Democracy's 200 Year Battle
The new year begins as The New Yorker’s Adam Gopnik writes, as “this strange moment of our common life, suspended between the fall of financial capital and the crowning of a new hope”. You know my obsession with the notion of the Interregnum, that moment when “the old is dying and the new cannot be born” and that these Interregnums seem to happen at roughly 30 year intervals in America. I am drawn to Joseph Ellis’ description of this cycle.
The main story line of American History, cast Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton in the lead roles of a dramatic contest between the forces of Democracy and the forces of Aristocracy.
Every 30-40 years a President emerges to lead the forces of democracy–1800-Jefferson; 1829-Jackson;1860-Lincoln; 1900-Teddy Roosevelt; 1932-Franklin Roosevelt; 1960-John F. Kennedy; 1990-Bill Clinton. Now one can question whether the forces of aristocracy (meaning a government controlled by a power elite) were really in retreat in any of these periods. However it can be shown statistically that the rights and wages of workers rose during the rise in these forces of democracy and that median household wages fell during the reigns of the forces of aristocracy–including of course Reagan and Bush 1 & 2.
So we have just finished another age of aristocracy, ending 30 years when finance capital was in the saddle (even in the Clinton Years when Bob Rubin and the Bond Traders ruled the domestic roost). Now the forces of capital are in retreat and more private business gain will be made by trying to influence legislation and the massive government funding ahead. We are embarking on the largest scale test of what is known as a “mixed economy”–where private enterprises co-exist with state owned ones. The Federal Government already owns stock in 206 Bank corporations across the country. It certainly is the majority shareholder in AIG, Fannie and Freddie and probably one the largest shareholders in Citigroup. All of the major Aerospace Companies make products for whom the U.S. Government is the only customer. The power of finance is declining, the power of government is rising.
But let’s not kid ourselves, for finance capital (by which I mean large business corporations, not just banks), the influence game doesn’t stop. Lobbyists need not worry for work. Neither Exxon nor Northrop Grumman are going to sit back and let their world change with out a fight. So Barack’s reading should be about Teddy Roosevelt, not Abe Lincoln. It was Roosevelt who fought Rockefeller and Morgan in the courts and won–breaking up both the oil trust, the steel trust and railroad trust. He saw that Corruption is the greatest enemy of reform. Today there are two centers of corruption in Washington. The first is the Military Industrial Complex. It has the largest budget, the most pork and the most waste. There are so many good ideas floating around on how to fix it and since Gates has no job retention fear, this should be the first order of priority.
The second center of corruption is of course around the funding of elections. I believe Common Cause has been out in front on this and we will have to move to a system of public funded politics and free air time on the public airwaves in the 6 weeks prior to an election. We should also follow the British lead and shorten the election period. Dragging this out over 18 months is insane and benefits no one except the cable news networks and broadcast advertising sellers.
Somehow I feel that concentrating on a couple of reform issues is helpful. Thoughts?
We also need a reform in how we treat one another. We allow corporations to trick people out of their money. Think deceitful lending practices. Think bait and switch offers for “only a few dollars for the first three months. “Think “they want to raise your taxes.” That must be “aristocratic” thinking.
We also need a reform in how we treat one another. We allow corporations to trick people out of their money. Think deceitful lending practices. Think bait and switch offers for “only a few dollars for the first three months. “Think “they want to raise your taxes.” That must be “aristocratic” thinking.
If elections changed anything, they would make them illegal
I cannot wait for Obamas Change.
How can he Change when his appointees are Clintons and their friends
Is change really going back to the 20th century?
If elections changed anything, they would make them illegal
I cannot wait for Obamas Change.
How can he Change when his appointees are Clintons and their friends
Is change really going back to the 20th century?
If elections changed anything, they would make them illegal
I cannot wait for Obamas Change.
How can he Change when his appointees are Clintons and their friends
Is change really going back to the 20th century?
Don’t kid yourself–try running a company without private capital– finance will continue to rule– do you really think that the federal government is best situated to run companies–please–if it wern’t for the current fiasco–which will end, hopefully soon, everyone would be complaining about taxes and trying to get the govt. out of our lives– do we really want the people who run Dept. of Motor Vechicles to run our companies–talk about nightmares
Don’t kid yourself–try running a company without private capital– finance will continue to rule– do you really think that the federal government is best situated to run companies–please–if it wern’t for the current fiasco–which will end, hopefully soon, everyone would be complaining about taxes and trying to get the govt. out of our lives– do we really want the people who run Dept. of Motor Vechicles to run our companies–talk about nightmares
Don’t kid yourself–try running a company without private capital– finance will continue to rule– do you really think that the federal government is best situated to run companies–please–if it wern’t for the current fiasco–which will end, hopefully soon, everyone would be complaining about taxes and trying to get the govt. out of our lives– do we really want the people who run Dept. of Motor Vechicles to run our companies–talk about nightmares
doug- There was a time in 1960 when the very best people wanted to work for the government. Of course Reagan told us that government was the problem, so that changed things. My sense now from friends working on the transition, is that Barack is attracting the best talent once more.
doug- There was a time in 1960 when the very best people wanted to work for the government. Of course Reagan told us that government was the problem, so that changed things. My sense now from friends working on the transition, is that Barack is attracting the best talent once more.
There are basically two reasons to go into public service; to do good or to do well.
People have been doing well in public service for a long time. We’ve seen the outcome of that.
We can only afford to do good for awhile.
There are basically two reasons to go into public service; to do good or to do well.
People have been doing well in public service for a long time. We’ve seen the outcome of that.
We can only afford to do good for awhile.
Well, Doug, the Dept of Motor Vehicles in my part of Western Florida runs pretty darn good.
You step in the door, a person asks what service you are needing, gives you a numbered ticket, then there’s an electronic number board with an admittedly annoying annunciator voice that tells you even if you are sight-impaired which teller to go to. The employees have been pretty uniformly courteous and competent — granted, it’s not the toughest job in the world, and no doubt they get (GASP!) vacations on top of a living wage and a retirment plan (even though FL’s is sort of on the ropes, courtesy of our corrupt legislature insinuating its well-oiled well-lobbied self into the investments the state made”). It looks like what has happened is the person at the top of the organization brought in people with some notion of doing a good job for the public, as opposed to for themselves.
And employees appear to be treated with some respect, maybe helped by the union connection (AFSCME, I believe) and they are paid at a level that is just about right for their productivity and making their jobs meaningful.
Yes, there can be things wrong with civil service doing some kinds of functions, potential flies in the ointment. But maybe those are related to the level of GOVERNANCE and DECENCY that people bring into government employment (dare I say “service?” Would YOU want to be a case worker with your local child welfare office? And why is that kind of crushing job burden as bad as it is, with such hand-wringing when a child “slips through the cracks” and lets us pretend to care about our fellow man for a moment while the horror story is at the top of the news?)
Contrast that with the retail operation I worked at off and on for 10 years. Started out as a pretty good company, store managers were given a lot of leeway in how they staffed and stocked their stores, the notion from Headquarters was “How can we empower you?” Employees were valued for knowledge of the products they sold (and actually used themselves), and what they sold was generally first quality. The rather uniquely well informed customer base actually liked shopping at the stores. Staff was paid a little more than in other retail lines, where the MBAs who have widened for decades the gap between what employees give (labor, some of it free, and productivity) and what they get — basically a flat or declining real income. The difference going into “profit” for the people at the top — I guess including the “shareholders,” mostly insiders and large funds. See that graph published here a few blogs ago, wages versus productivity.
The founder moved upstairs, brought in a “retail whiz team” from an unrelated business area, they hired “consultants” to force employees to use hard-sell tactics on people who just want to be told particulars of products they are interested in and to make up their own minds — not by being “closed,” but by a kinder and more respectful process.
Management started pulling back all local decision-making and running the business by fiat and demand — make these sales figures OR ELSE! Sell according to this ridiculous system that we have paid millions to a consultant FOUR TIMES now to come in and institute, and then shit-canned when it obviously didn’t work.
[Nice scam by consultant: "I absolutely guarantee that (in small print and sotto voce, If you fully implement the 'system' I am selling you, to the last jot and tittle) you will absolutely increase your sales. Employees too ashamed to adopt this five-step cram-down selling along with an enormous reporting overhead to "headquarters." When 'system' fails, consultant says "you didn't implement -- your fault, not mine" and goes on to the next set of needy corporate managers looking for a fix.]
