What the GOP Used to be

It is strange how times change, and how the sensitivity of a pluralistic political system is not actually as plural as it appears to be on the surface. A few decades ago the delineation between republicans and democrats was clear. Such cannot be said so today. I think it may have actually died with Jimmy carter or earlier. I am not certain, but I do see a shift, that unlike the past, when it was a party of the people, for and by the common man, it has morphed into the new GOP and is merely the party of the large corporations.

It is now, just as Bush and his predecessor, the party of bailouts and handout and tax breaks for the wealthy. It is in bed with K-street equal to if not more than the Republicans. Truth be told I cannot see any distinction, from the handling of the war, to the economy, to gun control. Now true, I don’t support bailouts, or the purview that we must stabilize the economy or gun control, plus I am neither democrat nor republican. However I do see what has transpired and have been giving some thought to these changes and their impact on America, especially the regular mutha fucka. See a real democratic approach to the economy from my perspective would be to give each small business no matter what industry a check for 30,000 with no strings attached, they would buy from vendors and put the money in the banks (that are failing left and right) which would stimulate upward growth and allow banks to have capital on deck for lending.

The Democrat Party now only has a single moral obligation – avarice and money. They are just as dishonest as the GOP and have no moral fortitude or integrity. They are merely concerned with power and fame the way I see it. And don’t even mention middle east policy or the restriction of free speech. Yep, today the democrats are what the republicans used to be and it is sad for the Republican party is about to be a fossil and it will be a while before a new party comes to the forefront to claim what the Democrats used to be – that is if you asked me.

$3 ATM

Point of order: Sorry for delay in post, forgot I was still a scientist and had two journal articles to proof and correct for Health Education Journal and Global Public Health

Now since I was finally able to post Recess – is- on and PP (which were written in April), back on the grind, which you know in most cases means loot. I am kind of frustrated with America, I mean we aint got what it takes it seems anymore. I can understand how K street gets politicians in a bind but I can’t understand why regular folk don’t see why things are the way they are economically.

We are big on crying and asking folks to do for us, but we never have a good understanding of first what needs to be done or even what or how serious the problem is. Come this November, after the general election, well really before, I hope we can come to an understanding of the aforementioned.

This country has not been in this bad of shape economically since the 1920s and 1030s. I’m sure some will disagree with me, but this is just my opinion. Right now, at least based on numbers from two years go; our domestic financial debt was more than 14 trillion dollars. Fourteen trillion. Today I suspect it is maybe 4 or 5 trillion more, but there aren’t any real numbers available, just estimates so I made my own.

And although we talk about the housing market as being a major contributor to this problem as well as multiple wars, the truth is that the financial sector is mostly to blame, along with republican and democratic leadership at the legislative and executive level. For as I said before, with regulatory constraints basically removed, this created an environment for this particular sector of our economy to go buck wild. Bill Clinton repealed the Glass –Stegall Act and bam.

Long time ago, there were regulated fees for Credit Cards for example, now they can make up fees and even charge you for paying on time or even if you pay off your monthly balance. Don’t even throw in the outrageous and wide ranging interest rates credit card companies (the financial sector) can charge, that is a whole ‘nother story. But to sum it all up, this is where the problem lies. We didn’t have this type of concern when America made stuff and had a strong manufacturing base. Since the financial sector has replaced manufacturing as our largest industry, our national debt has sky rocketed. This sector alone accounts for more than 30% of all of our national debt. Namely as a result of what is called Securitization or what can be called collateralizing debt obligation

Like I said back in the 20s and 30s when we saw similar problems, the national debt was about 250% of our gross domestic product. Today it is about 350%. What does this mean, well in simple terms, maybe a 10% reduction in the values of our houses for those of us who own one, commodity inflation (as mentioned in a prior post) and a 500 trillion dollar debt, which will eventually come back to bite us in the ass one day. I think that is one of the reasons I don’t have an ATM card. Never had one ever. So they next time you go to an ATM machine, just remember that the $3.00 they charge you to use it, is just adding to our national debt. Three cheers for the financial sector. Hip Hip Hooray.

Addendum: Love the fact folks can come in shop with dogs and kids, lay up and drink wine for free – they always end up buying stuff.