ECONOMY: AIG Bonuses Please...

Hey, we all are pissed off about AIG and those million dollar bonuses; the whole thing makes no sense at all. But somebody must know something – right? How can our government throw around billions of dollars and not have strings attached. Well, it has and how dumb does the whole country look now?

It started with Paulson and Bernake so they shoulder some of the responsibility with Paulson shouldering the most. He got caught with his pants down and just plain panicked. He panicked everyone else around him with the whole “the sky is falling routine” and it worked.

When a bank goes under, the Feds come at night and just take over. I have seen it on “60 Minutes”; a whole team just descends on the bank and takes over. AIG was different; they were just sent a check.

I guess AIG was too big to fail; it would have brought down many others with it. Some say it would have been preferable to the bloody mess unfolding today – they may have a point.

AIG was too big and is too big to govern properly. It was the work of one guy who in the end, created a monster even he could not control. Without rules and regulations things like that can happen and did happen. Was someone in government watching – no but maybe someone will now.

Paying million dollar bonuses to employees that created the mess is a joke but one of the excuses I heard for the bonuses was that those people getting the bonuses are the only ones that can unravel the mess because they are the ones that created it? If they don’t stay and fix the mess, it all just collapses to zero; trillions to zero. Think about that for awhile!

We still should be able to field financial teams that can go into even a giant like AIG and create a game plan to clean the mess up. This could actually help unemployment a little by giving all the unemployed finance whiz kids a job and a real mission, something that actually helps the country and not just their bank accounts.

RELIGION: Pope is dumb as dirt!

Pope Benedict is visiting Africa. He has decided to share his vast wisdom with the African people. He has proclaimed that using condoms will not prevent or cure AIDS or even lessen the incidence of AIDS. In fact it will make things worst. Only ABSTINENCE from sex will cure AIDS.

These are the wisdom words of the great white father who speaks for god and god must know what prevents AIDS – right?

Sarah Palin’s teenage daughter, the one that got pregnant during the political campaign, called her conservative mother’s insistence on “abstinence” instead of sex education with contraception instruction, unrealistic and unworkable – obviously – take it from one that knows.

I am not going to teach the Pope how AIDS gets transmitted or about what the medical profession knows about AIDS and its prevention, I will just say that this Pope, with all his purported intellectual brilliance, is dumber than dirt, to use an old Southern phrase.

He cannot hope that intelligent people would listen to his words with any sense of seriousness. The fact that he thinks he can get away with uttering such absurdities means that he considers his flock also dumb as dirt or hopes they actually are dumb as dirt because if they are not, they will see how sick the Catholic Church really is.

ECONOMY: Some Must Fail

We had the federal auto czars in Detroit today, seeing what can be done with the auto giants. I am still of the belief that a structured bankruptcy is the way to go for GM and a sale to a foreign buyer for Chrysler.

The unions are indeed making concessions to get over this financial crisis but believe me, they will be back when things improve and it will be the same ole’ unions again; bankruptcy will eliminate the union contracts for good.

I will also add that the Fed should nationalize some of the big banks. In this way the big boys can be chopped up and sold thus returning the taxpayer’s money with interest. Regulations should be enacted immediately preventing financial institutions from diversifying and growing as have these banking behemoths. I hope we have learned our lesson about eliminating regulations (in this case set by FDR in the time of the Great Depression) to prevent some of the calamity that befell the U.S. in the 1930s. These regulations were enacted for a reason and for us to think they no longer apply is blatant naïveté.

RELIGION: Growing non-religiosity

A recent survey about religion caught my eye and apparently the eyes of all the major news networks who reported the story in prime time.

It appears that more and more Americans are considering themselves as NON-RELIGIOUS. This does not mean they don’t believe in god or a higher power but it does mean that they do no associate with any organized religious institution (church) or belief (religion).

The non-religious are still a minority in this country albeit a growing minority that is now quite visible to the census takers and to me, a sigh of hope and progress.

