Zugzwang

 Private misfortunes are public benefits; so that the more private misfortunes there are, the greater is the general good.

 François-Marie Arouet (aka Voltaire), spoken by the character Pangloss, Candide

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 The famous character Pangloss, in Voltaire’s Candide, was apparently a republican. 

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Jobs, Jobs, Jobs.  Job creation is the most important issue this nation is confronting right now.  I remember the Republicans saying that job creation would be job one for them when they came to power in the house.  They are in power in the house.  They are getting around to their jobs agenda, and guess what?

They are going to cut jobs.

Great, huh? 

In this game, every move is the wrong move

The cuts in the federal budget the house is asking for are, according to economist Mark Zandi, going to cost America 700,000 jobs over the next 2 years, and will cut growth in real GDP by ½ of a percent this year. 

There are differing views on the effect of those budget cuts.  Douglas Holtz Eagin, former head of the CBO, and John McCain’s chief economic strategist in his 2008 presidential bid says it will fall 2/10th of a percent less than Zandi’s numbers, and Goldman Sachs says there will be a full 1% drop drop in GDP, not ½ a percent, like Mr. Zandi thinks.

Meaning, no matter how you slice it, with these cuts in our non-discretionary spending, which were never going to do a damn thing to help the economy, are now showing themselves to have a real, visceral harm to the economy. 

With America just coming out of a recession, with jobs still a major issue, millions, including yours truly, out of work, with the future of this great nation in a precarious balance, the republicans say they have a plan, and even the most conservative estimates have it costing us tens of billions of dollars(that is how you count tenths of a percent in GDP) more than the amount saved by the austerity measures that the republicans want to put in place.

What do we need as a nation?  Growth. 

What are the Republicans promising us? Stagnation.

And here’s the kicker.  The cuts for this fiscal year are smaller, from what I am hearing, than the ones for the following fiscal year.  

Reminds one of a word:  Zugzwang

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Viddy of the day:  Sesame Street “Slayer Sing-Along”  I figure, why not put one of Slayers most political songs, and a (to my mind) progressive leaning one at that,”Dittohead” here, and get the added joy of Sesame Street characters ripping it up on the screen.  Grover IS Kerry King, Dammit!

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I was reading a story today written by Nate Silver about polling done on the “Great Wisconsin Union Fight of 2011“.  The story said a few things that caught my eye.  For one thing, Rasmussen polling is apparently fairly well biased as far as their polling goes.  This was surprising to me, but when reading the link to a second story there, made a very valid point about the biased nature of the questions Rasmussen asked. 

I have read Rasmussen polls for years and generally thought of them as reliable.  But if the questions they ask are biased in the way that is clearly shown here, that would bite hard into my capacity to trust their reporting of poll numbers. 

But more importantly, it goes on to say that the Gallup poll that asks about how the public feels about stripping collective bargaining rights from union workers finds that the nation is 2 to 1 against it, even though they are generally ambivalent about public sector unions in general.  The story says much more than that, including speaking of another poll that says that, by the same 2 to 1 margin, Americans don’t particularly like the fact that government workers are unionized. 

Like it or not, it is the reality that exists that there are public sector unions, and those unions do much good for the people of this nation, by doing the work that most other would much rather not do.  And do that job well.  And don’t get rich doing it.  These unions should not have their rights taken away, plain and simple, for this reason, at the very least.  If they lose their rights, what is to stop the strong-arm, right-wing authoritarians from taking your rights away?

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Time to go, America.  Have a good night.

Labor and Budgets

Rallies happened across the country yesterday.  Hundreds of thousands of people were at state capitals across the nation to protest the treatment of workers across this great nation by republican state lawmakers in Wisconsin, and in Ohio and other places where workers rights are under attack. 

Protests are even happening in places like New Jersey, where governor Chris Christie has stood up for the rights of large corporations to pay you less money than you are worth, and give you second-rate health coverage. 

Protests happened in Providence, Rhode Island, where all 1,926 teachers were given dismissal notices, because the state has a forty million dollar deficit in its school department.  So of course the cure for that issue is…FIRE THE TEACHERS. 

Idiots.

Love the way these governors think, or more likely, don’t think.  And I’m sure they wonder why the people are angry, geniuses that they are.

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Viddy of the day:  Olympia, WA Rally in Solidarity with Wisconsin Workers 2/26/2011

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The story of the labor movement needs to be taught in every school in this land… America is a living testimonial to what free men and women, organized in free democratic trade unions can do to make a better life … we ought to be proud of it!

