I Was Recently Reminded Of How Great The Economy Was During the Jimmy Carter Years.

Yeah, I know. You are surprised.  After all that Reagan said, surely I must jest? Actually no.  Today we have access to data; back then we really didn’t. We depended upon perception and that can be easily flipped with distraction.  Sort of the way the Greenville barons of Delaware have totally destroyed Mike Protack as a viable candidate…  Same thing.  Innuendo, Innuendo, and repetition…

In Carter’s defense this tactic was new, so Carter was sitting up there, like “no, I don’t have to respond to that outrageousness, everyone knows it is not true…”

Funny how things get manipulated…  But look at the Carter years on this chart… 1977 through all of 1980.

We had massive investment in our business community.  Jobs, Jobs, Jobs.  What these to charts show, is that America turned its profit from its corporations, to itself.  Investing in capital improvement at the greatest height since figures were started in 1948.  Jimmy Carter still rules the chart….  It is exactly what we lack now.

The top personal bracket was assessed at a rate of 70%…..  yet the effective Corporate Tax rate was steadily falling from its WWII high.

(Footnote — Notice how the Ronald Reagan recovery of 1983-84 was created?  Increased Corporate tax rates in the Great Reagan Compromise.  Raising taxes is what made Ronald Reagan so well loved and appreciated; not cutting them.   For future reference, just remember the effective corporate rate dropped under Jimmy Carter, and ROSE under Ronald Reagan.)

Social Security was at it’s best ever.

Pension Plans at their highest ever…

And for a closer look an employment, one can see here why and where we have lost jobs…

And most importantly, the era of Jimmy Carter was when the 99% owned it’s highest share of wealth, ever…

A lot can be said for Jimmy Carter.  He got such a bad rap.  When Ronald Reagan himself was overwhelmingly RE-ELECTED in 1984,  his unemployment level was only 3 tenths of a percent under Jimmy Carter’s back on the previous election day…  If one clicks on the link above which delineates the unemployment rate month by month, ones sees that unemployment did not return to the best of Jimmy Carter’s years, until the waning months of the the Reagan term….

The only class of America that wasn’t better off in the Carter years, was the wealthy….  And that is why, just as today, we had a smear campaign to discredit the person who did the most ever, to help the middle class….

The record shows that America’s middle class peaked in 79.  Then came Reagan.

And if we were totally fair with ourselves, the reason Carter was so throughly dissed was because we were embarrassed with ourselves in the seventies… Our cities in decay, our youth on drugs, the early creative musical giants had dissolved into disco.  We didn’t really like who we were. We had to blame… someone…  After all, this look was actually cool in 1979.

(Thank you Fullerton College)

Gee, no wonder we like Reagan so much…

Advice to A Vacationing Obama….

How do you keep your legacy of Obamacare from being cut and left to bleed?

Easy. You turn Obamacare into a low priority for Republicans, by seriously challenging them on other things far more important, forcing them to drop the fight for Obamacare, because they have other battle to fight over….  Ones they will lose unless they become very lucky.

• You apply tremendous force to raise taxes on the top 1%
• You allow businesses the writing off capital investments the full amount spent.
• You keep benefits on Social Security, and raise the fee on top incomes.
• You do a Kennediesque moon challenge, but this time to it’s High Speed Rail connecting all major cities by 2025.
• You proceed with a challenge to find a way to capture coal CO2, making it eco-friendly.
• You push for keeping guns out of those who are mentally ill.  Background checks and take on the NRA.
• You push for more union rights, and fewer right to work laws.
• You push for stronger controls on Wall Street.
• You push for more solar energy capture out west, more wind in the mid-west, and more tidal on both coasts….

You promise every American that if they  vote for no Republicans in 2014, your goal for 2018 is that every American will be making $10,000 more than they are now.…  Examples… If they are making $10,000, they’ll be up to $20,000.  If they are at $40,000, the’ll be up to $50,000.  And if they are making $100 million, they’ll be making $100 million plus $10,000 by the end of that time frame….

