A Two Year Political Nightmare Scenario

The worst of our political nightmares may be just starting.  As you know President Obama "got Mitch Mc Connell and John Boehner mad" last week with the immigration thing and I'm having second thoughts as to whether it was worth it.  What the President may gain with a few grateful Latinos, he may lose in not getting any bills he wants passed at all, with one notable exception - - the Trans Pacific Partnership.  The President may not get funding foir his so called "amnesty program" for immigrants.  He may not get any of his cabinet or other judicial appointments confirmed.  Even getting a new Secretary of Defense is problematical.  Nothing is assured at this point.  That is, except for one thing.  The Trans Pacific Partnership.  This is something the Republican party wants so desperately they are even willing to be tagged by some as "giving the President what he wants" to pass this one.  With the Trans Pacific Partnership, the President is playing on the other side's team because the provisions are so un-American and undemocratic.  Of course we've told you that the political right isn't against big government but they ARE against small D democracy.  They are for taking the power out of the hands of the American voter and the TPP accomplishes this marvelously.  This treaty can override anything even this congress might choose to do in the future.  If some smaller polluting nation wants to drill off our shore or Canada's shores, sovreign nations are powerless to stop them because it can be called "an action in restraint of trade" or "blocking the potentiality of profits".  Remember we told you the only actual MANDATE of corporations now days is to make as much profit as possible.  And often corporations can have a nice tax dodge if they pay their CEO's a lot of money - it shows up as an expense in the books and cuts way into the taxable income.  Of course it also cuts way into what this same company ordenary people invest in can pay in dividends to their stockholders.  But you can throw environmental laws out the window.  You can throw the OSHA safety regulations out the window.  There WILL be no more "occupational safety" any more.  Mitt Romney's fantasy has come true about buying that sweat shop of largely unmarried women in China working for nothing.  They are basically prisoners there and eat and sleep there in shabby conditions.  Mittens loved that!  Now we'll have a lot more of that, maybe even in this country.  Minimum wages?  You can forget those, too.  Minimum wages cut into profits.   Let's talk just about the trade aspects of the thing.  This will ship US jobs to China and Vietnam and Malaysia or whatever.  These small, backward countries will now be the ones to set the standards for the rest of us.  As a result of depressing the wage base further- - and reversing the employment gains we've had the past several years- - our living standard will go down as the economy finally achieves that long sought double dip recession that Mort Zuckerman has been longing for for so long.  Our balance of trade figures will be nightmarish- - and our private personal debt figures will skyrocket at least for a while.  If this Republican congress chooses to cut taxes to "spur the economy" the tax savings won't begin to compensate for the new loss of earning and spending power of the American people.  I'm puzzled why after fighting for suprenacy for so long against President Obama that they'll only have for two brief years anyhow, they now want to give that up and let some comittee out of somewhere assigned to enforce this treaty determine what laws this congress can and cannot pass.

But the President has been more on the Republican's side all along than people ever suspected as witness his appointing people like Larry Summers and Eric Holder, who are in business' back pocket.  Now apparently he has appointed a Mary Jo White as head of the securities and exchange comission.  This is the outfit in charge of enforcing Dodd Frank and implementing the many suggestions made in that legislation.  Now for all practices because of the appointment of Mary Jo White - - - Dodd Frank is dead.  All of the promises for economic reform in the great bye and bye off in the future- - are now dead.  That is - - here in the present- - Dead.  This is what executives do is gut bills they don't like.  The Republicans didn't like it when we favored it with immigration reform- - and now we don't like it when they do it with Wall Street "reform", which is no reform at all.  Basically they are throwing out the rule book and returning to the "Wild West" days of the 1920's, and we know that one ended badly.  I'm predicting another crash - - based on latest information- - maybe in 2016 but maybe 2017.  At any rate- - even if the Republicans should succeed in electing Ted Cruz or someone like that as President- - they will have a major economic crisis on their hands in the first year, which will be WORSE than the one President Obama faced when he came into office.  It would be ironic that this Stockmarket Crash would occurr just as the stratigic moment when "The Experts" people like the Mc Laughlin group and the other talking head comentators on the major networks say "Well it's clear that- - Obama didn't build this economy.  In fact this economy occurred in spite of President Obama's efforts".  This is what they will be saying, but of course it won't be true.  But the minute they're all convinced "We did it" then at that point, the bottom will fall out of the economy.  Right now I'd still recommend that if you are in either oil stocks or airlines- - just sit tight and watch your earnings go up for the next year or so.  I won't be springing a "Sell" notice on you without a warning.  So far those immediate warning signs are not there.