Hubert Humphrey

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I understand that there are deficits, that there are budgetary shortfalls all over.  That does not mean those who are making these new budgets should try to place the burden of fixing these budgetary concerns on one group of people, making them scapegoats.  That serves only to push the actual problems down the line, it doesn’t solve them.  If it solved them, it would have been done by now, and anyone who says differently is speaking  their political viewpoint rather than speaking to the economic reality as it exists.

These budgetary shortfalls were not created by those who work in unions, they were created by political players who simply do not know enough about economics,  and who make those oh so important economic decisions based on political expediency rather than actual economics.  To expect the unions to be expected to bear the brunt of the burden of paying for the mistakes of others is outlandish, outrageous, and wrong.

Everyone seems to be willing to help, unions included.  Whatever helps the economy, helps everyone, and we all know that.  This current problem is created by pointing the finger of blame at unions, as if all the ills we are suffering from came from them, from that one segment of the population of this nation and publicly saying, they should be singled out, when anyone who has three working brain cells knows that is simply not true.  What we need to do is stop pointing the finger, stop trying to figure out who is to blame for what, and simply fix the economy by making sure everyone who is capable of helping out does his or her level best. 

To expect anything less would be about as Un-American as one could be.  Those who want to see these unions done in forget what the first word in the Constitution is.  That word is WE.  It’s not about you as an person, or your money, or your individual anything. 

It’s about US.

WE are a community, 300,000,000 strong, and we have to learn to live with each other and do for each other.  In this day and age we seem to have forgotten that.  Our sense of community is destroyed when we point the finger of blame at our brothers and sisters and forget the common goal of society, to build a better life for ourselves and those around us, is part of our lifeblood.   Stop pointing at the unions like they should shoulder the blame for the mistakes of each state and the nation. 

The issue is larger than that. 

More on that point in a later article.

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That’s it from here, America.  Have a good night!

A Baseball Kind Of Day

I swing as hard as I can, and I try to swing right through the ball. In boxing, your fist usually stops when you hit a man, but its possible to hit so hard that your fist doesn’t stop. I try to follow through in the same way. The harder you grip the bat, the more you can swing it through the ball, and the farther the ball will go. I swing big, with everything I’ve got. I hit big or I miss big. I like to live as big as I can.

Babe Ruth

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Tex

I watched my first baseball game of the year today.  A game between the Yankees and the Phillies in Tampa at George M. Steinbrenner Field.  The Yankees started the game with Bartolo Colon on the mound, trying to make a comeback in the majors after missing nearly 2 years due, as I recall,  to a variety of injuries, including a major shoulder injury.  He pitched  well.  He’s got a few pounds to lose, and he’s not exactly the Bartolo Colon of old, but he was good out there.  After starting out a bit slow, he was hitting the gun with the fastball in the mid 90′s, and he was locating his pitches well.

(Almost) The entire Yankee 2011 starting offense played today.  The one missing piece was Russell Martin, who is still out with an injury, he’s due back next week.  Jorge Posada saw exactly one pitch, which he popped up.  Since he was the DH, that was the end of his day.  Gazoo … err …  Franscisco Cervelli was good out there at the plate.   He did yeoman’s work calling the game, and hit a run scoring double that plated Robby Cano (that’s what I recall anyway).  Yankee prospect Jorge Vazquez absolutely crushed a shot deep to centerfield for the first home run of the exhibition season.  Over the batter’s eye, easily a 450 foot shot.

Nice way to start the season, kid.

The Yankees lost the game  5-4 though, as a kid named Eric Wordekemper gave up a couple of laser shots to some good players out there, and it cost the Yankees 2 runs in the top of the 8th inning, after they had just clawed back to grab a one run lead in the bottom of the seventh.  Most of the other pitchers out there for the Yankees were pretty damn good.  Joba was damn good out there, as was Dave Robertson, and the kid Hector Noesi had a good inning out there as well.  

It was a fun game, just because it was the first game of the year.  It was great to watch live baseball again.

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There was a fantasy draft today.  My wife and I both participated. We had two separate teams in an 8 team draft,  Had fun doing it. 

My wife drafted second, and went against convention and drafted Mark Teixeira.  She may well have been able to get him in the second round, but she got Felix Hernandez in the second round, and I tell you this, the Mix of King Felix, and Tex in the first two rounds is pretty good. 

Of course I think I did better with my first two pick.  I drafted 4th, and got Carlos Gonzalez in the first round, and then landed Roy Halladay in the second round.

Petco Park

She asked my advice on a few picks, in general.  I told her she should grab an outfielder in the fourth round, after getting the two aforementioned picks and Cliff Lee.  She got Matt Holliday in the 4th round, I think that’s a decent pickup in that spot.

