My Hair Is Not On Fire

Liberals are running around today with their hair on fire after yesterday's SCOTUS ruling on campaign contributions. The "end is nigh" because there is (gasp!) money in politics. I'm shocked, I tell you, shocked to find out the gambling is going on in this establishment!! Well, I have a few words for my friends on the left who think life, as we know it, is over.

Pay attention to the nuance of this case. If you read the SCOTUS blog link, you can see that there is more transparency now. There is also a larger playing field for individuals, not just mega donors, to get in the game. If liberals really want to have an effect on this issue, they need to push for transparency. Anyone who donates in whatever amount has to be disclosed in the most transparent way.

Consider as well how much money was spent to defeat the president and how it all amounted to zilch. Money isn't as much of a factor as you think given other influences in politics today. Look at the example of social media. Facebook and Twitter are free, right? Anyone can post a video on YouTube. This is what people look at these days and they are more of an influence on votes than millions of dollars of donations. Honestly, the mouth foamers about this law don't understand the digital generation.

This ruling also puts more power back in the hands of the parties and out of the hands of the mega donors. I predict we will see the decline of the Super Pac as a result of this decision.

So, liberals, chill the fuck out! Money has always been in politics and it always will. If you try to ban it, somehow it will find a way to spread around. Keep it out in the open and remove all limits and watch how its effect diminishes.

Foreign Princes Buying American Elections

The intent of the Founding Fathers in writing the Constitution is always heavily debated when cases go before the Supreme Court. The Court's decision today to allow wealthy individuals to spend infinite amounts of money to buy elections across the country is no different.

One of the reasons the Founding Fathers broke from Europe was the arrogance and corruption inherent in the hereditary ruling class of kings and noblemen. The wealth and influence of men like the Koch brothers -- hereditary oil barons -- and casino mogul Sheldon Adelson makes them the nobility of today.

These people expect everyone to treat them like royalty, pay them fealty and kiss their feet. Just last week Chris Christie and other Republican presidential hopefuls paid obeisance to Sheldon Adelson. During his paean to a foreign country in Las Vegas Christie made a catastrophic blunder by calling the Palestinian terroritories that Israel seized from Syria, Egypt and Jordan in 1967 and is still occupying "the Occupied Territories." When Christie was told of Adelson's displeasure he apologized instantly.

Adelson's casinos are involved with bribery and money laundering. He makes billions in Macau off Chinese gamblers. In the last election cycle Adelson spent more than a hundred million dollars to elect a Republican president. Adelson is currently on a crusade to keep online gambling illegal, suckering many Republicans and Christians to do his bidding. Millions of Americans are addicted to casino gambling, costing the US economy $50 billion annually. Stories about accountants and bookkeepers embezzling money from their companies and churches to feed their gambling habit are endless. Adelson profits from this addiction and misery; gambling and corruption are inextricably linked.

Adelson is essentially an agent of the Israeli government, spending his billions to get the United States to kowtow to Israeli politicians, regardless of what the best interests of the American people might be.

Did the Founding Fathers really write a Constitution that equates foreign princes like Sheldon Adelson using their wealth to buy elections across the United States to free speech?

What Is Your Alternative, Ms. Palin?

Sarah Palin recently called Paul Ryan's latest budget "a joke" saying "it is STILL not seeing the problem; it STILL is not proposing reining in wasteful government overspending TODAY, instead of speculating years out that some future Congress and White House may possibly, hopefully, eh-who-knows, take responsibility for today’s budgetary selfishness and shortsightedness to do so."

“THIS is the definition of insanity,” she continued.

Fine. Where do you propose cuts?

“You’d think one who is representing the mighty Badgers, who made it to the Final Four based on sacrificial work ethic and discipline that obviously pays off in the end, … would understand that future success depends on hard work and sacrifices,” Palin said.

Again, where exactly do you propose cuts?

There is plenty to cut, Palin argued, as “every omnibus bill is loaded with pork and kickbacks.”

Be specific. How much? What would happen as a result of the cuts?

“As my Dad would say after these April Fool’s announcements, ‘This would kill a lesser man.’ This out-of-control debt is killing our economic future,” Palin wrote.

How exactly?

