Arrest 'Em

No really, arrest 'em. And maybe the Vatican can start defrocking some of these evil, evil people for once instead of sitting idly by while its Church burns. You want to know why I don't go to Church regularly anymore? Stories like this.

Play The Cards Your Dealt

I'm getting a little tired of Conservative fear mongering about the Arab Spring. Yes, it's messy, it's disturbing, it's violent and it's deadly. All of which I would prefer not to happen. In a perfect world, this would have been done peacefully and through democratic means, but as we all know, the Middle East is far from a perfect world.

I hate to risk the wrath of being labelled part of the 'Blame America' coalition, but a lot of this mess can be laid at the feet of Cold War foreign policy. As I've noted before in the past, we're paying the price for a morally questionable foreign policy that lasted decades. While the Soviet Union stood for communism and tyranny everywhere, we stood for democracy and freedom in the United States and Western Europe and backed some very dubious characters everywhere else.

Whether that was the price we paid for making the world safe for communism is a whole other debate, but the fact is that we got locked into support for a lot of these regimes and have been far from willing to seriously pressure them to reform themselves- especially Egypt. While the Obama Administration's response to a lot of these uprisings seemed to be hesitant a lot of the time, this is the hand we dealt ourselves by not pressuring Mubarak for real, serious reform.

You play the cards you're dealt, no matter how you slice it. And while I think the entire region will probably be messy for some time to come, there are reasons to hope in Tunisia and Libya and the military is enough of an entrenched institution in Egypt, it's hoped that pro-democracy people get this under control quickly, because if free elections turn into violence I have no doubt that the military will just not leave power.

Whether we want to wish this on ourselves (with an 'American Fall' as Van Jones is preaching) is another question entirely-- more on that next.

Are They High?

Look, I'm not a huge druggie or anything, but can't we just agree that the Drug War is stupid, costs way too much money and feeds into coffers of both government and the private prison industry in some states? Yeaaaaah... first, Congress is at it again- a bill is being proposed that would enforce our effed up drug policy worldwide. As someone in the article explained it:

"Under this bill, if a young couple plans a wedding in Amsterdam, and as part of the wedding, they plan to buy the bridal party some marijuana, they would be subject to prosecution," said Bill Piper, director of national affairs for the Drug Policy Alliance, which advocates for reforming the country's drug laws. "The strange thing is that the purchase of and smoking the marijuana while you're there wouldn't be illegal. But this law would make planning the wedding from the U.S. a federal crime."

Uncool, Congress... totally uncool. If, as a free citizen of the United States of America choose to travel to a country with more sane drug laws and avail myself of some grade A Cheeba, it's none of your damn business.

It's time for States to get all 10th Amendment about this shit. State budgets are just as strained as the Federal Budget and legalizing weed and taxing the crap out of it would not only kickstart a whole new industry, but it would keep it out of the hands of our children and bring in a shitload of revenue for states and the federal government. Probably more than the Homeland Security/Prison Industrial currently puts into the pockets of our corrupt Establishment.

Second, the President has changed things up on the medical pot community in California again- the Federales are launching a crackdown and pot advocates are pissed off- as well they should be. I hope someone in the White House is taking notes, because this is the exact problem the President is having with the economy. Pot dispensary owners felt OK about things because the Feds said they were going to layoff- but now they've done a bait and switch and are going after them. Sudden and random shifts in policy/regulations for no good reason at all act as a deterrant to people want to get into that line of work-- and it also explains why businesses large and small across the nation have a ton of profits yet aren't hiring anyone. They don't want the Feds to run a bait and switch on them.

The President should back off this- fast. He should be consistent with his policies and in fact, start moving money away from weed and towards more harmful drugs like crack, meth and heroin.

So, to review:

War On Drgs = bad.

Why? It's a titanic waste of money, kids smoke pot anyway and we're 14 trillion dollars in debt. We gots to make some dinero.

The bait and switch on the medical pot industry in California underlines a huge problem we've got nationwide- nobody wants to hire because they don't want to get doinked in the butt by regulations that the current administration hasn't thought of yet. People don't want to get screwed over- until this administration can persuade them that they won't get the fuzzy end of the lollipop, nobody is gonna hire.

I don't understand how people don't get it- are they high or something?

