Until recently I thought that it came down to politicians to mislead the public into believing that this plan or the other would do the trick. It used to think that 2010 was a year of a very important election.
I thought that Democratic Party has lost a golden opportunity to level with the American people about the real picture of the country.
Don’t get me wrong there is still a clear choice. On a one hand we have a group of people who say that we, as insurmountable as the problems and the present status seem, if we stay the course we will see the light at the end of the tunnel. The other side believes in the same medicine for every illness: tax cuts.
I always say if doctors would prescribe every illness with the same medication, not only we would need them but we wouldn’t need the pharmaceutical companies as one would supply us with the one miracle medicine that would cure us.
But reality is different, and that applies to this as well. To make matters worse they encourage companies to export jobs to China, India and other Asian nations. A friend of mine believes that exporting jobs is good. He should tell that to all the people who have been unemployed for more than 99 weeks (99ers), and these people include PHDs, masters, etc., who have lost their house, their savings, and their livelihood. Our real unemployment is close to 20%.
So in that respect I think the choice is simple.
But my conclusion is that people don’t want to hear the facts. They behave like brats. They think that they are entitled to gas at 2.75 a gallon, pay low taxes, buy houses that they cannot afford, be the police of the world.
Let’s start with taxes, the Obama administration should tell the American people to grow up. Gasoline at 2.75 is unreal, because the moment that we add the cost of the Department of Defense to that, and the subsidies that the oil companies receive we are looking at probably the same amount that the rest of the world pays or higher, 6 or 7 dollars a gallon. Why do I mention the D.O.D. in this? Simple, we invaded Iraq because they have oil, not because of the weapons of mass destruction, Saddam Hussein or any other excuse. If Iraq had just dust, like Sudan has, we would have never moved a finger.
Pay low taxes, another lie. By the time we add the federal income tax, state tax, social security, medical coverage, co-pays, etc., we are paying more than the Europeans and Canadians do.
And I don’t think I have to talk about housing as we will continue to see values deteriorate as far as the eye can see, especially when we are looking at possibly 3 million foreclosures in 2010.
The solution, in my opinion, is simple but unpopular. I don’t like to be deceived. In order to balance the Federal Budget, we should cut defense in half, roll back the age of retirement for social security, eliminate the cap for taxation of social security, eliminate the Bush tax cuts for everybody, not just the top, pull out of Iraq and Afghanistan, and possibly raise taxes if need be. We either do this now, or we can fool ourselves for years to come, until there will no longer be a United States.
Monday, October 25, 2010
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Peter A. Diamond
Peter A. Diamond was given the 2010 Nobel Prize for Economics. To most of us he is not a renowned figure. He was the professor of the head of the Federal Reserve Ben Bernacke.
Mr. Diamond was nominated to fill one of the vacant seats in the Federal Reserve. Unfortunately some of the members of the minority party in the U.S. Senate that has hold hostage this country for the past 4 years have decided that they will not allow President Obama’s nominee to be confirmed. The main one leading this fight is Senator R. Shelby from Alabama, saying that Mr. Diamond is not qualified for the job. I guess Mr. Shelby thinks that he is qualified to decide who is best suited to be one of the board members of the Federal Reserve.
This is the same party and its new spin off the Tea Party that is giving us some unqualified, unprepared candidates that may very well win their races, during a time where people want to take revenge with their government officials for the downturn that they are living. I will not say that they are right or wrong in their anger. What I can say is that we should look closely at this candidates and what they propose: privatizing Social Security, in my book that sounds like doing away with the most successful program in American History, privatizing Medicare and Medicaid, same goes for this program, privatizing the V.A., dido, and we can go on.
This party is also proposing rolling back what they call “Obamacare”. That means re-instituting the clause that allows insurance companies to reject kids with preconditions. That sounds like a humane position. But we should never forget that the insurance companies’ bottom lines come before the health of its insured.
They are running on the pledge to America which is cut taxes for the wealthy, deregulation to banking and increase of military spending. That sounds like the Bush-Cheney dogma that sets us back 10 years.