Sarah Palin is a great example of how all conservatives have these days is criticism...even of their own party! They don't offer anything but strident language and hollow (and really, really played) talking points that appeal to fear. Considering our massive wealth and assets, the debt is a phantom menace and she is simply lying about our economic future.

Of course, she (and any other conservatives) are welcome to prove me wrong with substantive plans of their own:)

A Selfie With The President

The president has a good couple of days and the photo above shows that there is a spring in his step (even if he is a White Sox fan). Big Papi and 44...nice!

Wear What You Want

Rand Paul (Again) On Immigration

Rand Paul, on deportation.

The bottom line is, the Hispanic community, the Latino community is not going to hear us until we get beyond that issue. They’re not going to care whether we go to the same church, or have the same values, or believe in the same kind of future of our country until we get beyond that. Showing up helps, but you got to show up and you got to say something, and it has to be different from what we’ve been saying.

Yes. Yes, it does. Time to change.

Seven Million

It looks like the Affordable Care Act has surpassed its revised goal and now has hit its original goal of seven million enrollees. The GOP has quickly shifted its talking points to issues of non payment and the coming economic apocalypse which will result from the ACA. We also have this poll from ABC and the Washington Post.

49-48, in favor. Wow.

As I have been saying these last few weeks, Democrats need to run proudly on the ACA and note that it's part of an overall plan to bolster the middle class (of which a minimum wage hike is a strong part). They do this and they hold the Senate in the fall and possibly narrow the gap in the House.

The Real Takers

When I was in college in the late 1970s the Institute of Technology at the University of Minnesota had a classroom outfitted with TV screens in front of every chair. A camera in the back was trained on professors who taught in the room and another camera over the desk was focused on a pad of paper they wrote on. About half my computer science classes were taught here, from introductory programming languages to advanced data structures and computer networking. 

It sounds charmingly primitive in this age of Skype and online degrees, but the point was not to save chalk; rather, it was to beam the course by microwave to remote sites where programmers working full-time could earn computer science degrees. This was the backbone of the U of M's UNITE Distributed Learning system. Communication was two-way; remote students could ask the professor questions through a mic at their end. Companies like IBM in Rochester and Univac in Roseville set up TV classrooms in their buildings. This saved the employees several hours a week because they didn't have to commute to the university in Minneapolis.

These classes were kind of annoying because of the inevitable interruptions from equipment glitches, but also because the remote students were just not with it. They were older, slower, and asked a lot of seemingly dumb questions. Fortunately, the cameras were pointed at the professor and didn't capture our eye-rolling.

Incredibly, not only did these companies pay to put these fancy electronic classrooms in their buildings, with the attendant costs for installing the microwave antennas and two-way communications, the salary of the camera operator, but they paid the employees' tuition.

That was then. This is now (from Paul Krugman at The New York Times):

A few months ago, Jamie Dimon, the chief executive of JPMorgan Chase, and Marlene Seltzer, the chief executive of Jobs for the Future, published an article in Politico titled “Closing the Skills Gap.” They began portentously: “Today, nearly 11 million Americans are unemployed. Yet, at the same time, 4 million jobs sit unfilled” — supposedly demonstrating “the gulf between the skills job seekers currently have and the skills employers need.”

Back then if a company needed someone to do a new job, they often took an experienced, dedicated, hard-working and loyal employee and gave them the training to do it. These days too many companies fire those same experienced — and higher-paid — employees and hire someone cheap.

The U of M's UNITE system still exists, after more than 40 years. They use streaming video and podcasts instead, but they still pitch UNITE to companies who need technical people.

However, few companies these days invest in people. They demand prospective employees to invest tens of thousands of dollars of their own money, often accruing debt exceeding $100K, in education and training programs that companies need today, with no guarantee that the company will have any use for them in five or 10 years. Companies expect government to create secondary and vocational school programs to train employees for them in the specialty areas they need. At the same time they demand lower and lower taxes, while sending their profits to offshore tax havens.

And these same companies constantly demand that the government raise the H1B visa quotas. This program allows companies to hire "high-skilled" tech workers from countries like China and India. The reason "high-skilled" is in quotes is that what they're really after is "low-paid."

This is why the wage gap is getting so wide and so many middle-income Americans are failing. Companies are firing people in their forties and fifties who have spouses and mortgages and children with college tuition bills, and replacing them with American kids up to their eyeballs in college loans — often because their parents lost their jobs — or kids from India and China whose education was paid for by a foreign government.