#OccupyIowaCity

Oh Good Lord.

I suppose it was inevitable, given that you know, it's Iowa City- but why? Why? Why? It's like the silly Peace Camp all over again- and after enough drunk students had pissed on their tents (I actually know someone who copped to that, btw) and enough people had egged their tents, they pulled up stakes quick enough.

It's just amazing to me how many of these protestors seem to be wearing brand name clothes. And probably are going to college because of the jobs that Mommy and Daddy have and you know, in the few videos I've seen, a lot of them seem to be equipped with iPhones, iPods and all the sexy trappings of technology that they purchased with their evil, capitalist dollars. And when commentators on the P-C website go on about the evils of globalisation and how workers are devalued, I gotta ask: where do you work? Wal-Mart? McDonald's? Another shitty minimum wage job? I'm betting not. (Oh and the majority of these protestors look pretty white to me. Privileged and white. Hardly the downtrodden masses here.)

So I guess I am the 1%. I'm not s self-righteously, hypocritical progressive whining about how unfair life is and how we shouldn't have to pay for anything.

Oh and I don't own an iPhone.

UPDATED: Another good question- why aren't they occupying K-Street? Or Congress for that matter...

Occupy Wall Street: A Manifesto

Oh goody... they've got a list of demands! Let's take them one at a time-

Demand one: Restoration of the living wage. This demand can only be met by ending "Freetrade" by re-imposing trade tariffs on all imported goods entering the American market to level the playing field for domestic family farming and domestic manufacturing as most nations that are dumping cheap products onto the American market have radical wage and environmental regulation advantages. Another policy that must be instituted is raise the minimum wage to twenty dollars an hr.

Well, I guess my question is: did we ever have a living wage to begin with? I think it'd be nice to have the minimum wage keep pace with inflation at the very least, so raising that, I'd be OK with. As for the tiresome free trade versus protectionism thing, well, I can honestly say I come down on the side of free trade. Presumably, cows from California (happy ones, the pot smokers!) imported to Iowa or Wisconsin would undercut existing cow market prices here. Does that mean we start intra-state protectionism? I'm confused. And leveling the play field for domestic family farming? What are farm subsidies for? (I'd be in favor of ending subsidies for corporate farmers and corporations in general- if you don't need the cash, you shouldn't getting them.) The bigger issue is though, how many people actually want to farm? When the bespectacled hipsters who started this mess come see what cornfields actually look like, then we can talk. Unless of course, our glorious collective leadership is going to send us all down to the farm, just as Mao or Che did. Wonderful.

Demand two: Institute a universal single payer healthcare system. To do this all private insurers must be banned from the healthcare market as their only effect on the health of patients is to take money away from doctors, nurses and hospitals preventing them from doing their jobs and hand that money to wall st. investors.

Ummmm... then why aren't doctors, nurses and hospitals piss poor? Apparently insurance companies are taking the money and giving it to Wall Street. I've seen a little bit of the NHS in the United Kingdom and it didn't impress me. Free does not equal good- the quality of care would go down in a big way, waiting lists for the simplest outpatient procedures would go up and it would necessitate the creation of a massive government bureaucracy to pay for it all. It wouldn't give us more Doctors, Nurses or a better quality of care. Just a shitload of paper-pushers- that we'd have to pay for somehow. Pass.

No doubt, we need to do something about health care and I support government backed health insurance (or tax credits or vouchers or something) for people that actually need the help. If you don't need the help, you should be paying your own way. (Tort reform and breaking the insurance monopolies would help with this in a big way. Why are we not asking to break the insurance monopolies? Hmmm... I'd like to know.)

Demand three: Guaranteed living wage income regardless of employment.

Fuck that. If I wanted to live in France, I'd move to France. If you want money, you can damn well find a job doing something and earn it. No freeloading.

Demand four: Free college education.

Hahahahahahahahahaha! I don't even know where to start with this one. What are these people smoking!? What we should be asking for here is a reduction in bloated higher education administrative positions nationwide with the savings passed onto students in the form of tuition cuts. We should be demanding an end to all private college student loans nationwide and a greater emphasis on job shadowing, internships and technical education so that instead of making idiotic, naive demands, these people could graduate and get jobs. Oh and P.S. Iowa students, if you start preaching at me about how you are the 99% and show up at the shiny new rec center on campus that has jacked up student fees (you only think it's free, kiddies) then guess what- you're helping making college more expensive. Practice what you preach, y'all.

