I did NOT see this coming!

I won't lie to you and say I haven't been expecting eventual trouble.  I have.  Maybe even a classic "revolution" some day.  It's just that my vision of a revolution was of crowds in the streets with torches, tossing Molotov cocktails, driving corrupt leaders to hastily board their fast jets and make a dash for whoever will give them political asylum, just like in the movies.  I expected it to abruptly just boil over, like a giant volcanic eruption.

Turns out we've likely been watching one for the past decade or so.  Think about it: Republicans were traditionally the party of the upper class, while the Democrats represented the working class.  

But by 2016 the establishment, exemplified by Wall Street, was hoping for a Democratic presidential victory, while the working class gave up on their former benefactors and elected a very un-Republican Donald Trump.  WTH just happened?

Even the 74-year-old self-described socialist Bernie Sanders came within a whisker of pulling off a miraculous upset.  The natives are restless!

A decade ago the right-wing Tea Party was born.  Their unofficial motto seemed (to me at least) to be, "I've got mine, F__K YOU!"

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With today's nationwide (worldwide?) Women's March, some say we're seeing the jelling of a new, left-wing Tea Party. 

Judging by the size of today's crowds, I wonder how many sitting Congressmen / Senators will decide to retire in 2018  and "spend more time with their families"?  *Start the car....START THE CAR!*  The mood is getting pretty nasty, folks.  Let's hope we can defuse it with signs and ballots vs bullets and fire bombs.

If we can, there might just be a silver lining to this growing mess.  *fingers crossed*

S

Penny wise and pound foolish

This just in:  Facebook has announced that early in 2017 it would begin repurchasing $6 Billion of its own stock.  The report went on to say that Facebook has amassed a sizeable stockpile of cash in recent years, currently $26 Billion in cash and other short term investments.  FYI, Apple currently has an estimated $200 Billion in cash reserves, mostly overseas, and Google has roughly $83 Billion cash on hand.

Other notable corporations with large cash stashes include Chevron with $43 Billion, Conoco Phillips with $45 Billion, Ford with $51 Billion, Exxon Mobil with $52 Billion, Cisco with $56 Billion, Microsoft with $73 Billion, GE with $122 Billion, and Berkshire Hathaway with $162 Billion, give or take a few coins.

Most of this isn't literally green cash sitting in a bank vault somewhere, but money placed in "short term investments".  These investments offer a very modest return, but with so little investment opportunities out there today, this is the best they can do.  Oh, and they're buying back their own stock with some of their moolah, too.

My purpose here isn't to scold them for being so profitable.  I'm actually quite happy for them.  I bring this up because the new Trump administration will soon begin implementing some of their campaign promises, including major tax cuts.  Some, of course, will go to the middle class, but as most taxes are paid by the rich, they will get the lions share of the new tax cuts.

The justification given for these tax cuts is that the rich, lets call them the "investor class", will use this money to fund new start up companies (hoping some will turn out to be the next Apple or Google), and to help existing companies modernize and expand.  In theory all this investment will create NEW JOBS!

Except....the investor class doesn't need any new windfall tax cuts to fund these new businesses.  They can't even find a good place to invest what they have parked around the world right now!

WE ARE ABSOLUTELY SWIMMING IN LIQUIDITY!  All a tax cut now will do is put more money in the hands of those who don't need it, widening the income inequality that already exists, and increasing resentment and hostility between the super wealthy (the 1%) and the masses.  This is called "killing the golden goose", or a short sighted action that destroys the profitability of an asset.  And can you imagine the shortfall (deficit) this will mean to the Treasury?  It's greed, pure and simple!

Instead lets spend that money on fixing our crumbling infrastructure (highways, bridges, ports, etc), or investing in a better educated work force.  The wealthy will definitely benefit from that, too, as they....as we ALL should. 

No, I'm not trying to spread some sort of socialist message here.  I'm not suggesting we take away what the wealthy already have.  I'm just trying to head off a revolution that may be coming sooner than we think if we don't wise up.  Just level the playing field so the masses can afford to buy what the wealthy are selling.

As my daddy used to say, "A little piece of a BIG pie is better than a big piece of NO pie."

S

I think I nailed it....

....and I'm not exactly happy about it.

I've been saying for quite a while now that income inequality is the most important issue of our time.  I'm not looking at this on a micro level, liberal vs conservative, Democrat vs Republican.  This is more than "the 1% are greedy" or "the losers won't work".

Here's what we should IMO take away from this on a macro level this election season:  When enough people feel like they have hit bottom, that they have nothing left to lose, they will revolt.  They're now revolting, and it's real, if not (for now) violent.  I'm not saying the revolt is justified, or is right or wrong.  I'm just saying it's REAL.

Donald Trump is appealing to more than enough people to win the Republican nomination for President. He's talking about stopping American companies from laying off American workers and moving overseas, and about bringing good jobs back to America.  These are issues the down-and-out masses are concerned about.

Bernie Sanders is appealing to (almost) enough people to win the Democratic nomination for President.  I doubt Hillary Clinton, the old school legacy politician, is sleeping well at night.  Bernie is talking about our rigged economic system/tax system, our much-too-powerful financial interests, and, yes, income inequality.  These are issues the down-and-out masses are concerned about.

