Working the Refs

As March Madness finally comes to an end, we can look forward to at least a year of madness leading up to President Clinton's inauguration.  It hasn't been too raucous yet, and over the weekend, some Clinton partisans took a page out of the basketball coaches' playbook and started working the refs in the mainstream media by proactively trying to ban certain words that the media unconsciously uses when referring to Hilary.  When the coaches start to berate the referees early in the game to focus their attention on a particular player or play, the intent is to make the refs aware of a more prone to call illegal actions on the court.  Similarly, when the media is put on notice to avoid the use of words like "calculating", "secretive" and overly familiar physical descriptions of Ms. Clinton, they will initially protest, but the effect will be cumulative and unconsciously or not, reporters and editors will refrain from many of the abusive descriptions they have used over the years.  There are howls of outrage from some regarding the threats to monitor the media, but there is no other way to change the behavior of many in the mainstream media.  Haters gotta hate... but at least they know they will be called on it.

Confidence rising

Despite the rise of the value of the American dollar, confidence in the long moribund economy is steadily rising.   California, the bête noir of conservatives has created more jobs than Texas and in general, the tax raising, socially sensitive blue states are in general doing better than red state America.   Obamacare is helping lower medical costs and the national debt, but that news gets scant coverage at Faux News or the MSM in general.  Instead we psychoanalyze a dead German pilot endlessly to figure why he crashed a planeload of people into the French Alps.  However, as much as republicans would like to deny it, the economy and people's attitude toward it are both improving as we head toward the elections of 2016.  Besides, the Kenyan, Marxist usurper won't be on the ballot next year and that will remove much of the energy from the racist GOP base.  It will be much harder to demonize Hilary, especially when the Big Dog is campaigning along side her to become the nation's "first gentleman".  I believe that is the ultimate republican nightmare; a nation eager to embrace the Clintons again.

This and That

We had a Harry Chapin moment on the NCR on Tuesday!  If you are familiar with the L.I. folk singer, he had a string of hits in the 70's and 80s before an untimely car accident killed him.  One of his catchier ballads was the story of a tractor trailer driver delivering a load of bananas to Scranton, Pa. and the consequences of ignoring the road signs cautioning a steep decline.  Well, we had our own version of "30,000 pounds of Bananas" near Keesville, NY on Tuesday.  An unlicensed driver hauling a load of the tasty fruit to Montreal said he reached for something in the cab of his tractor and lost control of the truck which rolled down an embankment, struck a tree and a boulder before coming to a stop.  The rock popped the trailer open, strewing the contents all over the hillside.  At least in this case, the driver avoided the fate assigned to Chapin's protagonist.  He was treated and released at the local hospital, but his problems are just beginning.  Meanwhile, there will be cereal bowls in Montreal without bananas this weekend.  In other news of note, I transplanted the seedlings of snapdragons, eggplant and peppers to larger quarters in the basement last night.  I feels good to have my fingers in the dirt again.

Safety last

The Monsanto company is one of the worst actors in agriculture.   They have relentlessly prioritized profits over safety and tried to intimidate anyone who questions their products or company ethics.  Now, it comes to light their signature product, Roundup, is a probable carcinogen.  Monsanto has assured 2 generations of farmers and farm workers this weed killer is practically as safe as drinking water.  It has developed an entire agriculture ecosystem dependent on Roundup.  Many varieties of corn and soybeans are "Roundup ready" by virtue of genetic engineering.  The American population has been unwitting guinea pigs for this experiment for the last 50 years.  Now, the International Agency for Cancer Research has declared the chemical a "likely carcinogen".  It has been associated with increased incidence of non Hodgkin's lymphoma in workers exposed to Roundup.  Meanwhile, unless you buy only organic foods, you have been exposed to the effects of this chemical also.  If you think the government is on this and conducting testing to verify these allegations, think again.  Unlike European governments, ours does not verify the absolute safety of potential carcinogens before unleashing them on the public.  Nor does it have the funding to do studies of long term exposure.  So,
like it or not we have to be proactive to protect our health.  Monsanto is laughing all the way to the bank.

