MASSACRE DEJA VU (all over again)

Our world came to a stop today as we listened for more than 12 hours to the tragedy in Newtown, CT. As important as this was, it was as though there was no other news in the world.   A twenty year old shooter massacred 20 children, ages five and a few ten years old.  Seven adults were also shot and killed.  President Obama swore to have something done though it is difficult to understand how the NRA can be fought.

The BBC wrote an excellent story, quot8ing President Obama.  Click here.
Look carefully, there is terror that will not leave those young faces for many years.  It is impossible to
totally control guns when people can buy illegally over the Internet and use other means to obtain them.  However, other countries are not having the problem as the IS has it.  There has to be some way we can emulate some of the safer countries.  The NRA needs to cooperate.  A starting place could be to force background checks before all purchases.  The shooter had his brother;s I.D.  It was said the mother was the registered owner of the guns used.  I would be willing to wager that he had forged her signature and I.D. to obtain the guns.

My sociology professor used to say, "Comes the revolution, you will be at the top of my list."  My list  is growing quickly.  It had the Koch brothers, added Grover Norquist, A.L.E.C. members, and now the NRA, Governors Walker and Snyder....oh dear, the list is getting quite long and I have scarcely gotten started.!

A WEAK SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE IS BRINGING THE COUNTRY TO ITS KNEES

In the case of John Boehner as Leader, the title is a misnomer.  That is, unless being led to our destruction works for being called a leader.  There needs to be oversight on this body that cannot control itself with integrity or ethically yet attempts to make life altering decisions for the rest of us.  Frank Thorp of NBC wrote and interesting article with data before the election.  The work year seems to get shorter and shorter with vacations longer and longer.  This is a body that also can vote its own raises and has perks which few other working Americans get.  Most jobs requires work until the job is finished ;not so for the House members.  Click here for details.    To read about the salary and benefits to members of Congress, click here.

In business, a CEO would not survive his Board of Directors with as poor a performance as this Leader has had.  He cannot control his caucus and he does not compromise or offer to step down.  Of course, the man likely to replace him is even more likely to be as great a failure from what we have been shown so far by his performance.

THGE FISCAL CLIFF HANGER IS NOT THE ONLY CLIFF HANGER

Michigan politics are rather pungent at the moment.  Democracy is a thing of the past for Michigan residents.  The Koch bothers are winning and taking over more of the country though they may have lost the presidential election.  The politics in Michigan did not happen in a heart beat.  It smells of being planned for some time.  It would be helpful to know what, if anything, is being looked into by the attorney general who somehow has kept an extremely low profile in all these very sad events.

Boehner remains between a rock and a hard place.  What I would like to know is what is the pressure the forces outside our recognized government are bringing to bear on the turncoats like Snyder and the defiant Teapartiers who are ready to mess up the global economy to keep the money in the top 2% coffers.

The Supreme Court should have a busy time soon.  I can't believe that all the Republicans are doing in the states is really consistent with the intent of our Federal Constitution.  Let's hope that reality will set in as our forefathers intended for things to work for the good of all, not just for the megalomaniac Koch brothers.

THE CHRISTMAS CARD HABIT

Over a decade ago, 150 Christmas cards and a yearly letter  were snail mailed from our house.  When the habit started, long distance calls were expensive.  Gradually, stamps became more expensive than phone calls which are free within the USA and Canada.  However, habits die slowly unless one is rapped on the knuckles, so to speak.  Today, the stamps have become more dear than the need to fill people in who can't pick up the phone to find out how I am. Actually, with email, Facebook, and telephone, there are few people with whom I am not in reasonable frequetly enough contact.

Thinking about it, today there are not many blacksmiths around though some people still keep horses.  It didn't all happen at once that smithies became obsolete in the village square.  Similarly, I realize that I have been sending fewer and fewer cards.There is one friend, in her 9th decade, who does not have a computer so I send a card by mail.  I send many by email and some as ecards.  This year I find myself wondering what I really have to tell people other than Hi.and to wish them Happy Holidays.

