Posts from — February 2009

Order was slowly being restored… then I walked into a wall… the flu. Man, am I the only person suffering from this? I feel so crushed. Last weekend I ingested so much cough medicine, I could have easily been running a Nyquil drip. That surely can’t be a good thing. But it was between chemical poisoning or getting that needle outta my throat

I was totally delirious “Ladies and Gentlemen… please welcome the president of the United States…. LoooWeee Davis, and his wife”. As it turned out, my wife wasn’t who I thought it would be, wished it would be, neither was it Michelle Obama. It actually looked like that octuplet woman, walking beside me…nude… just before she gave birth. A bottle of cough syrup does that to you.

And I’m still on it… a little better now, but not anywhere coherent. So please forgive if I say anything to offend you. But what the heck! I’ve offended so many people already, why offer a simple cold as my excuse?

In my recent detachment from all reality and communications, I missed a lot and I missed nothing. In other words, the more things changed, the more they remain the same. The economy is still in a turmoil, gas will top $2.00 by my next purchase, American soldiers will still be dying in far off places, sent by irresponsible leaders who had world domination on their minds, but who were more than reluctant to fight the wars themselves or even send their loved ones.

So let me start with Afghanistan. Obama has promised to wind down Iraq but continue Afghanistan as ‘our’ holy war. Let me repeat. America cannot win in Afghanistan. The British couldn’t, the Russians didn’t, America won’t… short of nuking the entire country… and even then. Look at their history. Many have tried, none has succeeded.

Afghanistan is not a virtuous war as they would like us to think. America had no right invading Afghanistan. Much of the world reluctantly fell in because of sympathy for 9/11 and because of a western dislike for the taliban (like, so many people wouldn’t be mad at Chris Brown if Rihanna was an ugly bitch). But legally and morally, America has no case.

The taliban is now regaining territory at a rapid pace and it will be only a matter of time before Karzai and/or others start to talk about making peace with them. Pakistan has already recognized the futility of fighting and has been negotiating truces. There’s too much internal pressure against supporting the US. Game, set, match to bin laden and the taliban.
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I have argued before and remain unconvinced about American’s ability to find their way out of this economic swampland. The reasons still are about greed and stupidity. The signs I see tell that many Americans are still deluding themselves as to the depth of the problem and the necessity for them to take a personal disciplined approach to borrowing and spending.

Their stupid addiction to consuming is making many ignore the reality. Too many think think that the ‘poverty-thing’ doesn’t really apply to them… I won’t get sick, I won’t lose my job, the banks like me and won’t foreclose. They must be overdosing on Nyquil.

Saw a story about ‘retail crime grows with demand for discounts’ revealing that people still want to buy the expensive stuff only now at discount prices, even if the goods are stolen or knockoffs (though they won’t be telling their friends that). ‘To hell with morals… I want a Gucci’. Apparently the criminals have a better ‘finger on the pulse’ of real Americans than Barack Obama does.

I stood in line and judged the income brackets of people who were buying the most expensive cellies, with the salesperson confirming that most really couldn’t afford them, but their style consciousness wouldn’t be denied. For crike’s sake, it’s just a phone.

There are many pretty things I would like, but if its not earning its full cost almost immediately… bye f****ing bye.

Another story that illustrated the problem was about school lunches. In Alburquerque, New Mexico, students whose parents have been behind on paying fees for lunches, have been given cheese sandwiches and a drink instead of regular school lunch. This has caused an uproar with some saying that the sandwiches are a punishment for not paying, and others saying that it has stigmatized their children by making others know that they are poor.

On the other hand, there are those who thank the schools for finally clamping down on ‘delinquent parent’.

Like much of America, these people have lost all perspective. Getting a cheese sandwich on taxpayers bill is not punishment. It is still food. Times are tough, accept it. If you can’t find the money then you can’t find the money, but it’s no shame being poor. That’s a temporary position. Don’t be ashamed and don’t let your child feel ashamed.

Many parents feel shame if they don’t give their kids every shiny thing they whelp for… its about their status, even if we starve. We force ourselves to look like something we have not earned at the moment. Covetousness leads to envy leads to greed and it’s a slippery slope thereafter.

Trying to outdistance the Jones’ is a fool’s game.

As for those who give the impression that if the child was given no lunch assistance at all, it would delight them even more. Crunts.
Why can’t Americans accept without being a bitch about their tax dollars, that the state needs to help those who find themselves in bad shit. These are the very people who hand over tithes to their robber priests.