Not a lot out of the ordinary happened in this draft.  I was happy to catch Adrian Gonzalez, the new Red Sox First baseman, at the 20th spot.  He usually goes first round.  There is the minor issue with him just coming back from shoulder surgery, but that doesn’t mean his numbers are going to drop, playing in that bandbox in beantown, even if he loses something because of his surgery, the size of Fenway, in comparison to the size of Petco Park, or whatever the name of that damn stadium in San Diego is this week, should  play in his favor.  And I don’t see his shoulder being an issue.

I took a flyer on Grady Sizemore on my last pick of the draft, 164th.  I was surprised he fell that far, he is coming back from injury, but when Sizemore is on, he has one of the best bats in the league.  And so far this year, he is going 40 picks earlier than that, so why not?  And the pick before that I got Hideki Matsui cheap.  The man still has it, and is good for 20 -25 Homers and  90 RBI’s, and that kind of production out of a 20th round pick, even in an 8 team draft, is nothing to sneeze at.

My wife made some other solid picks as well.   She went out on a limb for a few players, getting the kid, the new closer from Atlanta, Kimbrel in the 13th round .  If he give a performance like the one he gave towards the end of last year, she got an absolute steal in that spot.   Juan Pierre fell all the way down in this draft, despite leading the league in stolen bases last year, and she got him with the 162nd pick in the draft.  Nice.  And she has 2/3rds of the starting outfield for the Detroit Tigers.  Austin Jackson should have a monster year, run production wise, he’s got speed to burn, and a healthy Magglio Ordonez should be good for 25 homers and 100 RBI’s in that lineup.

You’d think she likes the Tigers hearing that.  Not really.  She’s a big Yankee fan, and has 4 starters from the offense on her team.  Russell Martin, Tex, Derek, and Nick Swisher.  Like I said, she’s got a good team.

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Had a fun baseball day today, America.  I’ll write to you tomorrow.

More Late Night Idle Talk

Headphones on.  Feet up. Relaxing after a very long day.  Ran around all day in the rain and wind.  Finished off my running around in the rain and wind by running in the rain and wind.  I think I deserve a break.  Rest, welcome rest, I would sleep now if I didn’t feel the addictive pull to sit here and spill my stupid heart out for the world to see.

Up early to go with my wife to the doctor, after staying up relatively late the night before.  She goes to the doctor, finds out she needs to have tests done for something or other.  If I felt it was your business, you would know more, but you don’t.  If it was that serious I would not be telling you about it at all. 

Suffice it to say that the doctor visit killed 3 hours and answered some but not all questions.   Been walking around doctors offices and the like for the past week, and haven’t seen one myself.  My right leg is sore all the time, right ankle.  I’m not too concerned about it.  I subscribe to the Cam Neely philosophy as far as injuries go.   “If you can walk, you can run.” I have an exercise philosophy myself;  ”Pain is no reason to stop moving, it’s a great reason to slow down if you have to, but not to actually stop, so keep moving.”

That went somewhere I didn’t intend to go, and I like it to be honest, but I digress… 

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I’m not crazy about reality, but it’s still the only place to get a decent meal.

Groucho Marx

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Those 3 hours were killers, most of the time filling out forms, talking to people who weren’t actually doctors, you know, the usual unnecessary bullshit that keeps people, however uselessly, employed and paying bills.  Nothing wrong with that, I guess, but it sure makes things more difficult for those of us with actual lives… Or even pretend ones for that matter.   I like to fake it on occasion.

After the visit, and the oh so expensive cab rides back and forth, I managed to get 5 minutes to get myself ready before I went out to go make my first installment payment on my bankruptcy proceeding.  I find it kind of odd that one has to pay to make sure you can legally separate yourself from the people who want you to pay them.  And often you had to pay the debtors too damn much for either your or their own good in the first place.  It only encourages the bastards to do it to more people to pay them.  America would be a much better place if we all at once just told the lot of credit card companies to fuck off and not ever pay them again.

You know, go on strike against the assholes who make it possible to have a subprime mortgage financial system.

But then again, the whole world would collapse if we did that…. Hmmm… could be fun, and maybe just a little chaotic and evil.  Sounds like a party.  Let’s do it!

Again, I digress…

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I find television very educational. Every time someone switches it on I go into another room and read a good book.

Groucho Marx

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For some reason, I had to go to Brooklyn to do make my bankruptcy payment.  Over half a million people live here on Staten Island, are we not a large enough island to get our own court? Feh, doesn’t matter.  Took me 3 hours to get to the courthouse, get on line, wait, make the payment, and get back home. The actual bill payment took all of 3 minutes.  That part was easy, and they were very nice people.  I walked out actually feeling nice.

