Friday's Political Vent

Many moons ago, I instituted and copyrighted this date in honor of those behind the front wheel and on the CB of all those 18 Wheelers, give or take, making sure we get what we need.  Thus, I say unto them---10-4!!!

As for those supposedly "running the country," and actually running it into the ground, I offer THIS:

You have to be out or your &#+@#! minds!!!  You have lost any sense of honor, dignity, truth, justice and all the other accolades you people swore to uphold, being elected based on your promises...ALL OF YOU!!!

You KNEW the economy was in dire straits L-O-N-G before you went on that collective and insidious 5 week vacation.  How Effing stupid was THAT???  What it told me and many others is that you flat out did not give a damn about anything other than yourselves!!!  "Country, be damned---I'm going home to raise money for re-election and any other benefit I can accrue, based on my self-appointed/anointed entitlements."

You are worse than a room filled with bickering 5 year old children.  If the man in that office had any spine at all, he would have called you into a large room and told you that no one goes any damned where until a workable budget is established.  Seems to me that no one is in charge and even less of you give a big fat rat's patoot when none of you consider anything other than your sick selves!

Don't respond with any cheap, self-serving rhetoric.  When in corporate America, we department heads convened at least twice yearly to review/revise the initial 1 year and sometimes, 5 year Long Range Plans.  Do YOU do that?  Sure doesn't seem so, begging the question...Would you know HOW?  It would be very interesting to know how many of you actually have experience working in a profit driven environment.  How many of you actually participated in managing a department, division, subsidiary or even a total company?  You probably began as a local "gofer" for a councilperson, filled with grandiose idealism.  As time passed, you learned or were taught about "the system" and how to make it work for you.  Climbing the socio-political stairs and as your wealth and power increased, it resulted in an equal amount of minimal representation of your constituents' wishes and needs.

Oh yeah---Most of us in the working world, have been exposed to annual reviews.  (That's where you sit with a manager and discuss how/if you were successful the previous year and how you intended to improve in the NEXT 12 months.)  If you showed NO improvement, most often, your next appearance would be at the employment bureau.  You don't have to do that, now DO you?  You are content knowing, pretty much no matter what, you have privilege in guaranteed employment for the length of the elected term.  While there, you take it upon yourselves to restructure the laws, constitution and all other methods to ensure your comfort during and after your time in office.  You've re-written the meaning of "ways and means."

You wrecked a good percentage of our economy by allowing banks and corporations to swindle the living hell out of America's citizens.  Do not even THINK of telling me none of you were aware of it!  To make it WORSE, you bailed out the very perpetrators, allowed bonuses and, in your arrogance, did not prosecute or jail one single one of those irresponsible bastards!  bernie made-off vacations in a 4 star hotel, where the only bars are probably seen at happy hour.  Those cheats are fully aware of what they planned and knew what their "consequences" would be.....hell...they either wrote the laws or paid off those who DID!  Instill some fear by closing every single white collar detention center!!!  Each and every one of them needs to be in Leavenworth, guarded by unhappy veteran Marines!

I could go on and on, yet, I hope you see what I see.  A friend in Florida sends emails, ending with, "Re-Elect No One."  It's not the total answer, but perhaps it might straighten the arrow, so to speak.  Our beloved country began a major "sell a soul to the devil" parade about the time Ike departed the white house and the gates of hell are getting closer and closer.  It took approximately 200 years to make this a beautiful country and in approximately another 50 some, we've been able to chop the heck out of it.  Fix THIS country FIRST and THEN go help others, before it all goes to that proverbial hell in a hand-basket!

Do you REALLY wish our streets to look the same as in Egypt, Sudan, Syria, et al???

By the way, if we indeed DO find ourselves in hell............I don't want to share a room with a damned one of you!!!

Have a nice weekend...

2-23-13 Rantz-N-Rave

I no longer see the hairy pig commercials from GEICO.  Thanks to those who helped get them off the air.   Now, if someone can do the same for ads that insist on thinking drumbeats are cool in the background of nearly every TV ad.  All they do is cause people to change the channel or leave the room.  Several years back, those drumbeats were everywhere.  They did stop for awhile, but I noticed a resurgence in the past several weeks.  I surveyed numerous contacts and couldn't find any people who had positive thoughts about them.  In fact, they all questioned the sanity of those who submit and those who pay for them.  C'mon, ad agencies...where's the originality? Cars are getting better mileage.  Just this week, gas shot up 30 cents per gallon in my neighborhood.  A man on the news told the nation that gas is more expensive because we don't have enough pipelines and refineries.  What the ----? All the panic about 1 week remaining before the federal budget goes bazonkers.  YOU MEAN NO ONE SAW THIS COMING?!?  GEEZISS PETE, ALREADY!!!  WHAT THE H--- ARE YOU PEOPLE DOING IN D.C??? Outsourcing = job losses = unemployment and all that goes with it, being taxes, etc.  See federal budget woes in previous paragraph. On the bright side:  Major League Baseball played the 1st game of spring training yesterday and hope springs eternal.  Will this be YOUR team's year?