I do have a “Catholic Moment” to share with you. It seems that in Latin America, a nine (9) year old girl was raped and became pregnant with twins. The doctors determined that allowing her to deliver the twins would probably cost her, her life since she is just a little girl and cannot accommodate the twins in her adolescent body.

Well the Catholic Church in her country and the Vatican in Rome, excommunicated the doctors, her, her family and everybody that helped in the abortion procedure citing that god’s law is above human law.

First, the arrogance the arrogance of the Catholic Church to even pretend they know what god’s law is, is overwhelming but to condemn a innocent girl to death because of their overwhelming ignorance and superstition, is beyond simple humanity and the precept of doing no harm to one’s earthly brother or sister.

This is a prime example why the Catholic Church has lost all relevance for humanity and why I am happy to see people moving away from organized religion or organized idiocy and forming their own opinions as to the reality of spirituality that can accommodate humanism.

RACE: Recent issues out of Washington, DC and Detroit

Race issues (black & white) have recently come up. The first one was by Eric Holder, the new U.S. Attorney General appointed by President Obama who happens to be black.

In a recent speech, he called Americans “cowards” for not being able to discuss “race” with each other; I assume he was talking about both sides. He was defended, sort of, by Leonard Pitts (black), an excellent columnist who writes about race issues often.

I was perplexed by what exactly Holder was getting at. Discussing race issues at a mixed party is the same as bringing up religion or politics at ANY party; it’s just not the bright thing to do.

Leonard Pitts writes that people have a lot to say about race but only with people of one’s own race, never to the opposite side; true for both sides. He also mentions that the people most vocal about race are the “wrong” people to talk about race like Al Sharpton and Jessie Jackson who are just knee-jerk race-card players.

I am in a unique position of having my son married to a black woman and therefore, having her family as part of our family. We do not discuss race because we have no reason to discuss race. We treat each other as family members and not as two distinct races; we do not see color, we see family.

Can we discuss racial issues; in time, we probably can but do we see a need to do that right now – no. I think the election of Obama will lead to some discussions about race in general and I am looking forward to that but I don’t see a “need” to discuss racial issues between us and I don’t feel in any way “guilty” of cowardice for not doing so.

Here in the city of Detroit, race is a major issue as I have discussed previously in the “Black Detroit Culture” blogs. Recently, the black city council made it a major issue by saying the City of Detroit is black and will be run by blacks till its dying day which is imminent. Council President Monica Conyers (young wife of old, U.S. representative Conyers) made it perfectly clear that whites are not and will not be involved in the running of the city.

A few white columnists dared address the blatant racial motivation of the city council but I did not read much from the black columnists. Don’t get me wrong, they did address the incompetence and wrong headedness of the black city council but they did not bring up the raw racist behavior of the council members.

Yes, I do believe that race and racism should be addressed by the general public and I did see a little more courage (instead of cowardly behavior) by the white columnists but I still see hesitation on their part but I see no hesitation on the part of the black council to play the race card as they always have.

There have been a few black letter writers that have taken the black council to task for racist and incompetent actions, so I do see a glimmer of hope. Maybe, as more and more people feel comfortable with integration (at all levels) and stop seeing people in colors and only as people, will we make some progress at racial unity.

Maybe Holder is correct in saying that we are black and white cowards when it comes to race and that we need to bravely join together in removing race as a factor in our normal daily lives and in the life of our cities, states and in our country.

MY VACATION: Mexican Drug Wars

When we returned from our vacation in Ixtapa, Mexico on the Pacific Coast we were appalled to read in our local paper that in the adjoining town to where we were staying (Zihuatanejo) and where many tourists go to shop, a gun battle occurred between the police and drug gangs. This was a major battle with grenades and automatic weapons and the death of four (4) policemen.

It was also disconcerting to read that similar battles are occurring almost on a daily basis; all this while we were there – we did not hear anything or even hear about anything while staying at the resort. We did see a policeman with an M-16 standing guard on the pier though and thought that was a bit strange.

Since being back, I have learned that our State Department is now alerting American tourists to the potential dangers in going to Mexico. I have also learned that in Mexican border towns with the U.S., the local police are quitting in droves due to the killing and beheading of police officers and their families. Mexican federal troops (Federales) are now patrolling these towns and taking on the gangs; in most cases, the gangs are winning.