We did slip into politics, actually, talking about the morality of rich verses poor people.  In this blogger exclusive in red - - Bones came by to monitor the conversation and happened to just come upon this political wrangling- - which is the first major political brawl at a holiday gathering in four years.  But Bones didn't stay long, he tells me "Because I sensed other psychic entities around you- - and I got freaked out and thought that maybe they might be reading my mind".  Bones of course was Romulan cloaked at the time, so they probably didn't even know he was there. Still I was troubled by the remark.  The conversation was getting rather heeded till Mom change the topic to medical stuff, which was the dominant topic at Paul and Judy’s.  It was well past three before we ever thought about the pies- - - and I had some cranberry Martenelli cider in a red glass.  They had to scrounge for chairs for the table.  I had two pieces of pumpkin pie with whipped cream and one piece of Wendy’s “unsweetened” apple pie.  There was talk about computers and Paul and Judy had gotten a “Surface”, which they paid a lot of money for.  There was talk about the C-dificil bacteria that Judy had Mom checked out for- - - and all of the different hospitals Dad was in.  And also Grandpa and Grandma didn’t leave us with medical decisions about when to revive and what measures to be taken.  Apparently Judy and others would not like much done if they were to suddenly have a crisis.  I guess Jenny was mad because the hospital took measures to revive Uncle John like give him fluids.  But what Wendy has said in the past, his wife seemed a little too eager for John to kick the can and be done with it.

Winter time is upon us and it’s cold out.  Yesterday I got one cigarette from Paul in the early morning and one just before I left at ten thirty- - and did not get another cigarette till about eight last night.  I went over to Lisha’s room and fiddled around with her computer sitting on the bed with the bad light and I couldn’t see the keys.  The backspace didn’t work and I kept losing the curser for the address bar.  But after trying freespeec.com and also Google.com it was clear her machine was not hooked up to the internet.  I told her she better contact Time-Warner about that.  I thought she had “wireless broadband” but if a cord were unplugged I think she would have made that clear that she wasn’t wireless, but I had too much sugar from the pies and not enough cigarettes – to think clearly, myself.  When you’re playing in someone elses’ ball park you have to negotiate certain environmental things such as the sink holes in the outfield, the clumps of poison oak by the catcher, and the kid in the stands randomly aiming laser beams in the player’s faces.  I’m just not in my element- - and the top row of keys was shrunk down to nearly nothing.  She didn’t have a mouse pad so the covers served at my only traction.  Otherwise the news on the athletic field was good for Oregon fans, even if the Beavers had a lot better looking uniforms.  Every time you see Oregon they’re wearing something different and the only element of commonality is they’re in bad taste.

I watched Meet the Press at eight and it was Breakfast with the Beatles at nine.  The first song I remember as “Long, Long, Long Time” by the Beatles.  I went out and had two cups of coffee in the courtyard.  It had not yet started raining.  They had Gary Wright on.  Gary Wright is Federation but he got conflated a lot with Nielson - - who is Renwah, or however you’re supposed to spell it.  Wright played piano on Neilson’s “Without You”.  Mal Evans as you know has never been a fan of Renwah people- - including Badfinger.  But Gary Wright is suddenly George Harrison’s best friend, who was “there” at all the major moments.  You learn something every day.  And apparently George wrote a melody in 1971 and after George died on November 29^th of 2001, Gary Wright recorded a song played on piano- - which has chord progressions at times more remonicent of John Lennon than anything George ever wrote.  We had spaghetti for lunch with garlic bread and corn chowder for soup.  There were no seconds, but we got a banana for desert.  Joe Drisco had the show playing on his transistor radio out on the benches.  There had been a downpour just before lunch, but otherwise it didn’t start to rain in earnest till about two when we were lining up for coffee and I was near the front of a very long coffee line.