Republicans Employ Disabled: But Do They Pay?

One of the nicest things about blogging is by the nature of the medium it enables one to keep abreast of happenings long before they become news.

In such fashion, an interesting thing happened to me.

I noticed that a troll had wandered on and laid down a swath of comments that sounded vaguely familiar. Hmmm, I probably know this person. I searched Del Liberal and found the one I remembered with similar wording. So to protect my intellectual property, I posted a tert reply id-ing that comment to be from a known troll, so any future reader could pass over it as they currently do the newsletter from Delaware’s Republican party… ie, waste of time.

Days later, I’d remembered I had not checked any further… so I did the usual things bloggers do.

What I found, was that my comment was a often placed across the net, in various modifications: I share equivalent billing with Friedman on the NY Times, quite a few of the Washington Post’s authors, several with Rachel Maddock, and since mine or Delaware Liberal’s didn’t show up in the search, i would guess quite a few of the blogs without massively large national readership.

Curiously my troll’s comments emanated from mental hospital in PA, off the banks of the Schuylkill River roughly 17 miles north of Reading.

That made sense. That would provide a rational explanation for the behavior that previously had no logical explanation, except for the fact that it was an anomaly, a departure from the way most of us would interact in a social medium…

So all these people who I thought were angry republicans a little off their rocker, are just inmates with free time. Knowing how much I would charge for spending my time commenting on comments across the web, the thought occurred to me, wow what a bargain, to have inmates do that for free.

Now whether this is a sanctioned issue or one where the ex- RNC’s chairman’s brother just happens to be interred and an indirect offer of “hey can you help a brother out” occurs, I don’t know. My guess it that the RNC gives the template to an inmate and he just copies and pastes on random sites, probably listed by RNC or some local chapter.

Lol, my first impression upon finding out, was to feel sorry for calling my troll: insane, psychotically disturbed, and someone who ought to be institutionalized. What if I had set his therapy back ten years!

But then, any future person reading my post and seeing their comments at it’s bottom, might actually think there was actually another side against the argument ( there isn’t) so the comments and their response were left intact.

It goes to show, that with money you can create an army of drones out of nothing, in this case use inmates with idle time to do one’s dirty work. It shows, why a party with less than 1/3 of the nation supporting it, can still at least electronically, appear to be more robust than it actually is.

Imagine reading Tom Friedman’s economic article, then having all comments in its favor? That is the American way. But in order to find anyone able to counteract those arguments, Republicans had to go beyond the boundaries of rational thinking: to the irrational.

Which is why: Republican answers never seem to respond to the question.

It makes sense now.

And I’m hoping that someone shows my inmate: that see… he really did make a difference in this ripple of time. He is now, a bona-fide piece of the puzzle, of what we call “life”…

Getting Robbed At the Pump

Let’s say you live in a neighborhood where all the homes are priced at $200,000. Suddenly an army of buyers arrives who want desperately to move into the neighborhood. You were not really interested in selling before, but now a buyer offers you $400,000 for your $200,000 house. What are you going to say?

This analogy comes from Dan Dicker in his book: Oil’s Endless Bid: Taming The Price of Oil To Secure Our Economy

“That’s what’s going on in oil,” Dicker says. “You have this army of people who have been flooding into a brand new neighborhood and they’ve had to inspire somebody to sell and the only way you can do that is pay an outrageous price for it.”

Among the biggest winners in the new oil markets are investment banks like Goldman Sachs (GS) and Morgan Stanley (MS), which create new products for clients and then use that information to trade on the products. In 2004 and 2005, Goldman Sachs made $1.5 billion a year trading oil, Dicker says. In the first half of 2009 alone, the firm made $3.4 billion oil trading profits. Who paid the extra $1.9 billion? You did. Firms like Goldman are not taking bets that oil will move lower or higher. Trading simply means naming a spread of buy and sell prices from which they can eke out tiny but regular profits, a business without risk.

But aren’t those buying high supposed to be balanced by those buying low?

Dicker says that is primarily because almost all oil investments being sold by the big investment banks are long trades – bets that the price will go up. While it’s also possible to short oil ETFs, no one does. So that’s heads ever skyward.

