Michelle Bachmann

Michelle has taken stupidity to a new level. She has been miffed about the census stating some drivel about this being a data base for internment camps by the Obama administration. That it's some type of diabolical plot by the left. She's refusing to give any information other than name and address. Little does she know that the information collected determines the number of senators in congress. When a district looses population it looses it's representation. Ms. Bachmann by refusing to fill out the info completly thereby invalidates the count thereby lowering the number of people in her district. If enough people follow her lead as she is encouraging others to do, then she could lose her position as senator. Careful what you wish for senator, you just might get it. "Here's your sign"!

Coleman concedes!

Hallaluja! Nothing like having to pry the remote out of grandpa's hand. eh?

Now if the No party continues to obstruct the health care plan you'll be seeing more of them headed for the exits. Answer me this. How you going to feel when you lose that nice taxpayer provided healthcare that you have Mr. senator?

Congrats to Al. Now maybe we can have a little humor during this disaster.

Watch out for dark forces

"Go ahead you know you want to"


"The devil made me do it!"

Life is strange at times

A number four celeb has died. No more Billy Mays for Oxyclean. Billy was found dead this morning by his wife. Mays was 50. No cause of death given.
This is surprising in that there was four deaths in just a few days. But the real surprise was that two of the departed were just 50. I feel for his wife and family but I was no fan of his ads. Now I wonder if we'll get an endless loop of his ads. You know how that works, make as much money on the guy before kids start saying Billy who?

So when I depart this world here's a bit of instruction for those I leave behind. Hoist a brew or your favorite drink in my honor and then get about your business because you never know you just might be next. Life is short.

Beaver announcement

Ladies and gentelmen I wish to take this opportunity to anounce that I have nothing to say about Michael Jackson. Being a woodland creature who's main focus is building dams and feeding my family I have never heard of the man. For that matter I avoid humans at all cost as my relatives and ancestors have been hunted for our hides for hundreds of years. I hope you'll forgive my lack of interest. Now if you'll excuse me I need to get back to my dam building.

Stop blaming republicans?

Just watching Megan McCain on Bill Mahr last night. Didn't think I could stomach listening to her blather. Her biggest pet peeve was the president continuing to put blame on the last eight years. Well young lady I'd do that if just one aspect of American life wasn't touched in a bad way by the teenage mentality that ran this country for the last eight years. Like a teen party on a Friday night the "kids" got together and stole mom's checkbook and credit cards. They maxed out the cards and were bouncing checks all over town. When they were finished with the party I'm surprised the roof was still attached. But they weren't satisfied with just confining the party to mom and dads house. They had to wreck a couple places in the next towns over. When dad heard about the mess he started to prepare for the clean up even before he got there but he wasn't prepared for what he saw. When dad saw his checking accounts overdrawn and his cards maxed out he had to take out a bridge loan just to start with the clean up. The locks were broken the front windows were smashed and the carpet looked like it had been used as an ashtray. There was nothing in the fridge which had been unplugged and thrown into the backyard. All the dishes were broken and clothing from the closets was stuffed in the now overflowing drains. The second car was reposessed because nobody paid the bill like they were told and the mortgage payment missed.
And when confronted with the mess Missy, her brothers and all of their friends boldly said it was done by some of mom and dads friends. That it was all dads fault that they were now broke because he had to borrow money to fix the mess. Missy insisted she was a very responsible young lady as the drugs and condoms fell out of her purse. I don't know how those got there she insisted. It must have been one of dads friends.

So if you're smart Ms. McCain you'll keep your big mouth shut like the kids in my example and let mom and dad finish trying clean up the aftermath of what the republicans did to this country the last eight years. And no more back talk from you about this lest you find yourselves kicked out of the house for good. And when dad is trying his best to fix and clean up the mess stop telling him "No" you won't help. Because in doing so it only shows what a spoiled brat you really are.

