We are Not this Stupid

Using recreational drugs can kill you.

Maintaining a diet high in cholesterol can kill you.

Getting involved with gangs can kill you.

Using electrical items in the bath can kill you.

Running your car in a garage can kill you.

Ignoring inclement weather can kill you.

Texting while driving can kill you.

Leaving the toilet seat up for the wife can ... 


Well, OK, that may be stretching the truth a fractionation, but I expect that none of these potential killers come as remarkable revelations to you. 

Now, we could engage in an intelligent discussion about these hazards, however at some point in the near future we will have exhausted all there is to say. We understand the concepts and further illustration, elucidation, or contemplation of the inherent dangers they pose are fairly remedial. 

So, let's not waste time on posting the obvious dangers to your life, let's address the dangers that the gross stupidity of believing and therefore participating in a corrupt political system pose.

We're well on our way to having eight years of the man who promised, "Change we could believe in" and "Hope", remember that? 

How's your faith now? Do you even recall what it was you were hoping for? 

You got the change, so you can't complain about that. What changed was the occupant of the best maintained public housing unit,  the White House. Other than that, the policies of Bush II went on unabated. Bailouts, wars on stuff that scares us, military adventures in places we don't understand (Obama took this one to new heights) , and drone wars where we can deal out death with the bravery of being out of range. 

I don't mean to be a cynic, I just am one... due to many years of rigorous training in the political arena. I watched promising, idealistic candidates turn to sycophantic political hacks after a few sizable campaign contributors slipped an envelope into their hand while whispering into their ear. 

How do you think corporations became persons with the right to make unlimited contributions to their favored candidate?  That was a Supreme Court decision, and the lifetime appointed Justices are supposedly the least influenced by politics! 

You could just as easily ask yourself,  "How did Julius Gaius Caesar get elected dictator for life by the Roman Senate? "

It seems the only viable answer is, We are dumb. Selectively, generally,  communally, individually, randomly,  categorically, eternally, and terminally dumb. Zappa had it right...

Still I wonder, aren't we the same species that decided making fire and spear was preferable to being nutrition for others? Didn't we invent writing, pharmacopia, the wheel, philosophy, the calculus, and strip clubs (I'm only counting the ones that serve booze as genuine here)? 

There are times when I am unapologetically and completely fucking dazzled by the brilliance of our  species. But then the flicker of light fades away and we sit there season after horrific season and watch the Kardashians! 

I want to methodically go from home to home and commandeer every human cerebellum and give it to a phylum that would really appreciate higher consciousness, like mollusks or maybe nudibranch. They would love that shit... Holy shit, look at all these tentacles! I'd make Mozart sound like a novice on a fucking Playschool xylophone.

But instead, humans deliberate and conclude, "I'll think I'll vote for Obama because he has "Hope", and then I'll watch the fricken' Kardashians until I projectile vomit blood and feces!"

That is why I'm a realist, you may call it cynical, but may I remind you about the Obama Hope thing? How about the Clinton mandate for change?

George Bush, the Elder didn't bother offering anything. He just wanted to sit in the Big Boy chair while serving the same horse droppings to the American public with a parsley garnish. It helps keep your breath fresh after gorging yourself on political bandwagon full of road apples.

Then Reagan, remember that senile old man who lost a vital organ every time we had a national crisis? Seriously, the news cap would say,

Trouble with Russian nukes, and President Reagan has gall bladder surgery.
-OR-
Kadaffi threatens Mediterranean sea lanes and  President at Bethesda for colon resection.

While Ronnie didn't have all his innards,  he did have this..

 

Can you fucking believe it???

Hope and Change!

That's why I say,

"Don't vote, you're consenting to an illusion of choice; Coke or Pepsi, McDonald's or Burger King, Budweiser or Coors, Bank America or Chase, Safeway or QFC, Republicrat or Demopublican. Take your pick and don't spare the parsley."

Drowning in Debt

Would you consider it over the top to call our government's handling of our national finances “Psychotic”? If not psychotic, then what shall we call it? Would “denial” be a more palatable term? Perhaps we could label it an “addiction” making them less accountable for their actions? However you choose to label it, we're a country that's in so deep in debt that we have reverted to simply pretending it doesn't exist, or used unsound accounting to convinced ourselves that our debt doesn't matter. More or less we have adopted a "grown-up" way of pulling the blanket over our head to hide from the monster lurking in the closet.