“There is no supply issue going on here – what you have is the perception of the possibility of a supply issue,” Dicker says. “A whole bunch of people are pouring money into an oil market trying to take advantage of what they perceive to be a real risk in supply. It’s a marketplace that I argue should not be allowed to be wagered on like a stock or bond.”

Dicker notes that Libya produces only 1.3 million barrels of oil a day, just a tiny fraction of the world oil market. Even if Libyan crude were lost to the world market in the current turmoil, and there is no sign that it is, Saudi Arabia has 5 million barrels a day to use in case of an emergency.

When the 2008 economic crisis froze all financial markets and investors stampeded to the sidelines, the true price of a barrel of crude oil became known: $32. It’s now hovering at around $110 thanks entirely to investor demand, he says.

Chart Courtesy of GasBuddy.Com

How do we again get it under control?

“If the government stepped in and regulated oil trading so that only investors with a genuine interest in the physical product, such as airlines and heating oil companies, could buy and sell oil futures, then the price of oil would fall by 50% overnight and our economy would be much better off.”

But instead, what we have is a new venue on which to gamble. One promising great rewards.

One of the reasons Dicker is calling for greater regulation of the oil market is that no one really knows how large it is or what is going on it on a day-to-day basis. In fact, it reminds Dicker of the market for credit default swaps, which brought down the insurance giant AIG and forced the government into a $180 billion bailout.

Bottom line, everyday Americans are getting jerked around by these investors. Thanks to them we essentially borrowed money from our Social Security Fund, to put into our gas tanks. Every extra little bit we get from our Social Security Tax cut this year, so far has gone into our gas tank with no benefit at all to our economy. These increases at the pump, all flow up and stop…. at Goldman Sacs and Morgan Stanley (and smart individual investors like me). They don’t go to the gas stations, they don’t go to the oil companies, they don’t go to Libya….

Regulation, Regulation, Regulation…. It worked from the Great Depression of the 1930′s thru to 2006….Only when we deregulated in 2006, and allowed the infusion of computerized investment, did the prices at the pumps begin to soar over “whims” of mid-east crises. –

Remember back in December when individual analysts from Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan, Chase & Co. and Bank of America, Merrill Lynch were quoted across headlines, saying gas would hit $4 this summer?

Of course that’s what they’d say……………..

Japanese Earthquake Facts

Beginning with a 7.2 quake on Wednesday, March 09, 2011 at 11:45:20 AM at epicenter, there were 21 quakes registering over 5.0 leading up to the big one.
All were very near where the big one was to take place….

Then, for almost thirteen hours, there were none… Preasure was building…. and building, … and building…..

WHAM!

Since the big one, up to this posting, there have been 240 more over 5.0…..

3.14 … Pi Day

It’s a tradition from years gone by….

Courtesy of pieKnits

I’m Turning Japanese….za…. I Really Think So….

The tragedy is sad, and as the death toll rises it will get sadder…..

But my original takeaway was that very little damage occurred… Considering this was the worlds largest earthquake near a modern nation, the damages were less than anticipated.

Why? Intelligent people came up with intelligent solutions. Call it the superiority of science over religion….

We still have a nuclear situation that may grow out of hand, and we still have to pull a lot of money out of the globe and funnel it back to Japan, but overall, watching the videos of the quake, I was impressed by how little damage actually occurred. This was the 5th recorded largest in the world! Total damage: two bottles of red wine?

The tsunami was a different matter. Those images shook me up. I remember after seeing them while listening to Rick Jensen discuss the Wisconsin Walker fiasco.

That radio discussion suddenly seemed so little and petty, after watching cars, then boats, then ocean liners flow down city streets. What scared me most, after seeing Sumatra’s video’s 7 years ago which I thought I could survive, was the flow of what looked like nothing less than a garbage pile, marching unchallenged over fields and into towns, taking them with it. How does one survive that, I wondered?…..