I'm glad to see this

Tesla Motors is getting a large government loan to start building it's electric cars. I think that's a good thing and will be the next generation for the auto industry. There are a few bugs to be worked out in making these cars. Mainly the way the batteries are produced. The raw materials come from Canada and are shipped to China then the finished batteries are sent to Japan. Why not just make them in Canada for transporting the finished product to the U.S.? I think that will be the wave of the future. Cars rather than being built with parts being shipped around the world will be built regionally thereby saving shipping costs. That sure would add to the labor force locally. The beauty of the electric car is that it has far fewer parts to wear out than a gas model and it runs (from what I hear) as well at the end of it's life as it did at the beginning. Then of course there's the issue of renewable energy to run those types of car.

I had been thinking about buying a Prius before the economy tanked.

A boring problem

As I posted last month the boring machine at the Brightwater treatment project broke down putting 60 of our guys out of work. What I didn't know was that there was actually two machines in operation. One was digging from east to west and another one was boring west to east. Well now the other machine just broke down putting 67 workers out. It could take several months months to fix this and will certainly screw up the schedule. The first break down
Add to this another 140 Boeing lay offs last week and the bankrupcy of Eddie Bauer and things aren't looking too great around here. The only good news is that there are several road projects scheduled to start next month that should get a few guys to work. As for me still nothing.
Murphy seems to be having a field day around here. Glad I finally got my garden going.

Link to The second machine breakdown

Neda

This is Neda Agha Soltan. I didn't know and still don't know much about Neda other than the bits and pieces I could scrape from the internet. She was a 26 year old philosophy student who was with her singing teacher on a side street in Teran. They had just got out of the car in hot weather. She was not political. Her only wish was for freedom. A simple philisophical concept that has eluded the middle east.

I can only wonder what her parents are feeling. First the shock of loosing your daughter. Then the anger at the snipers and the government responsible. Then there's the reaction of knowing that your daughter may become a symbol of a revolution. Is there any confort in knowing that your daughter did not die in vain? Or will it be a sense of embarassment and a reminder of the pain of the loss?

Mountain Beaver

Not beaver mountain. For friday's Friday Beaver thought I'd try to one up Dana with an animal story of my own... Oh Hell who am I kidding I can't get anything on Dana. So here it is anyway.

Some years back I worked at Boeing doing some haz mat work for them as a contractor. We did chemical spills in the tunnels under the plant. On one particular night (my partner and I were nocturnal tunnel rats) we had finished cleaning up a small spill in the bowels of the building. It takes a bit to squeeze your body through the pipe filled tunnels. And I never figured out how my coworker an ex marine of 220lbs could fit through openings in pipes that I could barely fit through. I'm the guy they call on when nobody else will fit.
So we had finished my partner was taking a long extention cord to the van I was about fifty yards behind carrying a vac. As I got up to ground level and turned the corner I see my coworker flailing the extention cord around and whiping the ground. As I got closer I could see he was fighting off some angry critter. He tried backing away from it but it keep coming. By the time I got to him he had managed to drop kick it a couple of times and stunned it. I opened the lid of the vac and we shoveled it inside. Making sure the lid was shut tight we called their fire department to see what to do with it. The firemen borrowed a pair of leather gloves and we opened the container. He proceeded to nudge the beast a couple of times but no life there. He was nice enough to take the remains for further idenification, this of course after many jokes and jests to my coworker. The next day we got the word that he'd been attacked by one angry mountain beaver. The manager had to laugh and give him guff about being attacked by a beaver.

So watch out for those beavers they can be mean.

