot afford to keep saying no to everything.  The problems are too great and increasing in scope.  We either make effective changes, or endure the upheavals that are likely to come.

We can be part of the problem or part of the solution.

Conservatives simply don't get that.