I'm always amused when people tell me about their lives and I think that I would not think most of the things I am being told are things I would ever bother to mention if they happened to me.  It occurs to me that most people's lives are pretty normal, as I believe my own to be, whatever 'normal'is.  Life is only really interesting and important to the person living it.  I'm left wondering when greeting cards will be obsolete in paper or card form and totally handled through cyberspace.  Will it be another change in my lifetime?  Shopping has become, with the exception of food stuffs, limited to shopping through my computer.  I stopped buying reference books years ago when I discovered Google offers more information and it stays up to date.

So, if you are a friend and do not read my blog, you may get an email, ecard, of a phone call.......

THE RIGHT TO WORK???

The Republicans have done it again, thumbed their nose at the rest of us, this time in Michigan.  They rammed through a law in just a few hours passing the law which does not allow employees to negotiate as unions do.  They do not have to join a union.  It is called 'the right to work law'. David Koch has recently said that the election does not hinder their goals at all and they have the money to keep working towards those goals.  The money comes from their business of ruining the environment, polluting and other atrocities to Nature to say nothing of how they treat employees.

In some ways, unions did themselves in because many had become corrupt over the years.  However, this 'fix' is truly throwing the baby out with the bathwater.  The Washington Post has an excellent article describing how this law is eroding worker's protections.  Click here.

TOO MANY PEOPLE WANT TO CONTROL OUR LIVES

The Internet has long been conflictual for those who don't like too much choice left ot individuals.  Apparently Middle Eastern countries (who already can freely shut off access to their people) want the world to sign a treaty to agree to it.  To date, the USA in unwilling to sign such a treaty.  Hopefully it will not become an issue should the extreme right ever get into power though they would not like to share the choices with Middle Eastern counties, I would think.

The Financial Times has written an excellent article. A a conference in Dubai to agree a new international telecoms treaty, has also won the backing of Russia and China, along with a group of other countries.  The article in the Financial Times by Seimon Kerr in Dubai and Richard Waters in San Francisco can be read it its entirety by clicking here.

Since our Teapartiers would not even sign a treaty to standardize the world to adapt itself to making the world available to the disabled while we have done so in the US makes me think that both Republicans and Democrats will resist this plan but for very different reasons.


Tariq al-Awadhi, head of the Arab states delegation, hooped by using different wording he might get the US to agree to the proposal.  He seems no to understand any more than Romney did while campaigning that it is not the words but the concept that is the key.  Democratic principles are difficult for some people to understand.  Granted, the population at large doesn't always convince us that they are up to making wise choices, but our Constitution keeps us having to include them anyway as though they are really smart grownups when they are old enough to vote.

A FLASH OF HOPE

Ted Yoho, just elected to the House of Representatives has avowed he will not sign the Norquist pledge as he was voted in to do the best for the country and does not see that pledge as fulfilling those goals.  Gatorsports describes his as a change agent.  It writes:  "Alachua County's newly elected U.S. Rep. Ted Yoho deserves credit for showing independence and common sense by refusing to sign on to Grover Norquist's antiquated anti-tax pledge."  The author of the article whose name does not seem to be listed goes on further to say, "That many Republicans, including Yoho, are recognizing the obstacle such promises create is a sign that Congress may finally be on the verge of breaking the gridlock that has held the nation hostage for far, far too long."  For the whole article, click here

Another article in Bloomberg News by Timothy Homan writes that Norquist's Tax Pledge is drawing fewer Freshman Representatives. The 26 year old tax pledge may have worked once but it is currently on the verge of collapsing the global economy with the stalling and obstruction it causes this do-nothing Congress.
"Homan writes:  "The BGOV (Bloomberg Government) Barometer shows that 26 out of 38 Republicans who will be freshman members of the House or Senate in January have signed the anti-tax pledge, compared with 96 out of 99 in the group that started in the 112th Congress in January 2011. So far, 24 of 35 Republicans newly elected to the House have signed, along with two of the party’s three new senators in the incoming 113th Congress"

He includes further: "Among Republicans who don’t go along with that is Susan Brooks of Indiana, who will begin her first term in Congress in January."; "Representative Chris Gibson, a Republican first elected to Congress in 2010 from New York’s 20th congressional district, says he’s no longer bound by the pledge he signed for his freshman term in Congress. After district boundaries were redrawn, Gibson was elected this year from the 19th district. While his position on taxes hasn’t changed, Gibson has no plans to sign a new pledge, said his spokeswoman, Stephanie Valle.".  To read the entire article, click here