The execs at these companies are selling America and Americans out, while jacking up their own salaries and reducing their corporate tax liabilities to less than nothing. Companies like Apple are giving federal and state governments no resources to run the schools the companies insist are needed produce useful workers for them.

Now. Who are the real takers?

Series Finale: How I Met Your Mother (Spoiler Warning)

Last night my family and some friends tuned in to the series finale of the CBS comedy How I Met Your Mother. I have watched the show from the very first episode back in 2005 and have thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it.

The show tells the story of Ted Moseby (Josh Radnor) as he recounts to his children (left) in the year 2030 how he met their mom in 2013 after 8 years of twists and turns. It was a very funny show that captured the essence of relationships, friendships, and cocktail culture set against the backdrop of New York City. Ted's friends were Marshall Ericksen (Jason Segel), his wife Lily (Alyson Hannigan), Barney Stinson (Neil Patrick Harris), and Robin Scherbatsky (Cobie Smulders). From the very first episode it was clear that Ted loved Robin but as the story unfolded we realized that she was not the mom. The character of the mother became almost mythical. Who is she? What actress will play her? When will she finally appear?

This season she finally did appear, played by the wonderful and gorgeous Cristin Milioti (left). As this ninth and final season unfolded, viewers started to get hints that perhaps the mother was no longer alive when Ted was telling the story in the year 2030. There were also hints that Robin and Ted, after not getting together, finally getting together, breaking up, and having a few flings would finally end up as couple.

Both of these rumors were confirmed last night in the finale. The mother (named Tracy McConnell) gets sick at some point in the year 2024 and dies. At the very end of the show, Ted's kids tell him it's been six years and he should go find Aunt Robin and be happy again. This ending has sent shockwaves all over the internet as a maudlin, terribly downbeat ending to a show that has been in their hearts for nearly a decade. My wife was very pissed off last night, yelling at the TV and putting her thumb way down. I realize it's just a show and these people are characters in a fictional world but it did have quite an impact on our house and with my friends.

Many viewers were like my wife and thought it was a terrible ending. We've looked forward for nine years to meet the mom and she's dead? We meet her this season, she's absolutely wonderful and she's dead? We've just got to know her and she's dead? Of course, the show goes to great pains to show that Tracy was a big part of Ted's life for 11 years and they had two wonderful children together. The problem is that we see that in such a short time span that we don't really feel that longevity nor the passage of time. This is where I can see their point.

Yet life is messy and people die. Marshall's dad died a few years ago. The show wouldn't be as beloved if it wasn't so realistic. It makes the character of Tracy and her love with Ted all the more tragic and, honestly, perfect. Add in that her character lost the love of her life to a tragic accident and it makes her death truly devastating...a somewhat dark life indeed with Ted and her children being bright rays of light. This sharp dose of reality made me appreciate the ending more than my family and friends. Sure, Robin and Ted weren't perfect and were often irritating but that's what most couples are like.

There is no such thing as a Hollywood ending in life, although some have argued that Ted ending up with Robin is the Hollywood ending and that might be the case. With How I Met Your Mother, the story was never really about Ted and Tracy. The title may say otherwise but it really was a love story about Ted and Robin and how they ended up together. Watch the very first episode and the very last one and that's exactly what you see. Everything in between was the messy shit that happens in life...the highs and the lows...the laughter and the tears...and how a close group of friends can be family.

What Does It Mean To Be A Volunteer?

No Such Thing As Obamacare

There is no such thing as ObamaCare. You can't sign up for ObamaCare. You're signing up for an Anthem (ph) policy or an Aetna policy, or a WellPoint policy. It is private insurance. And private insurance companies have been doing closed networks for years.

Senator Angus King, I-Maine, on the lying about the Affordable Care Act.

Latest Climate Chane Report From IPCC

The IPCC has just published its latest report on climate change. It details the impacts, adaptation, and vulnerability associated with climate change. An example of this would be the risk associated with food insecurity due to more intense droughts, floods, and heat waves in a warmer world, especially for poorer countries.

