Privatize What?

Romney wants to eliminate disaster coordination, he thinks private industry could do a better job than Big Government. His ideology says that right now in New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia and Pennsylvania privatized everybody could get things cleaned up and running. 

Why do Republicans want everything the Federal government does to be outsourced to the states?
Answer:  There is money to be made and they want it.
Huge profit centers exist at the state level when Federal tax dollars are funneled in.It's about the MONEY not you.

Imagine today there is no FEMA because it has been outsourced to each individual state. Instead of the greater part of the North East being helped by an umbrella government (Big...and i know that is a dirty word to some) who has spent days preparing for the worst, moved resources into position, coordinated with governors, mayors and first responders..... instead each of these states on the eastern seaboard must fend for themselves. They have to rely on their own ingenuity and hope that the private companies they have contracted with in case of emergency aren't damaged themselves. They have to believe that all their responders will not be personally affected by a mega catastrophe because no one from outside their state will come and help.

Romney wants to eliminate disaster coordination, he thinks private industry could do a better job than Big Government. His ideology says that right now in New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia and Pennsylvania privatized everybody could get things cleaned up and running. 

Of course the dude's never been in a disaster and fail's to see that most of those affected are trying to get their own lives back on track first before trying to get the communities on track, or the power up, or the transportation moving.

Usually the argument is that if you live in an area where a disaster could happen it is your fault. Well are all the people who were in the path of Sandy at fault? Doesn't that mean that every place in the nation is at risk for some calamity be it hurricanes, floods, fires, earthquakes, tornadoes, blizzards, ice storms, heat waves, crop damage etc.? Is every person in the United States at fault just for living somewhere where something disastrous could happen? i hate that argument, it means everyone who lives north of Virginia and east of Ohio are at fault because they were in the path of Sandy..

According to the New York Times Congressional Republicans have forced a 43% reduction in FEMA grants over the last two years. How do you think Chris Christie feels right now knowing this job is bigger than he is? Don't you think Katrina exposed the weakness of a lack of planning and oversight? Who wants fifty pieces of uncoordinated states when disaster strikes?

When the Federal money goes to the state you don't hear much about it after that. Who gets discriminated against in a privatized system that is under State control? Does my street get cleaned of downed trees in an orderly manner or is it who can pay the most gets their areas cleaned up first? When does my power come back on? How much do I have to pay up front? Remember everything becomes a profit center when tax dollars are funneled into the private sector. Private companies are not mandated to work for the community they work for those who pay.

And what about NOAA? All those private weather forecasters getting their information from NOAA. High quality real time forecasting by a government agency coordinating with FEMA to make decisions days in advance of a catastrophe. Hooo Boy! Are the private weather forecasters going to charge you a premium just to figure out you might be in disaster's way? You think private companies are going to help you? 

Private management of a disaster that stretches along the entire eastern seaboard is a demented idea. Maybe vouchers will drain the water off your street or vouchers can get the tree off the transformer that blew up and started a fire. Anyone that thinks private enterprise can handle this is delusional. Privatization of government disaster relief is bad news for society at large.

Floating around the net today are images of helicopters flying in to pluck you out of danger. These aren't government helicopters they are private helicopters but first you must sign their portable credit card machines. This may be the reality in future if the privateers get their way. No signy, no savey.

What...you don't like For Profit Disaster Relief? That is what you get when you gut government.

Which party tries to look out for all of us? Think about it before you vote next week.

i wonder what will happen when they want to privatize the sidewalks then all hell will break loose?

See ya next week.

PS- Did anyone notice I repeated something twice?

Revealing Smiles

i have a quote on my refrigerator that says “The most wasted of all days is one without laughter” by ee cummings. i take it seriously and have spent a lot of my life observing and participating with people who smile and laugh. i tend to put a lot of store in a persons smile and how they laugh and find you can usually figure out which are the phonies and which are the real deal.