Liberals in this country, for the most part, will admit that we are running up “unsustainable” deficits. Yet, these same liberals adamantly oppose any and all serious efforts to do anything about it. If a private fiduciary did the same with a client's funds, we would call this a breach of ethical behavior and failure in their due diligence obligation, making the offending fiduciary liable for criminal and civil charges in a court of law. Among the general public, once again you'll find plenty of people who admit that this nation has a huge problem. Yet, when you leave generalities, get down to specifics, and start looking for programs to cut, then suddenly everyone gets nervous and says, “never mind.” At the other end of the perceived political spectrum, Conservatives claim a devotion to fiscal responsibility, but when given the opportunity to demonstrate their self discipline they fair no better than the Liberals. Regardless of what others may decide to call it, I will call it what it is, "treason."[1]

This fiscal foolishness is a natural outgrowth of ladling out public funds to special interests. There is so much collective money that few people feel or appreciate it even when billions are saved. Yet, if we yank even a few million away from special interest groups like PBS, Planned Parenthood, or the unions, they squeal like pigs that are about to accidentally be put in the wolves pen at the zoo.

In the face of that, people have to realize that this country is on pace to go bankrupt — and it could happen relatively soon if we don't start taking serious steps to control our spending. Mike Pence thinks we could be just ten to fifteen years away. Tom Coburn is less optimistic and thinks it could happen in as little as five years. If that happens, we’re not a tiny country like Greece — we’re the biggest economy in the world. That means there’s no cavalry coming to pay our bills for us because we ARE (or were) the cavalry.

What happens then? Well, we don’t know for sure, but we can make some educated guesses about what COULD happen and how it will impact YOUR life.

1. Your life savings will evaporate. Inflation is a fact of life. Thomas Sowell has noted, “As of 1998, a $100 bill would not buy as much as a $20 bill would buy in the 1960′s.” That’s under normal circumstances. However, the thing governments have traditionally done when they simply can’t pay their debts is print more money. The problem with this is the further you expand the money supply, the less the money you already have on hand is worth. This can wipe out the savings of a lifetime in a relatively short period. Imagine spending billions of dollars just to buy a loaf of bread. Sound far-fetched? Well, guess what? That has happened in the Weimar Republic, which was crushed under debts from WWI and decided to pay it off by printing more money. It could happen here, too, and all the money you’ve scrimped and saved could become worthless in a short order.

2. Your taxes will skyrocket. We've been conned into thinking that we can fund a massive government on the backs of the rich. This is simply not so. It’s not working today and it’s not going to happen in the future. We cannot tax the rich enough to pay off our debt or even enough to keep the government going long-term. Even if we could, the rich have the resources to flee the country for greener pastures if they're being taxed into oblivion. The middle class? Not so much. What that means is the more desperate the government gets, the more the average American is going to be hammered with new taxes. How much more of your income can you afford to send overseas to pay China for the money they've loaned us to keep PBS, Planned Parenthood, and the National Endowment of the Arts going? What about if the country goes bankrupt and your income tax rate shoots up to fifty percent? How are you going to pay your mortgage? How are you going to feed your kids? When the government runs out of cash and it can’t borrow any more money, then it will start leveling massive taxes on the American people.

3. Your life will be brutal. If the government goes bankrupt, you'll have an extremely angry, confused, and frustrated populace that has little faith in its leaders — combined with a horrific economy and a reduced ability of the government to keep order. Under those circumstances, widespread rioting and violent crime seem entirely plausible. When Argentina had its crisis, violence went up 142% and “young men began looting supermarkets.” Here’s some of what happened during the German hyperinflation of the currency in Weimar Republic after it started printing money night and day,

“The flight from currency that had begun with the buying of diamonds, gold, country houses, and antiques now extended to minor and almost useless items — bric-a-brac, soap, hairpins. The law-abiding country crumbled into petty thievery. Copper pipes and brass armatures weren't safe. Gasoline was siphoned from cars. People bought things they didn't need and used them to barter — a pair of shoes for a shirt, some crockery for coffee. Berlin had a “witches’ Sabbath” atmosphere. Prostitutes of both sexes roamed the streets. Cocaine was the fashionable drug.”