A friend of mine has told me more than once that I try to figure out people, although I try not I guess it is my nature, and I fall victim to my own temptation probably because after 25 years it worries me seeing this great nation falling behind the rest of the world in every single aspect from education to infrastructure to technology. Having grown up in Argentina and being a neighbor to Brazil the thing we always found amusing about Brazilians was that whatever you would talk about with them they would always answer the same “O mais grande du mundo”, which translated is the greatest in the world, which was a fantasy because they had zillions of problem including 60% of population living in poverty. Now living in the United States American people remind of those Brazilians as I was growing up.
Mr. Diamond was nominated to fill one of the vacant seats in the Federal Reserve. Unfortunately some of the members of the minority party in the U.S. Senate that has hold hostage this country for the past 4 years have decided that they will not allow President Obama’s nominee to be confirmed. The main one leading this fight is Senator R. Shelby from Alabama, saying that Mr. Diamond is not qualified for the job. I guess Mr. Shelby thinks that he is qualified to decide who is best suited to be one of the board members of the Federal Reserve.
This is the same party and its new spin off the Tea Party that is giving us some unqualified, unprepared candidates that may very well win their races, during a time where people want to take revenge with their government officials for the downturn that they are living. I will not say that they are right or wrong in their anger. What I can say is that we should look closely at this candidates and what they propose: privatizing Social Security, in my book that sounds like doing away with the most successful program in American History, privatizing Medicare and Medicaid, same goes for this program, privatizing the V.A., dido, and we can go on.
This party is also proposing rolling back what they call “Obamacare”. That means re-instituting the clause that allows insurance companies to reject kids with preconditions. That sounds like a humane position. But we should never forget that the insurance companies’ bottom lines come before the health of its insured.
They are running on the pledge to America which is cut taxes for the wealthy, deregulation to banking and increase of military spending. That sounds like the Bush-Cheney dogma that sets us back 10 years.
A friend of mine has told me more than once that I try to figure out people, although I try not I guess it is my nature, and I fall victim to my own temptation probably because after 25 years it worries me seeing this great nation falling behind the rest of the world in every single aspect from education to infrastructure to technology. Having grown up in Argentina and being a neighbor to Brazil the thing we always found amusing about Brazilians was that whatever you would talk about with them they would always answer the same “O mais grande du mundo”, which translated is the greatest in the world, which was a fantasy because they had zillions of problem including 60% of population living in poverty. Now living in the United States American people remind of those Brazilians as I was growing up.
This past summer
I have not been writing much this summer, and there are several reasons. For starters I went earlier this year to Argentina than I usually go. Instead of going in August or September like I prefer travellin I decided to go in July. I’m glad I did, as I think that it was a productive 2 week visit to my parents.
I then went to Chicago, together with my wife and son, to drop off my daughter as she had been invited to a conservatory. We then went back two weeks later to pick her up. Both the first and second times were very good, as the weather was great and it gave us the opportunity to go to the two tallest buildings in the City of Chicago, the John Hancock and the Sears Tower. The latter has 4 cubicles that were mounted on the side of the building, and, as they are made of type acrylic, you are actually outside of the building on the 103 floor, and whether you look up, side or down you have no concrete blocking the view. It is both exhilarating and scary, depending on your personality. I had a hard time at the beginning but I got used to it after a few minutes. You just have to avoid looking down as much as possible.
We also decided, as we were coming back from picking up our daughter in Chicago, that we would go for during labor day weekend to Cleveland to the Museum of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. We had been there in 2002. There is a lot to see, and the location right by Lake Erie is great, together with the fact that it is like a Glass Pyramid.
I have been very busy as well, as people are coming to the realization that with interest rates as low as 3.875 % and prices at their lowest in many years , it would be foolish not to buy a house. There is no doubt that many people are losing their homes, but for those who are able to they know that they cannot let this opportunity slide by.
Of course that something’s gotta give. And it has. I have not been able to get together with the person I was discipling for almost two years until my trip in July. I have spoken to him since I came back but I have not had the time to get together with him. Once this wave passes we will surely go back to our weekly conversations.
I then went to Chicago, together with my wife and son, to drop off my daughter as she had been invited to a conservatory. We then went back two weeks later to pick her up. Both the first and second times were very good, as the weather was great and it gave us the opportunity to go to the two tallest buildings in the City of Chicago, the John Hancock and the Sears Tower. The latter has 4 cubicles that were mounted on the side of the building, and, as they are made of type acrylic, you are actually outside of the building on the 103 floor, and whether you look up, side or down you have no concrete blocking the view. It is both exhilarating and scary, depending on your personality. I had a hard time at the beginning but I got used to it after a few minutes. You just have to avoid looking down as much as possible.