And then there’s expansion: Hey, other retail chains are expanding, even though the opportunities for people to use our products are declining because other changes in the world are wiping out the habitat they need to use them. We can puff our resumes by “managing change!” Let’s grow the company by Building More Stores! And let’s site ‘em so they compete with each other! THAT will drive sales of our (discretionary-income) products right through the roof! Let those lazy good-for-nothing don’t-do-what-we-tell-’em store managers Do More With Less (initiative, employee hours, decent products) and Compete With Each Other! Yeah, that’ll get ‘em off their butts! And we can set store goals higher and higher, so that it’s impossible for them to earn the bonuses that we used to pay them!
Management grabbed a late “innovation”–”management by intimidation,” cut real wages by various artifices including the usual benefits, cuts to employee work hours to push them below full time status or make them use their vacation hours’ pay to fill out their whithered checks.
And started pushing “branded” products, hoping to trade on what had been a well-respected name. Crappy products, at inflated prices, justification is that “So what if we have high returns? We have the use of the customer’s money from the time they buy to when they bring it back — let the store sales staff calm ‘em down and take the heat, and peddle them some other junk that we mark way up instead.
Keep the cycle going long enough to bump sales for a couple of quarters — the stock market rewards artifically inflated same-store sales by bidding the stock up, the executives cash out their shares and post-dated options and walk away. Having eviscerated the entity that had worked pretty well and reasonably humanely for decades. Oh, and along the way, give some execs a nice resume entry for their “good work” and “success.”
I won’t waste time talking about how well “privatizing” has worked, for things like schools and PRISONS and such, or how “efficient” the national-socialist military suppliers have been. Seems to me that if you pay people a living wage and give them a little dignity, stop creaming off all the wealth for the few, get off the golden handshake-golden parachute resume bloating and a few other little (!) changes, you end up with a more functional economy and a reality closer to the myths of “civilization.”
But that’s just me — I know there are lots of really smart people who can “prove” that everything that’s happened is just part of some ineluctable Grand Economic Process. And that having “the government” do anything at all (except use force to collect taxes that can be lobbied into the hands of the few, slowly choking off any common benefits to the taxpaying citizen) is a Bad Idea.
Right.
Well, Doug, the Dept of Motor Vehicles in my part of Western Florida runs pretty darn good.
You step in the door, a person asks what service you are needing, gives you a numbered ticket, then there’s an electronic number board with an admittedly annoying annunciator voice that tells you even if you are sight-impaired which teller to go to. The employees have been pretty uniformly courteous and competent — granted, it’s not the toughest job in the world, and no doubt they get (GASP!) vacations on top of a living wage and a retirment plan (even though FL’s is sort of on the ropes, courtesy of our corrupt legislature insinuating its well-oiled well-lobbied self into the investments the state made”). It looks like what has happened is the person at the top of the organization brought in people with some notion of doing a good job for the public, as opposed to for themselves.
And employees appear to be treated with some respect, maybe helped by the union connection (AFSCME, I believe) and they are paid at a level that is just about right for their productivity and making their jobs meaningful.
Yes, there can be things wrong with civil service doing some kinds of functions, potential flies in the ointment. But maybe those are related to the level of GOVERNANCE and DECENCY that people bring into government employment (dare I say “service?” Would YOU want to be a case worker with your local child welfare office? And why is that kind of crushing job burden as bad as it is, with such hand-wringing when a child “slips through the cracks” and lets us pretend to care about our fellow man for a moment while the horror story is at the top of the news?)
Contrast that with the retail operation I worked at off and on for 10 years. Started out as a pretty good company, store managers were given a lot of leeway in how they staffed and stocked their stores, the notion from Headquarters was “How can we empower you?” Employees were valued for knowledge of the products they sold (and actually used themselves), and what they sold was generally first quality. The rather uniquely well informed customer base actually liked shopping at the stores. Staff was paid a little more than in other retail lines, where the MBAs who have widened for decades the gap between what employees give (labor, some of it free, and productivity) and what they get — basically a flat or declining real income. The difference going into “profit” for the people at the top — I guess including the “shareholders,” mostly insiders and large funds. See that graph published here a few blogs ago, wages versus productivity.
The founder moved upstairs, brought in a “retail whiz team” from an unrelated business area, they hired “consultants” to force employees to use hard-sell tactics on people who just want to be told particulars of products they are interested in and to make up their own minds — not by being “closed,” but by a kinder and more respectful process.
Management started pulling back all local decision-making and running the business by fiat and demand — make these sales figures OR ELSE! Sell according to this ridiculous system that we have paid millions to a consultant FOUR TIMES now to come in and institute, and then shit-canned when it obviously didn’t work.
[Nice scam by consultant: "I absolutely guarantee that (in small print and sotto voce, If you fully implement the 'system' I am selling you, to the last jot and tittle) you will absolutely increase your sales. Employees too ashamed to adopt this five-step cram-down selling along with an enormous reporting overhead to "headquarters." When 'system' fails, consultant says "you didn't implement -- your fault, not mine" and goes on to the next set of needy corporate managers looking for a fix.]
And then there’s expansion: Hey, other retail chains are expanding, even though the opportunities for people to use our products are declining because other changes in the world are wiping out the habitat they need to use them. We can puff our resumes by “managing change!” Let’s grow the company by Building More Stores! And let’s site ‘em so they compete with each other! THAT will drive sales of our (discretionary-income) products right through the roof! Let those lazy good-for-nothing don’t-do-what-we-tell-’em store managers Do More With Less (initiative, employee hours, decent products) and Compete With Each Other! Yeah, that’ll get ‘em off their butts! And we can set store goals higher and higher, so that it’s impossible for them to earn the bonuses that we used to pay them!
Management grabbed a late “innovation”–”management by intimidation,” cut real wages by various artifices including the usual benefits, cuts to employee work hours to push them below full time status or make them use their vacation hours’ pay to fill out their whithered checks.
And started pushing “branded” products, hoping to trade on what had been a well-respected name. Crappy products, at inflated prices, justification is that “So what if we have high returns? We have the use of the customer’s money from the time they buy to when they bring it back — let the store sales staff calm ‘em down and take the heat, and peddle them some other junk that we mark way up instead.
Keep the cycle going long enough to bump sales for a couple of quarters — the stock market rewards artifically inflated same-store sales by bidding the stock up, the executives cash out their shares and post-dated options and walk away. Having eviscerated the entity that had worked pretty well and reasonably humanely for decades. Oh, and along the way, give some execs a nice resume entry for their “good work” and “success.”
I won’t waste time talking about how well “privatizing” has worked, for things like schools and PRISONS and such, or how “efficient” the national-socialist military suppliers have been. Seems to me that if you pay people a living wage and give them a little dignity, stop creaming off all the wealth for the few, get off the golden handshake-golden parachute resume bloating and a few other little (!) changes, you end up with a more functional economy and a reality closer to the myths of “civilization.”
But that’s just me — I know there are lots of really smart people who can “prove” that everything that’s happened is just part of some ineluctable Grand Economic Process. And that having “the government” do anything at all (except use force to collect taxes that can be lobbied into the hands of the few, slowly choking off any common benefits to the taxpaying citizen) is a Bad Idea.
Right.
Well, Doug, the Dept of Motor Vehicles in my part of Western Florida runs pretty darn good.
You step in the door, a person asks what service you are needing, gives you a numbered ticket, then there’s an electronic number board with an admittedly annoying annunciator voice that tells you even if you are sight-impaired which teller to go to. The employees have been pretty uniformly courteous and competent — granted, it’s not the toughest job in the world, and no doubt they get (GASP!) vacations on top of a living wage and a retirment plan (even though FL’s is sort of on the ropes, courtesy of our corrupt legislature insinuating its well-oiled well-lobbied self into the investments the state made”). It looks like what has happened is the person at the top of the organization brought in people with some notion of doing a good job for the public, as opposed to for themselves.
And employees appear to be treated with some respect, maybe helped by the union connection (AFSCME, I believe) and they are paid at a level that is just about right for their productivity and making their jobs meaningful.