With a roaring economy, that is actually a conservative estimate…

The point is … as a lame duck president you have two options.  One you can play defensive, and try to foil Republicans, the wealthy, Wall Street, and the backwards Tea Partiers, as they try and chip away at the edifice you have built of Obamacare. This I argue against, because this puts you in the position of looking weak, It puts them in the position of appearing to grow stronger…  Just as does a football team which has a comfortable lead, and blows it by having their fourth string not play as aggressively as they would had they been playing a close game… The other team has nothing to lose, since they are already badly losing; therefore they play with a ferociousness unseen all previous season…  This is what will happen to you….

Or..Two…. you can choose to run up the scoreboard.  You can capitalize on how well the affordable health care will be received,(it’s reputation is starting to turn already).  You can twist the knife in Republicans by showing how Democratic states are getting good health insurance cheaper than before, and how Republicans governors in Republican states, jerked around their constituents forcing them to pay more than are Democrats in neighboring states…. All you have to do is compare their numbers….

You can run up the scoreboards by filling up all court vacancies.  You can run up the scoreboard by  mandating environmental protections, by raising taxes on the top 1%. by Pushing for immigration reform,  by floating the legalization of weak recreational drugs, by having them regulated and taxed as was done with liquor post-Prohibition.

You can run up the scoreboard by carrying the message to the American People that it is in everyone’s benefit if the top 1% are taxed and that money is used to pay for replacing a bridge that should fall, or a tunnel that will collapse into the river this decade or next.

You can run up the scoreboard by on every task, show that the Republican-way will hurt America, and the Democrat’s way will make it better….

Point is, you are a lame duck.  You got nothing to lose…   if you try all of these, you will no doubt be effective at some.  And some you won’t…

But if you create the environment where the House is too busy playing defense to re-argue another case of the Obama bill, because Republicans are in a desperate fight for their very survival….  Obamacare will probably survive along with Obama….

The best defense is a good offense…Mr. President…. Let’s go run up that score….

Interesting Theory

If two volcanos go as did Krakatoa at both ends of the San Andreas fault close to the same time, could it be enough for the Big One?

Kilroy thinks so and I am inclined to agree. Call it a sixth sense. I’ll be looking forward to seeing if this mystical sense of certainty is indeed as real as old philosophers have impuned, or if it alas is just a figment of my imagination, which my rational side has insisted all along…

🙂

But one can’t be a seer without making a prediction…

Just When You’ve Mastered “The Electric Slide”, Get Ready For “The Global Shift”

We knew this but it  is now being published… and so it is in the news.

The world is getting warmer… and we can now predict our climate by looking at map at 300 miles south and guessing what our weather will be from that…

Just as plate tectonics and  Darwin’s origin of the species were able to lay the groundwork of reason  for explaining puzzling observations, this simplifies what to expect from global warming rather startlingly.

Texas is now  what we alway thought of when we considered the weather of Mexico; Oklahoma is now West Texas; Kansas is now Oklahoma; Nebraska is now Kansas; South Dakota is now Nebraska, North Dakota is now South Dakota: Southern Manitoba is now North Dakota…..

If  West Texas had 3 days of rain, now Oklahoma is getting 3 days of rain;  If it snowed 12  times in South Dakota, it is now doing the same in North Dakota… and so on.

So, to predict our heat, rain, winters, etc, our guide would be North Carolina.  Longer growing seasons,  some winters with no snow, hot summers…

However due to Global warming, the East Coast has a caveat.  An anomaly so to speak  and actually some relief from the North Carolina summer heat we would normally expect….

With the unprecedented melting of the Arctic and Greenland icecaps dumping its excess into the Labrador Current, that cold water drops South hugging the East Coast shoreline all the way down to North Carolina’s Outer Banks where it finally becomes neutralized…   Therefore even though we have hotter air masses, the colder ocean temperatures creates a buffer against Global warming off the entire northeastern US.