What the hell is going on? Well, it appears that the American market for drugs is so lucrative that gangs will do about anything to keep supplying that unquenchable thirst. Also, the sophisticated weapons that the gangs are using are all coming from the U.S.

In a recent editorial page article in the Wall Street Journal, the presidents of Columbia, Mexico and other Latin American countries pleaded with the U.S. to end the war on drugs because it is not working and will never work. They point out that their innocent citizens are being slaughtered at ever increasing numbers because of this war on drugs.

I have written about the failure of our war on drugs on numerous occasions and for many, many years but the country and its leaders remained deaf to any suggestions of de-criminalizing drugs. I know it was true under Bush and the moronic right but is it the same with Obama?

The presidents from Latin America wrote that the U.S. plan of eradicating the supply of drugs in the drug producing countries like Columbia (even with U.S. help and money) has not worked and will not work; these countries are producing more drugs than ever.

The officials are asking the U.S. to de-criminalize drugs (also known as legalizing drugs) and control distribution by offering them cheaply through public distribution centers. This will eliminate drug gangs and the killings just as legalizing alcohol eliminated the booze gangs of the 1930s and the constant killings.

The U.S. could tax the sale of the drugs and use the money to establish centers that would deal with drug addiction.

This plan would also empty our jails of drug related criminals and free up law & order forces to concentrate on real crimes and real criminals and maybe even pay attention to terrorist threats against our country.

To me, one solid argument FOR this plan is BOOZE. Liquor is legal and is sold to the public in most stores and drinking and dinning establishments. People get blind drunk, drive their cars in that condition and kill innocent people on a daily basis because using liquor is legal in this country but we won’t allow people to use drugs?

We love to vacation in Mexico but will have to vacation elsewhere until something is done to control the drug wars.; that is a shame for us and the Mexican people who love our vacation dollars and provide (in my opinion) the best service I have experienced anywhere and I do my fair share of traveling and vacationing abroad.

I know Obama has his plate full right now but he is a multi-tasker and probably could at least assign a few people to study the issue. Just recently he freed “science” from eight (8) years of darkness imposed by the Bushies and their regressive mind-set; maybe he can shed some progressive light on our failed war on drugs.

BACK FROM IXTAPA: Back to normal?

HEY, HEY….BACK FROM IXTAPA, MEXICO…..90F, swimming, drinking, sun, food, music…got back to Detroit in shorts because I could not put jeans on in 90+ degrees…it was 20F in Detroit…oh well, back to normal.

It seems the resorts are hurting in this economic climate (we stayed at the MELIA AZUL IXTAPA). There are fewer and fewer Americans and Canadians traveling to Mexico in the winter (although the airport was packed) so the resorts are discounting heavily to the locals which does spoil the experience somewhat – got to do what you got to do, I guess.

The only gripe I had from this trip is the middle aged families that bring their infant(s)/babies on these vacations. I am not talking about kids or even toddlers; I am talking about babies below 12 months old. Some I swear had to be only a couple of months old.

Obviously, the vacations are NOT for the babies since they don’t “enjoy” the vacation because they can’t “experience” it YET! In the plane, they get their ears blocked and scream non-stop making it painful for all on the plane.

These families obviously have money but it appears that they have no brains or could give a shit about others. Leave the kid with the grandparents or if you need to breast feed make a couple of bottles ahead of time for the grandparents or JUST DON’T GO ON THE FUCKIN VACATION UNTIL THE KID IS OLDER!

My grandson has travelled at an early age to Europe but he was visiting his grandparents in Scotland who have never seen him and he was not a baby – get it – have a good reason for going!

RELIGION: Evolution losing ground in U.S.

Let’s switch topics for a while and talk EVOLUTION and the state of the American mind about that subject.

This month is the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin so the media is taking the opportunity to see where we and the world stand on the THEORY OF EVOLUTION. I have blogged extensively in the past, in the defense of evolution but today I will simply say that evolution is a fact that is proven on a daily basis and to somehow not treat it as a scientific fact is just plain stupid and a denial of reality.