Yes, there can be things wrong with civil service doing some kinds of functions, potential flies in the ointment. But maybe those are related to the level of GOVERNANCE and DECENCY that people bring into government employment (dare I say “service?” Would YOU want to be a case worker with your local child welfare office? And why is that kind of crushing job burden as bad as it is, with such hand-wringing when a child “slips through the cracks” and lets us pretend to care about our fellow man for a moment while the horror story is at the top of the news?)
Contrast that with the retail operation I worked at off and on for 10 years. Started out as a pretty good company, store managers were given a lot of leeway in how they staffed and stocked their stores, the notion from Headquarters was “How can we empower you?” Employees were valued for knowledge of the products they sold (and actually used themselves), and what they sold was generally first quality. The rather uniquely well informed customer base actually liked shopping at the stores. Staff was paid a little more than in other retail lines, where the MBAs who have widened for decades the gap between what employees give (labor, some of it free, and productivity) and what they get — basically a flat or declining real income. The difference going into “profit” for the people at the top — I guess including the “shareholders,” mostly insiders and large funds. See that graph published here a few blogs ago, wages versus productivity.
The founder moved upstairs, brought in a “retail whiz team” from an unrelated business area, they hired “consultants” to force employees to use hard-sell tactics on people who just want to be told particulars of products they are interested in and to make up their own minds — not by being “closed,” but by a kinder and more respectful process.
Management started pulling back all local decision-making and running the business by fiat and demand — make these sales figures OR ELSE! Sell according to this ridiculous system that we have paid millions to a consultant FOUR TIMES now to come in and institute, and then shit-canned when it obviously didn’t work.
[Nice scam by consultant: "I absolutely guarantee that (in small print and sotto voce, If you fully implement the 'system' I am selling you, to the last jot and tittle) you will absolutely increase your sales. Employees too ashamed to adopt this five-step cram-down selling along with an enormous reporting overhead to "headquarters." When 'system' fails, consultant says "you didn't implement -- your fault, not mine" and goes on to the next set of needy corporate managers looking for a fix.]
And then there’s expansion: Hey, other retail chains are expanding, even though the opportunities for people to use our products are declining because other changes in the world are wiping out the habitat they need to use them. We can puff our resumes by “managing change!” Let’s grow the company by Building More Stores! And let’s site ‘em so they compete with each other! THAT will drive sales of our (discretionary-income) products right through the roof! Let those lazy good-for-nothing don’t-do-what-we-tell-’em store managers Do More With Less (initiative, employee hours, decent products) and Compete With Each Other! Yeah, that’ll get ‘em off their butts! And we can set store goals higher and higher, so that it’s impossible for them to earn the bonuses that we used to pay them!
Management grabbed a late “innovation”–”management by intimidation,” cut real wages by various artifices including the usual benefits, cuts to employee work hours to push them below full time status or make them use their vacation hours’ pay to fill out their whithered checks.
And started pushing “branded” products, hoping to trade on what had been a well-respected name. Crappy products, at inflated prices, justification is that “So what if we have high returns? We have the use of the customer’s money from the time they buy to when they bring it back — let the store sales staff calm ‘em down and take the heat, and peddle them some other junk that we mark way up instead.
Keep the cycle going long enough to bump sales for a couple of quarters — the stock market rewards artifically inflated same-store sales by bidding the stock up, the executives cash out their shares and post-dated options and walk away. Having eviscerated the entity that had worked pretty well and reasonably humanely for decades. Oh, and along the way, give some execs a nice resume entry for their “good work” and “success.”
I won’t waste time talking about how well “privatizing” has worked, for things like schools and PRISONS and such, or how “efficient” the national-socialist military suppliers have been. Seems to me that if you pay people a living wage and give them a little dignity, stop creaming off all the wealth for the few, get off the golden handshake-golden parachute resume bloating and a few other little (!) changes, you end up with a more functional economy and a reality closer to the myths of “civilization.”
But that’s just me — I know there are lots of really smart people who can “prove” that everything that’s happened is just part of some ineluctable Grand Economic Process. And that having “the government” do anything at all (except use force to collect taxes that can be lobbied into the hands of the few, slowly choking off any common benefits to the taxpaying citizen) is a Bad Idea.
Right.
Jon, how can anyone claim progressive while living in the ’60′s???
Jon, how can anyone claim progressive while living in the ’60′s???
Jon, how can anyone claim progressive while living in the ’60′s???
Dav, is “progressive” a pejorative in your lexicon?
And maybe a healthy part of “progressive” is recognizing what works for the many instead of the few, whether it is wisdom gained from the time of Hammurabi, or when Janis Joplin was wailin’?
Golden Rule Rules? Only maybe fails to work for particular kinds of masochists (those who want EVERYBODY to suffer), because sadists want to be treated well too — they just want others to feel pain. And by definition, a masochist who wants others to suffer is a sado-masochist anyway. Whole ‘nother category.
Dav, is “progressive” a pejorative in your lexicon?
And maybe a healthy part of “progressive” is recognizing what works for the many instead of the few, whether it is wisdom gained from the time of Hammurabi, or when Janis Joplin was wailin’?
Golden Rule Rules? Only maybe fails to work for particular kinds of masochists (those who want EVERYBODY to suffer), because sadists want to be treated well too — they just want others to feel pain. And by definition, a masochist who wants others to suffer is a sado-masochist anyway. Whole ‘nother category.
Dav, is “progressive” a pejorative in your lexicon?
And maybe a healthy part of “progressive” is recognizing what works for the many instead of the few, whether it is wisdom gained from the time of Hammurabi, or when Janis Joplin was wailin’?
Golden Rule Rules? Only maybe fails to work for particular kinds of masochists (those who want EVERYBODY to suffer), because sadists want to be treated well too — they just want others to feel pain. And by definition, a masochist who wants others to suffer is a sado-masochist anyway. Whole ‘nother category.
Davaudian-Like JTM, I’d like your definition of “progressive”.
Davaudian-Like JTM, I’d like your definition of “progressive”.
Davaudian-Like JTM, I’d like your definition of “progressive”.
Capitalists used to be the progressives and they broke the stronghold of aristocracy. Now they are hand in hand with them. An ironic twist of history.
The meaning of progressive does not change, but it’s methods do. To me, it means the defender of the scientific necessity in the political context. Now the necessity of a global political unification is becoming clearer day by day.
The binary political system is too vulnerable to corruption. Usually both get captured by the bullies and presented to the electorate alternatively as a good-cop/bad-cop choice. Here in Australia they have these secret “preselection lists”. If you can get your name into them you are almost there. Transparency is the keyword I think.
Maybe the parties should broken into many more pieces, like you guys do in the USA for corporations. This would increase the volume of the negotiation field and increase the number of options.
National security organizations are also vulnerable to corruption because of the excessive secrecy. Again the need for more transparency. If ‘we’ can move towards a more democratic system of international security, a significant part of the need for national security secrecy would be removed. This would also release enormous resources to be channeled in more useful fields.
Capitalists used to be the progressives and they broke the stronghold of aristocracy. Now they are hand in hand with them. An ironic twist of history.
The meaning of progressive does not change, but it’s methods do. To me, it means the defender of the scientific necessity in the political context. Now the necessity of a global political unification is becoming clearer day by day.
The binary political system is too vulnerable to corruption. Usually both get captured by the bullies and presented to the electorate alternatively as a good-cop/bad-cop choice. Here in Australia they have these secret “preselection lists”. If you can get your name into them you are almost there. Transparency is the keyword I think.
Maybe the parties should broken into many more pieces, like you guys do in the USA for corporations. This would increase the volume of the negotiation field and increase the number of options.
National security organizations are also vulnerable to corruption because of the excessive secrecy. Again the need for more transparency. If ‘we’ can move towards a more democratic system of international security, a significant part of the need for national security secrecy would be removed. This would also release enormous resources to be channeled in more useful fields.
“Progressive” has turned into a dirty word like “liberal”, and the bastards have stolen the previously decent word “conservative”.
I would define progressive as an antonym for reactionary in the political sense.
“Progressive” has turned into a dirty word like “liberal”, and the bastards have stolen the previously decent word “conservative”.
I would define progressive as an antonym for reactionary in the political sense.