Why we won't be seeing healthcare reform any time soon

Kennedy Helthcare Bill


Senator Edward Kennedy came up with a healthcare plan just recently. Two comittees have been working on the 600 page bill to fine tune the details. It's hoped to be bipartisan with both sides of the isle adding their ideas. The fly in the ointment so to speak is that the republicans (The No Party as I call them) has brought up 388 amendments to the bill. Each of those amendments must be debated and voted on. As slow as congress is this could well take years to hash out. The problem is that we don't have years to fix this problem. For those of you out there who are too greedy of selfish to consider insurance for the poor or uninsured and refuse to pay for someone else, stop to consider that you are already paying for them when they must head to the emergency room because they have no other choice. And like it or not taxes will have to be raised even if nothing is done because more people are losing their jobs along with their healthcare. Then there's the medicare issue. It won't be long before the money going into that system will fall as the population ages leaving a major shortfall.
As for whether I'm for being a part of a public or private plan frankly I really don't give a damn as long as I have decent coverage. Most companies go with the cheapest insurer anyway. If one insurance company becomes to expensive the bean counters always convinces the CEO to switch insurers and plans to save a buck.
So what happens now. If the republicans win and nothing is done (they just love things as they are, call them the stagnant quo) more will be without insurance causing those with insurance to pay more, a lot more. Those without insurance will be a drain on the state and federal governments. We're already seeing that now with some states that are in big trouble economically. California and Michigan come to mind immediately.
Someone said that it will take a decade to fix the mess Bush left us. I'm now starting to believe that. The No Party continues to say that this is Obama's fault. No dummies this was Bush's fault and will continue to be Bush's fault until the problem is solved.

Will the last person leaving Detroit... turn off the lights!

I've seen this before. It happened in Seattle in the late 70s. Back then it was a different story. It was based on the aircraft industry that goes through booms and busts. I came out here in the early 80s when I heard that the Steel mills of the rust belt were shutting down. It wasn't an easy start but I knew that the area would come back stronger as airline orders picked up and the economy here expanded with high tech and computer industries. For the most part things have been okay until now. There was always some work to be had even in the depths of the recessions of the 80s 90s and for a time around 2000. So I can feel for the people of Detroit. Like the steel mills of the past car companies won't be comming back. And with the auto companies down many other support companies have left that area. Want to buy a cheap house? Then Detroit is your place. But don't expect to pop down to the local supermarket for groceries because they're gone. I can only imagine the crime rate there as desperate people vie for any scraps of work left. I recall back in the 80s one gal offered to scrub the streets with bare hands if someone would just hire her.

So where are we now? It's been reported that unemployment claims are leveling off. That may be true but I question that. Is the real unemployment rate really going down or are people who have been on unemployment so long that their claims are running out? The maximum was 26 weeks with two 13 week extentions. This all started in December of 2007. The door on construction slammed shut. I feel sorry for those that thought it was going to be a short recession. Many of them are part of the homeless camps now and I think we'll see more as things continue. We'll also see the other ugly side of a down economy, more banks robbed, more home invasion robberies, more violence and theft. But that's not the worst part of it. The worst part is the waiting. Hoping that some company will call back with a job that might come up in the future. And then there's the companies that sit waiting and hoping for business. They've put out their ads, made their cold calls and hope for better times. They've cut their costs to beyond the bone. So with no government or corporate spending yet we sit and wait and hope that we've saved enough.

Awards day

With so many graduations happening around the country and we all know what that means. Plenty of long winded speeches and of course awards. So with that in mind I'd like to take this opportunity to give out a few here at the old waste drum.

The Golden Hypocrisy Award goes to: Senator John Ensign republican senator from Nevada. Who has admitted to having an affair with the wife of one of his campaign workers. Ensign was at the forefront calling for president Clinton to resign as well as Larry Craig for his indescretion. Ya think maybe he should take his own advice and step down? In the process of issuing an apology Ensign missed an important senate vote that would have helped increase tourism in his state. Oh the Casino boys are not going to be happy with you now senator.

The What Do You Mean I Can't Just Make Up Rules Award goes to: John Yoo the legal advisor who came up with the rules on torture. Seems John forgot a couple of things before penning the green light for torture like our constitution and international laws that state it's illegal. Yoo is being sued by Jose Padilla the alledged "dirty bomber" for an amount of $1 for violating his constitutional rights. Gee John if you don't think what you wrote about was torture you wouldn't mind being interrogated using the same methods would you?

