Are You Vegan?

Are You Vegan?

            While reading a really short article today on Clinton having become a vegan, I happened to take a look at the comments and someone posted that he might not have won his first election had he been vegan then and possibly not even now. You know, they are more than likely right, at least in the politically correct windblown climate we have this last several years. After all, folks are still calling Obama “an elitist” because he graduated from Harvard on a student loan, and in trying to create jobs through government interjection he is “treasonous”. How dare he, or anyone for that matter, suggest that we need to “invest” in this country in order to reap a harvest of jobs. We must stay the course of coddling the super rich while undermining the poor and middle class and God forbid, we call the banks that got us into this mess onto the carpet.

            It really makes me wonder what it is folks need in their lives when they are lured into some of the talking points that are the spoiled meat of the debate these days and then carry those points as if it were their own child. For instance, the talk around a town hall near you seems to be about “job killing”, and before that it was “the trickledown effect”, then onto the debt ceiling when the trickle dried up. Have you ever wondered what happened to that “trickle down” angle that was so prevalent in 2009 and ‘10? We were almost climbing out of the “great recession” back then, but the Bush tax cuts were about to expire and we were talked into leaving them in place because it would create jobs through “trickle down”. Right; those cuts had been in place since 2001-2003 when they were created by the special powers of the White House in front of behind our backs.  Those tax cuts sure did not stop this country from losing nearly a million jobs a week in 2007. Nor did they stop the slowdown of the recovery, but we have been steered away from the accountability of it all as we watch politicians sit back and watch it not work.

            At this time the right handed campaign rhetoric with how religious this country is, or not has taken center stage…I ask: does it really matter where humans came from, really? I am here, therefore I am; I really do not care if I jumped out of the pages of the Bible or got lightning struck as an ameba 200 million years ago. The fact is I am here and content to wonder at the beauty of it all and speculate on how it all came to pass while loving my fellow man; at least most of the time. After all, has any theory been “proven” to be the one? I would love to know how things came to be and I have a mix of theory and theology myself, but I do not consider it, well…Gospel. Why are we even bringing the speculation into politics? Want to see what happens when you bring religion into government…head to Iraq, or the Gaza strip. It does not work there and is not working here, already.  

I hate to say it, and it is sad, but Christians can’t even firmly decide who is “right” when it comes to Biblical interpretations among them, neither can the Muslims decide what faction is correct when it comes to the meanings of the Koran and how to apply them.  That is precisely why the wise men that set this democracy up opted for banning religion in the halls of justice and decision making.  The Quakers had vastly different views than the Protestants and the Lutherans and still do, so why invite that contention into congress? God knows we have plenty without it these days.

Without a doubt “Job killing” has to be one of the more loose cannon terms for the “out of bullets” problem we are having today. Some Republican candidates are slinging that term around for every ill and piece of legislation that has come down the pike, handily dispatching any notion of support for anything other than tax breaks for everyone. This country will never get on its feet without investment from all of us, and this government…period. You know, this economic recession hit every country in the free world and some that were not, and China pulled out of it in a few months…while we are wallowing in the halls of Congress they are investing in their country. They are not “anti”-Chinese or “treasonous” for doing so, they are saving their country. They are putting people to work and that creates a full government coffer. While we let these people that know nearly nothing of economics argue until the white elephant waddles home about the damn debt ceiling, China is growing by leaps and bounds and to a large degree with our money; money that we could be investing here. Instead we are paying interest and we have been talked into sitting on our hands, thumbs up until Obama is driven from office, for reasons only their hair dresser knows for sure.

If you want a great example of what is going on in front of behind your back, try looking at our domestic oil and gas fields and coal production in Wyoming where a fair share of the leases are owned by China and numerous other countries. While we are for sure in trade deficit with China and can use some exports to offset nearly all our goods coming from them, it really irks me to hear some politicians talking about “drill baby drill” yet we are selling away our resources and the energy companies are plotting as I write to enlarge ports on the Columbia River to be closer to those markets. Along with the port plans are big plans for railroad use from those coal fields with tracks that are already clogged when this country is working. We are not necessarily benefitting from all the drill rigs or the money they generate. The 1870 something mining laws virtually give away minerals as it is and now we are leasing to other countries with no return other than polution? China has its’ own coal, but why dig when you can own another piece of the American rock and for cheap? Beef and other renewable products are satisfying some of the trade deficit, and we need to do a better job of trading, but do we really want to give up finite products like natural gas and oil? When it is gone, it is gone. My question is: Why are we waiting for it to be gone before we move on to renewable energy in the first place? Is it a “right” or “freedom” to be driving a gas car instead of an electric one?

Alas, we are stuck in this catchy phrase void that absolutely does not amount to a hill of beans in the desert. There is a smart assed movement to outdo the current administration and each other right down to the old guard Republican undermining the new and you can bet your sweet bippy, not one of them will reveal they are vegan because they might be viewed an “elitist” or worse...whatever comes next.  