Unending Soapbox

I've "preached" forever about learning as much as one can prior to making an intelligent decision, regardless the situation, person, and yes, even a teevee program! That in mind, I'm introducing you to Mr. Niel, (That's the way he spells it), Young.  Niel has a radio program and writes a column for The Weirs Times in New Hampshire.  He presents a view of our nation that you might not have yet considered.  Neither am I pulling his wagon, nor am I suggesting you hop on, rather, it's an invite to read what others take the time to offer. I tried to copy the article, but it seems today that one must "log on" to most everything prior to forwarding, etc.  I shy away from social sites and the like.  As I told the friend next door, "I don't even like that my neighbor knows where I live!"  Anyway, if you'd like to read the article, kindly use your address bar to type in: www.weirs.com  Once there, you'll see the current edition, whereupon you can use the page-turning arrow on the right, until you reach page 13.  You can also enlarge the page...directions are easy. Thanks, and, Have a Nice Country!

Charities

When there's such an abrupt denial as shown below, I can't help but wonder how many back pockets are being filled from those who lost the class action suits.  Oh well, just another case of arrogance by those who were elected.  Obviously, this is Ohio, but I'm certain other states could use the help. By the way, might there be other instances?  By: Sarah Buduson, newsnet5.com COLUMBUS, Ohio - Ohio lawmakers have no plans to reintroduce a bill that could make millions of dollars available to charities and non-profit organizations. "We've been told we shouldn't waste our time on something that's dead on arrival," said Pat Perotti, an attorney with the northeast Ohio law firm Dworken & Bernstein, who helped draft the legislation. The legislation would change state rules regarding settlement funds from class actions lawsuits. "We asked for the legislation to be passed in the state of Ohio that would require that every single class action settlement have specific language that indicates what happens to unclaimed funds, and if it does not say what happens to them, then they automatically revert to charity," said Perotti. Currently, when class members cannot be located, unclaimed settlements funds revert to the defendant. For example, International Precious Metals Corporation, a commodity futures brokerage firm, paid approximately $22 million out of a $40 million settlement resulting from a 1990 lawsuit that accused the firm of defrauding its customers. "That's simply not fair, it's not right and it's not honest -- because that's not what the court understood and intended," said Perotti about defendants keeping unclaimed funds. When the legislation to spell out what happens to the funds was introduced in 2010, Perotti was optimistic. The bill had bipartisan support. But HB 427 went nowhere. There were no house or senate committee votes. Former Ohio Rep. Mark Okey (D) was chair of the house committee reviewing HB 427. Okey said members liked the idea, but disagreed on the details, like which charities would be eligible to receive funds. "I couldn't get a majority of votes. I certainly wasn't going to bring it to a vote and then just have it fail," he said. There was also strong opposition from the Ohio Chamber of Commerce. "They did not want to see the bill go forward at all," said Okey. During a two week period in December, NewsChannel5 tried repeatedly to schedule an interview with Linda Woggon, the Ohio Chamber of Commerce executive vice president who lobbied against the bill, but she declined our requests to talk on camera. Perotti said he believes some of the chamber's members feared the legislation would affect their bottom lines. "Certain of their members were parties in our lawsuits, they were defendants, and they had committed fraud against our customers and they frankly didn't want to pay the money out," said Perotti. Dworken & Bernstein avoids allowing unclaimed class action settlement funds to revert back to defendants by using a little known legal rule called cy pres. "It's a legal doctrine which means 'as nearly as possible' and it makes sure that when there's an intent to pay out a certain amount of money that if you can't give it to the intended recipient, as nearly as possible, you give it to that person's benefit," said Perotti. Dworken & Bernstein founded Ohio Lawyers Give Back in order to promote cy pres. The organization has given more than $24 million to dozens of charities and non-profits operating in northeast Ohio. The Arc of Greater Cleveland, an advocacy group for developmentally disabled individuals, was on the verge of shutting down when it unexpectedly received a $74,000 donation from Ohio Lawyers Give Back in 2011. "I was looking at becoming unemployed and so were the rest of my staff. I mean, it was that dire of a situation," said Cindy Norwood, the executive director. Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital Division of Pediatric Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery received a $250,000 donation. The donation helped the hospital maintain the team of specialists that treated Westlake resident Meredith Farrow's 2-year-old daughter, Presley. Presley was born with a cleft lip and palate. "It was very difficult. I cried. I wasn't prepared for that," said Farrow. "The pediatric plastic surgery unit at Rainbow Babies made me feel like it's going to be OK," she said. "About three months of age, she was operated on for almost four hours to correct her nose, her lip and her gumline. She's a completely normal, healthy child now," said Farrow. Both Farrow and Norwood were surprised no Ohio lawmakers plan to reintroduce HB 427. "I'm here to say, as a charity, that people don't always choose to give to charity," said Norwood. "There would be so many more people helped. Just seems like a no-brainer," said Farrow Read more: http://www.newsnet5.com/dpp/news/local_news/investigations/no-ohio-lawmakers-plan-to-reintroduce-bill-that-could-mean-more-money-for-charities#ixzz2IoJd63gE

