Category: Politics

What has happened to this country…

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So Wrong…

“Despite the jobless epidemic, U.S. companies are tripping over themselves to fill high paying job openings with workers from overseas. Companies, lead by Microsoft and IBM, have already maxed out their allotment of 65,000 H-1B visas. Indeed, it appears U.S. companies have set a three-year record in how quickly they reached the cap for H-1B workers.”

From this article:  Despite High Unemployment, U.S. Companies Are Hiring From Overseas At Record Pace

These supposed American companies prefer to hire foreign nationals when unemployment runs epidemic in this country.  They play all sort of games to avoid paying their fair share of taxes. (U.S. Tech Companies Could Double Overseas Cash By 2013: Moody’s). Long ago they have moved their spending on education overseas because they felt that they get “more bang for the buck” (Microsoft To Invest $1.7B In India).

We have made it such a financial burden on our young folks to get the education necessary to compete for these types of jobs it is sinful.  I have worked in IT for several companies including 3 or 4 Fortune 500 companies.  I’ve yet to see one invest significantly in training its American workforce.  Either you know it when you are hired, or you learn it on your own.  The alternative is to watch as they flood the offices with young Indian programmers.

I’m not sure that these ‘American” companies are not doing more harm to common US citizen than all the terrorist Cheney and Bush ever dreamed about.  The law as reinforced by the Supreme Court decision (Justices, 5-4, Reject Corporate Spending Limit) desires to treat the legal construction, corporations, as persons.  If they are persons and citizens of this nation they are treasonous, undermining the very fabric of our society.

It is so wrong… and our politicians let them get away with it.  So wrong…

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You Must Believe Me

After all the allegations of sexual improprieties and an affair Herman Cain’s presidential bid is in a bit of a pickle.  Herman Cain is flying back to Atlanta to have a “face to face” with wife.  The result of the discussion, he said, will help him to the decision to soldier on or call it a day.  For some reason during the meeting I just picture the song, You Must Believe Me, from Curtis Mayfield& The Impressions playing in the background.

You Must Believe Me Lyrics

You must believe me
No matter what the people might say
You must believe me
Darling it just didn’t happen that way
No, no it just didn’t happen that way
Continue reading “You Must Believe Me”

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99% or 1%

Like trite old saying, if you have to ask…it is a good bet you are not a 1%.
This is a little tool found on the Wall Street Journal site.

“The calculator above shows where your income stands on the wide range of the 99%. An annual salary above $506,000 puts you in the top 1%, while you need to make less than $2,500 a year to be in the bottom 1%. Where do you stand?”

 What Percentage are you in?

It can be argued that household wealth would be a better gauge than household income, but this does give a sense.

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Smoking Gun Aimed at OWS

A lobbying group, Clark Lytle Geduldig & Cranford, put out a memo to one of their clients, the American Bankers Association about “constructing a negative narrative about Occupy Wall Street”.  I’m not sure it is really a smoking gun as most of this falls into the realm of “common knowledge”.  I do think that most folks believe this is how our sick system really works.  It is, however, very scary to see this in print.

From an article on CommonDreams.org gleaned from MSNBC:

 According to the memo, if Democrats embrace OWS, “This would mean more than just short-term political discomfort for Wall Street. … It has the potential to have very long-lasting political, policy and financial impacts on the companies in the center of the bullseye.” Continue reading “Smoking Gun Aimed at OWS”

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Want to Live Forever?

I met a fairy today who said she would grant me one wish.

“I want to live forever,” I said.

“Sorry,” said the fairy, “I’m not allowed to grant wishes like that!”

“Fine,” I said, “then I want to die after the U.S. Congress gets their heads out of their asses.”

“You crafty bastard,” said the fairy.

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Strategy Masquerading as a Tactic

We were sitting around the table the other night playing cards (well Phase 10 – which is almost a card game).  For some reason the question came up as what the difference was between strategy and tactic.  We hashed it around a while, and we came to a consensus.

A few days later I was listening to NPR and they were doing a story on Newt Gingrich.  They said of an exchange he had with a reporter that it was “a strategy masquerading as a tactic’.  He was turning the tables on the political press.  The reporter asked him a long winded question that was essentially of the type “so how long since you stopped beating your wife.”   Mr. Gingrich flipped it on the reporter and asked him when he was going to stop asking “gotcha” questions.

From the NPR print version of the story I heard By Attacking The Media, Gingrich Built A Following here is the actual exchange: Continue reading “Strategy Masquerading as a Tactic”

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Vote with your $$, Vote with your feet, Move your bank accounts

As I touched on in Banks, Boobs, Bamboozled I moved my checking account.  I had been with Bank of America.  I initially signed up with them when I moved to a new town and I was in hurry to get a bank.  The more I learned about BoA, the unhappier I became with banking there.  I stayed with BoA much too long due to inertia. It is a pain changing banks.  But I finally bit the bullet and made the change.  I chose Regions as they have branches in both St. Louis and Memphis.  I had only been with them a few months when they decided they just had to charge their customers for use of their debit cards. (They have since reversed that decision, but they have lost my trust)  I immediately started the process of changing banks.  I went with the local company credit union.  Much to my surprise there is a network of ATMs that I can use free of charge available to credit unions. Continue reading “Vote with your $$, Vote with your feet, Move your bank accounts”

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Presidential Candidates

Rick Perry –Do we really want a President who wants to eliminate Federal agencies, and cannot even remember the names of the agencies he wants to axe?  This is the same man who believes global warming/climate change to be a myth and we should not be addressing the issue.  I want a President with intelligence who does not believe in fairy tales.

Herman Cain – He keeps repeating that we need a businessman in the White House.  Pardon me, but was it not business that has gotten us into this current economic morass? There are multiple allegations of sexual harassment of women by Mr. Cain.  I tend to think where there is this much smoke, there must be fire.  Do we really want a President that does not respect women anymore than this?  It is one thing to be a cad like Clinton.  It is quite another thing to attempt to force trading sexual favors for a job.  We need a President with a moral center.

Michele Bachman – All I can say is that she lives in a delusional world.

Ron Paul – The America that this man envisions is not an America I want to live in.  Continue reading “Presidential Candidates”