Europe, Japan, and Alaska all experience  the same mitigating effect, although with both Greenland and the Arctic Icecaps melting into the Labrador, the US East Coast gets a stronger volume of cold water.  Call it our icy shower effect….

Once melting stops and the currents dry up, we return to the North Carolina scenario of the twentieth century….

Chart Courtesy of NOAA

So, we in Delaware really get the best climate on the East Coast.    Warm winters, little or no snow, and cool breezy summers….. as well as a longer growing period, and… less dependence on fossil fuels for winter heating.

Gee, global warming isn’t so bad for Delaware after all….  Oh, the rising seas?  There you go again… Why did you have to spoil the rosy picture I was painting?

 

Oklahoma And It’s New Muslim Philosophy

As one progresses through life one becomes more humble.  When young, one believes it is his own actions that create his or her success.  Old age tells us it was just luck.  We see others come later, more talented, smarter, better looking, not achieving what we once did.  We have to accept we were just simply in the right place at the right time to grasp an opportunity.

Being thoughtful people, as one sees more, one ponders more.  Similarities do take place on opposite sides of the globe.  Similarities that perhaps could be random, but for them to occur in non random frequencies, belies something else might be in play.

It is with that in mind, I notice that across the red states of the United States, primarily a bastion of fundamentalist conservative theocracy, the weather is changing. Basically, there is no rain…. Secondly I have noticed that the weather in Oklahoma is every year, corresponding more and more like those dry, hot , sandy climes on the other side of our planet, which coincidentally, are also occupied by a bastion of fundamentalist conservative theocracies, practicing something very similar to Oklahoma policy but over there it is called Shara Law…

The unproven theory, one derived deeply out of the forges of possibility from quantum mechanics, is that as we evolve to think like Muslims, our weather evolves to behave like we are Muslims.

Currently there is no difference between those thought processes and actions of  legislatures of Oklahoma, and those existing in Muslim countries like Pakistan, Somalia, and Yemen…

The climate is racing to catch up to the Middle East with this three year drought in Oklahoma…. 

As any follower of monotheism well knows, when a people sin and go the wrong way, the weather catches up to punish them.   I simply am offering that is what is happening in Oklahoma…. 

 

…And The Vortex Over The Arctic… Was Rent In Two.

January 1-3

January 11-13

I getting a bad feeling about this. Who can tell us? What’s this mean?

Btw. There is a monster hurricane approaching Alaska with a low of 943mb. Category 4 if it were an actual hurricane. It is so huge it would stretch from the East Coast of the US to Denver.

“Bring Me Women In Binders…….”

Image Courtesy of Mitt Romney, Debate Number Two.

2000

This is post number 2000.

The only real significance is it is 150 posts more than where Tommywonk stopped exactly one year and fifteen days ago…

If some future historian looks back, I can only guess they may kindly make some note of the quality of thought that underlies these efforts, but my guess, is no one will ever notice…

Irregardless, as long as the urge to put thoughts down for others continues, we will go on. As usual, with no goal, no direction, and no ulterior motive. Probably upon reflection, my biggest surprise, right here, right now … is that I still enjoy it so much, and can’t wait to jot my thoughts down, click the button, and send them off to where ever cyberspace and the vast internet ocean, lets them drift….

For each of you who have become regular over the years, … thank you friend…

At What Price, Loyality?

This is going to my hard core Republican friends. Why are you still supporting Romney?

1) You know he is not going to win.
2) You know as the election heats up, his Bain Capital experience will make Republicans untouchable for decades.
3) You can’t pin down where Romney stands on anything.
4) He tied his dog to a car.
5) He stands with black people and says “Who let the dogs out, woof, woof.”

Most of you are telling me, “I certainly can’t vote for Obama. I guess I’m not voting for President this time.”