Filling the Clown Car

All that was missing on the stage at Liberty University yesterday were the floppy shoes and the red rubber nose.  Ted Cruz is running for president!   By jumping in early, Cruz hopes to get a jump on his fellow clowns.  At stake is the support of early donors, increased media attention and possibly the driver's seat in the 2016 edition of the republican clown car.   Cruz won't be lonely for long.  The Donald, Rand Paul, Jeb Bush and a host of minor players will soon be jostling for attention and money.  Most Americans won't pay much attention at this stage of the cycle, so Cruz, et. al. will be practicing their laugh lines on the hard core partisans of the base and the political junkies who cover this story.  Deporting millions of immigrants, stripping the EPA and IRS of any ability to protect Americans or collect taxes and depriving millions of the hard earned health insurance they gained under Obamacare are just a few of the plans Cruz and the rest of the merry men will be spewing over the nation's airwaves during the summer months.  Pass the earplugs and give me a double shot of Prestone....please.

States of Disaster

You've heard of them.  The states taken over by the tea party endorsed republicans like Sam Brownback in Kansas, Bobby Jindal in Louisiana, Scott Walker in Wisconsin and a handful of other ideologues who want to cut their way to prosperity and shift the burden of taxation from the 1% to the 99%.  How's that working for them.  Well, the early returns are not too encouraging.   After gouging the state's unions and schools, Walker's Wisconsin is falling behind neighboring states in job creation.  Brownback's Kansas is flirting with bankruptcy and Jindal has become a punchline as he tries to gin up a national profile.  The doctrine these politicians share is the belief that if we only shred the social safety net and make "every man for himself" the slogan, we will sooner or later arrive in utopia.  The abject failure of this to take place is not the point for them.  As one wag put it, "the beatings will continue until morale improves".  Welcome to 21st century America.

The let them eat cake party

After looking at the budgets put forth by the republican controlled House and Senate majorities, Paul Krugman dismissed them this morning as profoundly dishonest documents designed to continue the decades long transfer of wealth from the 99% to the 1%.  Magic asterisks abound in both budgets, promising unspecified cuts and increased revenue.  Meanwhile, factions of the GOP demand increases in an already bloated defense budget lest ISIS kill us in our sleep.  So the cuts must come from the already frayed safety net which keeps a fairly large percentage of Americans from sleeping in their cars.  Meanwhile, on the same editorial page, Timothy Egan rails against the GOP's Horatio Algers.  Joni Ernst, Scott Walker and their ilk glory in their reminiscences of poor childhoods and minimum wage jobs.  By golly, they pulled themselves up by their bootstraps or bread bags, why can't the rest of us do the same?  As Egan so eloquently puts it, most people with humble beginnings have some empathy for those who haven't had the luck or skill to transform themselves.  These strutting peacocks seem to have lost any connection to the average joe and are simply traitors to their class, in much the same way Ben Carson and Clarence Thomas have forgotten the myriad lucky breaks that came their way as they went from poverty to world class neurosurgeon and supreme court justice respectively.   They and the rest of the republicans certainly subscribe to Marie Antoinette's prescription for the hungry in Paris before the revolution.  Let's hope the same fate does not befall the denizens of this latter day Versailles.

Spring is almost here

At least by the calendar, spring is around the corner.  With the temp at -13 degrees in Saranac Lake this morning, somebody forgot to circulate the memo to Mother Nature.  The saving grace is the abundance of sunlight today. 