I was pleased to read today that many churches here in Michigan were planning on celebrating Darwin and his scientific work by sermonizing on the way religion and science (evolution) can harmoniously coexist in our lives. Many of these clergymen want to defuse the belief that religious people are dumb, ignorant and hostile to science.

Obviously there is a way to work evolution into your belief system but that would entail treating the Bible as a story and not scientific fact; some religions can do that and others obviously cannot. There are also people that just cannot wrap their minds around a concept like evolution and for those there just isn’t any hope.

The statistics on the belief in evolution in 2009 is a little disheartening. In the U.S. the percentage of people believing evolution to be a scientific fact actually went down from 45% to 40% in the last 20 years and that is just hard to fathom.

62% of Americans actually believe that humans were created by god just as we are now with no evolutionary development. That fact is downright scary since physical evidence exists that humankind evolved over millions of years. Just today I was reading about DNA found from Neanderthal remains will help us know more about this “different” race of humans? These guys lived just 30,000 years ago and we have proof!

The U.S. ranked next to last (Turkey was last) in percentage of people NOT believing in evolution; how embarrassing is that!

It is interesting to also see which religions accept evolution and which do not. It is interesting to see that JEWS (77%) accept evolution and it is their Bible that is the biggest obstacle to belief in science. Buddhist (81%), Hindus (80%) and Catholics (58%) also accept evolution but not all of their members do. I believe that these religions just don’t make a big deal out of it and allow members to believe what they want to.

The real dumb-as-dirt religious people are the Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons and Evangelical Christians and I guess they make up the bulk of the American population.

I guess the only reason for us being so far behind other nations in accepting scientific facts as facts is due to our educational system; schools are just not allowed to teach scientific facts as they are in other countries. This is due to societal pressures in local communities that cannot be overcome. Wanting our government to step in is a joke when we see what Bush did with religion and state.

We cannot force people to become enlightened so we must just keep plugging along hopefully making a difference in the small part of society that we can influence; our kids being the biggest part.

ECONOMY: Stmulus good or bad or just wasteful

OK, now that I have that Right-Wing stuff off my chest, let’s get to the stimulus package itself.

As mentioned countless times before, I am a capitalist and I firmly believe in the capitalist system which allows the free market system to guide the economy. I have also said that we, as an economic society, have corrupted the system to the point where it needs to be cleaned and re-established even though the process might be painful. We must never forget why we are the mightiest and richest nation in the world, how we got here and how we will stay here!

The question with the Obama / Democratic Stimulus Package is will it stimulate the economy to return to normality or is this just an extension of our welfare program. Mark Sanford, the Republican governor of South Carolina called it the “Savior Based Economy”.

We know that economic sins have been committed. We have overextended ourselves and do not live within our means. We are basically consumers and our whole economy is based on our insatiable consumer appetite. We know how we got here and the proper thing would be to change our behavior and get back to economic reality BUT our government does not want to allow that.

Our government wants the banks to lend more money out even to people with questionable credit – again. They want us to start buying new cars even though we can’t afford to; the government will give you a tax credit if you do. Basically, our government wants everything to go back to the way it used to be and I find that idiotic and irresponsible; things need to change dramatically, they cannot remain the same or nothing will be fixed for the long term.

Tax cuts will help eventually but not immediately. As a business owner, I will not spend tax cut money to immediately grow my business; I will be cautious and stay low for a while until I feel confident again. Regular tax payers will probably feel the same and will pocket the money (at least the sane ones will).

The rest of the stimulus package appears to me to be more of a welfare check to institutions and individuals that are suffering and I agree that some in our society need help but I question that help coming through a stimulus package.

The infrastructure jobs will create temporary employment and perform projects that are needed like bridge building, etc. I especially like the money going to make our whole health system electronic. That will fundamentally change how things are done in our health system reducing costs and errors and making the system very efficient BUT it will not create jobs or demand.

