The Scene From Greece/ Repossessed Street Light Edition

Good morning all,

I felt bad leaving you guys with nothing today, thanks to my Buerkle rant yesterday. So, I just wanted to post two amazing videos from Greece. I mentioned in the first post yesterday, that the trash hadn’t been picked up in 17 days and there has also been violent clashes with the police. Here are videos of each. It got really nasty Thursday, thanks to their Parliament voting for more austerity measures (salary/pension cuts, social programs, etc). It’s something to think about, when you see the stories pertaining to Paul Ryan and written by Paul Krugman. It’s not so far-fetched to see a Greece-type situation here (in a number of  years), if massive cuts are allowed to continue.

First off, some amazing pics from Greece, about 20 of them in total, 2 of them show someone who caught fire (from trying to put out a fire due to a thrown firebomb):

If you saw Congresswoman Buerkle yesterday, you remember her talking about cutting programs and how taxes are evil. So, I may have to file this under the blog’s new section: “Wouldn’t It Be Easier to Just Raise Taxes?” Congressman Paul Ryan talks to a young student about the evils of Pell Grants and that he should work 3 jobs and take out school loans to pay for school. Article and video appear here. And, here’s one more. It’s an older story, but our situation (unemployment, smaller tax base, etc) has gotten worse since I saw this. Cities around the country are turning off street lights and some cities in the Midwest are even un-paving roads to save money. Here’s a good read, from Nobel Prize winning economist, Paul Krugman talking about each issue. Krugman would take issue with some things Congresswoman Buerkle said yesterday as well. He always states (and this is proven) that if corporations are not hiring people, governments have to step in and do it. Those are the only two options and corporations aren’t hiring. So, her argument about taxes, regulations, getting government out-of-the-way, private sector jobs being somehow better than public sector jobs, etc, doesn’t make much sense.

Even in the article I linked to, Krugman mentions the Interstate Highway System and the Erie Canal project. These were public works projects. You can throw in another large one, the Hoover Dam. These projects employed thousands and thousands of people. And, if we’re being honest, and we care about getting the country turned around, who cares who does the hiring? Projects like this are not profitable to some corporation. They will likely become a public good down the road. But, there are times when you need the government to step in and directly hire when things are bad and corporations won’t (like now).

UPDATE:

This was forwarded to me, by my buddy Paul. A more recent update of the sorry state of some US inner cities. Places where the street lights are not put on, street lights were even repossessed in some cities (couldn’t pay the electric bills), packs of wild dogs traveling together, the list goes on. Just a horrible situation, but it’s a must read.

See you next time,

James

Beginner’s Guide to the GOP Debate, Part III, Paul/Perry

Hello and thanks for checking in on Part III of the GOP Debate preview. I can’t believe you came back after hearing about the first 4 candidates. I have a hunch today’s post might go long. Both of these guys, are from Texas, so they have a base level of craziness, not known to the residents of the other 49 states. Now, that I think about it, I should have called this post the “Texas Two-Step“. Damn you hindsight! Anyway, let’s get to it.

Ron Paul:

He’s the Congressman for the 14th District of Texas. He is in the John McCain-zone (in age). Paul will be 77 by the 2012 election. He prides himself on being the ultimate libertarian. Paul does not want you, corporations, or himself burdened with rules and  regulations. Quick aside on the GOP, I could never figure how they campaign on hating government, but we should vote them into the highest office?
He is at least consistent, which most of them aren’t. And, for that, I hope he stays in the race a little longer. He wants all drugs legalized, which I’m for (I’m not a user). I’m going to go into that in a separate post. Here he is asking a debate crowd, if they would buy heroin if it was legal. Paul is an isolationist when it comes to our dealings with other countries. Because of that, he hates our wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, drone strikes in Yemen, Pakistan, Somalia, “humanitarian” stuff in Libya, and the troops sent into a few Central African countries last week. I think that was all of them. You need an abacus to count US wars/occupations/humanitarian missions these days, it’s tough to keep track. For those 2 reasons, I hope he hangs in there and makes the others answer questions on these issues.