Usually the type of smile you view has a lot to do with how trustworthy you take a person to be. Most people, myself included, can spot an untrustworthy smile even when it happens so rapidly you might have missed it.

Fake smiles usually come from people who are talking out of both sides of their mouth. Their smiles don't look sincere, honest, approachable or friendly. They want you to think they are positive and charming and can change the world but actually they are negative or have some ulterior motive they want you to buy into.

A smile, on top of expressing joy can hide all sorts of things; embarrassment, confusion, fear, and anger, but it is really the eyes that can give you away. Apparently the muscles around your eyes can't be forced to look happy. A real smile includes raised cheeks and the bunching up of skin around them and this is how most of us gauge a person's sincerity.

Dr. Niedenthal who studies smiles says an embarrassed smile is often accompanied by a lowering of the chin. This lowering signals that the smile is trying to camouflage an underlying conflict. A greeting smile includes raising of the eyebrows and indicates a welcoming. She also says many of us flash power smiles while raising our chins so as to look down upon others.

Unfortunately Romney's smile just rubs me the wrong way. Every time i see him smile i think what a sly dude this guy is. His smile is so fake and contrived it makes me feel like someone has run their fingernail over a chalk board trying to alert me to the hidden agenda this man conceals. His smile puts me on alert, makes me uneasy, i don't believe it and i don't trust it.

When i was researching smiling i came across a comment by an Italian that said Americans smile more than other nationalities and that is because a lot of the smiling is fake. He claimed that other nationalities didn't use fake smiling as much as Americans. Other comments ranged on about how a smile can hide something dark, that confidence men use such smiles as well as pickpockets, pedophiles and politicians.

Dr. Niedenthal says some dominant power smiles actually say “You're an idiot, I'm better than you.”

i don't think i'm alone on this. Even Republicans have had a hard time buying into Romney's schtick and i think it has to do with his smile it just doesn't ring true. i think most conservatives would prefer to have someone else to support and i think it is because they recognize there is just something wrong with his smile.

i wonder if leaders around the world who were watching the debate the other night have any confidence that Romney stands for anything? What about the citizens of the United States? Romney changes his positions faster than you can change the channel with the remote. He agreed with President Obama on the finer points of our diplomacy during the debate but in weeks past lambasted him for the same policies. Now he says he is a peacemaker last week he was a warmonger and all the while he wears that awful smile. Who is this man? What does he really believe? How would he govern? No one really knows even those who are going to vote for him.

A man whose positions change from minute to minute and who has a smile that is suspect in so many ways just gives me the willies. 

See ya next week.

The Debate

Has anyone noticed that the world marches on while we mess around trying to find a leader or leaders who will have to start on the campaign trail before they even have time to govern. After two years of campaigning i think everyone in the country is sick to death of politicians trying to make you like them. Don't most of us want strong leaders not politicians that are effectively neutralized because they have to spend so much time raising money and campaigning.

Last night was just another detraction from the real problems we have mounting in this nation and all over the world. Neither man will ever have enough single power or time to govern the way they would like or solve the multitude of problems that affect the nation. Anyone thinking they can single handedly do what they said they would like to do last night is naive.

Our government is divided into three parts. None of them can work independently of the other. We have the Judiciary, Congress and the President. Laws are written by the Congress and go to the President for signing. The Judiciary rules on the laws and send them back to Congress. No President can ever make the changes Romney wants to make without the consent of the Congress and the Judiciary and to think otherwise is not to understand the laws that govern this nation.

So who do you really think can work with others? Who has spent his whole life working with and for others? Who has tried throughout his Presidency to the chagrin of his base to meet half way and try to compromise? Last night you saw a real leader in action. President Obama reinforced his commitment to everyone in the nation.

And just to set the record straight here are a few things i noticed about the debate.