Let’s say, just for argument sakes there was a presidential candidate out there who says to have good government you need: …………………

1. Become reality driven. Don’t kid yourself or others.
Find out what’s what and base your decisions and actions
on that.

2. Always be honest and tell the truth. It’s extremely
difficult to do any damage to anybody when you are
willing to tell the truth–regardless of the
consequences.

3. Always do what’s right and fair. Remember, the more
you actually accomplish, the louder your critics become.
You’ve got to learn to ignore your critics. You’ve got to
continue to do what you think is right. You’ve got to
maintain your integrity.

4. Determine your goal, develop a plan to reach that
goal, and then act. Don’t procrastinate.

5. Make sure everybody who ought to know what you’re
doing knows what you’re doing. Communicate.

6. Don’t hesitate to deliver bad news. There is always
time to salvage things. There is always time to fix
things. Henry Kissinger said that anything that can be
revealed eventually should be revealed immediately.

7. Last, be willing to do whatever it takes to get your
job done. If you’ve got a job that you don’t love enough
to do what it takes to get your job done, then quit and
get one that you do love, and then make a difference.

Honesty. Integrity. Principal.

Sounds good so far. Let us say just for argument, he had chief executive experience. Let us say just or argument that he once ran a state, one of the fifty in this union. Let us say while governor, this is what he did…..

During his tenure, New Mexico experienced the longest period without a tax-increase in the state’s entire history.

1) He cut the rate of government growth in half,

2) Left the New Mexico state government with a budget surplus and 1000 fewer employees (without firing anyone),

3) Privatized half of the prisons in the state,

4) Brought a state-wide school voucher system to New Mexico.

5) Vetoed 750 bills (more than all the vetoes of the other 49 Governors in the country at that time, combined) with only 2 overrides, earning him the nickname Gary “Veto” Johnson.

6) In 1999, Johnson became the highest-ranking elected official in the United States to advocate the legalization of drugs.

7) Shifted Medicaid to managed care.

ISN’T THAT WHAT YOU WANT? ISN’T THAT WHAT WE NEED?

Can you not think of a better way to show your lack of enthusiasm over a wealthy capitalist buying his way to the top of your ticket, by voting for someone who has character, who does what you’ve always wanted, a doer, not a talker?

And to think…. you were simply just going to throw your vote away.

His name is Gary Johnson. He is the new party’s candidate for President.

Remember Republicans. It is your values that are important. If your party has given up and moved on from your values, don’t think you have to be loyal to the word…. “Republican”… What you have to be loyal too, is yourself. Always. Never lie to yourself.

You don’t need to waste your vote on Romney. You probably need to find more about this guy, Gary Johnson, and then throw your support behind him.

Don’t worry it is not one of the two parties on whose ticket he is running. Remember, at one point in time, the Republican Party was a once a third party too. One that went mainstream because of its core values, its principles resonated with everyday American People.

Briefly Put: The Argument

When you have an impasse. it is time for war. War is a large term that can mean anything. It is not just killing people, but often in human history, that is how things eventually get settled.

War, (and as usual, between Steve and I , we’ll spin it into it’s really core definition,) is simply the all out pursuit of a target, until something is decided….

A cantankerous divorce situation = all out war.
A drug dependent child = all out war.
Fighting City Hall = all out war.
Fighting crime in Gotham City = all out war.
WWII = all out war.

So how do we address the political stalemate we preside over today.

One side has to win overwhelmingly so we all can see that rebuttal is pointless and we can move on.

So, we need either to vote all Democratic. Or all Republican.

Now here’s what we forget. Democrats and Republicans are just people like us, who are just doing jobs they are told to do. Which sort of explains how we can scream and vicariously hate either a Republican or Democratic Speaker of the House, yet sit down a social function with members of the opposite party, and love the human beings they are when politics are completely out of the universe of the occasion. Wow, what an awesome person we think. We’ll have to have dinner again.