A little Confidence and Thought Please

It is really hard to formulate a confident outlook after watching the recent squabbling in the legislative bodies over what amounts to wooing Tea Party and independent votes. It is doubly hard with the current financial news that is a direct result of that squabbling. All our congressional and senatorial mainstream council can’t seem to hit their ass with both hands because they are tied behind their backs. Their hands are tied by Tea party ideals that will not work by themselves, at least at this time, and they are tied by companies through all parties who stand to lose with the reforms Obama wanted to see like insurance and credit card strangleholds, banking reforms, oil subsidies and even subsidies to other countries.  We have the vote but really big business has the money and our vote is being influenced by their money and in the form of digital rhetoric.

                Even before Obama was elected it was a well-known fact that he wanted to reform the amount of control these big companies have on the American people. He wanted to get this country to thinking renewable energy so that we could get out of the Middle East eventually and he was looking to mend our foreign policy void with the Middle East countries that are spawning terrorists who attack us. However, the lobbyists took charge to make sure that he was discredited to save their financial interests and are now doing what they can to make sure the economy does not succeed, for if it fails, so shall he. I say: if he fails, so shall we. So, my question to American is: if we elected him to do all those things as we did, why are we letting the goons tell us that doing those things is bad for us and similarly driving this country into the ground in the name of winning?

                It is interesting to me that people have not even noticed that Obama has done quite a bit to make the government more lean including trimming the numbers of some departments and asking every employee what he or she thought would help their own departments to shed a few pounds of bureaucratic fat and then acting on it. He has nudged the BLM into more of a local agency by allowing field offices to make decisions on a neighborhood basis instead of a one size fits all policy. The military has cut some really fat projects that were only there to satisfy one legislative district costing us billions in some cases. Those are just a few  of the things accomplished, but they go unnoticed because people who stand to gain from failure have kept people stirred up over ridiculous, frivolous things to the point that many have taken their eye off anything to do with policy.  

                In my thinking there is a definite need for reform in our government and there are parts of the Tea party ideals that are important and in fact necessary, but you cannot run a household without income, and the lost revenue from taxes is killing us on our blind side. There was a reason for Bush to set those tax cuts up to expire…because they were not sustainable. In my thinking, there is also a bit of an “agenda” underlying with the Tea Party that is no different than the fun loving support for the oil companies or the mega-farms and unions of the other two parties. Indeed the Tea Party leaders have put together an agenda of zero tolerance including for the aging “baby boomers” and their ownership of Social Security and Medicare.  Both programs need some revamping which is something Obama wanted the health care bill to address, but they are now being called “entitlements” like we are all beggars for our own money. They are insisting that we are too controlled, yet they want to control our right to an abortion, marriage, education and religious practice. I heard one Tea Party Representative say recently that they are not there “to compromise” and that caused me to shudder to tell you the truth; my way or the highway?  Is democracy not all about “compromises”?

                We untied the apron stirrings with England in the 1600’s for a reason and it had little to do with Tea and everything to do with the church in government and individual freedom. For some reason the story of our American heritage has been taken way out of context of late and people have failed to understand that the constitution was written to be a guide and gives provisions to flex as those "founding fathers” knew it would need to.  People are crying foul of government as if the problems just started two years ago; in reality, they have been going awry for decades. We did not fall off the path of democracy recently as some would have you believe and we certainly are not seeing political tactics like the debt ceiling increase for the first time. What we do see these days in government policy is the takeover of politicians by lobbyists hired by the insurance companies, oil companies, churches and food companies to make sure their businesses are considered first when it comes to legislation…period. They do not consider the American people, just like they did not consider us when they were stretching the debate out on the debt ceiling, when ideology took precedence over the economics of the here and now. They did not think of the millions of 401k’s or retirement accounts that are going to suffer with the turmoil over whether to pay our bills or not.

                I know some are not fans of hearing that Bush inherited nearly a trillion dollar budget surplus from Clinton and healthy economic growth, but it is a fact. It is also a fact that Bush put forth the first economic stimulus package that we borrowed for after dribbling the failing economy along with tax refunds, lowering interest rates and tax cuts primarily for the rich. All of the measures were too little too late, forcing the incumbent President to react to the horrible economy, banking practices that were the height of greed and two wars that were being funded without economic cash flow. Now, the stimulus monies have run out for the most part, Obama’s opponents have convinced Americans that he is a Muslim witch Dr. from Kenya, and the economy has suffered heavy losses three months in a row while the rich are paying the lowest taxes in 80 years. While everyone is blaming everyone else in the legislature there is literally trillions of dollars waiting in the private sector for nothing more than a positive economic climate and a little optimism.  They were on the verge of investment across the board until this latest political stunt to run the ship aground.

                Economically at this time we cannot afford to step up to the ideals of the Tea party leaders and continue to cut without investment. It would be great to get this fat cat government to go lean, but doing an crash diet now will break us, and by the look of it today we are headed for another recession or worse and perhaps globally. We are in need of investment and interjection if we hope to regain the economy we had even four years ago let alone after Clinton got done shaping it. We were on the verge of righting it but our confidence was undermined by those who stand to gain from failure. The best thing we can all do is hold our leaders accountable in the legislature by telling all of them to work for us, stop taking the politicians and the media rhetoric to heart and get behind this President and tell the politicians to do the same.  A little thought on information you hear would also go a long way toward healing.