You don’t see it, but I get hundreds of spams on this board… so I added an anti-spam feature that should keep the spambots from even getting here in the first place. If you have trouble posting, there’s a quick feature you can use to enable your posts. If not, don’t worry, business as usual for you. Just not for me, since I won’t have dozens of spam comments waiting for me to delete at every login.
Karzai’s election victory was rigged. Let’s not beat around the bush. It’s obvious, but unsubstantiable because the US does not want it substantiated. Now we’re asking a guy that rigged his election to clean up corruption in Afghanistan. Great idea. It’s like asking a leader of a military coup to rein in his country’s military.
This is just one more lesson about how nobody wins in Afghanistan, not even the Afghans. Karzai’s brother is a drug dealer on the level of “kingpin.” A san diego drug crimes attorney reveals that Karzai’s brother is also the only guy holding Kandahar, the most important city in the south. Therefore, the evidence that he’s a heroin-making machine has to be reduced to the level of unsubstantiated rumors. This also means immunity for anyone in his organization that does a good job for him. Should someone be on the outs with the President’s brother, he’ll likely get handed over to the police in a significant ceremony. Until then, the biggest dealer in Afghanistan will go untouched.
What about the provincial governors, many of whom are big dealers in their own right? Well, they’re doing what they can to keep their provinces together. The US is caught in a quandry: it must choose whether to fight the drugs in Afghanistan or to fight the Taliban. To be sure, the Taliban forces in Afghanistan are dealing in drugs for their own purposes, but nowhere on the level the Afghan government is dealing.
Once again, the USA has made a bargain with one set of criminals to fight another it sees as more dangerous. Every time the USA has done that, the criminals they picked turned out to be even worse than the ones they fought. So it goes again.
I was reading an article in The Independent about terrorists that changed their minds. Still reading it and it’s fascinating. The upshot of it is that I can’t get over how the recruitment techniques of the jihadis remind me of the way Scientologists rope in unsuspecting dupes. Or street gangs, for that matter. It’s just that Scientology makes for a more catchy headline, so I went with that.
Right now, we’re at 10% unemployment. While we think of this as bad right now, it may very well be the “passably good” of ten years from now, or even considered great.
I recently read an article that showed how, without a double-dip recession and things working along normally enough after a recovery, we’d be at around just above 8% unemployment in 2020. That’s with Baby Boomers retiring on schedule and normal annual growth in the workforce each year. Should the Boomer stick it out longer, then unemployment will be higher. Same goes for a less-than-average recovery or a dreaded double-dip.
A double-dip recession, which is a very real possibility if the government allows the 2001 tax cuts to expire in 2011, would see unemployment hit 13% and then wend its way down to around 9-10%. This isn’t some sort of crazy conspiracy theory. This is looking at the numbers and assuming normal stuff happens.
The upshot of this is that what we once considered horrendous will soon become normal to us.
Don’t quit your day job.
Because most states have to run a balanced budget, we’re seeing a very large drop in state government spending, which almost matches dollar for dollar what the federal government is increasing its spending by. The net result: little total change at all. While we did have a preliminary uptick of 3.5% in GDP growth last quarter, that’s the preliminary number. Analysts are now expecting it to be revised downward to about 1%. Since federal spending accounted for over 2% of that growth number, one can see how it vanished so quickly.
If companies are reporting higher sales numbers over this time last year, or seeing their sales pick up after a series of rotten months, don’t run out and celebrate recovery just yet: check to see if their competition went bankrupt. Which it probably has. Which is good news for the survivors, but terrible news as far as real job growth goes. With fewer companies in business, fewer total jobs exist – and fewer total jobs can be created in the long run.
Look to sales tax numbers. If there’s more sales tax being paid, then consumer demand – anywhere from 60 to 65% of total GDP – is on the way up. If not, then it’s on the way down. Simple enough, right? Well, let’s look at those numbers… (goes to look at numbers)
Oh dear. They’re not good at all.
Sales taxes in Texas are down 12.8% compared to this month last year, and this month makes five double-digit drops in sales taxes in a row for the Lone Star State. California’s even worse, and all states are in the negative in terms of comparing this year to last year. Ouch ouch ouch ouch ouch.
So where do the rosy estimates about national recovery come from? Surveys that ignore small businesses and favor weighting to major retailers who, after closing many stores, are seeing some loyal customers coming back to remaining outlets. But they’re not at all the whole story, as the sales tax receipts show.
The USA is getting ripped off with health care. I spend $3600 a year on health insurance that only covers myself and my three children, have a $700 family deductible, pay 80% of office visit costs, get huge deductibles on certain procedures or treatment options, and I can STILL wind up going medically bankrupt if my insurance company decides to find a way to dance around coverage of a dread disease, heaven forbid I should get one. I spend about $5000 a year on health costs in a normal year and I’m not getting treatment for everything I need treatment for.
The solution to our health care problem really does lie outside our borders.
Frontline recently ran a documentary on health care around the world. If I spent the same $5000 per year on taxes to support health care, I could get my entire family covered, pay no deductibles, and have zero chance of being turned away for a dread disease, let alone going bankrupt for having one.
And before the Republicans jump up and scream blue murder over socialism, I want them to shut up for a second and realize that one of the rightest of the right-wingers, a guy that makes Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck look like a bunch of Commie preverts, the very OTTO VON BISMARCK himself, created the idea of a government-run health care system.
I love this bad boy. It’s got a flavor and texture unlike any chocolate bar made for the US market. It was made for Mexican tastes… and mine as well, apparently. I love how it crumbles in my mouth as I eat it. I find it a perfect complement to a lunch of al pastor tacos and try to eat it when I still have the taste of the pork, cilantro, and onions lingering in my mouth.
It’s not for everyone. Some find its sweetness presumptuous and its texture off-putting. Not me. I love it.
Carlos V is also smaller than US candy bars. This is a good thing. It’s bigger than a fun size, so it doesn’t leave me wanting more, but it’s smaller than a full size, so I don’t feel like I got mugged by the Sugar Bandit when I’m done with it. It’s just right. Also, it has a great finish: a good, sensible sweet chocolate flavor that lasts. Too often, I can eat a candy and it leaves me with a bad aftertaste. I can always count on Carlos V to rule my tongue fairly and wisely.
When you have Internet access during presentations you’re not totally engaged with, the time just flies.
Thank you, Mr. Gore. Because of you, I did not have to chew one of my legs off today.