1. Mitt said he wants no taxes on bank account interest, dividends, or the money you make off capital gains. Essentially what he was saying is that he doesn't want to pay any taxes at all because that is where he makes all his money. i guess 14% is even too high for him.
2. Those binders full of women's names he “asked” for. Apparently prior to his election women's groups all over Massachusetts put together the binder full of names and handed them to Romney . He never asked for them he was given them.
3. He indirectly accused single mother's for the violence in America.
4. Oil is a global commodity and the President has no control over the price of oil or the cost at the gas pump. Romney won't be able to control gas prices either.
5. Romney said automatic weapons are illegal in this country. NOT TRUE they are legal and he never answered the question.

So who won?

See ya next week.

Water People

Who said this? He is a water person which I found out a while ago and which further endears him to me.

“When I lived in Hawaii, I’d take a drive from Waikiki to where my grandmother lived—up along the coast heading east, and it takes you past Hanauma Bay. When my mother was pregnant with me she’d take a walk along the beach. . . . You park your car. If the waves are good you sit and watch and ponder it for a while. You grab your car keys in the towel. And you jump in the ocean. And you have to wait until there is a break in the waves. . . . And you put on a fin—and you only have one fin—and if you catch the right wave you cut left because left is west. . . . Then you cut down into the tube there. You might see the crest rolling and you might see the sun glittering. You might see a sea turtle in profile, sideways, like a hieroglyph in the water. . . . And you spend an hour out there. And if you’ve had a good day you’ve caught six or seven good waves and six or seven not so good waves. And you go back to your car. With a soda or a can of juice. And you sit. And you can watch the sun go down …"

i've been wanting to put up some of the pics i took while out in San Francisco but the politics of the election season thwarted that effort. So today i'm going to ignore politics and write of other things and sprinkle in pics from the trip.

Plato's piece on the Myth of Er recounts the tale of a man called Er who is killed in battle. When he is placed out for burial alongside his comrades who have also perished it is noticed that his body does not decompose like the others. While on the funeral pyre he awakens to tell of an unearthly place he has visited. He claims that seven days pass in this meadow that has four openings. Two to the sky going in either direction and two into the earth also going in either direction. Judges decide who goes up or down but Er is commanded to only watch the proceedings and take back to mankind what he has observed.

People were coming and going. Those from the sky back to earth were clean and bright but from earth to the meadow they were stained and dusty. All seemed glad to return to the meadow and recounted their different journeys and tales of suffering and joy.

City Lights my favorite book store.

For every wrong done to any man sinners had paid the penalty ten times over and having spent one thousand years below ground they were brought out to begin a new round of earthly life. Lachesis, one of the Fates, declared that each man chooses the life he lives and only he who chooses accepts the blame for that life. This became a rallying-cry among the champions of freedom of will during the early Christian era.

Plato's tale tells us we are responsible for the good and evil in our lives. The underlying doctrine of humanity, according to Plato, is that there is an element of necessity or chance but also an element of free choice that makes us live the lives we live. Many of us don't want to accept responsibility or even acknowledge the good and the bad that our nation spreads or the good and bad that we each spread. It behooves us to become more informed about what we do around the world,at home, and to each other.

If granted a day where no one knew who he was that was what President Obama would do. There are a lot of us who read this blog that will understand his attachment to the water. How could we go wrong with another four years with a water person?

Went to Yosemite too...great picnic spot here

Debate Thoughts

Like a slick car salesman Romney knows how to sell. He was poised, aggressive, well trained and relaxed unlike the President who has been running the country and couldn't take time out to get ready. Romney had volume and talked over Lehrer and the President so often i was yelling at Lehrer to actually do his job and moderate.

Although my view last night was that Romney had more time to speak in fact President Obama had four minutes extra but you would never know it. He was a gentleman extraordinaire and fortunately never lowered himself to the mud pit Romney's gaffs were trying to eek out. A lesser man may have succumbed to the temptation to correct him but he chose to leave that up to the media. He was his same measured self he always is. Not one to loudly try and dominate the debate.

FactCheck and PolitiFact have been working over time checking Romney's statements and if lies or half truths are indicative of how he will govern we are in big trouble if he actually wins.