Another quick aside on libertarianism, it sounds great in principle. But, it falls apart when applied to any real life situation. Paul thinks the government shouldn’t do anything about regulating health care, the energy companies, or the financial world (and all other companies/industries). He says let the free market handle it. I can’t remember anything going wrong with any of those industries. Oh wait, there’s the fact that 47,000 people die each year because of lack of health care. BP blew up the Gulf of Mexico, to the point where you can still get “Unleaded Shrimp” in New Orleans restaurants. And, the banks blew up the world economy in 2008. Like I said, it falls apart pretty quickly in practice. Paul has other stuff like “Ending the Federal Reserve” and going back to the “Gold Standard” for our money supply. It’s too long to explain those and it would never happen anyway. Onto another crazy Texan.
Rick Perry:

Wish I was clever enough to think of this line (courtesy of www.progressive.org):

“Rick Perry is the candidate for those of you who could never cozy up to George Bush due to his flagrant intellectual elitism.”

Not just one person had this thought about Perry either. Politico posted this article in August, asking, “Is Rick Perry Dumb?” Probably not the best start if you want to be President. He shot a coyote with a laser-sighted pistol while jogging. Why does he have a pistol on a jog? C’mon, this is Part III of the preview. You know not to ask logical questions by now.
On a serious note, he’s basically a murderer. He has presided over 234 death penalty executions. One of which, included a man named Cameron Todd Willingham. We now know for certain that Mr. Willingham was innocent. Perry received new evidence that put Willingham’s guilt in doubt, refused a stay of execution, and even prevented him from being ruled innocent after his execution. Another man, Anthony Graves, was sprung from Death Row after being proven innocent and shortly before an execution order was signed. All info about Willingham, Graves, and their situation is detailed in the embedded link above.

He called Social Security and Medicare unconstitutional. Again, who knows why? And, he’s also said that God crashed the economy to get us back to biblical principles. Um, ok. You usually see God blamed for hurricanes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, etc. But, this is first time I’ve seen God called out on his economic policy. Every time you think the GOP hits a new low, someone comes by with a bigger shovel.

On top of all this, he doesn’t want Texas to be a part of the US. He’s called multiple times for Texas to secede from the US and become their own republic. This part I love. I say let them go. The NFL can claim to be an “International League”, thanks to the Cowboys and Texans. You can get a stamp in your passport for going to Houston. Texas money would probably have oil rigs, ten-gallon hats, laser-sighted pistols and coyotes on it. Win, win and another win. Let’s start-up the paperwork.
And, some proof that Perry is not the brightest of guys. Behold this video from a GOP Debate in September. He’s so bad, it has subtitles. Reminder, he speaks English. It’s Texas English, but still. We shouldn’t need subtitles.

I immediately thought of this young lady, after hearing Perry, behold another gem:

Two more things, unrelated to the debates. I’m thinking of starting a new blog section called, “Wouldn’t It Be Easier to Just Raise Taxes?” It will just be quick hits of horrible stuff going on around the country. A Pennsylvania District is starting to sell ads in its schools to make up for budget shortfalls. I think the next step is to put henna tattoos of company logos on the kids. Do people still use that stuff? Henna might have lost its word status by now. It hasn’t been used in so long. Can someone check a dictionary and let me know if it’s still in there?

Last thing, I wanted to post this because it doesn’t get too much play over in the States. It’s a video from yesterday’s riots in Greece. For those that don’t know, the citizens are being forced to take on a harsh austerity program of massive salary/pension cuts, coupled with tax hikes, and across the board cuts to other social services. The full story of Greece is too long to detail now, it’s worthy of a book by itself. And, I’m sure many people are writing this story. Needless to say they are not taking the cuts in stride. They fought with cops/riot police, set things on fire, looted businesses, etc. To top it all of, today (Thursday) is Day 2 of a general strike. The strike shut the airport and all public transportation down. Trash collectors have not picked up garbage in 17 days, so trash bags line the streets. Here’s a pretty amazing video of the scene in Athens. If you haven’t yet made it to see the Acropolis, you should probably take it off your bucket list. Things will be horrible in the cradle of democracy for a long time.

I think we should call it there. And, I’m getting the tingling in my fingertips again. Which means, this post is getting too long. I’m trying guys. I could have gone longer on Ron Paul’s wacky thoughts, Perry on gay marriage, Perry’s ties to the Evangelical fringe, his threats to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, etc.


See you next time for Part IV (you guys like the Roman numerals?). I’m trying to class this blog up). Final preview is Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum.

See you next time,
James