We also decided, as we were coming back from picking up our daughter in Chicago, that we would go for during labor day weekend to Cleveland to the Museum of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. We had been there in 2002. There is a lot to see, and the location right by Lake Erie is great, together with the fact that it is like a Glass Pyramid.
I have been very busy as well, as people are coming to the realization that with interest rates as low as 3.875 % and prices at their lowest in many years , it would be foolish not to buy a house. There is no doubt that many people are losing their homes, but for those who are able to they know that they cannot let this opportunity slide by.
Of course that something’s gotta give. And it has. I have not been able to get together with the person I was discipling for almost two years until my trip in July. I have spoken to him since I came back but I have not had the time to get together with him. Once this wave passes we will surely go back to our weekly conversations.
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
The Repeal of Don't ask, Don't tell
Today, the Party of the past has proved again that it is living in the past regardless of what the American people and the pentagon believe, which is that we should repeal Don’t ask, don’t tell.
Day after day we keep falling behind in the world, as we try to hold on to things that have become irrelevant. If we look around at what other countries do regarding gay and lesbians in the military we can see that they have embraced them. We think that we should keep them in the closet as if they were not homosexuals.
Not only is that a regressive policy, it is bad for morale, discriminatory and should be repealed.
It is time to think and live in the 21st century and not in the 1950s, which is what it seems the Republican Party and its faction, the Tea Party Movement, want us to go back to.
God help us if they take any of the two chambers of Congress in the next election.
Day after day we keep falling behind in the world, as we try to hold on to things that have become irrelevant. If we look around at what other countries do regarding gay and lesbians in the military we can see that they have embraced them. We think that we should keep them in the closet as if they were not homosexuals.
Not only is that a regressive policy, it is bad for morale, discriminatory and should be repealed.
It is time to think and live in the 21st century and not in the 1950s, which is what it seems the Republican Party and its faction, the Tea Party Movement, want us to go back to.
God help us if they take any of the two chambers of Congress in the next election.
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Kyler
On September 7th, 2010 Kyler Van Nocker succumbed to Neuroblastoma, a cancer that is found in children, and went to meet his creator. Although I did not meet personally this brave child who fought for his life for over three years and feel like I have. He is another victim to an insurance company and their “bureaucrats” deciding who lives and who doesn’t. I love when people during health care reform said that there would be government death panels deciding who lives and who doesn’t. I guess they are fine with a private bureaucrat but not one who works for the government.
I have criticized health management insurance companies and their defenders in the past, and will continue to do so until we have other options. The same people who say that they are fine with an hmo over charging and under covering us, seem to be the same people who are in favor of BP polluting the Gulf of Mexico. I wonder where they are now that another platform in the Gulf exploded a few days. I assume that we must trust Exxon, owner of the recent casualty, that there has be no spill in this case, just like we should have trusted BP when they said that there were only a few barrels leaking into the Gulf of Mexico.
Going back to the subject of this blog unfortunately Kyler will not be the first or the last victim to be in the hands of a clerk who is rewarded based on the amount of rejections that they make, so that shareholders can make money, even if it is will blood money.
At least Judas had the decency and the courage of realizing what he done and took his life for betraying his savior.
I have criticized health management insurance companies and their defenders in the past, and will continue to do so until we have other options. The same people who say that they are fine with an hmo over charging and under covering us, seem to be the same people who are in favor of BP polluting the Gulf of Mexico. I wonder where they are now that another platform in the Gulf exploded a few days. I assume that we must trust Exxon, owner of the recent casualty, that there has be no spill in this case, just like we should have trusted BP when they said that there were only a few barrels leaking into the Gulf of Mexico.
Going back to the subject of this blog unfortunately Kyler will not be the first or the last victim to be in the hands of a clerk who is rewarded based on the amount of rejections that they make, so that shareholders can make money, even if it is will blood money.
At least Judas had the decency and the courage of realizing what he done and took his life for betraying his savior.
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Withdrawing from Iraq
Today, President Obama fulfilled his promise that the war in Iraq would come to a conclusion, as so combat troops pulled out.
I am glad that he was able to keep his commitment, regardless of criticism from part of the population of this country.
