Sat AM Musings

"The Birthplace of Aviation."  First in Flight."  So the license plates read.  Is it Ohio or is it North Carolina that has the legitimate claim to the original airplane flight or idea or whatever?  Well, perhaps it's neither, as Connecticut has come into the picture with it's own claims to being first, maybe a couple of years before either the Buckeyes or  Tarheels.  I don't know why those historians can get it straight.

Why aren't these guys in jail??????  If you and I did what Peter Schweitzer claims members of Congress did and continue to do in his recent book (Extortion....), we'd certainly be in the slammer.  One of the mechanisms for this activity are Leadership PACs.  They can collect up to $5000 per donor and have no limits to how much they can amass.  And, the funds can be spent any and every possible way.  In fact, leftover funds, at the end of a Congressman's/Senator's term, don't have to be returned, donated to a charity, or given to a special repository for leftover funds.  They, according to Schweitzer, have been spent on resort vacations, lavish restaurant meals that run to tens of thousands of dollars, and even more than $30,000 for NFL tickets!  How are donors targeted?  Ploys are often used to play donors off on each other.  For instance, a bill is considered.  Pros and Cons are identified.  A Congressman tells the Pros he's thinking of voting "no," the suggestion, of course, that a donation will encourage a change of mind.  Then, the Congressman tells the Cons he's received a donation from the Pros, the implication that a donation will again change his mind.  This practice even has a term, "double milking."  It's that common.  According to Schweitzer, Obama has used this in dealing with competing interests in Silicon Valley, in Hollywood, etc.  There's an other practice coined, "The Tollbooth," whose meaning is crystal clear.  Who is this guy Schweitzer?  He's the one who wrote the book exposing the illegal insider trading that was really legal for members of Congress because they made it legal for themselves, while still illegal for real Americans.  After the exposure, Congress changed the laws after the public outcry.  So, Schweitzer has some credibility.  Unfortunately, voters don't.  They keep electing and re-electing these same Bozos.

One former member of Congress, Lee Hamilton, wrote an op-ed piece on how to get rid of the gridlock in DC.  Why in the world would we want to do that?  Gridlock is good for those Bozos.  I loved the Wall Street Journal a few years back, addressing members of Congress, "Don't do something; just stand there!"  I suggested to each of my DC elected representatives that they do exactly that; nope, you guessed it--I never received any response.

The monied interests have won--again.  The state senate has passed the Common Core standards, complete with all the testing (more testing??????), the materials, etc. being produced by certain companies who have lobbied hard (spending millions and millions of dollars, hiring many former elected officials as lobbyists, etc.) to make millions more, er, to get the Common Core enacted.  Of course, Congress literally bribed the states to pass the Common Core, offering big money to states than adopted it by a certain date--a date which didn't allow the Common Core to be studied, let alone questioned.  During the Gilded Age a common phrase was "the best government that money can buy."  It would seem we still have that.  Yet, it's the Tea Party candidates like Cruz and Lee, those who made campaign promises and are acting to actually keep them (you know, honest guys who didn't lie!!!!!!) who are constantly disparaged.  And voters believe the disparagement without question, often just spewing forth the inane talking points--"They are bigots."  "They are racists."  "They have no real ideas."  C'mon, it doesn't take an Einstein to realize these Tea Party candidates, like them or not, have "real ideas."  That their opponents don't like the ideas doesn't mean they don't exist.

We here in Michigan have two opportunities to strike back at the idea that money can buy elections.  For the US Senate, Gary Peters, the presumptive Dem candidate in '14, has far outraised Terry Lynn Land, the likely Rep candidate.  How great to just vote no to the money!!!!!!  In the 11th Congressional District, the incumbent Kerry Bentivolio has been outraised by both his Rep primary challenger and at least one of the putative Dem candidates.  (Remember, it's not the liars and cheaters in elected positions, it's not the career politicians, but people like Bentivolio who are disparaged and belittled because they actually worked for a living, because he was "a reindeer farmer" who "played Santa Claus.")  How great, again, to just vote no to the money!!!!!!  No, I'm not going to hold my breath.  We still vote for the same Bozos, time and time again.

I saw a number of high school football scores where teams with mediocre if not lousy records thumped other teams with great records.  Most of these were teams from different leagues playing each other.  One such game was U of D Jesuit, from the Catholic League, beating a previously undefeated team from the Oakland Activities League.  UDJ ended up 5-4, but 0-4 in its league.  Huh?  Yeah, imagine beginning of each season figuring on four losses at best--playing against Catholic Central, Brother Rice, OL St Mary's, and De La Salle each season.  There are four losses, almost automatically.  So, I'd say a 5-4 record is close to a perfect season.

I can't get this comment in a recent letter-to-the-editor out of my head.  "Our government is good.  It takes good care of us."  I fear such an idea is far more prevalent than one might imagine.  Until we get rid of that notion, we'll get nowhere.  I frequently think back to my father who most often worked two or three jobs until later in life.  He had his regular job.  Five nights a week and often on weekends, he'd officiate baseball, basketball, or football games.  And, during tax season, when he wasn't working someplace else, he'd have tax info spread on the kitchen table doing other people's taxes for them.  Quite a few years, he'd be hired by the FoMoCo union local to come to their hall to do members' taxes.  More often than not, too, I have had more than one job.  In all those years, I only took off two summers, not working.  I often officiated sports, too.  At one time, in the '90s, for quite a few years I was drawing paychecks from five employers--we had a house payment, college tuition and expenses, etc.  And, with my salary where it was, government wasn't going to "take good care of me," like it didn't my father.

Out to run with my blind buddy.