What is it with the Republican-controlled House of Representatives? Weren't they paying attention last November? Even a blind man could see that the people were fed up with business as usual in Washington. The supposed joke of a candidate, Bernie Sanders, turned out to be the guy that set the tone for the entire election. He turned things upside down, calling out those who were shills for special interests, and promised to represent the people for a change. And Donald Trump did much the same, in his own way, and in the process earned the votes of many who were fed up with the status quo. "Drain the swamp" they said.
The big catch phrase has been "transparency", which means to put everything out in the open for all to see. No secrets, no back room deals, just put the truth out there, period. And if you're proud of what you've done, or at least not ashamed of it, why not?
So less than two months after the election, what do the sitting Republican House of Representatives members do in a closed door caucus / meeting on their last day before the next Congress is sworn at in? They voted to strip the Office of Congressional Ethics of its independence and place it under the control of the House Committee on Ethics.
In other words, the members of the House will now be responsible for looking into charges of unethical practices by members of the House. Are you kidding me? That idea was proven to be a sham years ago, which is why the INDEPENDENT Office of Congressional Ethics was set up in the first place! The fox once again has the keys to the hen house!
(In fairness, if the Democrats should again become the majority party in a future election, I don't want them to have this power, either.)
The soon to be* renamed and declawed "Office of Congressional Complaint Review" cannot review any misconduct that took place before 2011, cannot release any of its findings to the public, or alert law enforcement to any criminal activity uncovered, without the permission of their House committee overseers. ('Cause, you know, you've gotta give the crooks a head start so they can wipe off their prints and clean up the blood.)
Transparency my ass! They've tricked us again.
S
* This is all contingent on the full House and Senate agreeing. As they are both Republican controlled, and if there is no public outcry in the meantime, expect that to happen soon.
You've heard it said, "Live for today, for tomorrow is gone, and tomorrow may never come." Exactly how do you "live for today"? Is this saying you should just ignore tomorrow? Is that possible? Seems to me there will always be things that give you concern about tomorrow.
The poor may have food today, but will they have any tomorrow? The more affluent may have a good job today, but will they get blindsided with a pink slip tomorrow? They might be healthy today, but will their doctor call tomorrow with some bad news about their recent physical exam? Will their rebellious child run off and join a circus, or worse, enroll at Oklahoma State University?
Not to sound like a worry wart, but shit happens feces occurs. You may enjoy smooth sailing for awhile, but nothing lasts forever. "The only constant is change." I understand you can "enjoy" today, but not even think about tomorrow? Can anyone just skip through life that carefree? I can't. Does that make me too responsible?
Can you?
S
I have a question for you, two actually: Do you like your job, and do you have any regrets about your chosen career field? Seems to me you can like one without necessarily liking the other.
What prompted this post is an email I received today telling me another of my competitors is now out of business. I say "another" because over my nearly 45 years of being in the custom homebuilding business I've seen many more competitors close their doors than survive. In fact, thinking back on all my professional contemporaries from 30 or 40 years ago, I can easily count on one hand those who have survived this far with me.
But I honestly DO like what I do....most of the time at least. I like building things. To me it's like figuring out how to assemble a giant 5,000 sq ft 3D puzzle. Some are easy, some keep me awake at night wondering how I'm gonna get tab A into slot B. But in the end it really is gratifying to drive through a neighborhood where I built 5 or 10 or 20 years ago and say to myself, "I built that one, and that one, and...".
But then there are the frustrations, too. Like how today building isn't as much about knowing how to actually build, but knowing how to maneuver your way through the bureaucratic / regulatory jungle. And the financial uncertainties! O M G! A few good years can bring a pot 'o gold for sure, but you can just as easily get blindsided by some near-cataclysmic world event (think 9/11) or giant fraud that can cause the world's economy to crater (think 2008). There is no linear route to success, regardless of how hard you work. Grrrr!
Oh well, another one bites the dust. And now that he's moved on, someone else will probably come along tomorrow with a great "new" business plan which he's too ignorant to realize is the same business plan that's been tried over and over for years and NEVER worked. DUH!
So do I like what I do? You bet! Would I choose this career field again if I were just starting out? In hindsight, seeing how things are today vs how they were 45 years ago when I began....no way in hell!
How about you? Do you like what you do specifically, and are you happy with your career field?
S
Today I was reminded of a situation, several actually, where foreign immigrants here in my area have done exceedingly well since coming to America. They all happened to involve Asians or Indians (but it could have been any nationality) who made their fortunes in retail businesses such as convenience stores, grocery stores, liquor stores, home furnishings, women's fashions, etc. They all worked extremely hard, long hours, and saved virtually every cent they made. Being hard working and frugal seems like great virtues, right? But is it really?
What they all seemed to have in common was that they were from countries where poverty was the norm and you either had to work yourself to near exhaustion or you starved. That's the only way they knew how to live. Entire extended families moved here together, pooled their meager cash, and started a business. Mom and dad, brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles, cousins, and spouses worked in shifts keeping their business open sometimes 24-7.