When David Muir talks, Bob listens.....sometimes

ABC Evening News...Wednesday...11-28-12
David Muir did a nice feature on how buying American at Christmas time can create American jobs.  His take was, if everyone spent $64 of their Christmas shopping budget, a large quantity of jobs would be created in the USA.  Forgive me, as I can't recall the exact number, but it was substantial.  KUDOS, Dave!
I spend a fair number of hours throughout the year attending moving sales, downsizing sales, garage sales, estate sales, garage sales that are advertised as estate sales, swap meets, flea markets, antique malls, thrift shops and whatever other titles humans conjure up in their attempt to separate you from your dollars.  Nothing wrong with any of them.  After all, that's how many a company began.   It's also the basic form of social media, which means, you actually can look someone in the eyes, forming complete words that they'll understand, make new friends, exchange referrals, and....have some fun!  Sadly, the current economy has forced many sellers to depart with personal goods, including heirlooms, in hopes of paying a mortgage, utility, insurance or grocery bills.   But I digress.

What I saw at those aforementioned sales was an IMMENSE amount of non-USA manufactured goods.  Folks, I'm talking TONS!!!  One needn't be an alum of Wharton or MIT to see/understand what has been happening.  Not in any particular sequence...Greed caused facilities to close as manufacturing headed out of the country and Americans lost jobs.  Shareholders quickly made increased profits.  (Keep in mind that snowballs don't go uphill.)  One money person saw how rich another was becoming, so HE sold HIS company and had those goods produced in a lower labor market outside of the USA.  HE made higher and quicker profits.  More Americans lost jobs.  (Can you see the snowball now?)  As more snowballs are grown, more Americans are losing jobs.  A handful of money people are making more money and in a very short period of time.  In time, a great many Americans will not have jobs, causing the inability to afford the cheaply made products that now fill the racks and bins of American stores.  Are you getting the picture?
Back to the sales venues mentioned above.  The seller needs to raise money and has little room to haggle.  The prospective buyer has little money and wants a bargain.  The twain are having difficulty reaching an agreeable price.  The buyer moves along.  The seller makes no sale, but must pay rent if he is at a privately owned facility.  The facility owner has less vendors than in years past.  To make up, he raises the rental fees.  The sellers have to raise prices to pay the rent, but the buyers are still short on funds.  The sellers pull their wares because sales are dwindling.  The privately owned venue closes when the dwindled rental income is not enough to cover the overhead.  The local municipality loses tax revenues.  Safety and fire forces are cut.  Public assistance is pared.  Unemployment payments run out.  Less jobs are available.  Food lines increase.  More Americans are having garage sales and are setting up at flea markets.  No one has money to spend.  The sellers paid rent, but made no sales.  The venue owner didn't make enough to cover overhead and shuts down his property.  He has a garage sale the following week but no one came because there was no spendable money.  Remaining "professional" vendors are overstocked with imported items and complain to each other about the lack of sales.  I asked why they didn't sell American made goods.  They told me that the costs were too high.  I suggested they combine and buy American after negotiating better prices.  They gave me weird looks.  I asked if they were to go to a garage sale in China, might they see items made in America?  More weird looks.

SO...great advice from David Muir.  However, when the Christmas season is over, what then?  Well, I'LL tell you what then!  Go to your local establishments.  Trust me...when you look, you'll find many.  Explain how you'd love to keep them in business by purchasing their American made goods, but because your income is shaky at best, you'll need a discount.  If he can understand that he'll stay in business by allowing an equitable discount, as opposed to closing down from zero sales, it can catch on!  Ask your friends to do the same.  Know ye this: You MUST CONTINUE the practice to make it successful.  You can actually do without something once in awhile.  In a recent interview, I heard a man ask, "If you had to leave your home in 30 minutes, what would you take?"  That's a good start.  In time, jobs CAN return!  I fully realize I'll be branded insane, but the collective stance is what got this country going in the first place and made it a success for more than 200 years!  Don't let the power driven take what is yours. 

The rich are rich partly due to the risks they took and the long range sight they had and continue to have.  They shouldn't have to pay for everything.  After all, it was their money that made a lot possible.  Our government must look inside the monstrous house they allowed to grow and begin trimming therein.  With a computer driven world, the government keeps adding people to the payroll, making it the largest employer in the land.  Stop voting for people who truly don't care about you.  Vote for those with proven financial success.  I could go on, but don't wish to veer too far off track.