“Progressive” has turned into a dirty word like “liberal”, and the bastards have stolen the previously decent word “conservative”.
I would define progressive as an antonym for reactionary in the political sense.
Meanwhile the steel industry is asking for a trillion dollars over the next two years.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/02/business/02steel.html?hp
Meanwhile the steel industry is asking for a trillion dollars over the next two years.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/02/business/02steel.html?hp
TBB,
Wouldn’t it be more of a surprise if there was a failing industry that didn’t get in line and start the bargaining with a ridiculous amount?
JT, As a retired public servant of some 40 years I appreciate the nod to the fact that public isn’t any different than privately funded in terms of the desire to do well, or the number of people who are simply along for the ride.
What people like Doug love to cite as public sector incompetence is usually exaggerated by programs trying to do more with less, and rules passed by federal and state legislatures that have political agendas (bless you my little medicaid program).
I suspect that unless you still live in Free Market Fantasy it’s wee hard to be in the private sector and claim the high road anymore Doug. A lot of those captains of industry you trust so much are not only doing not so well for themselves, they are doing really poorly by the rest of us. The lie of private v. public isn’t as easy to sell these days, but you can keep repeating it to yourself. Just chant it like a mantra and it will keep you warm and toasty in your cardboard box after you get laid off.
Oh, and Progressive with a capital P is nothing but a code word for Liberal, which was so smeared by the neo-fascist Right wing, that no one wants to put it on and wear it anymore.
I really prefer it. Liberal that is. Progressive sounds like an insurance company (which it is also), and I don’t like that association.
TBB,
Wouldn’t it be more of a surprise if there was a failing industry that didn’t get in line and start the bargaining with a ridiculous amount?
JT, As a retired public servant of some 40 years I appreciate the nod to the fact that public isn’t any different than privately funded in terms of the desire to do well, or the number of people who are simply along for the ride.
What people like Doug love to cite as public sector incompetence is usually exaggerated by programs trying to do more with less, and rules passed by federal and state legislatures that have political agendas (bless you my little medicaid program).
I suspect that unless you still live in Free Market Fantasy it’s wee hard to be in the private sector and claim the high road anymore Doug. A lot of those captains of industry you trust so much are not only doing not so well for themselves, they are doing really poorly by the rest of us. The lie of private v. public isn’t as easy to sell these days, but you can keep repeating it to yourself. Just chant it like a mantra and it will keep you warm and toasty in your cardboard box after you get laid off.
Oh, and Progressive with a capital P is nothing but a code word for Liberal, which was so smeared by the neo-fascist Right wing, that no one wants to put it on and wear it anymore.
I really prefer it. Liberal that is. Progressive sounds like an insurance company (which it is also), and I don’t like that association.
TBB,
Wouldn’t it be more of a surprise if there was a failing industry that didn’t get in line and start the bargaining with a ridiculous amount?
JT, As a retired public servant of some 40 years I appreciate the nod to the fact that public isn’t any different than privately funded in terms of the desire to do well, or the number of people who are simply along for the ride.
What people like Doug love to cite as public sector incompetence is usually exaggerated by programs trying to do more with less, and rules passed by federal and state legislatures that have political agendas (bless you my little medicaid program).
I suspect that unless you still live in Free Market Fantasy it’s wee hard to be in the private sector and claim the high road anymore Doug. A lot of those captains of industry you trust so much are not only doing not so well for themselves, they are doing really poorly by the rest of us. The lie of private v. public isn’t as easy to sell these days, but you can keep repeating it to yourself. Just chant it like a mantra and it will keep you warm and toasty in your cardboard box after you get laid off.
Oh, and Progressive with a capital P is nothing but a code word for Liberal, which was so smeared by the neo-fascist Right wing, that no one wants to put it on and wear it anymore.
I really prefer it. Liberal that is. Progressive sounds like an insurance company (which it is also), and I don’t like that association.
Barak Obama is taking over the lease on a “handyman’s dream”, as the realty listings would call it. Prioritizing is obviously the first thing that needs to be done, that, and making sure you have the tools to do the job.
It’s been evident for quite some time that we’ve let the tools get rusty, twisted, damaged and ineffective. Since the Administrative branch only proposes and the legislative disposes, anything to make Congress an actual representative of the common good is critical.
I think a large percentage of Americans are taking a hard look at the situation for the first time in a long time and are shocked that we’ve managed to get into such a state. The trouble is, Congresspersons didn’t sneak in while no one was looking – we PUT them there. The last two congressional election cycles indicate clearly that voters are looking at change, but voting the rascals out doesn’t do much if the system itself is creating the rascals.
Terms like conservative, liberal, progressive, free-market, social conscience, etc., have been distorted to the point where they are meaningless other than, as many of you have pointed out, as a pejorative. The agenda is diffuse, the hot-button issues too many. I don’t mean to speak for Jon, but I believe this Gordian knot is the wellspring for his desire for a New Federalism.
The downside currently is that many states have tapped the bank. The economic downturn has reduced the ability of states to be self-reliant, as the recent spate of governors going hat in hand to the Fed clearly illustrates.
So, I would suggest that the first reform necessary for change is among ourselves. Blind commitment to a given party has not served us well in recent years – partisanship among elected representatives has rendered Congress nearly ineffective. Being euchred by catchphrases such as “national defense”, “self regulating markets” and “the war on (fill in the blank)” as a smokescreen to allow the select few to do whatever they want whenever they want is yet another situation we cannot afford.
We, as a people, need to shelve certain issues for a while and focus on practical, pragmatic solutions. While I don’t necessarily agree with all of Obama’s cabinet choices, it does seem indicative of a fellow looking for the best tool to do the job at hand. Yes, there are political machinations involved in a lot of his choices, but since we have a partisan paralyze legislature, right now, he HAS to operate with those considerations. Again, it may not be the BEST tool, but he seems to have chosen the NECESSARY tool as often as possible.
America cannot afford gamesmanship right now. Winning and losing are irrelevant to the greater need to reconstruct the basic economic platform necessary for out survival. This cannot be done with panic driven legislation such as TARP – it can only be done by practical, logical, long-term building block measures that can act as a foundation for the future.
We need to re-establish industry as a critical component of our economics – we need to re-establish the manner in which banks operate, how investment markets are overseen and how federal dollars are allocated. This can only happen if the American people are part of the process. We need to watch and react to our elected representatives voting records, we need to demand that they need to re-establish their relationship with their constituents. Last year, the house was in session for 118 days. How many of the remaining 247 days were your representatives back on their home ground? The Senate did a bit better at 179/186, but still we’re talking about a lot of time gone invisible.
Campaign finance reform? Absolutely. Full disclosure of lobbyist calendars? Again, critical. Face it, we’re not going to get rid of lobbyists and special interest groups, but an official required by law to report who they met with and what the topic(s) of discussion were would go a long way towards curbing the level of influence lobbyist exercise over Congress currently.
I could go on, but I reckon most people reading this are already suffering from glazed-eyeball syndrome at this point.
Thanks for the rant space.
Barak Obama is taking over the lease on a “handyman’s dream”, as the realty listings would call it. Prioritizing is obviously the first thing that needs to be done, that, and making sure you have the tools to do the job.
It’s been evident for quite some time that we’ve let the tools get rusty, twisted, damaged and ineffective. Since the Administrative branch only proposes and the legislative disposes, anything to make Congress an actual representative of the common good is critical.
I think a large percentage of Americans are taking a hard look at the situation for the first time in a long time and are shocked that we’ve managed to get into such a state. The trouble is, Congresspersons didn’t sneak in while no one was looking – we PUT them there. The last two congressional election cycles indicate clearly that voters are looking at change, but voting the rascals out doesn’t do much if the system itself is creating the rascals.
Terms like conservative, liberal, progressive, free-market, social conscience, etc., have been distorted to the point where they are meaningless other than, as many of you have pointed out, as a pejorative. The agenda is diffuse, the hot-button issues too many. I don’t mean to speak for Jon, but I believe this Gordian knot is the wellspring for his desire for a New Federalism.
The downside currently is that many states have tapped the bank. The economic downturn has reduced the ability of states to be self-reliant, as the recent spate of governors going hat in hand to the Fed clearly illustrates.