Obviously, for a tsunami’s in a urban area, the answer is to build shelters that are tall. A tall concrete tower with a rounded concrete surfaces to lessen the impact from large floating objects, is obviously the best solution. The water flows in, around, and back out to see.. Multiple of these around a coastal city with sufficient warning, could drastically cut down causalities in urban areas closer to zero….

I was equally impressed by the sirens and loudspeaker systems that were evident in the videos filmed across Japan. Socially, the Japanese are organized much better than are we… Almost immediately after the first tremor, instructions were broadcast across towns for all to hear…

Secondly, I noticed that unlike American homes, most interiors appearing in the Japanese videos showed little furniture. Instead, utility shelves, like the ones seen in store stockrooms and warehouses, seemed to adorn all the homes shown, with computer screens, terminals, cameras and other electronic devices taking center stage. It was as if you went home to a computer screen, that is all you needed.Also I noticed all their cars and trucks looked new. As if all their personal income was spent on electronics, cars, and real estate.

It seems the Japanese learned much from the Kobe quake of 95. I was relieved to see that the damage was mitigated by good engineering..

It’s a lesson we should bring to this nation, if and when we get smart and stop electing Republicans…..

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Sunday Funnies

Just browsing, and decided to post a couple of chuckles… Sometimes one doesn’t have all the answers and has to reach out to others… Shame, that philosophy is not corporately sponsored….. say in Wisconsin?

Begin the funnies now…..

These days there really is no middle ground. Not a single candidate won their seat with a mandate. Show me a candidate who took 100% of the votes and I’ll show you a candidate with a mandate. For example, even Mr. Coons up there in Delaware represents 40% of voters who preferred a witch. And Governor Perry down here in my state is still the Governor for over 2 million Texans who voted for the other guy. Which one do you think is looking for middle ground today?

If you ask me, the “crack” Sarah Palin should be worried about isn’t on Mount McKinley in Denali National Park. It’s the butt crack hanging out of her teenager’s short-shorts in Palin’s Denial Park. My goodness but those Palin girls can’t wait to test the limits of that abstinence only education to which their momma gives so much lip service.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry referred to the Mexican city of Juarez as the most dangerous city in “America”….. In his defense, he probably just thought it was an American city because there were so many Mexicans there.” –Jay Leno

“Gov. Scott Walker’s dispute with Wisconsin’s labor unions is making him unpopular with his constituents, who feel like he’s attacking his own people. That’s not good, because the only other guy doing that right now is Moammar Gadhafi.” –Jay Leno

“Mexico’s president arrived in Washington. He’s here to do the work that American presidents won’t do.” –Jay Leno

“Moammar Gadhafi gave a rambling speech that lasted nearly three hours. So now we know where all of Charlie Sheen’s cocaine went.” –Conan O’Brien

“The President and First Lady attended a parent-teacher conference, and when they left, President Obama didn’t look very happy. Apparently Joe Biden’s being held back a grade.” –Craig Ferguson

I find it odd because I know that Rick Perry, the Governor of my state, is really upset about how big government has gotten. Evidently it’s not big enough, however, because ‘ole Ricky seems to think its small enough to crawl up my vagina with a sonogram machine and a recorder so that Ricky can tell me how to think based on what God whispers in his ear when no one else is around…

Dumb Wisconsin Laws
You must manually flush all urinals in a building.
Butter substitutes are not allowed to be served in state prisons.
Citizens may not murder their enemies.
Whenever two trains meet at an intersection of said tracks, neither shall proceed until the other has.
As people used to smuggle it in from Illinois, all yellow butter substitute is banned.
At one time, margarine was illegal.
State Law made it illegal to serve apple pie in public restaurants without cheese.
While all cheese making requires a license, Limburger cheese making requires a master cheese maker’s license.
It is illegal to kiss on a train.
It is illegal to cut a woman’s hair.
Car dealerships cannot sell cars on Sunday.

Being a drug addict is a moral failing and a crime, unless you’re a conservative radio host. Then it’s an illness and you need our prayers for your recovery.

A woman can’t be trusted with decisions about her own body, but multi-national corporations can make decisions affecting all mankind without regulation.

Providing health care to all Iraqis is sound policy. Providing health care to all Americans is socialism.