But the delusions continue… I suppose that’s the only thing that can keep the nightmares away.
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While on the economy, take at look at the real estate page, I think its call BlockShopper, in the Sunday’s Sun-Sentinel. Look at the prices many of the houses are going for, who is buying and who is selling. Rife within section are prices of $0, or $100, foreclosure, Sellers-Broward County Circuit Court, Buyers financial services.

This is an indication of the housing market, where the sale price I nothing or a very small amount, the house is foreclosed upon, the local court or a bank is disposing of the property, or another financial related institution is buying.

One day, I’m going to go around to some of these properties and match the houses with the prices they have been sold for. I can safely bet in many cases, the properties are good properties which have to be greatly undersold to get rid of it.

When I see some of the bank-owned sales, I can’t get rid of the feeling that there are some insider stuff going on… probably illegal but at least immoral. Just like the old west, robber barons all.
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Just glimpsed a headline about border security stopping a wave of people. Couldn’t help wondering which direction they were going.

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Crude oil price continues to fall while gasoline continues to rise.  Is manipulative capitalism/greed great or what?

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Was reading the ny times and a story of bonds (financial not baseball) had an engraving of the start of an horse race. The interesting thing about the engraving is that the jockeys were all black.

According to history, horse racing was America’s first national sport, and one n which blacks as jockeys, reigned supreme.  This continued for some time, from the late 1860’s into the 1920’s or just about.  Blacks won the top races including the Kentucky Derby, got the best horses, were the most sought after and really dominated the sport.

History will give several reasons for the decline of black jockeys, but the most likely reason is that the powers that be didn’t like the idea of black men hogging the glory and money… and that’s all she wrote.  Blacks were cut out of the action and it remains so until today.  And don’t tell me that they are not good enough.  They were the best then, there is no other reason why shouldn’t be competitive still, unless…

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In this now watered down stimulus plan, the republicans have forced out several important projects.   They have managed to force the funding of the arts of of the plan and thy have also argued and forced a reduction on spending that would have repaired and increased the infrastructure for eduction… the repairing of educational facilities.  That tells us so much about the republicans.

America is falling behind the word in education but the republicans have a plan… keep America dumb.  Good works boys.

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My comp still isn’t up so I’m very handicapped.  Until it is back, I will be posting some pics and short notes.  Please enjoy.  I will be back. 

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Aaaaargh!  My computer is till out of action, so I’m totally out of the loop.  That sucks, but it does show that total reliance on technology is a weakness.

Of course the prevailing issue in America remains stimulus package.  It is more than strangely weird but not surprising how the republicans are behaving.  It’s also interesting  how Americans are being duped by them.  A recent poll it is claimed, says that 60% of Americans support a stimulus bill, but 50% want changes.

The stimulus bill is more than 600 pages long.  It is not on Barnes and Noble’s bestseller list.  Not many people have had the change to read it… but they want changes.  Me, I’m sure there are things to question in the bill, but I would want make changes only after reading something.  It means that the republican voices are being heard, irrespective of whether it makes sense or not.

But they make sense, to themselves.  Here they are against the stimulus bill which is aimed, flaws and all, to bailout people on the lower economic rungs of society.  Yet, when George Bush was throwing money at the ‘fat cats’ on Wall Street, without any oversight or accountability, then the current republican politicians are all for it. The ‘fat cats’ misused taxpayer funds, the republicans never objected.

Under Bush, they had no problem with waste.  $12b disappeared in Iraq… not misspent, disappeared without a trace and with no one accountability.  Yet one of the current republican senators then, said the money was next to nothing… too small to be of relevance.

The current republicans including John McCain are a joke… and should be treated as such.

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Two of the diversions used by the republicans, has to do with the money for the National Endowment for the Arts ($50m) and STD education ($335m).  When you hold it out just like that, it could look ridiculous, but there are reasoning behind the decisions.  STD for example, is at epidemic proportions.  It cannot be ignored.  This is something that has to done, sooner or later.  Obama is simply folding it in sooner.

Its not as if this money is going only to one person.  An education campaign will hire people… teachers, nurses, administrators, graphic designers, printers, clerical workers, shippers.

As for the NEA, it is a fact that the arts give higher returns on investment than many other industries.  The projects stay around longer, and are educational.  History has shown that every society that moves forward, had a vigorous cultural environment.

But the republicans are idiots.  They have an aversion to sex, even though more of them have scandals than has the democrats, and they treat arts like a luxury, because they want only themselves to have access to to fine art.

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Just heard some republican spokesman say that tax cuts gave America 51 months of unprecedented growth.  The democrats need to come out and dismantle that myth.  Within 9 months of taking office, America moved from a surplus to a deficit.  Money was giving to corporations and most simply moved jobs overseas, and transferred much of the money to their own personal aggrandisement.