What strikes me as ironic about the food shortage issue is this is the exact same outcome seen by conservatives as a result of our federal government's mishandling of our economy. I got to hear about it all weekend at a recent family gathering from my brother in law who is basically inconsolable. "Our children's futures are being mortgaged away" he cried many times yet the very real danger presented by climate change bounced off the bubble. "Liberal propaganda...liberal plot to control us..." were words I heard any time the subject came up.

It's not just climate change, though. They have no concern whatsoever about the abuse of power of corporations, our dilapidated infrastructure, the inability of parents to think globally in terms of our education system or our health care system...you know, the ACTUAL problems we have as opposed to the phantom menaces they make up (actually it's only one menace...the federal government).

So, why do conservatives worry about things that aren't likely to happen and go completely limp when it comes to things that likely will happen?

So Much For The Obamacare Horror Stories

Koch Group Abandons Obamacare 'Horror' Stories After Fact-Check Backlash.

Perhaps they have finally learned their lesson:)

Food Stamp Myths

There are a lot of myths about food stamps and this site is an excellent source for correcting the misinformation. Here are a few basic facts.

76% of SNAP households included a child, an elderly person, or a disabled person. These vulnerable households receive 83% of all SNAP benefits.

These are real people, folks, with real problems. Lumping them all into one category as lazy, good for nothings is ridiculous.

Two-thirds of all SNAP payment errors are a result of caseworker error. Nearly one-fifth are underpayments, which occur when eligible participants receive less in benefits than they are eligible to receive.

The idea that there is something special about the "fraud" that goes on with SNAP is completely ridiculous. The errors aren't overpayments but underpayments.

Here is one of my favorite myths followed by reality.

Work Requirements 

Myth: SNAP doesn’t do enough to encourage participants to get a job, and the program needs stronger work requirements. 

Reality: SNAP already has strict time-limits for unemployed workers. Able-bodied adults without dependents (ABAWDs) may only receive 3 months of SNAP benefits during any 3 year period, unless they are working in a qualifying job training program. The SNAP benefit formula is structured to provide a strong work incentive – for every additional dollar a SNAP participant earns, their benefits decline by about 24 to 36 cents, not a full dollar, so participants have a strong incentive to find work, work longer hours, or seek better-paying employment.

We have enough problems with helping out those in need. Adding fake problems makes it worse. The next time you here some mouth foaming about food stamps, check out this site for reality.

Ah, Karma...

As I remind people all the time, irresponsible...

Putin Calls Obama

Vladamir Putin called the president on Friday to discuss diplomatic solutions to the situation in Ukraine. He also has stated that Russian troops would not move into eastern Ukraine. Neither one of these occurrences should be viewed as the end of the crisis but they do represent a shift away from warmer temperatures.

It's interesting to note that phone calls about diplomacy and assurances over troop movements are being made after the "ineffective" sanctions are now in place. Does this also mean that Putin has lost his macho luster with the GOP? After all, what kind of a leader tells another country that they won't be invading? A wimpy pussy, right?

Obama's Catholic Roots

There are still around 17 percent of American voters who think that Barack Obama is a Muslim. The fact is, though, that his roots are very deeply Christian.

By the time of that session in the spring of 1987, Mr. Obama — himself not Catholic — was already well known in Chicago’s black Catholic circles. He had arrived two years earlier to fill an organizing position paid for by a church grant, and had spent his first months here surrounded by Catholic pastors and congregations. In this often overlooked period of the president’s life, he had a desk in a South Side parish and became steeped in the social justice wing of the church, which played a powerful role in his political formation.

The concept of social justice comes directly from the teachings of Jesus Christ and has been carried forward with a great deal of success by the Catholic Church. This is what drove the president to community service and his actions illustrate this quite clearly. His recent meeting with the Pope was a meeting of like minded individuals who understand that service to the poor is service to Jesus Christ. As the article notes, they are kindred spirits who strongly believe in social justice and inclusion.

There isn't any mystery to the president's agenda. He wants to help people out who are less fortunate. It's just that simple.

Show Your Penis For Cancer (In A Sock, Though)

Men Are Posting Pictures Of Their Penises In Socks On The Internet For Cancer Awareness And It Is So, So Good

Yes, it is!

Being Direct With The Gun Cult

Pretty much how I'd put it...

Is Fracking Safe Or Not?