I want to say nothing but nice, happy, wonderful things about the people at bankruptcy, just in case the load of fat serene bastards nice people who are working my case read this before they judge my case.  I’m not above being nice to the useless stinking piles of shit crackwhores wonderful hard working people who want to destroy the happiness of every person they come in contact with, with their insane, archaic rules help all those lazy pricks who are trying to get a free fucking ride everyone do their level best to get out of a bad situation.

I just can’t wait to get out from under all this debt.  I hope everything works out with this.  There are no guarantees in life, but this one I need to work out, I would like to live my life without all the crap that the loss of work and the resultant inability to pay bills created.  A fresh start, it’s all I ask, I hope it’s not too much.

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No one is completely unhappy at the failure of his best friend.

Groucho Marx

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Thinking out loud:

Don’t mind the Groucho Marx quotes.  Just being a total marxist today. 

I listen to music sometimes, and I hear my thoughts played out in them.  The only problem with that is the music I listen to tends towards the needlessly apocalyptic and violently evil, Slayer and the like.  I don’t toy with the real evil of the music world, the Barry Manilow’s and Donnie Osmonds of the world.

OK, Donny Osmond isn’t evil, but he wants to be, I can just tell.

The only reason there hasn’t been a revolution against the powers that be in America in this year of revolt is that America doesn’t have a dictator running things.  They do in Wisconsin, and there will be hell to pay for that, but not every state has that much of an asshole for governor.  Maybe we should elect a Republican president, so we have a reason to have a real revolt.

The above is just me saying hi to the party people at the NSA. 

A fine organization, truly, if you like shitheads. 

They have my number already, so why should I give a shit?

I can’t wait for the hockey trade deadline.  I want to see what old, once talented, but now talentless hack the Rangers pick up so they can say they tried to make themselves better.  And how much better the Phoenix Coyotes deals are, even if they make no deals.  Especially if they make no deals.

Is it me, or has Muammar Gaddafi turned into the middle eastern version of Mister Magoo? 

Is it me, or has Glenn Beck turned into the American version of Muammar Gaddafi?

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Have a good night America.  I’ll get that long-awaited 12 notes to you soon.  dunno when tho.

Come Hang With Das Rhino Tomorrow

Tomorrow there is going to be a concerted effort on the part of moveon.org to get the democractic troops motivated.  They are having something called an ”Invest in America speak out” in response to Republicans campaigning to cut funding for health care, science and education programs.  They say, and I believe they are correct, that these cuts will not only do nothing to help the economy, but will harm the most vulnerable and poorest in our society.

Planned Parenthood, which has been defunded by Rep. Mike Pence in a house vote last week, will end up, among other things, cutting cancer treatment, and aids treatment to the poorest in this nation, thus doing direct visceral harm to women and the poor.  The republicans claim that planned parenthood aggressively pushes abortion, despite the fact that 97% of Planned Parenthoods money goes towards non-abortion activities, including birth control and treatemtn of STD’s. 

A cut to NIH funding, a billion dollars worth, is the first such cut at the NIH in a over a decade.  Yet there are those that thinks these cuts, which damage Americas ability to compete on an even footing in technology, innovation, science and research, are essential to reigning in government spending.  They do this, despite the fact that every dollar invested in the NIH by the government sees a $3 return to the pharmacutical industry.  The NIH helps business make money. 

You would think the republicans would like that.  Many republicans have voted for increases in NIH funding, and were a driving force over the years to increase funding which helped business, and it is frankly perplexing to see this happening on their watch.

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So when I hear that there is going to be a meet-up, to speak about these subjects and others, at exactly the same place as the very first tea party meeting on Staten Island, that stands against these bastards, and for the common man on the street, I say oh HELL YES I am going.  It’ll prolly be smaller than that tea party meeting, but we’ll make up for that with vigor, methinks. It’s 4:00pm tomorrow.  New Dorp Lane on Staten Island.  I’ll be taping, if that’s possible.  

Come hang out with me.  I won’t be hard to spot.  Look for the ugly guy with the crew cut, headbanging, and singing evil music badly.

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For undemocratic reasons and for motives not of State,
They arrive at their conclusions—largely inarticulate.
Being void of self-expression they confide their views to none:
But sometimes in a smoking-room, one learns why things were done.

Rudyard Kipling,  The Puzzler

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Viddy of the day:  Representative Dold and Lynch Stand with Planned Parenthood

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The world calls me away.  I may write again tonight, but I am, for now, done.  I may write again because I am finished with my work training, and they don’t need me for the rest of the week, so I have time off, for now anyway.  I think I’ll bust out a new 12 notes at somepoint in the next 48 hours.  I really have to get to that.  The last one I wrote, is to my mind, the worst one I’ve written, ever, and it’s been sitting there for a month at least, being a piece of shit at people. Dammit.  Thinking of taking it in a slightly different direction. We’ll see how that goes. 

G’night America.