Tag: politicians

Houses passes bill easing rules regulating Wall Street

RJ Walters

Republican proponents insisted the new legislation would reduce the regulatory burden on small businesses and spur creation of new jobs.

SOURCE:  Houses passes bill easing rules regulating Wall Street – Yahoo News.

RegulationsI think every one of those GOPers in this new congress need to have the words above tattooed on their foreheads. Ok more realistically written on a Post-It note and stuck on the foreheads. I’m sure that mantra is going to be their reason for every bill they pass in the coming two years as it has been for the last couple of decades. But as usual there is a big difference between rationalization and reality.

It’s funny that when they are in power Wall Street almost always does worse than when the Dems are there. When Mr. Bush came into office the stock market was at 11,000 when he left eight years later it was at 8,000 mainly due to GOP decisions made while he was in office. Then came Mr. Obama and the stock market went from 8,000 to almost double that in six years. I don’t know when the 1%ers who control more wealth than the rest of us combined are going to realize that the GOP are just not that good for them.

The “Regulatory burdens” that this new GOP majority want to eliminate are what was put in place to reign in the worst capitalistic greed. It doesn’t seem to concern these yahoos that the lack of regulatory burdens is what caused the near complete collapse of our entire economy just six short years ago.  To me, and I hope many of you, regulatory burdens are the necessary rules for living in a people centered democracy but yes I do realize that we have become much less people centered in this new century. I pray that we can turn that around.

Eliminating taxes and therefore government is the goal of much of Republican’s action. They seem to do a good job of listening to their rich donors but not so much in listening to those who elected them.  I know I have spent a lot of words here hitting on the GOP majority now in congress but that doesn’t mean that I think the other party did much better. All those yahoos need to learn some basic lessons about representing us. A democracy is about all the people not just about those who finance the political campaigns. They are there to do the people’s business not to blindly follow whatever their leadership or even more so the monied interests tells them to do. It is a shame that one of the first things they wanted to do as the new majority was to give more power to those who almost put us down. But maybe even more shameful was the second thing and that was to start whittling down Social Security. Shame on all of them for that mentality… and shame on us for not taking them to task for not doing the people’s business….

An LOL Moment… :)

RJ Walters

2015-01-08_07-27-57In a speech on the Senate floor Wednesday morning, the newly elected majority leader suggested that the growing signs of an economic recovery — 5 percent GDP growth, 320,000 additional jobs in November, all-time highs in the markets on Wall Street and plunging gas prices, to name a few — just might have something to do with the election of a Republican Congress….

“That Mitch McConnell is one funny guy,” said Mo Elleithee, communications director for the Democratic National Committee. “He likes to remind people all the time that he’s not a scientist. Now we know he’s not a mathematician or an economist either.” SOURCE: Mitch McConnell: It’s Funny How The Economy Improved When The GOP Took Over Congress.

Oh the politicians.  You gotta love them. I think on occasion they even believe what comes out of their mouths but the quote above is not one of them.  I searched for a photo of Mitch smiling and this is the closest I could come. He is a quintessential politician who has been in office for decades and nothing seems to be able to move him out. Politicians helping the economy?  I just pray that they don’t do too much damage. They tried to push back the rules on Wall Street that help prevent another melt-down. Thankfully that didn’t work. But they did start the dismantling process for Social Security on the very first day in power. More to come on that I’m sure…

The Less You Know….

RJ Walters

2014-11-24_15-03-15“I am kind of like a politician. The less I know about anything, the more I can say about it.” – Will Rogers, 12 June 1928

I’m kind of like a politician myself Will. One of my favorite quotes is “You don’t have to know what you are saying as long as you say it with authority”. That should be the mantra for most of those politicians inside the beltway. Too many of those yahoos like to strut around like they are experts on everything but in reality they let the lobbyists with the biggest purse tell them what to say and believe.

Its time we started sending some “real” people to that totally fake city… 🙂

Ain’t That The Truth….

RJ Walters

2014-03-02_16-18-10“Party Politics is the most narrow minded occupation in the World.” – Will Rogers, 29 March 1925

It is sad to say that this is probably more true today than even in Will’s Day.  But then again the Republicans in Will’s day were fighting just as hard against Social Security and the WPA as they fight today against immigration, helping the poor and healthcare for all. So maybe nothing has really changed.  Progress comes agonizingly slow when them GOPers have their fingers in the stew… Maybe not much faster with the Democrats but at least they do something…

Kind of Scary….