The capitalist system must be allowed to do its job as painful as it may be for the short term. GM is a good example. I mentioned before that it should have been allowed to go bankrupt with the government stepping in with bankruptcy financing. Bailing out a sinking ship only postpones the inevitable and this week the inevitable needs to happen. GM will come out stronger, leaner and viable, something it is not currently.

The banks should have been handled in the same fashion and Paulson and Bernake should have not been allowed to scare everyone to handing out nearly a trillion dollars with no supervision or accountability going along with the handouts – stupid!

We have already made some horrendous mistakes with our economy, let’s slow down and take a breath of reason.

Democrats are flaming socialists but I don’t believe Obama is. I think he has a good grasp of the economic issues in front of us and will act responsibly; the stimulus package was not altogether a responsible act in my estimation and I hope it doesn’t make things worst or last longer than they have to like in the Great Depression.

More later…………….

I am going to IXTAPA, MEXICO next week; can’t wait!!!!!!!!!

ECONOMY: The politics of the STIMULUS PKG.

I have been bombarded from the Left and the Right about the recently passed STIMULUS PACKAGE. The bulk of the criticism is coming from the Right as expected but I noticed the Democrats using it to attack sitting Republican Congressmen that voted NO on the package as most of them did.

I received a political phone message telling me to call my representative (McCotter – R) and urge him to support the stimulus package because it is good for us, etc……assuming that all in Michigan are FOR the stimulus package and therefore want to throw all anti-stimulus Republicans out of office.

I have written at length about our economic crisis and what can and cannot be done to bring us out of it but I don’t like some of the “politics” behind the current discussion.

I noticed on the Daily Show with Jon Steward that the show’s guest John Sununu, a former Republican Congressman, was railing against the deficit that the stimulus package will create and all the democratic pork in the package BUT he fell silent when the host asked him about the billions spent on a failed Iraq War and why is there no outrage about that? He asked why he supported helping Iraq with billions and billions of taxpayer dollars but somehow cannot support bailing out his own country?

I think Republicans and other right-wing nuts that supported Bush and all the shit he caused, should be reminded EVERY DAY that they fucked up big time and that the new administration now has to fix their screw-ups so their credibility is a big issue and maybe they should not talk so loud!

Another issue I find troubling in some of the Right-wing diatribes making it into my reading pile, is the bringing up non-economic issues like religion and abortion. I may agree with a conservative view of the economy and what should be done BUT I am not a social Neanderthal spouting Dark Age bullshit. When I see that in an otherwise semi-intelligent view of our economy; it negates the entire argument.

Even though I may eventually oppose the Stimulus Package as a Welfare Package, I don’t feel comfortable in the group that agrees with my view. There has to be a place between the Right and the Left that will allow common sense, secularism and a progressive mind set. I will keep looking.

ECONOMY: Cato Institute & Libertarianism

Another full page ad in the new York Times this Sunday caught my eye. It was an ad by the CATO INSTITUTE, a libertarian think tank that believes in open market capitalism with limited government intervention.

The ad was signed by what appears, thousands of academics from all over the country. In the ad, they take President Obama to task for insisting that we need action by our government to help jumpstart the economy.

The CATO institute disagrees with president Obama and do does not believe that government spending is the answer out of our financial dilemma. They cite correctly, that Presidents Hoover and Roosevelt and their massive spending, did nothing to alleviate or end the Great depression. In fact, historians feel their actions really prolonged the Great Depression, like I have been reporting.

They also mention Japan and the “lost decade” in the 1990s where no amount of spending by the government made a difference.
The CATO Institute believes lower taxes, less regulation and the reduction of the national debt, will boost growth.

President Obama mentioned this stance in his first press conference and that he disagreed with doing nothing and allowing capitalism to just work its way out of this mess.

When people ask me if I think the stimulus package will do the trick for us, I have to demure because I don’t really know (no one does) and history tells us that it probably will not do what we want it to do; even Obama hedges his bets and says that we must try something just like Roosevelt did.

The projects in the stimulus package will perform necessary tasks (for the most part) and will help in the long run but will not create the JOBS and the DEMAND generated by those jobs to jumpstart our economy.