The politics of hate

Now that Bibi Netanyahu seems to have won another term as prime minister of Israel with a late barrage of negative campaigning and scaremongering, it may be time to reassess America's relationship with our Mideast doppleganger.  By using hate and fear to win elections, the Likud is descending the same path as the GOP in America.  Marginalizing Israeli Arabs and telling everyone there will be no Palestinian state on his watch, Netanyahu is thumbing his nose at any pretense of peace with his neighbors.  Add to that his advocacy of an American-Iranian war to stop the latter's development of a nuclear bomb and you have the classic case of the tail wagging the dog.  An unholy alliance of the Christian right, the republican party and the Israel lobby have pre-empted a measured, thoughtful policy in the Mideast.  We need to have a discussion about who is driving policy and what are the implications of that.

Climate change and the Presidency

On his website VOX, Ezra Klein makes a good case for an Al Gore presidency.  Disregarding the fact he already won the popular vote once, Klein argues not so much for an ultimate win, but at least a chance for the serious issue of climate change to be aired before the next election.  Many scientists are now arguing that the human race may not survive a 4 degree rise in global temperature.  Do we hear anything like this from the nascent Clinton campaign?  The republican candidates are a joke when it comes to climate change.  We are more likely to see a snowball fight on the senate floor than a realistic debate on global temperature unless someone of Gore's standing with his name recognition drags the other candidates to the table.  With his personal baggage and wooden style, it is unlikely he will win the Democratic nomination, but by injecting his take on issues, he will certainly make the eventual nominee more responsive to the coming challenges a changing climate will force on all of us.

Back to the Same Old

Cold and snow.  Mexico already seems like a pleasant dream.  Got home Thursday morning and has been snowing off and on ever since.   The bright spot is I was able to plant the first seeds of the new season.  Started snapdragons, peppers and eggplant.  It's amazing how expensive the seeds are these days.  One variety of peppers were nearly $.40/seed.  Ditto the eggplant.  I hope they germinate and grow well.  I guess we will see as the season progresses.  Of course with the weather we are now experiencing, I'm not too sanguine at this point.  With 4 feet of frost in the ground.  I won't be transplanting anything outside for some time.

blogging in Paradise

The palm trees are waving and the sun is relentless, especially to those of us acclimatized to winter in the Northeast US.  I consider myself extremely lucky to be here in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico.  After a fairly uneventful trip, the Divine Mrs. M and I are comfortably ensconced in our ocean view room.  You can hear the birds outside our windows and the air conditioning is on as I write this.  I am taking a minor holiday from current events and will write about tropical breezes and Mexican food and hospitality unless something especially egregious comes up.

Sunny (I hope) Skies

Blogging for the next few days will be somewhat irregular as the Divine Mrs. M and myself hie off to sunny Mexico for a well deserved week of warm forgetfulness.  The only fly in the ointment is the weather between here and Playa Del Carmen.  The thought of spending even a small fraction of the next week staring at airline bulletin boards and hoping no cancellations will impact us is the dark lining to our silver sky.  I will pay some attention to current events, but for the most part am looking forward to lazy days by the pool and long walks on the beach.  My carbon footprint for the next week or so will be regrettably large. 

The Walmartian Economy

Almost out of the blue, Walmart issued a declaration it would be raising wages for at least 500,000 employees.  Immediately, TJ Maxx and several other large, low wage retailers announced similar plans.  The conventional wisdom and most republicans have not weighed in on this development, but you would think these "big box" retailers would be in for a scolding.  After all, the economy is certainly not markedly better than it was a year ago, at least by most people's reckoning.  But then again, maybe it is.  Jobs at Walmart are among the worst in the country.  Crazy schedules, low pay and irregular hours should lead to low morale and high turnover.  Sure enough, that is what happens when you treat human beings like disposables.  Judging by Walmart's past behavior, the only reason for a wage increase is management is feeling the pressure caused by lower productivity and has decided it is in the company's interest to make conditions better.  The fact millions of people have agitated for a raise in the minimum wage for years would seem to have no weight.  Where are the chorus of doomsayers predicting mass unemployment?  The problem of inequality has still not been addressed, but at least the conversation has started.