The Media Whore Award goes to: Sarah Palin who has managed to stay in the news way beyond any news cycle for a bad joke by David Letterman. Thanks Sarah, I think you've just given David's career a big boost while once again shown America what a big boob you are.

Last but not least.
The Wet Blanket Award goes to: Suzanne Lukas school superintendent of the Bonny Eagle High School in Maine. She denied a student there his diploma when all he did was blow a kiss to his parents. A note to Ms. Lukas: The Taliban are looking for a new social behavior enforcer, I think you should apply.

Update:It seems that Sen. Ensign has resigned just as I was posting this so I change his award to: Don't Let the Door Hit You In The Ass Award.

Cheney wants another Al qaeda attack?

Dasterdly Dick

Nothing like wanting your own country to fail. He must have just loved it when the planes flew into the WTC. First cowering in the bunker under the white house then realizing that he could use that to his advantage and gain more power than any executive branch in U.S. history. Now he wants a repeat so that he can say I told you so. This man is pure evil. Little does Dick know that fear only works for so long then it is of little value for getting what you want. We saw how this worked with McCarthy and the fear of a commie under everyone's bed. Could we just declare him an "enemy combatant" and have him sent to Gitmo to be waterboarded? Oh that's right the adults took office and eliminated that term and are going to close Gitmo. Too bad Dickey no more Spanish Inquisition for you. And even though our national security isn't perfect it's still better than when you were in office. I know this from personnal experience. And because now we have some competent people in those positions and not a bunch of your cronies.

Iran - what a mess and we made it

It's hard to say what will happen with Iran now that Ahmadinejad has declared himself the victor. But a little background history to show the mess we created. Back in 1951 Iran had elected a fairly progressive and popular leader Dr. Mohammed Mossadegh. There was one problem, Mossadegh nationalized the countries oil fields. This was at a time that communism was becoming the evil government that the republicans feared. Britain put an embargo on Iranian oil then invited the U.S. to assist in the overthrow of the elected government in Operation Ajax which was approved by Eisenhower. ( That's a tale of bribery and corruption worth looking into.) After which the Shah was installed. The Shah increased the nations infrastructure over the years but quelled any political opposition. In 1963 Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini became a critic of the Shah and was imprisioned for 18 months. Later the Shah exiled him where he landed up in France. In 1978 was the start of the Islamic Revolution. Much to the surprise of the world the country voted for a theocratic constitution in 1979. Just ten days after the Ayatollah returned from exile the Shah was out of power. It was just a few months after that that students took over the U.S. Embassy. They accused the people there of being CIA and held them hostage for some 444 days.
Now I'm sure the U.S. was selling arms to Iran when the Shah was in power. When things changed Rumsfeld was busy selling arms to Sadam to fight the Iranians. But then we have Iran contra affair where they were selling arms to both sides right in the middle of the war. ( aren't these republicans just wonderful people? )


After the Iran- Iraq war Akbar Rafsanjani became president. And things were slowly shifting to a more moderate position. But you must remember Iran is governed not by just the president but a supreme Islamic leader as well along with a rather large elected Islamic council much like a parliment. That was our biggest mistake during the hostage situation. Not realizing that the country was not being run by a secular government but by the Ayatollah at that time under the Islamic revolution.
Presidentially speaking things in the country were shifting to a more progressive open society under Mahammad Katami, Rafsnajani's sucessor. Then there was a shift to the conservative Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. I'm guessing that the clerics were beginning to fear that they would lose more power had a moderate or progressive gained power.



So now we have Mir-Hussein Mousavi who was approved by the Islamic Counsil which is somewhat odd because he was there during the times of the Islamic Revolution in the late 70s early 80s. I'd guess that his positions have shifted with the times to a more moderate and progressive. That makes me wonder what's going on in the background. The U.S. hasn't had relations with Iran since the 70s. We know that their nuclear technology came from Russia and North Korea (That's a strange relationship considering the religious nature of Iran). Again I'd have to say that the clerics were afraid Mousavi was too liberal.

