Seventy and Still Learning

Those of us who are older than 45 remember 1968 with mixed feelings. We were so proud of our country for having the room for discent. We were so very sad knowing that the system permitted crazy people to act out their discent by killing the objects of their disagreement. 1968 was the year that the crazies killed Martin Luther King and Robert (Bobby) Kennedy.

I remember my wife turning on the radio and hearing the news that Bobby was killed. Her first reaction was a cry. A cry of pain and dispair. Her first word were: “…they are going to kill them all.”

Well, “they” tried. And by the time “they” were finished all of the voices of reason were silenced and we were left with President Nixon. What followed was a 40 year period of darkness with an eight years window of sunshine (the Clinton years) and by the time Obama arrived on the scene we are in the worst economic sistuation since the great depression. The reputation and stature of the United State in the world is at an all time low. The Dollar is no longer respected and the price of everything is going out of site. and why?

Because we have a president and an adiministration that is following an old French monarch’s declaration: “…apre moi le deluge.” which loosely translates as:”…what happens after I am gone - who cares.”

The World oil barons are smiling all the way to the bank. Mr. Bush (our president) who was very unsuccessfull in his business life sure made up for it as the president. What ever losses he generated in the oil industry while in private business - he sure made it up to them by now. When he leave office he will never be wanting for “thank you”s from the industry that he and his father have served for oh so many years.

And what is driving the economy into the ground? The rising oil prices.
And what is driving the oil price? the ability of large money people to SPECULATE in the futures.
And what is permitting the SPECULATORS to play this game? The low margin requirements.
And what can be done to bring the prices down?
Do the same thing that the SEC does when the market is out of ballance - increase margin requirements;
And are they going to do it? No way. That might bring prices down and that might ballance the books in favor of the “great unwashed” and that is unacceptable to the powers up there.

If any of you are at all familiar with the Futures Markets you know that the old CEA (Commodity Exchange Authority) made it illegal to trade options on commodities that are monopolized by ANY PARTY ANYWHERE. It was banned because options could give a small group of speculators to control the price of any commodity.

The possible result:
Raise the margin requirements; Lots of small speculators bail out due to Margin calls; prices drop like a rock; the cartel makes less money.
In the open market the consumers are using less due to high prices;
The Cartel makes less money so …
They have to bring the prices down and sell more to make money.
But…
The Bush administration will not do that since they do not care about us, the little folk.
More later

I spent the better part of Saturday glued to the TV watching the Democrats go through the motions of pretending to solve a problem they, in all probability, had decided on long before they arrived in Washington DC. What a waste of time. And what a farce.

I am a democrat and a Democrat. I am a liberal person and a Liberal as defined by the Republicans. I love this country for one thing: the ability to descent from the poplular view points even if I am the only one who thinks this way.

When I came to this country the Warren court was in Washington and I thought:”…this is what the democratic system is all about. If stupid people can’t govern themselves inteligently, then at least they can count on smart, inteligent, and compassionate individuals to do the thinking for them. What a wonderful system that provides a mechanism to govern inteligently during times when people do not use their heads or their hearts.

If one takes the time to check one would see that this country does not use their constitutional right to vote. We consider a 30% (thirty per cent) participation acceptable. That means that we are governed by 15% plus one.

15% of the population chooses and decides what our lives are going to be all about for the next four to …… number of years. if the wrong person appoints heartless individuals to the Supreme Court then for as long as these people live and serve, we would be served by heartless people.

If Selfish individuals run our country and represent the few who helped put them in office then most of us get to suffer the consequenses for a very long time. We get to pay the bills many years after those individuals have left office and have gone back to their ranch in Texas.

Yesterday we witnessed, once more, the short coming of our system. Take Florida as an example: The Republican Legislature decides to move the Primary up so that they can be in the forefront of the primary system. The Democrats in Florida, being the minority, and having to choose between voting for Election Reform along with the Republicans - or going on record as having voted agains the reforming of the system in Florida - and we all know how well the Florida system can be manipulated - and watch the Republicans pass it anyway since they have the Majority.

Now comes the National Democratic Commity (DNC) and informs the Florida Democrats that if they hold their primary early they will not be seated.

Then the DNC goes through this unbelievable waste of time on Saturday 05/31/2008 and decides to permit the Florida delegation to be seated (What an embarassment if there are all these empty seats at the convention) but in their unbelievable wisdom (LOL) they permit the Florida delegates only half a vote instead of a full vote.

The Michigan story is even more disturbing:
The DNC permits the delegation to be seated (again, to avoid the embarassment of empty seats in the area where the Michigan delegation is assigned to be seated) and apportions the delegated on a percentage basis to persons for whom the “uncommitted” did not vote. What kind of an absurd action; I did not hear any discussion on the possibility that a percentage of the “uncommitted” may have been Clinton voters. That some people choose to be undeclared for personal or business reasons. I can emagine deviding the uncommitted delegates on a percentage basis by calculating the percentage of the declared as compared to the total, then the undeclared as a percentage of the total and then deviding the uncommitted, undeclared delegated on that basis and awarding the delegates. But to say that “…it can be assumed that the undeclared are Obama voters” is making an assumption that can not be substantiated.

So much for smart people doing the thinking for us.

Finally: if things continue in this manner for the next 6 months then Mr. McCain will be moving into the White House while the democrats, in their incredible short sitedness will be arguing about who should be the nominee.

I am not sure why Senator Obama could not have suggested that Senator Clinton get it for the next eight years and then Senator Obama take the White house for the subsequent eight years; That would have given the country 16 years of Democratice Government with little competition. But That would have been the “smart” thing to do, and we never do the “smart” thing.
JR