The Rally

My girlfriend Valerie and I were hanging out at our local beer garden when we ran into a painter friend of ours named David Classe. He invited us to sit with him and a few friends. A woman at our table started the conversation with, “You know 911 was an inside job!” She was convinced and presented us with her evidence. The most important being the building fell exactly like demolition experts did the job.

If you’ve been following my blog, you know I have a few conspiracy theories of my own. Not this time.

I said I honestly believed the planes were full of a dirty fuel that clings. I believed the ignited fuel clung to the steel skeletal structure of the buildings, softening them.The buildings collapsed and it looked like a professional job.

She looked me straight in the eyes and said, “Sheep!”

Considering how many times I’ve called the voting public sheep, I thought this was funny as Hell.

My son Dylan has been begging me for weeks to take him to DC for the Jon Stewart Rally to Restore Sanity. There’s no way I could afford it of course. Luckily we had a rally under the Arch with a jumbotron broadcast of the event. Dylan was very happy. He’s growing into a budding young activist and I’m so proud.

When Stewart hit the stage he pointed out the demographic variety of his audience. I think he was trying to distinguish his event from the mostly white, middle aged demographic of the Tea Party rallies. Unfortunately in St. Louis that was exactly our demographic. We had Hispanics, Asians and whites but I counted only two black people. Valerie later told me she counted four.

By all accounts the head count at Stewart’s rally far exceeded Beck’s. It would be nice to believe there was that percentage of reasonable people over the ignorant xenophobes. Stewart himself hates this kind of rhetoric but I’m as angry as the Tea Partiers.

The rally was as excuse to poke fun at Tea Party events. I wish I’d taken photos of the signs, they were great. One read, “I don’t carry signs!”

Near the end two guys in awkwardly fitting suits carried a large banner that read, “911 was an inside job!” They were overtaken by a mob that hid the banner with their signs. It looked disturbingly like censorship.

Played Like a Trout

Here’s my prediction.

Republicans will take over the house and split the Senate. Government comes to a grinding halt in gridlock.

The economy stagnates because banks refuse to lend. There will be no job creation. The banks will say their hands are tied because of economic uncertainty and the threat of regulation.

Obama will lose in two years to a Republican with strong ties to big money and the threat of regulation will disappear. Banks will start to lend and jobs will come back.

Without regulation minimum wage and all benefits will completely disappear.

Healthcare and Social Security will be privatized. No one will have either because wages will be so low.

The disparity between the “haves” and the “have-nots” will increase.

Big money is already global and their power will continue to increase. The façade that we’re self governed will disappear completely as we accept the fact of corporate servitude.

Big government isn’t the problem, it’s big money. In words they can understand, the Tea Party is being played like a trout.

Too Big to Fail

I’m hearing the expression “Too big to fail” in the news again lately. For effect I said we should nationalize the banks a couple of weeks ago. I was hoping it would get a rise out of someone I was itching to have a fight with. Unfortunately, I have so few readers the only person who responded was a friend.

Too big to fail means these banks are part of our economic infrastructure and we only have two options. We nationalize ‘em or break them into smaller pieces.

When the big banks got their bailouts they sat on the money when they were supposed to make loans available to small businesses.

They still won’t give small business loans and our economy is being strangled. Smaller banks are going under too.

The only way jobs can be created is the banks have to make loans.

I’ve been hearing real estate agents on the radio complaining that the banks won’t even lend money to potential home buyers with good credit scores.

The banks say they’re afraid to lend in this economic climate but they know damn well they’re causing it.

I really think they’re doing it to make the Obama administration seem responsible. They don’t want regulation and want corporate backed Republicans in control.

I believe their behavior is treasonous!

The deficit is not responsible for our country’s job loss in spite of what the Republicans are trying to make us believe.

A More Perfect Union

With the mid term elections closing in the mud is really starting to fly. Incredible accusations are being made. I hear a lot of arguments supported with the phrase, “the intentions of the original framers of The Constitution!”

If an argument is made against their point, they’ll back it up with a quote from a founding father. I’ve done this myself, although I’ve never lied that I knew the founders intentions. I consider anyone who uses the phrase to be a liar and can not respect anything they say.

The original states, except Rhode Island, collectively appointed 70 individuals to the Constitutional Convention. Several could not attend. Those who did not attend included Richard Henry Lee, Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Samuel Adams and, John Hancock.
55 delegates attended the Constitutional Convention sessions and only 39 actually signed. Delegates ranged in age from Jonathan Dayton, aged 26, to Benjamin Franklin, aged 81, who was so infirm that he had to be carried to the sessions.

Almost to a man, there were disagreements. The articles were deliberately left a little vague to be argued. The Bill of Rights and further amendments would have to be added.

Constitutional originalism is an incredibly shallow way to view or Constitution.

It’s sad that our “non political” branch of government, The Supreme Court, has gotten so politicized.

The Constitutional constructivist view favored by the conservatives on the court is presumably to keep current justices from creating law. I can respect that, but it’s wrong. Our Constitution is a living document and the court doesn’t get off that easy. The Bill of Rights proves it’s a living document. Real justice will always be a work in progress.

You can’t simply quote one of the founding fathers to prove an argument. That would be like backing an argument with a passage from the bible. You can support any argument that way. The Constitution’s preamble says it all………………

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

I think “more perfect” makes my point.

Corporate Servitude

We are a consumer driven society.

There was a time when the middle class family model went something like; one adult generated income while the other focused on the family. Divorce was rare.

The evolving science of advertising persuaded us we had needs that were beyond our incomes. The cost of living increased too. Both adults would have to work to meet the demands. Child care became an industry.

Our population increased, two income households consumed more and our economy grew. We seemed to have infinite resources and everyone was working. The cost of living kept going up. Our economy would keep growing as long as our population did. We have a growth based economy.

The cost of living began to exceed two incomes and people began to borrow. Lending institutions became powerful lobbyists and usury rules were dispensed with. Interest rates are so high everyone struggles just to meet payments.

Everyone had to borrow against their mortgages. Credit card debt would go back up.

Lending institutions found ways to circumvent regulations by passing borrowers debt to different institutions down the food chain. Without the threat of bad debt lenders took ridiculous chances on borrowers that had no business borrowing.

I remember four months in a row I had to make my house payments out to a different bank.

I hear the argument that people need to practice restraint. I’m not sure our society really allows it under the current model.

When people save their money they’re accused of strangling the economy.

Our economy used to be driven by manufacturing. Those days are gone forever. Money is our only industry now and we might as well get used to corporate servitude.