More than one Fact checker has claimed Romney's saying that he could pay for the 5Trillion tax cut that he says his policies wouldn't trigger by giving a 20% marginal tax rate without raising the deficit is impossible. And that lowering the rate to 20% would give millionaires another tax break and raise middle class taxes by $2,000 even though he claims it wouldn't.

Romney's $716 billion claim against the President is half true. It doesn't take any money away from current recipients of Medicare but does reduce payments to insurance companies and drug manufacturers. And that unelected board can not restrict benefits nor determine care for anyone in order to reduce costs. The law specifically prohibits that.

But here is the big take away from last night and it may have happened because Romney realized he had missed out on a tax break others were getting. He said, “ You get a deduction for getting a plant overseas? Look, I've been in business for 25 years. I have no idea what you're talking about. I maybe need to get a new accountant.”

That one statement reveals the real Romney. He could care less about the rest of us and quickly thought about firing his accountant for not informing him about this tax deduction when offshoring jobs. He thought it didn't exist but it does and he never got a chance to use it. In fact in July Republican Senators voted to protect these giveaways by voting against the Bring Jobs Home Act. This is the real Romney not the slick, well trained, aggressive man you saw last night.

According to Think Progress Romney told 27 myths in 38 minutes. Go read them here

http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2012/10/04/958801/at-last-nights-debate-romney-told-27-myths-in-38-minutes/

See Ya

White guys

Paul Ryan said the other day that we have lost 582,000 manufacturing jobs since President Obama took office. He wants you to believe that the President is responsible for that loss. What he failed to mention is that those jobs got off shored by CEO's that vote for and lobby for laws allowing them to move companies anywhere in the world  to make a profit and try to bring the money back tax free.

Now, if you put on your little thinking bonnets which party promotes laws that encourage companies to do this? Which party wants business to have carte blanch when it comes to world wide manufacturing?

Which party said let the auto industry die? It doesn't take a genius to understand why business wants Romney in office and why they think it will be so easy to delude their followers.

The cold dark heart of greed

And that word entitlement...when i think of the entitled i think of the elite, those who have enough money to do whatever their hearts desire. Those who can buy whatever they want, make demands upon all of us and still want more. i don't think of the homeless person or the person on welfare or food stamps as ever feeling entitled or even thinking they are entitled. When i go into an area of the island where subsidized families live  entitled is the furthest thing from my mind. Who ever turned that picture around was brilliant in taking the focus off the wealthy and putting it on to the poor.
What would an America shaped solely by Republican policy look like? Well according to a diarist who goes by the handle SYWTSAR this is what we have to look forward to.
1. No minimum wage.
2. No social security and medicare.  That includes disability.
3. No housing assistance for the poor.
4. No family planning or access to birth control.
5. No taxes for the wealthy.
6. No new roads.
7. No repairs on existing roads or bridges.
8. No maintenance of the electrical or sewage grid.
9. No rights for immigrants.
10. No safe drinking water.
11. No clean air.
12. No unpolluted earth.
13. No access to medical care for the poor.
14. No food stamps.
15. No safe conditions for workers.
16. No protection from discrimination or harassment.
17. No science taught in schools that is contrary to Creationism.
18. No limits on the number of hours employees would be required to work.
19. No limits on defense spending.
20. No restraints on the monitoring of U.S. citizens.
21. No assistance or restitution for workplace injuries.
22. No gun control.
23. No free speech, unless of course, you are a corporation.
24. No national parks.
25. No endangered species protections.
26. No food labeling.
27. No farm conservations rules.
28. No wildlife protections.
29. No protection from corporate malfeasance.
30. No freedom from or of religion and lots more war.
But the one saving grace for all the craziness he says is that they have alienated:
98% of our black population
65% of women
80% of Hispanics
60% of Jewish Americans
65% of Native Americans
65% of our young people
85% of scientists
Whats left? White guys?

See ya next week.