Demand five: Begin a fast track process to bring the fossil fuel economy to an end while at the same bringing the alternative energy economy up to energy demand.

I can't totally argue against this, but solar, wind- all the alternatives aren't there yet. Fuel cell technology is coming- slowly. How about more investment in that? But I'm sorry kids, oil companies make too much money and all the baby boomers have their retirements invested in oil companies to bring fossil fuels down soon. Not gonna happen.

Demand six: One trillion dollars in infrastructure (Water, Sewer, Rail, Roads and Bridges and Electrical Grid) spending now.

What are we schilling for the Obama Campaign now? Did you lift this from their talking points? Not very anti-establishment, OWS. I'm disappointed- and besides, aren't we doing this with the Obama Administration's shovel ready jobs already?

Demand seven: One trillion dollars in ecological restoration planting forests, reestablishing wetlands and the natural flow of river systems and decommissioning of all of America's nuclear power plants.

Ah, so the Sierra Club is writing your talking points. Awesome. Selling out to special interest groups, OWS? Uncool. I'm down with planting trees and re-establishing wetlands, but hydroelectric dams and nuclear power plants aren't coal power plants, so I think they can stay until we find something better. In the wake of Fukushima, I'm less pro-nuclear than I have been, but do we want nuke plants that might blow up or coal plants that are pumping tons of carbon into our atmosphere every single day? We can't have both- and I'm inclined to think that hydro and nuke power are the perfect stopgaps to help us transition away from fossil fuels. Someone needs to invent fusion power. Do y'all want to get on that?

Demand eight: Racial and gender equal rights amendment.

Didn't we try the ERA already? What about the 14th Amendment? How about demanding enforcement of the rights we already have as Americans? Lord knows the Establishment likes to ignore those whenever and wherever they can.

Demand nine: Open borders migration. anyone can travel anywhere to work and live.

Can't we do this already? Or do you mean internationally? I think a guest worker program is a must- we had the bracero program back in the day. Maybe we should look into that.

Demand ten: Bring American elections up to international standards of a paper ballot precinct counted and recounted in front of an independent and party observers system.

Jesus. That's it? No abolishing the electoral college? No term limits for Congress? No end to gerrymandering and independent redistricting nationwide? No cut in Congressional pay and benefits? Somehow, you've got a national platform and you had the opportunity to call for something truly radical and you failed, OWS. Epic, epic, epic FAIL.

Demand eleven: Immediate across the board debt forgiveness for all. Debt forgiveness of sovereign debt, commercial loans, home mortgages, home equity loans, credit card debt, student loans and personal loans now! All debt must be stricken from the "Books." World Bank Loans to all Nations, Bank to Bank Debt and all Bonds and Margin Call Debt in the stock market including all Derivatives or Credit Default Swaps, all 65 trillion dollars of them must also be stricken from the "Books." And I don't mean debt that is in default, I mean all debt on the entire planet period.

Oh wow. OWS, I'd like to know who your dealer is, because I really need to get my hands on some of the sweet, sweet mary jane you must be smoking. I don't believe in something for nothing- the public service debt forgiveness options asks for 10 years of on-time payments and public service before they give you any forgiveness. And I'm OK with that, but I believe in paying off what I accrue and working for what I earn. You ask for a handout if you want too- but leave me out of it.

Demand twelve: Outlaw all credit reporting agencies.

I'm OK with this. Go right ahead.

Demand thirteen: Allow all workers to sign a ballot at any time during a union organizing campaign or at any time that represents their yeah or nay to having a union represent them in collective bargaining or to form a union.

Schills for Obama, Schills for the Sierra Club and now schills for the Unions? Pass, pass, pass... whether you agree with unions or not, the decision should be taken free of any chance of intimidation on the part of either side in the discussion. Secret ballot elections are a must. And as it seems in Wisconsin, once automatic deduction of union dues was ended, nobody wanted to pay, I'm not sure unions have the support they think they have.