What will happen next at this point is anyones' guess. The Suprime Islamic Leader and counsil still holds most of the power but you have the bulk of the population being very young with high unemployment. Then there's the nuclear issue. Contrary to popular belief Iran will continue to build power plants because their oil is starting to run out and we know it. Remember they've been pumping oil for over 60 years now and their reserves aren't as large as the Saudis. So will there be another revolution in Iran? Hard to say.

The friday standard

Republican beaver?

How did we get here?

Health care seems to be the major topic of the day so let me throw out a little history to see exactly how we ended up in this sinking boat. Some time ago schools required students to participate in gym class at least three days a week. They also encouraged after school sports. This was at a time when TV was so new that it wasn't on most of the time so kids would grab a football or baseball and head to the streets to play before dinner. In the summer it was out to play some more after dinner. Hide and seek, stoop tag and army were some of the favorites back then. All involved a great deal of running. Meals were different then too. Fast food was something that was relegated to special occasions when you went to the roller rink or ball game which wasn't very often. Soda came in either 8 or 12 oz bottles. If it was 12 you only got to drink half because you had to share it with a brother or sister. Milk or juice was the beverage of the day back then. No fried or high carb foods were served back then unless it was chicken or spaghetti and even then there was a salad or green veggie that went with it. Desert in summer was fruit. Schools had no vending machines and the only beverage they sold at lunch was a half pint of milk.

So now we contrast that with what's happened. Kids hunker down to watch their favorite cable movie or hit the web to IM their friends. And let's not forget the snacks. Grab a twenty four oz. cola and a bag of chips so you can eat with one hand and type with the other. That's three times the cola and about six times the chips (bags used to be 1 oz.) than were eaten in the past with no offsetting exersize to burn it off.

How did the health care system get where it is now. I may have mentioned this before but I'll repeat it. Our system back in the fifties was mostly non profit as were the insurance companies. And stop to consider this was at a time when we had a baby boom so hospitals were in the process of expanding. It wasn't until the coming of HMOs started by Nixon that there was any strain on the system. There were entire charity support groups who volunteered their time and raised money to help offset some of the costs. Doctors back then did something unheard of in today's market. They charged their wealthy patients a bit more to cover the costs for those who couldn't pay. There was also grants and special loans and payment terms. All you had to do was stop by the billing department and they would set you up with a payment plan (with no interest charges by the way). And that was true up through the 70s.
The cost of going to an ER wouldn't scare you to death like today. Even private hospitals back then would accomodate most people even if you weren't J. Gotrocks Jr.

So where do we go from here. At present this country spends $2 trillion dollars on health care each year. If we can get that figure down to $1.2 trillion then it would amount to about 10% of our GDP which is a managable figure. To do that we'll need to eliminate the many layers of administrators and bean counters who do nothing more than add to the cost. Patient info could be kept safely on a portable flash drive or card with biometric security. That would save a ton of money right there. A copay by working people of $50 for a doctors vist or $100 for emergency room visit would help pay a bit of the costs.
At present we pay well over $6000 per year per person for health care. It's Obama's hope to get that down to $4500. Here's an idea. Have the employer pay 1/3 of that which would cut his costs by 2/3. All workers would be charged 1/3 as a payroll deduction much like medicare and social security and that would cover him when he out of work as well as covering the uninsured. The final 1/3 could be covered by a small federal sales tax. That would fill in any gaps. It works out to $30 per week for a worker and I don't know where you could get any type of insurance for that little right now.
There should be a public option and if it works out right unions just might switch to it if the insurers they have now don't become more competetive.

Well it's a thought.