So, I would suggest that the first reform necessary for change is among ourselves. Blind commitment to a given party has not served us well in recent years – partisanship among elected representatives has rendered Congress nearly ineffective. Being euchred by catchphrases such as “national defense”, “self regulating markets” and “the war on (fill in the blank)” as a smokescreen to allow the select few to do whatever they want whenever they want is yet another situation we cannot afford.
We, as a people, need to shelve certain issues for a while and focus on practical, pragmatic solutions. While I don’t necessarily agree with all of Obama’s cabinet choices, it does seem indicative of a fellow looking for the best tool to do the job at hand. Yes, there are political machinations involved in a lot of his choices, but since we have a partisan paralyze legislature, right now, he HAS to operate with those considerations. Again, it may not be the BEST tool, but he seems to have chosen the NECESSARY tool as often as possible.
America cannot afford gamesmanship right now. Winning and losing are irrelevant to the greater need to reconstruct the basic economic platform necessary for out survival. This cannot be done with panic driven legislation such as TARP – it can only be done by practical, logical, long-term building block measures that can act as a foundation for the future.
We need to re-establish industry as a critical component of our economics – we need to re-establish the manner in which banks operate, how investment markets are overseen and how federal dollars are allocated. This can only happen if the American people are part of the process. We need to watch and react to our elected representatives voting records, we need to demand that they need to re-establish their relationship with their constituents. Last year, the house was in session for 118 days. How many of the remaining 247 days were your representatives back on their home ground? The Senate did a bit better at 179/186, but still we’re talking about a lot of time gone invisible.
Campaign finance reform? Absolutely. Full disclosure of lobbyist calendars? Again, critical. Face it, we’re not going to get rid of lobbyists and special interest groups, but an official required by law to report who they met with and what the topic(s) of discussion were would go a long way towards curbing the level of influence lobbyist exercise over Congress currently.
I could go on, but I reckon most people reading this are already suffering from glazed-eyeball syndrome at this point.
Thanks for the rant space.
Barak Obama is taking over the lease on a “handyman’s dream”, as the realty listings would call it. Prioritizing is obviously the first thing that needs to be done, that, and making sure you have the tools to do the job.
It’s been evident for quite some time that we’ve let the tools get rusty, twisted, damaged and ineffective. Since the Administrative branch only proposes and the legislative disposes, anything to make Congress an actual representative of the common good is critical.
I think a large percentage of Americans are taking a hard look at the situation for the first time in a long time and are shocked that we’ve managed to get into such a state. The trouble is, Congresspersons didn’t sneak in while no one was looking – we PUT them there. The last two congressional election cycles indicate clearly that voters are looking at change, but voting the rascals out doesn’t do much if the system itself is creating the rascals.
Terms like conservative, liberal, progressive, free-market, social conscience, etc., have been distorted to the point where they are meaningless other than, as many of you have pointed out, as a pejorative. The agenda is diffuse, the hot-button issues too many. I don’t mean to speak for Jon, but I believe this Gordian knot is the wellspring for his desire for a New Federalism.
The downside currently is that many states have tapped the bank. The economic downturn has reduced the ability of states to be self-reliant, as the recent spate of governors going hat in hand to the Fed clearly illustrates.
So, I would suggest that the first reform necessary for change is among ourselves. Blind commitment to a given party has not served us well in recent years – partisanship among elected representatives has rendered Congress nearly ineffective. Being euchred by catchphrases such as “national defense”, “self regulating markets” and “the war on (fill in the blank)” as a smokescreen to allow the select few to do whatever they want whenever they want is yet another situation we cannot afford.
We, as a people, need to shelve certain issues for a while and focus on practical, pragmatic solutions. While I don’t necessarily agree with all of Obama’s cabinet choices, it does seem indicative of a fellow looking for the best tool to do the job at hand. Yes, there are political machinations involved in a lot of his choices, but since we have a partisan paralyze legislature, right now, he HAS to operate with those considerations. Again, it may not be the BEST tool, but he seems to have chosen the NECESSARY tool as often as possible.
America cannot afford gamesmanship right now. Winning and losing are irrelevant to the greater need to reconstruct the basic economic platform necessary for out survival. This cannot be done with panic driven legislation such as TARP – it can only be done by practical, logical, long-term building block measures that can act as a foundation for the future.
We need to re-establish industry as a critical component of our economics – we need to re-establish the manner in which banks operate, how investment markets are overseen and how federal dollars are allocated. This can only happen if the American people are part of the process. We need to watch and react to our elected representatives voting records, we need to demand that they need to re-establish their relationship with their constituents. Last year, the house was in session for 118 days. How many of the remaining 247 days were your representatives back on their home ground? The Senate did a bit better at 179/186, but still we’re talking about a lot of time gone invisible.
Campaign finance reform? Absolutely. Full disclosure of lobbyist calendars? Again, critical. Face it, we’re not going to get rid of lobbyists and special interest groups, but an official required by law to report who they met with and what the topic(s) of discussion were would go a long way towards curbing the level of influence lobbyist exercise over Congress currently.
I could go on, but I reckon most people reading this are already suffering from glazed-eyeball syndrome at this point.
Thanks for the rant space.
TBB — is that the “steel” industry, or the “Steal” industry?
Back in 1976, 1-9-7-6, U. S. Steel (now USX or something) ran its payroll and personnel and other functions on a vacuum-tube-based computer with some puny amount of computational clout. Screw giving IBM any money to “modernize,” if it was good enough for Grampa, it’s good enough for me. As an EPA employee, I go got watch while USS negotiated a neat deal with the States of Indiana and Illinois and the federal governement to get a pass on environmental compliance and cleanup “in exchange” for keeping the mills and plants at the south end of Lake Michigan open. All those Wonderful Union Jobs, you know. The company got some good deals from the Gary city gov’t and unions too.
And what do you know? Very shortly, “market forces over which they had no control” REQUIRED that they shut the mills and walk away from some pretty big messes. And somehow, yet and still, the company had the CASH to buy Marathon Oil (I think that was the one) with huge proven oil reserves. Around the time of the name change to USX, a moniker selected by one of those focus-group-millioin-dollar-PR-exercises. SX — like all the other places that pair is used, could it have anything to do with S_X, in that particular case as in “screw the public”?
Labels count, as that chithead Newt “The Hawaiian — KomeonIwannalayababe, Family Values” Gingrich has re-taught us. A couple that really chap me:
“Department of Defense:” Up until 1949, there was a “War Department.” In that year, in the PR coup of the centuries, the Washington whiz kids renamed it the “Defense Department.” Because, after all, WHO CAN BE AGAINST “DEFENSE?” Didn’t one of our great past leaders tell us, “Millions for defense, but not one cent for tribute”?
And, I would hope to be a CITIZEN, NOT A G-D “CONSUMER!” Seeing ourselves as lowly and grasping “consumers” with “rights to products” instead of “rights to values like liberty and decency” is a big part of where we grovel today.
Oligarchy? Could we maybe swing that spotlight over on the right wing of the stage, and look, there’s “Kleptocracy” dancing with his favorite date, “Plutocracy!” Oops! Kill that light! the censors won’t let us show those two engaging in gang-rape of the idiot Consumer! who has forgotten how to defend hisnherself by standing up as a Citizen!
TBB — is that the “steel” industry, or the “Steal” industry?
Back in 1976, 1-9-7-6, U. S. Steel (now USX or something) ran its payroll and personnel and other functions on a vacuum-tube-based computer with some puny amount of computational clout. Screw giving IBM any money to “modernize,” if it was good enough for Grampa, it’s good enough for me. As an EPA employee, I go got watch while USS negotiated a neat deal with the States of Indiana and Illinois and the federal governement to get a pass on environmental compliance and cleanup “in exchange” for keeping the mills and plants at the south end of Lake Michigan open. All those Wonderful Union Jobs, you know. The company got some good deals from the Gary city gov’t and unions too.
And what do you know? Very shortly, “market forces over which they had no control” REQUIRED that they shut the mills and walk away from some pretty big messes. And somehow, yet and still, the company had the CASH to buy Marathon Oil (I think that was the one) with huge proven oil reserves. Around the time of the name change to USX, a moniker selected by one of those focus-group-millioin-dollar-PR-exercises. SX — like all the other places that pair is used, could it have anything to do with S_X, in that particular case as in “screw the public”?