This explains why we can work with our local governing officials, who are as removed from the viscousness of party politics as they are from the governmental policies of Tajikistan. We go to them, saying “here is my problem; can you help me” and they say ” I think so; how about if we do this” and we say “yes, that will work” and things get done….

They’re great guys.

Why does this not happen on a national scale?

Did you ever have a mother in law?

Mother in laws can break up a relationship meant to last forever. They know each one well. So when one person does something the other person would accept as one of those tiny differences they just have to accept and live with, the mother in law rephrases that, approaches the other party with the news piece, then demands to them, so what are you going to do about that?

She then takes that piece of info, to the other party, starts out with a “did you know….” and eventually builds to the crescendo of “so, what are you going to do about that?” She skillfully drives the wedge and eventually, discord, hate, vitriol, and murder and death.

That fuckin’ mother in law… is money. Everyone fears it. The press does it’s bidding… (they need readers). The Democrats can ill afford to affront their money. Nor can the Republicans.

So, all three have to play the part, of contentious politics upon the national stage.

Occasionally, occasionally (and this is the proof of this theory), this affects local politics. When someone with a lot of money gets affected by local decisions, the partisans come out in force. Without the influence of money, they never leave the shadows… Local school board elections being a recent example.

So, if the root of all political evil is money, what do we do about it?

Money is a universal force. Even I, am subject to its pull. You are too. There are certain things in your day that you have to do, and don’t really like spending the time doing them, because of money….

It just is.

So just what is the right balance?

I’ll argue that you can’t wipe out all corporate or business influence. For if you do, then you have a population that may enjoy all the protections they’ve bestowed upon themselves, but have no capital with which to grow.

I’ll also argue the opposite, that you can’t have corporate or businesses as the only influence, for then you have a business class with plenty of privileges, but not enough human economic capital to sustain the economy. It would be as if the South couldn’t export cotton in the early 1800’s. You’d have a profitable slave economy, with cotton just sitting on the docks. Who would buy it? But had the slaves been paid living wages, they, could in turn buy that cotton to make their own clothes or start a textile factory that could sell to themselves…

If you study the build up to the American Civil War, and instead of focusing on whether the issue of human slavery as morally wrong, then focus on whether the employees (slaves) at that time should be paid living wages for their work, you see that issue is the same we have right now. From this historical example, shouldn’t workers be paid sufficient wages, so they not only cover their bare minimal living expenses, but also have enough disposable income with which to make choice purchases, thereby driving the economy forward?

Now substitute the word “workers” with “middle class”… and bingo, you are right where we are today.

(The North won, btw, so if you are looking for an indication on which way we should go)…

So we need not to pull money from politics, but manage money in politics.

A complicated formula that might correct today’s aberration, might be to restrict campaign spending depending on ones income level. If you are a member of the top one percent, all of you together can only be responsible for one percent of the campaign expenses. The bottom 99% then shares the burden for the rest.

Obviously the bottom 10% cannot afford to pay anything. So that drops spending by 10%. The influence of that 1% at the top is then enhanced by that margin that has been zero’d out from the bottom. So it reflects real life, where the top one percent actually has more influence, and since they own the money, they should have their representation of that money, represented…

Ahhh, but that is getting far too complicated.

The easiest way to do that is to limit donations to actual people. I’m sorry, it is so simple that it works. If you want to give $1 million to a campaign, you have to find a 1000 people willing to cough up $1000 each to the candidate you want to move forward. In this day and age, that can’t be hard to do. But, if for some reason you can’t, perhaps because of something creepy in your platform, then the problem takes care of itself. The money represents the feelings of real people. Not the overwhelming feelings of one misanthropornagraphic person.

So, getting rid of all outside money is a start.
Limiting all contributions to $1000 per person is a finish.

It is where we need to go, to get people talking to each other as human being to human being, and not cardboard cutout to cardboard cutout….