The part of the population that was opposed to the conclusion of the war is the same sector that believes in a military power that is unsustainable with expenditures of more than 750 billions dollars a year, more than all industrialized nations combined, even though we are boroughing the money from the Chinese and the Japanese, the same people who believe that the top two percent of the population should get all the tax cuts at the expense of the national debt, because it is also given on boroughed money, so that the rest of us pays for those cuts, and the same people that want to do away now with social security and medicare, even though social security is capped at less than 100 thousand dollars.
It is also wonderful to see the same people demanding that the president give credit to former president Bush for the surge, although there is no proof that in itself it may any difference. These are the people, as I said earlier, who always have the same two prescriptions to every single problem in life, tax cuts for the wealthy and a big Department of Defense.
What they have to understand is that we would have never been there and lost all those lives, BOTH AMERICANS AND IRAQIS, if President Bush and Vice-President Cheney would have not lied to the world about weapons of mass destruction, and the “supposed” danger that Saddam Hussein was to the U.S.
Unfortunately it is not a total withdrawal of troops from Iraq as almost 50 thousand will stay there, so it doesn’t do the whole trick, but at least it is a beginning.
Now the next steps will be the eventual total withdrawals from Iraq and Afghanistan as well.
I am glad that he was able to keep his commitment, regardless of criticism from part of the population of this country.
The part of the population that was opposed to the conclusion of the war is the same sector that believes in a military power that is unsustainable with expenditures of more than 750 billions dollars a year, more than all industrialized nations combined, even though we are boroughing the money from the Chinese and the Japanese, the same people who believe that the top two percent of the population should get all the tax cuts at the expense of the national debt, because it is also given on boroughed money, so that the rest of us pays for those cuts, and the same people that want to do away now with social security and medicare, even though social security is capped at less than 100 thousand dollars.
It is also wonderful to see the same people demanding that the president give credit to former president Bush for the surge, although there is no proof that in itself it may any difference. These are the people, as I said earlier, who always have the same two prescriptions to every single problem in life, tax cuts for the wealthy and a big Department of Defense.
What they have to understand is that we would have never been there and lost all those lives, BOTH AMERICANS AND IRAQIS, if President Bush and Vice-President Cheney would have not lied to the world about weapons of mass destruction, and the “supposed” danger that Saddam Hussein was to the U.S.
Unfortunately it is not a total withdrawal of troops from Iraq as almost 50 thousand will stay there, so it doesn’t do the whole trick, but at least it is a beginning.
Now the next steps will be the eventual total withdrawals from Iraq and Afghanistan as well.
Friday, August 13, 2010
Friend
A little bit over 36 years we were starting our last year in high school, we were the seniors, just like we had been every year since 8th grade, as we were a new school and we were always the oldest. But this year different, we had lost some of our schoolmates, but we got two new ones, a girl who came from one of the best schools in town and a guy that had, in his words, had enough with the naval high school. It was too rigid for him, and he was ready for a different atmosphere. I eventually ended up falling for the girl, although nothing ever came out of the relationship.
On the other hand he seemed like a friendly guy but because he decided not to come with most of us to our graduation trip, so we never really had time to grow a deep relationship. He was a lot closer to another of our mates. Once we graduated I saw him again at our first reunion at one of our mates who was getting married the following year. Very shortly after I got a call from a common friend telling me that his older brother, just two years older than us, had passed away, and off we went to his brother’s wake.
We started dating each others’ wives around the same time, and together with a common friend we would go out the six of us. They came to our wedding and we were at theirs. Even with all this our relationship never seemed to be really deep. My father in law once said that in order for two couples to get along well the women need to get along well, if possible, be friends.
Then, my wife and I moved to the US. We saw them when they came to the area the following year, and although we only spent a couple of days together we had a nice time with them.
Then from 1986 through 1995 we did not see each other, my family’s visits to Buenos Aires were usually short, and we would spend most of the time with family, as part of my wife’s family was already living in the country, hours away from Buenos Aires.
In 1996 the school we had gone to was organizing a reunion, and we met again. But then after that there was a period of several years that we did not see each other.
Then one year I got his shop’s address and I went to see him. We spoke for a little while, talked about our personal lives, our struggles.