Labels count, as that chithead Newt “The Hawaiian — KomeonIwannalayababe, Family Values” Gingrich has re-taught us. A couple that really chap me:
“Department of Defense:” Up until 1949, there was a “War Department.” In that year, in the PR coup of the centuries, the Washington whiz kids renamed it the “Defense Department.” Because, after all, WHO CAN BE AGAINST “DEFENSE?” Didn’t one of our great past leaders tell us, “Millions for defense, but not one cent for tribute”?
And, I would hope to be a CITIZEN, NOT A G-D “CONSUMER!” Seeing ourselves as lowly and grasping “consumers” with “rights to products” instead of “rights to values like liberty and decency” is a big part of where we grovel today.
Oligarchy? Could we maybe swing that spotlight over on the right wing of the stage, and look, there’s “Kleptocracy” dancing with his favorite date, “Plutocracy!” Oops! Kill that light! the censors won’t let us show those two engaging in gang-rape of the idiot Consumer! who has forgotten how to defend hisnherself by standing up as a Citizen!
TBB — is that the “steel” industry, or the “Steal” industry?
Back in 1976, 1-9-7-6, U. S. Steel (now USX or something) ran its payroll and personnel and other functions on a vacuum-tube-based computer with some puny amount of computational clout. Screw giving IBM any money to “modernize,” if it was good enough for Grampa, it’s good enough for me. As an EPA employee, I go got watch while USS negotiated a neat deal with the States of Indiana and Illinois and the federal governement to get a pass on environmental compliance and cleanup “in exchange” for keeping the mills and plants at the south end of Lake Michigan open. All those Wonderful Union Jobs, you know. The company got some good deals from the Gary city gov’t and unions too.
And what do you know? Very shortly, “market forces over which they had no control” REQUIRED that they shut the mills and walk away from some pretty big messes. And somehow, yet and still, the company had the CASH to buy Marathon Oil (I think that was the one) with huge proven oil reserves. Around the time of the name change to USX, a moniker selected by one of those focus-group-millioin-dollar-PR-exercises. SX — like all the other places that pair is used, could it have anything to do with S_X, in that particular case as in “screw the public”?
Labels count, as that chithead Newt “The Hawaiian — KomeonIwannalayababe, Family Values” Gingrich has re-taught us. A couple that really chap me:
“Department of Defense:” Up until 1949, there was a “War Department.” In that year, in the PR coup of the centuries, the Washington whiz kids renamed it the “Defense Department.” Because, after all, WHO CAN BE AGAINST “DEFENSE?” Didn’t one of our great past leaders tell us, “Millions for defense, but not one cent for tribute”?
And, I would hope to be a CITIZEN, NOT A G-D “CONSUMER!” Seeing ourselves as lowly and grasping “consumers” with “rights to products” instead of “rights to values like liberty and decency” is a big part of where we grovel today.
Oligarchy? Could we maybe swing that spotlight over on the right wing of the stage, and look, there’s “Kleptocracy” dancing with his favorite date, “Plutocracy!” Oops! Kill that light! the censors won’t let us show those two engaging in gang-rape of the idiot Consumer! who has forgotten how to defend hisnherself by standing up as a Citizen!
Hey Jon,
How’s your Bear Flag Republic doing these days?
Oh, have Democrats in your idiot Legislature spent you so far into the Poorhouse that y’all find your feet in hardening concrete? Heavens. Perhaps you should’ve heeded the warnings. Do you suppose maybe the people of California will turn elsewhere for political leadership, in view of the deadly foolishness of Democratic leaders? Do you think? Because, if they don’t do, then our whole democratic experiment, in America these past 250 years, is a waste.
The Democratic Party, USA, destroyed California.
Hey Jon,
How’s your Bear Flag Republic doing these days?
Oh, have Democrats in your idiot Legislature spent you so far into the Poorhouse that y’all find your feet in hardening concrete? Heavens. Perhaps you should’ve heeded the warnings. Do you suppose maybe the people of California will turn elsewhere for political leadership, in view of the deadly foolishness of Democratic leaders? Do you think? Because, if they don’t do, then our whole democratic experiment, in America these past 250 years, is a waste.
The Democratic Party, USA, destroyed California.
Hugo, that’s so snarky as to resemble pure hostility. Are things much better where you are?
Hugo, that’s so snarky as to resemble pure hostility. Are things much better where you are?
Hugo, that’s so snarky as to resemble pure hostility. Are things much better where you are?
I know it’s snarky, Rick. And so gutfelt I can hardly say.
Where we are, are a bunch of RINO’s who re-badged after they’d been Southern Democrats. So, bidness-as-usual. The same insane spending-to-get-ahead. With the same ineffectual governor who stands tall while failing to provide the service expected of a governor on a Briggs & Stratton. Spend. Spend. Spend.
Isn’t it the most basic point of federalism that spending may be brought more closely to accountability, and thereby brought under better control?
California is toast, Mr. Turner. It should have been an example, but instead it’s ruinous. Here, the Republicans did it. There, the Democrats. Other than that, no difference.
I know it’s snarky, Rick. And so gutfelt I can hardly say.
Where we are, are a bunch of RINO’s who re-badged after they’d been Southern Democrats. So, bidness-as-usual. The same insane spending-to-get-ahead. With the same ineffectual governor who stands tall while failing to provide the service expected of a governor on a Briggs & Stratton. Spend. Spend. Spend.
Isn’t it the most basic point of federalism that spending may be brought more closely to accountability, and thereby brought under better control?
California is toast, Mr. Turner. It should have been an example, but instead it’s ruinous. Here, the Republicans did it. There, the Democrats. Other than that, no difference.
I know it’s snarky, Rick. And so gutfelt I can hardly say.
Where we are, are a bunch of RINO’s who re-badged after they’d been Southern Democrats. So, bidness-as-usual. The same insane spending-to-get-ahead. With the same ineffectual governor who stands tall while failing to provide the service expected of a governor on a Briggs & Stratton. Spend. Spend. Spend.
Isn’t it the most basic point of federalism that spending may be brought more closely to accountability, and thereby brought under better control?
California is toast, Mr. Turner. It should have been an example, but instead it’s ruinous. Here, the Republicans did it. There, the Democrats. Other than that, no difference.
“Meet the new boss; same as the old boss” But we will get fooled again…
“Meet the new boss; same as the old boss” But we will get fooled again…
“Meet the new boss; same as the old boss” But we will get fooled again…
God, Rick, can’t you just imagine how your innumerable mayors loaded up the truck at the invitation of their legislators — a trillion’s the limit? Shall we count the ways? Oh for Heaven’s sake. It’s a nightmare. Who wants a public swimming pool? Who a tennis court? And who, midnight basketball? Artie Sammish used to say that the art of manipulating California was contained in knowing who wanted whiskey, who a whore, and who a baked potato. Unruh said much the same thing when he ran the state. California can be either the best or the worst of us. Right now it’s the worst.
God, Rick, can’t you just imagine how your innumerable mayors loaded up the truck at the invitation of their legislators — a trillion’s the limit? Shall we count the ways? Oh for Heaven’s sake. It’s a nightmare. Who wants a public swimming pool? Who a tennis court? And who, midnight basketball? Artie Sammish used to say that the art of manipulating California was contained in knowing who wanted whiskey, who a whore, and who a baked potato. Unruh said much the same thing when he ran the state. California can be either the best or the worst of us. Right now it’s the worst.
Hugo-Maggie and I went down to one of those well maintained public California Beaches you rant about, with our dogs yesterday. We cleared our minds and ran our dogs and there wasn’t a piece of trash in sight. It was glorious. I’m willing to pay my taxes for that, even if they have to go up a bit. My solution is raise the sales tax.
I would not trade my beaches and my taxes for your “city impovements”.
Hugo-Maggie and I went down to one of those well maintained public California Beaches you rant about, with our dogs yesterday. We cleared our minds and ran our dogs and there wasn’t a piece of trash in sight. It was glorious. I’m willing to pay my taxes for that, even if they have to go up a bit. My solution is raise the sales tax.
I would not trade my beaches and my taxes for your “city impovements”.