RJ Walters

Will Rogers 6“If lawmakers were elected for life I believe they would do better. A man’s thoughts are naturally on his next term, more than on his country.” – Will Rogers, 8 June 1924

I don’t know about this one Will. It is kind of scary to me to think of having any politician get a lifetime appointment. But maybe you are right that some more noble beings might step up to help lead our country if they did not have to spend all their time getting re-elected instead of trying to accomplish the degree of good they want to accomplish.

I am currently reading a book entitle “The American Senate”. I will likely do a full report on the book some time in the future but for now I just want to point out that I had forgotten that through most of our history U.S. senators were not put in office by a fickle electorate but instead were appointed by State legislatures. So, at least their campaigning was limited to a very small group. Did that make them more statesmen and less politicians? I will have to study on that but I expect it to be the case.

Vehicles Of The Future….

RJ Walters

Flying carsWe are generally very poor at predicting the future. Congressman Ryan who is a radical right conservative in the House of Representative recently proudly put out a ten year government budget that he proclaims will starve us from our legendary deficit spending.  With his ten year budget in hand he keeps ranting about where is the democratic ten year budget. I think maybe my Democratic friends are just too smart to try to predict what will happen in ten years. It is almost certain that it won’t represent what Mr. Ryan predicts.   Let’s face it we are just terrible at predicting the future next year, let alone in ten years.

But, political budgets are not what this post is about. Instead it is about predicting the future of our personal transportation vehicles, otherwise known as cars. I have been a car guy on one level or another for more than fifty years. During the early and mid 1960s I could tell you just about every car make and model on the road. I lived through the midwestern version of the movie “American Graffiti”.  I was a car guy even before I could afford to own one; not so much any more.

But let’s get back to predicting the future.  I can remember going to the 1960 New York World’s Fair during our high school graduation trip in 1965. It seemed like it was almost all about the future. The predictors back then knew for a fact that way off in the year 2000 we would all be driving cars that few in the skies. Roads would no longer be necessary and gasoline would be a thing of the distant past.  They were sure that all car would be nuclear powered by that distant date.

Flash forward those forty plus years and lets look at where we are.  Still driving gasoline polluting global warming cars over just as many pot holes as in those days.  I think the politicians are about the only ones who bought into that 1960s prediction as they quit collecting enough taxes to maintain our highway infrastructure. It continues to crumble down with no end in sight. It may be that in the future our cars will have to fly as our roads will probably become un-driveable.

The “A” Word and Evangelicals….

RJ Walters

I am going to talk a little about a tough one here and that is the “A” word. By that of course I mean abortion.  It seems to be the sole driving force for many voters in this country.  As long as the candidate says he is against the “A” word then many seem to flock to him. This is especially true for the so-called evangelicals among us. I personally don’t see any politician’s words associated with corresponding actions about this topic. I know Mr. Bush gained the Oval office twice primarily because he was against abortion but there is nothing in his record to show any accomplishments in this area?

Are evangelicals duped by politicians who say they are against abortion but then do nothing to even try to reduce it? In my mind the answer is an emphatic “yes”. I know I used to get this message regularly from the pulpit. Abortion was the driving issue and nothing else mattered.  I do grieve that abortion happens in this country and around the world for that fact. But since it is now the law of the land in almost every country in the world  except the Muslim dominated Middle East I don’t see much of a chance of eliminating it. So, when it comes to politicians the “A” word is just not much of a factor in who I vote for.  Instead I look at how the politician treats those who are living on the margins of society. To me those folks who are living in very cruel circumstances are as important as the lives that were never realized due to abortion.

Jesus, who is the foundation of my spiritual being didn’t have much if anything to say about abortion but he had loads to say about loving your neighbor and taking care of the poor. His words found in the Bible in 1John 3:16 are paramount in my life.

This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.  And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.  If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them,  how can the love of God be in that person?  Dear children,  let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.  

Jesus says here that if you don’t have pity for those less fortunate than yourself then you don’t have the love of God in your life! That is a pretty dramatic statement that doesn’t get preached about much in our present day churches but was very prevalent in the early Christian church. I just can’t understand how those who scream about abortion can then go and enthusisatically  rip the safety net out from under the poor.  Of course I am making a generalized statement here that certainly doesn’t apply to all Evangelicals.  I was an Evangelical myself once and these words certainly don’t apply to me then or now.

Instead of concentrating on eliminating abortion, those who scream the “A” word should be strenuously working to reduce its occurrence instead of  trying to make it against the law. They should put most of the energy they throw at the “A” word and use it to help their brothers and sisters in need.