I will also add that I disagree wholeheartedly with removing regulations that CATO feels impede progress. I feel we allowed capitalism to be corrupted by unscrupulous people to the point that it no longer was an economic philosophy. If you twist the fundamental rules of an economic system, you no longer can count on that system getting back to health on its own; the basic rules of capitalism must be enforced or we have economic anarchy.

ECONOMY: Some bank CEOs just don't get it!

I happened to notice in Sunday’s new York Times that the bank called WELLS FARGO took out a full page ad that must have cost them (and taxpayers) a pretty penny titled “ The Value of Team Member Recognition”.

In the ad, they decry how financial institutions that receive taxpayer bailout money have to cancel their so called “Team Member Annual Recognition” events where they recognize outstanding employees and party as hell!

Wells Fargo feels that these employee recognition party events are valuable and are not being understood by the regular taxpayer who feels if you are earning a salary, you are getting compensated enough for the job you are paid to do.

I have always felt that extra effort and success should be rewarded BUT Wells Fargo is receiving bailout taxpayer money so the company and its employees apparently did not do such a good job and for that maybe they should all get punished and not rewarded?

The CEO of Wells Fargo, John Stumpf, seems like just another clueless CEO that just does not get it. Taking out an expensive ad to tell employees that they would normally get their party in Hawaii or wherever it was supposed to be this year BUT for the nasty ole’ taxpayers who feel the company needs to pay back the taxpayer’s money before it decides to fund a party for itself.

It is for this reason and many more like that , that I cannot view these financial CEOs as responsible adults. They know what this country is facing, what workers are facing in this new depression and they cry about having to cancel their annual party?

BITE MY ASS BOZO, since the government is the owner of these banks, it should fire these childish morons and appoint a serious adult to run the place BUT I am not sure there are any responsible adults on Wall Street.

ECONOMY: Union labor prolonged the Great Depression

I was disappointed but not surprised when President Obama signed an executive order giving contractors that use higher cost union labor on the construction projects which will be generated by the stimulus package, an edge over non-union contractors.

His flies in the face of economic logic which a few editorials voiced because using cheaper non-union labor would mean the creation of more jobs and after all, Obama is trying to create as many jobs as possible. This is nothing more than political payback even though unions DON’T CONTROL VOTES!

With the unions feeling their oats under the Obama administration, I have to once again point out what made the Great Depression last longer than it had to. Although there were a number of factors a huge one was labor and unionism.

FDR allowed unions to set high wage demands and enforce them through sit-down strikes. FDR also set and controlled prices at higher than normal levels. His policies were totally anti-free market.

FDR felt free market competition was the cause of the depression so he set out to eliminate competition by setting up rules under his “fair competition” policies. His National Industrial Reconstruction Agency told businesses what they could and could not do - Communism anyone?

President Obama, by insisting on union labor in all recovery efforts is following FDR’s footsteps which kept unemployment sky high during the Great Depression because businesses could not hire labor on their own terms. Labor statistics from 1933-1939 show a huge drop in weekly hours worked from that of 1929. Let me repeat; in trying to create more jobs, FDR actually was instrumental in eliminating jobs because of his union stance and control over business.

Obama says he wants to create more jobs but he is going about it the wrong way and may end up hurting the job market by insisting on union labor. Union labor is expensive and in no way faster or more efficient than non-union labor.

OBAMA SHOULD HAND OUT MONEY FOR PROJECTS TO THE BEST BIDDER AND NOT TO A UNION-ONLY BIDDER IF HE WANTS TO STIMULATE OUR ECONOMY.

Learn from history, please………………………………................

SCIENCE: New team in town

To me, this cartoon says it all about the Bush approach to medicine & science and for that matter, the approach of all the conservative, Christians that supported Bush.

Bush and his advisors did not listen to scientists because what the hell do scientists know; its all in the Bible so you don't need to listen to no stinkin' scientists.

I feel eight (8) years have been wasted due to the backward and down right stupid religious views of science that Bush and his crew held.

Onwards I say...