JTM- I really liked your take on the downfall of local retail.. I’m trying to take that a step further in the new post on advertising.
JTM- I really liked your take on the downfall of local retail.. I’m trying to take that a step further in the new post on advertising.
I wonder how many of these titans of finance and industry have complained bitterly about Ronald Reagan’s nemesis, the Welfare Queen in her Cadillac. (Does anyone have a figure on her bailout?)
As Richard Thompson sang
Tycoons and barrow boys will rob you
And throw you on the side
And all because they love themselves sincerely
I wonder how many of these titans of finance and industry have complained bitterly about Ronald Reagan’s nemesis, the Welfare Queen in her Cadillac. (Does anyone have a figure on her bailout?)
As Richard Thompson sang
Tycoons and barrow boys will rob you
And throw you on the side
And all because they love themselves sincerely
Hugo, I would offer that maybe the problem is with the “political culture,” and your partisanship for the Right is as foolish as the partisanship for the Left. Down here in Florida, it’s pretty much the Jeb Bush Republicrats who have spent us into a $4 or $10 or $100 billion hole. And turned the state into one vast grab-bag for developers and Big Sugar and lots of other Bigs. And are raiding the semi-hidden piggy banks put aside by more prudent statesmen a few decades ago.
Seems to me that guys and gals in $4,000 suits with seegars in their pockets and dollar $igns for eyes pretty much fly flags of convenience, not of conviction (except for the few that are successfully prosecuted, I guess). A little ‘double entendre’ there.
Why does “everyman” Charlie Brown always fall for Lucy’s promise to really hold the football for him THIS time. AAAUUUGGH!
Hugo, I would offer that maybe the problem is with the “political culture,” and your partisanship for the Right is as foolish as the partisanship for the Left. Down here in Florida, it’s pretty much the Jeb Bush Republicrats who have spent us into a $4 or $10 or $100 billion hole. And turned the state into one vast grab-bag for developers and Big Sugar and lots of other Bigs. And are raiding the semi-hidden piggy banks put aside by more prudent statesmen a few decades ago.
Seems to me that guys and gals in $4,000 suits with seegars in their pockets and dollar $igns for eyes pretty much fly flags of convenience, not of conviction (except for the few that are successfully prosecuted, I guess). A little ‘double entendre’ there.
Why does “everyman” Charlie Brown always fall for Lucy’s promise to really hold the football for him THIS time. AAAUUUGGH!
Jon, thanks for the kind words. My real gripe is with “management,” which function is maybe necessary to some extent, but which becomes just a pathway to insatiable greed and power trips for way too many. At least the way it is taught and preached right up to today, as far as I can tell.
People want and probably need to be led, but the managers at my former national billion-dollar employer company went from a fairly healthy balanced level of encouraging common effort to a top-down, fear-intimidation-and-impossible-demand-driven “corporate dysculture” aimed pretty squarely at enriching the few at the expense of the many. One little pair of data points on your graph showing the widening gulf between wages and productivity, the gap going into the top pockets of a lot of useless suits.
Did I mention that the latest set of whiz kids running my former employer are closing lots of stores, and cutting work hours back to get employees of long standing to quit rather than being “let go?” Effin’ cowards. All in an effort to get a little buoyancy in the bubble known as “share price.” Which will make another set of options worth a bigger bundle. And like all those other CEO types and other “high-level executives” out there, governance is out the window in favor of self-reward via “compensation committees” and captive boards and all the other trickery. Incompetence in the basic “mission” is its own self-reward.
Sorry if I splashed you with the foam that’s been building in my mouth.
Jon, thanks for the kind words. My real gripe is with “management,” which function is maybe necessary to some extent, but which becomes just a pathway to insatiable greed and power trips for way too many. At least the way it is taught and preached right up to today, as far as I can tell.
People want and probably need to be led, but the managers at my former national billion-dollar employer company went from a fairly healthy balanced level of encouraging common effort to a top-down, fear-intimidation-and-impossible-demand-driven “corporate dysculture” aimed pretty squarely at enriching the few at the expense of the many. One little pair of data points on your graph showing the widening gulf between wages and productivity, the gap going into the top pockets of a lot of useless suits.
Did I mention that the latest set of whiz kids running my former employer are closing lots of stores, and cutting work hours back to get employees of long standing to quit rather than being “let go?” Effin’ cowards. All in an effort to get a little buoyancy in the bubble known as “share price.” Which will make another set of options worth a bigger bundle. And like all those other CEO types and other “high-level executives” out there, governance is out the window in favor of self-reward via “compensation committees” and captive boards and all the other trickery. Incompetence in the basic “mission” is its own self-reward.
Sorry if I splashed you with the foam that’s been building in my mouth.
But then ‘T Bone, Mr. Thompson would go for anything that “hasn’t got a bone in her nose”.
And Jon, your beaches. For heaven’s sake, don’t get me started about your beaches. Can anyone surf off Santa Monica? Answer: No. It’s absurd. We used to do, though. But for decades nobody is safe swimming or surfing off there, as the effluent long ago turned up ear-aches and diarrhea. Do you really think that’s the sine qua non of what your exhorbitant taxes pay for in Los Angeles County?
My ass.
But then ‘T Bone, Mr. Thompson would go for anything that “hasn’t got a bone in her nose”.
And Jon, your beaches. For heaven’s sake, don’t get me started about your beaches. Can anyone surf off Santa Monica? Answer: No. It’s absurd. We used to do, though. But for decades nobody is safe swimming or surfing off there, as the effluent long ago turned up ear-aches and diarrhea. Do you really think that’s the sine qua non of what your exhorbitant taxes pay for in Los Angeles County?
My ass.
Hugo, Your vitriol focused on CA is ????? puzzling, silly, not very apt to cause productive change, all of the above, none of the above.
California is a nation state that happens to be inside the federation of states, just like the old South used to be a nation state inside the federation of states aka the good old USofA. All of them are sucking wind right now, and many of them are going to go broke. Not because California is any different from The Old South, or The Pacific NorthWest, of The Heartland, but because they all share the same cultural mistakes of letting special interests run the government and betting every thing on the come.
But you do seem to thrive when you have a whipping boy, and lately California seems to be the one stuck in your craw like a sideways bone.
Last time I looked, Georgia, whether The Old South part or that part called Atlanta, wasn’t immune to the same criticisms or in all that good of shape to be calling your neighbors out.
For example could you give us a progress report on the following?
Brunswick Wood Preserving
Camilla Wood Preserving Company
Cedartown Industries, Inc.
Diamond Shamrock Corp. Landfill
Firestone Tire & Rubber Co. (Albany Plant)
Hercules 009 Landfill
Lcp Chemicals Georgia
Marine Corps Logistics Base
Marzone Inc./Chevron Chemical Co.
Mathis Brothers Landfill (South Marble Top Road)
Powersville Site
Robins Air Force Base (Landfill #4/Sludge Lagoon)
T.H. Agriculture & Nutrition Co. (Albany Plant)
Woolfolk Chemical Works, Inc.
We’ll be happy to give a real respectful ear to your CA beaches effluent complaints once we know you’ve tended to your local issues.
Hugo, Your vitriol focused on CA is ????? puzzling, silly, not very apt to cause productive change, all of the above, none of the above.
California is a nation state that happens to be inside the federation of states, just like the old South used to be a nation state inside the federation of states aka the good old USofA. All of them are sucking wind right now, and many of them are going to go broke. Not because California is any different from The Old South, or The Pacific NorthWest, of The Heartland, but because they all share the same cultural mistakes of letting special interests run the government and betting every thing on the come.
But you do seem to thrive when you have a whipping boy, and lately California seems to be the one stuck in your craw like a sideways bone.
Last time I looked, Georgia, whether The Old South part or that part called Atlanta, wasn’t immune to the same criticisms or in all that good of shape to be calling your neighbors out.
For example could you give us a progress report on the following?
Brunswick Wood Preserving
Camilla Wood Preserving Company
Cedartown Industries, Inc.
Diamond Shamrock Corp. Landfill
Firestone Tire & Rubber Co. (Albany Plant)
Hercules 009 Landfill
Lcp Chemicals Georgia
Marine Corps Logistics Base
Marzone Inc./Chevron Chemical Co.