On balance, I find this disappointing. There's nothing remotely resembling an attack on the establishment- and a lot of comments point out that our corrupt government is the problem, Wall Street is just the symptom and I'm inclined to agree with that. This was an opportunity to do something truly radical and they ducked it.

There's some criticism from the right over here, including the following snarky quote that pissed me right off:

The second theme is entitlement. Other people should pay for my health care. Other people should pay for my college education. I shouldn’t have to pay back my credit card balance. In short, gimme. How millennial.

How millennial? Not so much, I'm afraid- I don't want other people paying for shit. I want to be left alone, because the writer's generation has fucked so much of this country up already. I want to carve out a life for myself and the Missus, work damn hard for whatever we can get and stay the hell away from the mess that's being made out there. It was the older generation that insisted on universal home ownership and universal education. It was the older generation that stood by as the value of the high school diploma was reduced to little more than a piece of paper. It was the older generation that stood by while college costs shot through the roof and Wall Street grabbed more and more and the government grew more and more corrupt and the gap between government and the governed grew ever wider.

Millenial? Hell no. My generation isn't entitled- we're just pissed off, because we know we're not going to get shit and we're going to have to make sure the older generation gets theirs as a price. We'd like something-- but we're not going to get it.

Double-Dipping...

...should be 100% totally illegal! If public servants retire, then they get a pension. If they come back part time, quarter time, full time, whatever time- if they start working, then no more pension. Or better still, if they draw a public pension, they can no longer get jobs in the public sector.

(Pssssst... Governor Branstad, this means you!)

OK, So Maybe I Was Wrong...

While I tend to believe that the class warfare rhetoric of the Left tends to obscure the bad behavior of our entire establishment, both left and right- when I read this article, it did piss me off.

Basically, there's a growing trend of what are called deficiency judgements being levelled against foreclosed homeowners who just lost their house- basically, if it doesn't sell for enough, the bank will come after you to make up the difference.

How is that right? I mean, I know people have a fiscal responsibility to make sure they pay their mortgage on time and all that jazz, but what about the banks? Surely if they're going to give people a chunk of change that big, they've got an obligation to make damn sure people have the ability to pay that back. Some of these mortgages should not have been given to people in the first place- and the fault of that lies directly with the banking industry. And it's curious to me that in the middle of all this mess, there have been absolutely no consequences of any kind for the banks getting people into this mess.

And there should be- defeciency judgments should be 100% illegal. Plain and simple- this puts the onus on the bank to work with homeowners to preserve/refinance the mortgage and keep people paying their mortgages and it also means that there are actual real life consequences for banks making/lending dubious mortgages: they take a financial hit.

To me, if you take someone's house for whatever reason- that should be the end of it. These deficiency judgments are just fundamentally wrong and more than a bit cruel.

So, while I wish, wish, wish that people would read between the lines a little more and start seeing the Establishment for the cross-party bunch of theives that it is, I'd say go right ahead- Occupy Wall Street. Banks should have consequences as well- and so far, they seem to be getting by scott free.

But what else is new?

Occupy Wall Street Intensifies

I had this conversation with The Pale Man last night- and I stand by my original premise. One of my biggest problems with liberalism in this country is that it attempts to sell people on the idea that class warfare (racism, sexism, etc and everything that goes along with it) is the greatest threat to this country's democracy. Capitalism is inherently evil of course and part of the global imperialist system of blah blah blah- and while I completely agree that racism, sexism and classism are all problems in this country, they're not the chief problem-

That lies with the Republicrat elites. Like I told The Pale Man last night- political elites are married to the business elites who have creeped into media and entertainment elites- they're all one big elite power system that works the country to benefit themselves and the expense of the rest of us. What the Left continually ignores is it's own guilt at participating in said system. Our elites cut across both party and ideology and nobody- nobody is innocent. Whether it's Republicans and their love of corporate cronyism or Democrats and their Union sugar Daddies (witness the special interest goodies, waivers and side deals packed into ObamaCare for Democratic interest groups) they're all part of the same elite power system.

People need to stop buying into the rhetoric that the politicians are trying to sell. It's us versus them and until the people of this country rise up and neuter the elites- dysfunction in America will continue.

So, by all means, occupy Wall Street. But to me, you're protesting what they tell you to protest and you're becoming part of the problem, not the solution.