4. Your government checks, housing, food stamps, and health-care will disappear. Contrary to what most people believe, Medicare, Medicaid, Supplemental Security Income (SSI), and Social Security are paid out of the same fund that pays for everything else. In other words, if the government goes bankrupt, there is no money in any lock-box set aside to pay for these programs. So, if you're receiving Social Security, , Medicare, welfare, food stamps, or any other similar programs, those checks could stop or be slashed down to nothing. That seems unthinkable to people, but if the government doesn't have any money, then it can't pay it out to people. As they say, “You can't get blood out of a turnip.”

5. You will be very poor. If taxes and inflation escalate dramatically, both of which are very likely if we go bankrupt, economic activity will slow to a crawl and we'll go into a depression. We're not talking about a “This is the worst economy since the Depression” situation that we hear every time there's a mild downturn in the economy; we're talking about a REAL depression. Established and well managed businesses will fail in record numbers, the stock market will topple, unemployment will soar to heights not seen since the thirties, and the government will be too concerned with maintaining its own power to be concerned with your needs. 

If that happens in a country like America, where people have been so prosperous for so long, it’s going to produce utter misery. It’s not a lot of fun to be poor under the best of circumstances, but it’s much worse to go from having a comfortable life with a bright future to stealing vegetables or a crust of bread to eat and wondering how you’re going to keep warm while homeless in the winter.

I know what you're thinking, "it couldn't happen here in the richest country in the world", but this only displays how ill-informed you are, when one does the real accounting (assets minus liabilities) to arrive at net worth, we are far from the richest country in the world...

US Total Household Value (Home Equity + Stock Value): $48.8 trillion
US Social Security, Medicare, and Prescription Liabilities (Does not include National Debt): -$119 trillion


US Net Worth: -70.2 trillion





Footnotes:

[1]  “Treason against the United States shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort.” U. S. Constitution, Art III. My justification for calling their failure to address the debt issue is that by selling our debt to foreign powers, namely China, they are handing immense authority over our currency, property, and economy over to their whim.  

The Politics of Unintended Consequences

Who could shoot down a great idea based on sound research and motivated by the best of intentions?








If the idea crept out of the incestuous swamp we call Washington, I would summarily execute that idea. No blindfold, no last cigarette, no drum roll, as fast as they could foment new ideas; I would gun them down. 

Wait, I know what you're thinking...

"I just hate all government so it stands to reason I would hate any idea that came from government officials." 

I understand why you might feel that way, but my judgment is not based on knee-jerk emotional reactions or some visceral reflex. In truth, I have a great deal of respect for government so long as the government has a great deal of respect for the Constitution, and not a second longer. You see as long as the government respects the Constitution it is bound by the ideals it embodies. The foremost of which is, the government must respect my person, my faith, my privacy, my property, my liberty, and yours as well. When one takes the time for thoughtful deliberation rather than flying off on some rash tangent because it feels good at the moment it is a sign of wisdom. The virtue of wisdom, like all other virtues, are nearly extinct in Washington.


Unintended consequences are the political equivalent of Sir Isaac Newton's third law of motion, which states “for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction”. 

1.      The Treaty of Versailles was not supposed to incite the German people to into provoking another world war, but it did.

2.      The “Great Society” programs were not intended to increase out-of-wedlock births and broken families, but it has.

3.      Extended unemployment benefits were not meant to discourage employment searches or dissuade entrepreneurship, but it has.

4.      Guaranteeing the solvency of the banks was not meant to make them more reckless in their lending and investing practices, but it has.

5.      Social Security and Medicare was not meant to nearly eliminate personal planning for retirement, but it has.

6.      Easy credit loans were not intended to create massive foreclosures, destroying families, and their finances, but it did.

7.      Student Loans were not intended to send tuition costs skyrocketing while trapping graduates in a crushing debt load which threatens to destroy their careers before they begin, but they did.

8.      Farm Subsidies were not intended to artificially raise the price of food and diminish the production so high that low income families required Food Stamps to eat, but they did.

9.      The welfare system was not intended to become a snare for the impoverished entrapping them at a serf like subsistence existence for generations, but it does.

10.   Public schools were not intended to produce the lowest common denominator of education with continuously declining standards, but it has.

If this were the total of the unintended consequences produced by the short-sighted, herd-mentality policy makers we seem to have no shortage of in Washington it wouldn't be so bad, however it isn't the total and it is worse... 

 And yet more unintended consequences...

 

And more...

I could go on but at this point I'm too disgusted to write...