What they reigned over was the greatest transfer of wealth, the mass povertisation of the American people.  The so-called growth statistics were fixed.  They were definitely fixed in Florida.

There’s no way you can move from such as supposed high, to such a definite low in such a short time, unless the high was a delusion.   Much of the Bush economic years were built around myths.  Bush’s first treasury secretary Paul O’Neill, was fired because he opposed the tax cuts tot he rich as unworkable, unsustainable, and bad for the economy in the long run.

Gasoline prices have gone back over $2 a gallon.  Exxon made record profits last years because much of the year, gasoline was over $3.50 a gallon.  Want to guess where this is leading to?

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Some interesting solutions might very well come out of this economic crisis though some require changes of attitudes.  In California, the DMV will close their offices twice a month on Fridays in order to rationalise services and save money.  It will mean however, that the staff, getting unpaid leave for those days, will lose 10% of their income.

And some are complaining.  Complaining.  They will still have a job, and a salary.  Me, I would be jumping for joy.  Heck, there are thousands of things I could do on those extra days.

But the problem is that those complaining employees never gave it a thought that they could be laid off, and as such, they don’t care if others were laid off… as long as they were safe and comfy.

It never occurs to them that everyone can share the pie, that it is better for all to be working that some not working at all.   Its a sort of selfish ‘me’ stupidity that I see everyday in this country.

Yet in European  countries, actually all over the world even the Caribbean, they see the bigger picture.  Much of Europe work less hours.  Yet we criticise them for it.  They have better living standards for their society, and we sneeringly look at them as ‘socialists’.

Better health care, socialism.  Good public transportation, socialism.  Better education, longer holidays…

Its time that the American public look beyond their failing society for some adjustment… America isn’t all that and less.  There is much that they can teach others, but there is much they have to learn from others.  This might be their wake-up call.  The dinosaurs never reacted when the circumstances necessitated change.  Now they are extinct.   

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Weeks ago I said that Obama will not go forward on the impeachment of the Bush rogues, irrespective of how merited it may be.  Now the CIA nominee says that the CIA interrogators won’t be prosecuted for their torturing of Iraqis.  The basis he claimed is that they were following orders.

But that was never an excuse allowable for Hitler’s generals, or Saddam’s cohorts.  A man should be punished for doing something he knows is immoral and repugnant.  He should be held accountable.  This opens a bag of worms.   Who now become accountable?  Only the man at the top?  And if so, why is Bush running around free?

But put this is in context.   There is a campaign in the black community encouraging snitching.  Well, really it is a campaign against the ‘anti-snitching’ mentality in many black neighborhoods.

Now I don’t support the black community in this.   I see somebody do something wrong, and my mouth is flaping like a ripped flag in strong winds.  But it is hypocritical for the white community, police and politicians to be preaching about cooperating with the ‘Man’, when they themselves don’t.

Doctors don’t generally snitch against other doctors, nor lawyers.  The police has the ‘thin blue line of silence’.  Politicians cover each other, even if they are of opposite sides. Its only when ‘tief si tief carry long bag’, that a man of one profession might rat out his compadre.

If Obama should not only openly support, bit instigate the indictment of the Bush rogues  then hey, lecture the black community all you want.  But until others put up, then just shut up.

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The US government continues to be outmaneuvered and though it has happened under Obama’s watch, it is a culmination of events from the Bush past. In the past, I had informed you has to the new hostile relationship with Russia courtesy of Bush’s duplicity.

Long story, short.   For the war in Afghanistan, Bush asked Russia if permission to set up temporary bases in its sphere of influence.  Russia said yes.  After years, Russia figured that temporary was becoming a little too permanent and asked Bush about it.  Bush, not personally, laughed in Putin’s face.

Well, now Russia has orchestrated the closing of the American base in Kyrgyzstan through which America channelled supplies and stuff.  Now they have offered to help by granting transit rights through their territory.  And they are doing so by forcing America to discuss issues that America didn’t need to discuss previously because they were in top dog position.

Now the tables have turned.

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This leads me to a story I read in a magazine called FP (for Foreign Policy) whose new editor is a holdover from the Bush era (a former speechwriter for Condi Rice).  He argues that Obama should continue Bush’s fp philosophy.   Not smart.  But that’s not the point.   It shows that Bush’s minions have infiltrated many places of influence in the society, and they haven’t changed their thinking.

The dude is probably quite happy with the fact that so far, Obama hasn’t really deviated substantially from the Bush doctrine.  Woe to us.

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