The entire family might have only a couple of vintage cars and live in the same house. They never went out for dinner or enjoyed any recreational activities. It was just work, eat, sleep when you could, then start the process over the next day. The kids would go to school, do their homework, then work their shift at the family business. They were allowed no extracurricular activities. It was a brutal schedule, but it paid off monetarily. Over time they became quite well-to-do.
I've seen this personally when selling homes to them, sitting on college scholarship committees, etc. Understand, this is not to say ALL immigrants live like this. Many quickly adapt the "American lifestyle" (which in retrospect might not have been the wisest thing).
But think of the big picture: How can established businesses here now compete with their extreme work ethic and pay "brother-in-law" wages that almost demand a communal lifestyle? Aren't these the conditions that spawned labor unions a century ago? If everyone is working extreme hours and pinching every penny, would our economy collapse? Will this become more common with our next incoming wave of immigrants? For capitalism to work, enough people have to spend to keep the cycle going.
Where is the fine line between working hard, living modestly, and saving vs enjoying the fruits of your labor, ie: living one family per residence, each adult having a car, enjoying eating out occasionally, taking a vacation, etc? Will we someday find an economic equilibrium (statistics say we may be doing that right now), and if so, how much social upheaval, either locally, regionally, or nationally, will this transition cause our society?
I don't have an answer. It obviously isn't a black or white issue. Your thoughts?
S
It was 25 years ago today the Hammer and Sickle flag of the USSR was lowered for the last time over the Kremlin in Moscow. On that day the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was officially dissolved. A political movement that began with a bang, literally, 70+ years earlier ended with just a whimper.
I just finished listening to a fascinating 6-part podcast series (Dan Carlin's Hardcore History / Blueprint for Armageddon) about The Great War, aka World War I, and how it changed the course of history from June 1914 to this very day. As it pertains to Russia, the short version:
Unable to withstand the hardships and hunger of everyday life in war-weary Russia, by 1917 the people seized control and, after a series of revolutionary consolidations, the USSR was born. By the 1980's the old Communist revolutionary zeal was long gone, and their system, which was slowly withering away, was as rotten as the Czar's was back in its dying days.
Russia to this day seems to have a never-ending inferiority complex. They SO want to be a respected world power, but they simply have never quite been able to pull it off. You can only rule by intimidation for so long, and by the late 1980's they were losing their iron grip. Unable to afford an arms race with the West, with a population begging, then demanding a better life, and with nations on their periphery they had effectively controlled since the end of WWII now beginning to stand up to them, the hopelessly exhausted USSR finally lost power.
Their last (nominal) Communist leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, after desperately trying a series of life-saving institutional reforms, finally accepted the inevitable and officially dissolved the Soviet Union on December 26, 1991.
Most reading this probably haven't given the passing of the USSR much thought since that historic day 25 years ago. But at least one person, one Vladimir Putin, probably hasn't let a day pass since that event 25 years ago without thinking about it. And he isn't smiling.
S
Ho Ho Ho....Merry Christmas. Let's take a second to listen in to Prez-elect Donald Trump and Russia's Vladimir Putin exchange Christmas Good-Will-To-All wishes. It went something like this:
Putin: "We have bigger, better nukes than you do."
Trump: "Only until January 20th, Pootie. Then I'll call your SS-18 and raise you a ballistic missile submarine!"
So let the games begin.
This war of words is almost comical. Despite our crushing national debt, the US could still, if it wanted to, spend $$Billions to expand our nuclear arsenal. But we won't because we don't need to. The Rooskies simply don't have the financial resources to engage with us in an arms race. They have trouble just meeting their weekly payroll!
And besides, nuclear weapons have lost much of their "fear factor". Here's the deal....nukes aren't the "deterrent" they once were. For a country to be taken seriously when they rattle their nuclear sword they must have two things: 1, lots of nukes (which both of us have); and 2, THE WILL TO USE THEM (which neither of us has).
In 1946 we alone had nukes and we'd just shown the world we weren't afraid to use them. "Back off or you're next!" A couple dozen years later both the US and the USSR had more than enough nukes to wipe each other out, and we settled into the world of MAD, or Mutually Assured Destruction. Both sides understood that if they unleashed their nuclear arsenal, they would themselves be a smoking hole in about 30 minutes, so neither side dared try it.
By 2016 we have become so "risk averse" that as often as not our FA-18's flying over bad guy territory return with all their weapons still on their wings. We're afraid of "collateral damage" if we miss and take out so much as a popsicle stand. There's no way in hell we're going to send a nuke into Tehran or Pyongyang or even Moscow or Beijing, nor will they hit NYC or Washington or London. World opinion would universally yell at us and make us cry!
More than likely we'll settle back into the old Cold War practice of combat-by-proxy, such as we're seeing now in Syria, and/or most menacing of all, cyber-warfare. We should be more frightened of our electricity or our ATM's going down than we should be of a nuclear mushroom cloud over Topeka.
So relax, lets just sit back with a box of popcorn and watch Trump and Putin play "mine's bigger than yours." *snicker* Life goes on. :)
S
