Thursday, September 26, 2013

GLOBAL WARMING, THE SUPREME COURT AND OTHER THINGS WE SHOULD BE REALLY WORRIED ABOUT

According to the government and the media, everything is fine, the recovery is right around the corner and we'll all be singing with wine and roses and minute now. Bull. The house of cards that represents our financial system if starting to sway again and no one is seeming to notice. Almost all the houses being bought right now represent corporate interests and almost no individual buyers. That means when the corporations feel that process and mortgage rates have risen too far to make money off of it, they will stop. And so will the market as they are the only ones keeping it afloat. Same goes for the stock market which is only being kept alive by the FED and the Plunge Protection Team. Trade numbers have been really weak except for sell orders which are building up faster than the buy ins and the high speed trades that distort the market as well.

Our banks are bigger than ever and our financial system has only rewarded the wealthy while the rest of us starve. The GOP's plan is to throw 4 million off the roles of SNAP because there is nothing better to start a revolution than hungry people. The Republicans are true to their word in that they are doing everything they can to end the government. What they don't understand is they will be going right down with them. It's kind of hard to wield power to a group of people who want you dead. Which is why if the right ever gets into power, they'll never let it go again. So vote Republican all you want, but don't be surprised when they go all fascist and start telling EVERYONE what to do. How happy will you be then?

The Supreme Court is on the verge of doing just that: ending democracy once and for all. On October 8th, the Supreme Court will hear arguments in favor of ending limits of contributions to individual candidates. The limit right now is $2,500 per election to federal candidates, $5,000 per calendar year to any non-party political committee, and $30,800 per calendar year to a national party committee. Conservatives want it raised to 4 million. As there are more wealthy donors on the right than the left, this would skew funding for any election to the right wing candidates. It would also be the end of this country as the gullible will fall for the negative ad campaigns such money would allow, swamping the left from any realistic parity for advertising. Our democracy has already been damaged, perhaps fatality, from the Citizens' United ruling, the single worst decision in the history of the country. If they decide to allow this, it's game over.

And then there is Global Warming. I keep reading from "experts" how it's all bull, it's natural variation and other nonsense. At no point in all of Earth's history have we seen such variation of temperature extremes for such an elongated period of time. The Earth is getting warmer. That is not in debate, even though some still think it is. And according  to the best scientists on the planet, they say there is 95% chance that humans are causing it. That is as close to scientific certainty as you will ever see. But some are saying unless it's 100%, then it's just a guess. What people do not understand is nothing is 100% certain. NOTHING! No matter what example you use, the sun rising, gravity holding you to the ground, whatever, there is always a chance, however small, that those things may not occur tomorrow. Read Wittgenstein's book On Certainty for more on that. It's a great read. Nothing is absolute and most people just don't get that. It does appear that the deep oceans are absorbing the extra heat, perhaps as a safety valve of sorts. But eventually, even the oceans won't be able to absorb anymore and then we could be facing a runaway greenhouse effect. Wouldn't it better to err on the side of caution and start moving off fossil fuels, which we could have easily done decades ago?

Lastly, Obamacare has been all over the news and debated to death. Here's some real info from someone who is a literal expert on the subject. Yes prices are going up, mostly to offset bad policies that a lot of people had that were dirt cheap, but had high deductibles and would have bankrupted the person had they actually gotten really sick. Subsidies will help cut the costs, but these people will have better health care than they have had in the past, a worthy trade off. Plus, it should help cut down on the number of medical bankruptcies as the cut rate planes will be phased out. Approximately 90% of the country will qualify for subsidies, and for some, health care costs will actually decrease in the long run, especially the poor, who need the biggest hand out. Ted Cruz wasted everyone's time, demonizing this plan, which, while far from perfect, is better than what we once had. Now if people would actually STOP believing every article they see on the Internet, especially about Obamacare, maybe we could get some actual work done and get rid of the loonies in Congress perpetually pissed we have a black President.

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