Mathis Brothers Landfill (South Marble Top Road)
Powersville Site
Robins Air Force Base (Landfill #4/Sludge Lagoon)
T.H. Agriculture & Nutrition Co. (Albany Plant)
Woolfolk Chemical Works, Inc.
We’ll be happy to give a real respectful ear to your CA beaches effluent complaints once we know you’ve tended to your local issues.
Hugo is having too much fun in the laboratory of his Vitriol Chemical Co., Inc. whose motto is “The grass is always blacker in the Californian’s yard.” He also does not believe in “think globally, act locally”, and he sure doesn’t want to be thinking about what the TVA might be up to in Georgia.
Hugo is having too much fun in the laboratory of his Vitriol Chemical Co., Inc. whose motto is “The grass is always blacker in the Californian’s yard.” He also does not believe in “think globally, act locally”, and he sure doesn’t want to be thinking about what the TVA might be up to in Georgia.
You guys evidently don’t believe me. Do you really think I’m complaining for effect? $48 Billion is seed-corn money. You can hide 18 in fees. Fine. It’s been done in the past. But fifty billion? Are you kidding me? Have the Democrats who run the Golden State any sense of discipline? Any sense at all? The People of California never will make up that kind of loss. The money simply won’t be there. And so guess who’s going to have to take it in the neck: the vote-less ones, the children. Break out a fucking pie chart, for Heaven’s sake. See how California spends its money. A lot of it goes to Corrections, but the bulk of it to schoolchildren and college students. They’re the ones who will have to pay for this monumental irresponsibility.
Kidding? No.
You guys evidently don’t believe me. Do you really think I’m complaining for effect? $48 Billion is seed-corn money. You can hide 18 in fees. Fine. It’s been done in the past. But fifty billion? Are you kidding me? Have the Democrats who run the Golden State any sense of discipline? Any sense at all? The People of California never will make up that kind of loss. The money simply won’t be there. And so guess who’s going to have to take it in the neck: the vote-less ones, the children. Break out a fucking pie chart, for Heaven’s sake. See how California spends its money. A lot of it goes to Corrections, but the bulk of it to schoolchildren and college students. They’re the ones who will have to pay for this monumental irresponsibility.
Kidding? No.
Hugo, we know things are screwy here, and we don’t need your help to fix anything. We’ve had several idiot governors both Repug and Demonic and a Tammany Hall type legislature for too long. Looks like there will finally be some redistricting, and we’ll see how that might help things. Meanwhile, y’all have got problems of your own in Georgia. Take a look at the stink around you and work on that for a while before wasting your time gleefully doing the schadenfreude thing.
Hugo, we know things are screwy here, and we don’t need your help to fix anything. We’ve had several idiot governors both Repug and Demonic and a Tammany Hall type legislature for too long. Looks like there will finally be some redistricting, and we’ll see how that might help things. Meanwhile, y’all have got problems of your own in Georgia. Take a look at the stink around you and work on that for a while before wasting your time gleefully doing the schadenfreude thing.
Rick you misconstrue me. I’m a fourth-generation Angeleno, and I love your adopted state more fiercely than you ever could do. Why I find myself here in Georgia, for the time being, is nobody’s business, though I love this state too.
I trust you to feel how badly it hurts me that California has been so bad. I’ve never meant it as a taunt, but only a lament. The whole nation looked to you to set an example, and you’ve blown it. You’ve blown it big. And you’re the last sad-sacks to admit it.
Shame on you.
Rick you misconstrue me. I’m a fourth-generation Angeleno, and I love your adopted state more fiercely than you ever could do. Why I find myself here in Georgia, for the time being, is nobody’s business, though I love this state too.
I trust you to feel how badly it hurts me that California has been so bad. I’ve never meant it as a taunt, but only a lament. The whole nation looked to you to set an example, and you’ve blown it. You’ve blown it big. And you’re the last sad-sacks to admit it.
Shame on you.
Rick you misconstrue me. I’m a fourth-generation Angeleno, and I love your adopted state more fiercely than you ever could do. Why I find myself here in Georgia, for the time being, is nobody’s business, though I love this state too.
I trust you to feel how badly it hurts me that California has been so bad. I’ve never meant it as a taunt, but only a lament. The whole nation looked to you to set an example, and you’ve blown it. You’ve blown it big. And you’re the last sad-sacks to admit it.
Shame on you.
“You” as in some sort of irrational definition that includes me as a part of the problem. Not good, Hugo. You’re doing the lumping thing of blaming the victims. I didn’t vote for Willie Brown. I didn’t vote for Grey Davis.
California is simply the canary in the coalmine of America. We’re as fucked up as, but sooner, than most states. We have mostly an immigrant population…and I include the other 49 states as immigrants as well as south of the border residents. We’re an indicator of where it’s going, and I know that’s scarier than shit, but there are “Mexicans” all over your south now. How are you going to teach them English in Atlanta, Hugo? You’re going to have the same shit problems we have but two years later, that’s all. Take heed and take cover, my man, because the crap you love to stick in our face is merely hidden for the time being where you are, but it’s there. You’re going to be dealing with another generation of social upheaval and a shit storm of corruption driven debt before you know it. Take care of your own back yard before you start preaching to us. I don’t think you or anyone can hold Georgia up as a beacon of reasoned and compassionate thought.
As my friend, the director of a noted museum says to her staff: “Bring me solutions, not problems.” Right on, Carolyn…
“You” as in some sort of irrational definition that includes me as a part of the problem. Not good, Hugo. You’re doing the lumping thing of blaming the victims. I didn’t vote for Willie Brown. I didn’t vote for Grey Davis.
California is simply the canary in the coalmine of America. We’re as fucked up as, but sooner, than most states. We have mostly an immigrant population…and I include the other 49 states as immigrants as well as south of the border residents. We’re an indicator of where it’s going, and I know that’s scarier than shit, but there are “Mexicans” all over your south now. How are you going to teach them English in Atlanta, Hugo? You’re going to have the same shit problems we have but two years later, that’s all. Take heed and take cover, my man, because the crap you love to stick in our face is merely hidden for the time being where you are, but it’s there. You’re going to be dealing with another generation of social upheaval and a shit storm of corruption driven debt before you know it. Take care of your own back yard before you start preaching to us. I don’t think you or anyone can hold Georgia up as a beacon of reasoned and compassionate thought.
As my friend, the director of a noted museum says to her staff: “Bring me solutions, not problems.” Right on, Carolyn…
“You” as in some sort of irrational definition that includes me as a part of the problem. Not good, Hugo. You’re doing the lumping thing of blaming the victims. I didn’t vote for Willie Brown. I didn’t vote for Grey Davis.
California is simply the canary in the coalmine of America. We’re as fucked up as, but sooner, than most states. We have mostly an immigrant population…and I include the other 49 states as immigrants as well as south of the border residents. We’re an indicator of where it’s going, and I know that’s scarier than shit, but there are “Mexicans” all over your south now. How are you going to teach them English in Atlanta, Hugo? You’re going to have the same shit problems we have but two years later, that’s all. Take heed and take cover, my man, because the crap you love to stick in our face is merely hidden for the time being where you are, but it’s there. You’re going to be dealing with another generation of social upheaval and a shit storm of corruption driven debt before you know it. Take care of your own back yard before you start preaching to us. I don’t think you or anyone can hold Georgia up as a beacon of reasoned and compassionate thought.
As my friend, the director of a noted museum says to her staff: “Bring me solutions, not problems.” Right on, Carolyn…
I just brought you a solution, you liar: turn them all out of office. You didn’t like my solution, so you lied and denied that I offered one.
If you want fiscal solutions, I’ve got plenty of them, but you are such a liar that you deny the existence of a fiscal problem. How proud you must be. Go back to Tasmania.
I just brought you a solution, you liar: turn them all out of office. You didn’t like my solution, so you lied and denied that I offered one.
If you want fiscal solutions, I’ve got plenty of them, but you are such a liar that you deny the existence of a fiscal problem. How proud you must be. Go back to Tasmania.
I just brought you a solution, you liar: turn them all out of office. You didn’t like my solution, so you lied and denied that I offered one.
If you want fiscal solutions, I’ve got plenty of them, but you are such a liar that you deny the existence of a fiscal problem. How proud you must be. Go back to Tasmania.