Just The Usual Pie In The Sky Pep Talk

I missed dinner for this speech. Andy's sister was serving burritos and pork rinds and a can of Pepsi and a glazed donut for desert in the mid afternoon. The loudest applause line was when the President mentioned cutting taxes and ending all regulations and cutting spending. When the President discussed finding ways of eliminating government waste, the applause was not nearly as loud. This program is D O A, whatever it is. It seems very modest- - and we were told there was no specific way of paying for it. But the President offered a few suggestions. He said we could cut corporate taxes from 35% to 25%. On top of all the counter-productive trade agreements that have been disasters, the President wants to institute new ones. He wants to cut medicare, but he didn't say exactly how much. He did say he would try to get closing of corporate loopholes for the rich passed. So I don't know what's happening. The speech was a waste.

There is a power crisis here in southern California. Apparently the problem is wide spread, though it obviously doesn't affect me typing here. There is no power in southern Orange County or San Diego County or northern Mexico, and as far east as Yuma, Arizona. This could be because of the continued heat wave we've been under. They are promising us a break from that any day now. We should always say a prayer for people who are inconvienienced, because it could have been us, save for the grace of God. There was a "disturbance in the grid". I guess we should get Luke Skywalker on the case right now.

There is a terrorist threat. What 9 - 11 celebration would be complete without one of those. They say that two or three (they aren't sure) people were "admitted" to this country in mid August and they are believed to be planning some sort of terrorist explosives attack involving vehicals. And they say some trucks were reported in Kansas City. This is really vague. We don't know when and we don't know where and we really aren't sure who. And they tell us these reports are "unconfirmed" but credible. On top of these they have released new, alarming tapes from the Boston flight to New York of people saying "I think we're being hijacked". The commentator said "These tapes were prepared for the 9 - 11 report but just now being released. I fixated on that word "prepared". You can bet if they'd had them ten years ago they would have been released. As to the Pennsylvania crash- - it's pretty much confirmed that Flight 93 did not crash on that location on that day. There IS no debris and no bodies. Read one of our recent postings. They are all just trying to psyche us into the spirit of a perhaps- - - soon to be national holiday. That will really be a drag when congress passes that bill.

You know we don't have for the Republicans to take over to know what will happen. In England they have followed the republican agenda of cutting government spending and taking away services to the people. And the economy has continued to tank worse. According to Thom Hartman the states where taxes were raised and spending was raised are fairing the best in this recession. I don't see how people can refuse to learn from the example of Franklin Roosevelt. The one time he tried to please the republicans by cutting back spending a bit, the economic figures dipped. There was nothing in Obama's speech about changing tax regulations to stop subsedizing corporations from relocating overseas. For all the talk about "buying American" I don't see any legislation proposed to make that a reality. The President should institute new regulations on Wall Street if he really wants to prevent another crash. But he won't do that. In the history books the tea party will be viewed as mad, but the President's own response to this crisis will be viewed as "illogical". There is all this talk about bifercating cuts so that old people continue to "get theirs" but they stick it to the younger people, which is me at this point. I think if there ARE going to be cuts, everyone should suffer equally. I think most of the American people are bewitched by this false Meme that somehow "The government is like a giant family economy and everybody has to cut back and sacrifice". Nothing could be a more false or dangerous belief. But the trouble is the American public at large has a fundamental misunderstanding of how basic economics works. One of my "wise sayings" from a year ago March or something was "What if everybody did what you are doing?" Think about the consequences of THAT for a minute, won't you?