There was a spark that had just been sleeping. For some magic reason we starting communicating through messenger, over the phone, and our relationship starting building. I discovered what kind of a person he was, something that I had not noticed. I cannot blame it all on him, it was probably my fault as well. He showed me his true self, with his insecurities, his authenticity, his kindness, and our friendship blossomed. His heart is so full of love that everybody that he touches feels it. He also has a side that has pain, and possibly, to a certain degree, anger. A lot of it is to his parents, probably because, when he needed them, they were in such pain as he was, so they didn’t know what to do. It is very easy to be Monday morning quarterback, but many times we react in a strange way when tragedy hits us.
He told me once that the pain of the loose of his brother was just a strong as it was 35 years earlier when it happened. I could not believe it.
Talking to his parents once they admitted to me that they were in pain as well. The loose of a child is considered the most stressful event in a person’s life.
Although, as I said earlier in this blog, he was with us for the last year of high school, since we had our first reunion, and through the power of the internet and email, he has shared his love, his affection, his enthusiasm, with the rest of the classmates.
I tell him, whenever I have an opportunity, that I have received a lot more than what I have given him, I am thankful that he calls me his friend. I am proud to call him my friend, and even though he is still going through a bit of a bumpy road with his affections and his kids, he has a lot more to give than he realizes.
A few days ago I lost a friend to cancer, and although I am thankful that I was able to see him still alive, even though it was a heart braking to see him in the condition he was in because of his illness, my biggest regret is not having been able to tell him that, even though we had our many differences, I loved him, and valued him as a friend. So from now on I will not let the opportunities pass me by, so through this method I say, I love you brother.
On the other hand he seemed like a friendly guy but because he decided not to come with most of us to our graduation trip, so we never really had time to grow a deep relationship. He was a lot closer to another of our mates. Once we graduated I saw him again at our first reunion at one of our mates who was getting married the following year. Very shortly after I got a call from a common friend telling me that his older brother, just two years older than us, had passed away, and off we went to his brother’s wake.
We started dating each others’ wives around the same time, and together with a common friend we would go out the six of us. They came to our wedding and we were at theirs. Even with all this our relationship never seemed to be really deep. My father in law once said that in order for two couples to get along well the women need to get along well, if possible, be friends.
Then, my wife and I moved to the US. We saw them when they came to the area the following year, and although we only spent a couple of days together we had a nice time with them.
Then from 1986 through 1995 we did not see each other, my family’s visits to Buenos Aires were usually short, and we would spend most of the time with family, as part of my wife’s family was already living in the country, hours away from Buenos Aires.
In 1996 the school we had gone to was organizing a reunion, and we met again. But then after that there was a period of several years that we did not see each other.
Then one year I got his shop’s address and I went to see him. We spoke for a little while, talked about our personal lives, our struggles.
There was a spark that had just been sleeping. For some magic reason we starting communicating through messenger, over the phone, and our relationship starting building. I discovered what kind of a person he was, something that I had not noticed. I cannot blame it all on him, it was probably my fault as well. He showed me his true self, with his insecurities, his authenticity, his kindness, and our friendship blossomed. His heart is so full of love that everybody that he touches feels it. He also has a side that has pain, and possibly, to a certain degree, anger. A lot of it is to his parents, probably because, when he needed them, they were in such pain as he was, so they didn’t know what to do. It is very easy to be Monday morning quarterback, but many times we react in a strange way when tragedy hits us.
He told me once that the pain of the loose of his brother was just a strong as it was 35 years earlier when it happened. I could not believe it.
Talking to his parents once they admitted to me that they were in pain as well. The loose of a child is considered the most stressful event in a person’s life.
Although, as I said earlier in this blog, he was with us for the last year of high school, since we had our first reunion, and through the power of the internet and email, he has shared his love, his affection, his enthusiasm, with the rest of the classmates.
I tell him, whenever I have an opportunity, that I have received a lot more than what I have given him, I am thankful that he calls me his friend. I am proud to call him my friend, and even though he is still going through a bit of a bumpy road with his affections and his kids, he has a lot more to give than he realizes.
A few days ago I lost a friend to cancer, and although I am thankful that I was able to see him still alive, even though it was a heart braking to see him in the condition he was in because of his illness, my biggest regret is not having been able to tell him that, even though we had our many differences, I loved him, and valued him as a friend. So from now on I will not let the opportunities pass me by, so through this method I say, I love you brother.
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