Courtesy of About.Com

Courtesy of About.com

Courtesy of About.Com

Courtesy of Izismile

Lock out

The NFL players are locked out and next season is in jeopardy. Citizens of Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana if not already, are about to become locked out of having anything to do with their state’s government as well.

This is not what the Tea Party was about. It was about returning government back to the people, away from the business influence of Wall Street with it’s TARP bailouts.

Something is seriously wrong in this country.

Fair Taxation

Forbes has been arguing for a fair tax. Often the flat tax is touted as such. Unfortunately it is tilted to favoring the wealthy.

It works like this… Everyone regardless of income is taxed at the same percent.

I like the principle. I think taxes should be fair. In fact, I like it a lot, fairness is something no one can argue against… However the idea that someone who can’t afford to live on what they earn, say 50,000 should give up 5000 in taxes while a billionaire living on 65 billion gets to keep 58.5 billion as play money, goes against any principles of fairness.

Some say make an exception for those under $100,000.. But that, throws out the whole fairness thing… It becomes “not fair”… and the process starts all over….

So how about this.

Decide what our budget needs are… Don’t worry about costs… Send our legislators to legislate to determine exactly what is the minimum the government needs to survive?

Then, divide that cost to be paid by those based on their percentage of their portion of the states income. The wealth pay their portion, as equally as do the poor. There are no exceptions. Corporations who do well, pay more than those who can’t get into the black…

“Tis a consumation to be wished….”

The Governor proposed a $3.4 Billion budget. Our Gross State Product for 2009 was $60.5 billion….

If your income is $50.000, you are responsible for $50,000 divided by $60.5 billion which is then times the State of Delaware’s budget of $3.4 billion and your portion of running the state’s government comes up to $2809….

If your income is 1 million, the same formula says you owe $56,198 in state taxes.

If your income is 30 million…putting you at one half a thousandth of the state’s economy, so you pay that same percent of the budget…$1,685, 950……

If your income is $605 million, then you pay.1% or…. $34,000,000 to the state’s treasury.

This includes every person, business, corporation, or other entity who makes a cash or purchase in our tiny little state…. Dupont, at net earnings of 3.7 billion pays the paltry sum of $207,933,884… lol.

It is just as fair to the big fish, as the little minnow….

(As a side benefit, imagine hauling off a corner drug dealer with over $6000 in his pocket because he failed report all his income..)

That’s the fairest method of taxation… Those who make more, pay more…
in dollars…. but not in percent……

When more wealth flows down to the bottom quintiles, then they pick up more of their fair share of taxes….

“Tis a consumation to be wished….”

3.356

Ronald Reagan Supported Collective Bargaining

Courtesy of AmericanRhetoric

“They remind us that where free unions and collective bargain are forbidden, freedom is lost… they remind us that freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction… You and I, must protect and preserve that freedom here, otherwise it will not be passed on to our children, and will disappear everywhere in the world. ….. How high is that price of freedom?…..”

Ronald Reagan

How To Lower Gas Prices In One Quick Swoop

WHEREAS gasoline prices are almost at record highs, and are expected to break new ground this summer,

WHEREAS the economy is just beginning to pull out of the recession.

WHEREAS international turmoil has driven up fears over the amount and cost of barrels of oil this summer.

WHEREAS government of the United States of America has full right to apply any tax on items it chooses, during periods of national emergencies, as it did during WWII,

SO BE IT RESOLVED, that as long as gasoline prices are over $3.00 a gallon, a provision will be placed in the IRS code that taxes on all capital gains emanating from profits gained through hedge funds or all parts of hedge funds earning their income off of oil, at a rate if 95%.

Synopsis: This bill takes out all incentive of artificially driving up the price of oil, by taxing the capital gains made from doing so at 95%. It does not affect the hedging by American businesses, who seek to stabilize their energy costs over time, and actually receive and use the products they buy. The escalation of the price of oil, costs America tremendous amounts of money. This bill seeks to recapture the portion based on speculation, using that amount to assist in the emergency funding of the extra expense that higher gasoline prices exert on the day to day running of our government. ….