Can you imagine our bankers and our titans of uber-capitalism rooting for a Hillary victory this November?  Unlikely as it might seem, she might be their best hope.  

Today the revolt is polite.  Enough people are fed up with the status quo and are demanding a better deal.  They are making themselves heard...loudly...at the ballot box.  Unless the masses see their lives getting better soon, tomorrow's revolt might be more aggressive, dare I say even violent.

I nailed it.  I predicted this, but I'm honestly not happy about my insightful prognostication. I'm scared shitless, both for America and the larger world.

S

We have the wrong people in charge!

I sometimes feel like I'm in political "no-mans land".  My conservative friends think I'm a liberal, and my liberal friends think I'm a conservative.  Sheesh, y'all gimme a break, OK?

Here's how it really is:  I'm a conservative, somewhere a bit to the right of dead-center.  I usually vote for Republicans, but sometimes for a Democrat who might share my disdain of Big Bankers and want to impose some reforms on them.  But increasingly, I simply pass up voting for either candidate in a particular race because I find "my guy" to be disgusting.  (Ted Cruz immediately comes to mind.)

Last night after our customary Friday evening dinner out K and I stopped at the bookstore.  There I saw this book by Chris Matthews that got me to thinking.  (I didn't buy it because, frankly, I've always found Chris Matthews to be pretty obnoxious.)  Still, the topic made me smile.  THIS is what we need today.  

Here were President Ronald Reagan, the consummate conservative, and Tip O'Neil, the crusty old liberal Speaker of the House, pictured on the cover in a cordial, collegial embrace.  Two pragmatists.  I've heard stories of how they would get together, cuss and discuss for hours or days, do some horse trading, and eventually arrive at a position that both could live with.  Neither got all they wanted, but neither crushed the other, either.  They both lived to fight another day.  And we were all better off for it.   America worked.

I have friends, both on-line and in the real world, who are just a bit to the left of dead center.  I have absolutely no doubt we could get together, discuss the country's mess, perhaps share an adult beverage or two, and arrive at a reasonable position we could all abide by.  But we never hear about people like us in the news.

It's always the ideologues from the extreme fringes of our two parties (tell me again why we can't have three parties?) who seem to be in control.  I swear they'd argue with a stop sign!  Before one side can even get the words out of their mouth, the other side is condemning it as likely to cause our country's immediate and complete collapse. 

I'm ready for a REVOLUTION!  No, I don't mean where we pick up guns and pitchforks and go killing anyone who even looks like they might disagree with us.  I only want to pick up guns and pitchforks and go after the extreme ideologues.  (Relax....I'm just kidding.  Maybe.  :)

Those who disagree with me in a civilized, open-minded way....pull up a chair.  Let's talk some football, who brews the best beer, and maybe a little health care.  We'll figure it out.

Give and take.  Compromise.  That's how our Founding Fathers did it.  You know, those old guys we always put up on a pedestal as if they were saints?  

S

Viva Egypt!

The news is full of reports and photos from Egypt showing huge crowds protesting against President Mohammad Morsi, and they keep referring to Egypt as one of America's "key allies".  Now I don't profess to be a Mid-East expert, but I have no idea what Egypt has done to deserve the designation of "key ally".  Anybody help me out?

True, we always seem to have a couple billion of those pesky 'ole Greenbacks littering the Washington landscape and every year Egypt sends a delegation over to Hoover 'em up for us.  And they're not taking pot-shots at Israel, so I guess that's good. 

And they do allow us to send busloads of tourists to see their really old rock piles....that's pretty cool.  But otherwise....?

Here's an idea that might calm them down:  Why don't they buy some paint and spruce the place up?  Have you ever seen a more blah looking landscape?  If I lived in Cairo I'd be protesting in the streets, too.  How depressing!  Makes you want to grab a Molotov cocktail and burn something up, doesn't it?

But back on today's theme....what does Egypt have to offer that makes them a critical American ally?  Isn't Egyptian cotton supposed to be the best in the world?  So without their cotton we wouldn't have 1200-thread-count sheets?  Is that their contribution to world peace and prosperity? 

*Ding!*  I get it now!  I hope they can work things out, 'cause the world needs their fancy sheets, you know.  

Meanwhile, here's hoping you have a safe and happy July 4th.  :)

S

Social media backfires

Besides just being a fun way to keep up with what friends are doing, social media has become much more.  Over the past several years for example it has helped bring down numerous mid-eastern governments.  People in one city can see in real time atrocities being committed in another city hundreds of miles away, inflaming passions and helping to coordinate revolutions.  Syria is on the cusp of that right now, and Facebook is in the thick of it.  It's become a sort of 21st century version of "the pen is mightier than the sword".


But now we learn social media can be used to squash Spring Break here at home, too.  I guess you could say it's turned Spring Break into Spring Brake.  The kid's fear is that a video with them in it doing things that could cause dear old mom and dad to cut off their cash might go viral.  Talk about unintended consequences! 


And in a similar "you heard it here first" vein, it seems scientists have discovered that male fruit flies rejected by females drink significantly more alcohol than those that have mated.  Interesting.  I didn't even know friut flies went on Spring Break. (I wonder if that was a taxpayer funded study?)


Yeah, it's a slow news day.  That's all I have.  :)


S