Various insanity

I have some lab work that needs to be done today. I don't mind the needle stick but the billing process is quite painful. Each clinic has it's own billing department that is tied to a hospital main billing department. It would be great if you only had to deal with one or two people and one bill. That I could handle, But noooooo. You get one bill if you go there and if you pay it on the spot which seems simple enough you still get two more bills in the mail. Or should that be statements? With my medical proceedures when I am covered the bill goes to a company administrator who anaylizes it sends it to the insurer. The insurer goes over it looking for ways not to pay it then sends that back to the administrator who the sends me a summary of what was paid and what I owe. This summary is not a bill. That (the actual bill) is sent from the clinic a month or so later. And we wonder why the health care system is collapsing. Now for the kicker. In an effort to cut costs the clinic is cutting back hours. They cut back their billing department to four days a week and they've also changed their billing software. It's a system that doesn't work. If you make a payment on the spot it won't credit your account. How sneeky is that.
Now I find that they've cut back to a three and one half days week. Wouldn't want to get to work before noon now would we. Acutally 1:00pm to be exact. I'm beginning to see how this is going to work. They'll cut everything to the bone (pardon the pun) or worse they'll cut into the bone until you might catch them between the front and back nine on the local golf course if you're lucky. And don't think about using the phone for contact. You're far better off getting in your car and driving there but just remember that lunch is between 12:00 and 1:30. They might be there if they aren't busy trying to get a doctors appointment for themselves.
So what's next? I can almost see it now. Self service pay before you pump health care. Insert your credit card into the slot at the front door for access. Wait for door to open. Proceed to the nearest kiosk. Press the start button and follow the directions. Place your hand into the opening marked "Blood Test". Keep your hand still during test. Wait for the count down clock to finish. When the bell sounds you may remove your hand. Wait for the test results. When the green light flashes remove your receipt. If you have a problem please press the call button and a non English speaking attentent will assist you.
Oh and should you have any problems with your bill please feel free to use our automated phone line which will get you absolutely nowhere. May we connect you directly to our modern newly updateded psyche department?

Update: Just got back from the clinic. Now I like to pay as I go. When I have work done I go into the billing department and pay the bill. It's the same proceedure so the same cost. I kid you not the gal in there didn't know what to do when I told her I wanted to pay for what I just had done. She said " I don't know how to put this in the computer because there's no charge for it yet". I told her "how about putting it in as a credit that's how most companies do it?" She said "Oh yeah I could do that". Jimminy Christ on toast if this is how they teach people in school these days then maybe we should just tear down the schools and start over.

Sunday funny

Oops! What's wrong with this picture?

If you can't figure it out then you really don't belong in my profession.

Actually there's two things wrong but one is technical and not knowing you would have missed it.

I'll give the answers to this later in comments.

Okay times up pencils down answer in comments

Beaver safety

How not to cut down a tree if you're a beaver.

Mixed bag

Not a whole lot going on around casa Demeur right now. Planted my veggies the other day and the radishes are starting to come up and if all goes well the others should start peeking through the soil in the next few days. I'm going to bet that we'll have a cool summer as I love good tomatoes and they take hot sunny weather. Here's a little trick that I learned some years back on a first attempt. This is for all you northwest gardeners. Don't plant your seeds as deep as the package recommends. With our lack of sun they don't germinate as fast as other parts of the country.

Jobless rate skewed by temp work - Well Duh! Not only that but the bean counters don't count people who have run out of unemployment. What do the workers all of a sudden become non people? They (there's that word again) say the unemployment rate is at 9.7%. Got news for them it's more like 13% or better right now and we're still loosing over 1/2 million jobs each month. Just got an increase in my unemployment a whopping $25. Yea like I'm going right out and blow that at the nearest Wal Mart. Nope that will be tucked away in savings for when the unemployment runs out completly.
And temp work? There's not even day laborer work to be had. I hear Mexicans who used to hang out at Home Depot are going home. Didn't see any when I went for seeds and potting mix.

Education - We went from Head Start to No Child Left Behind. The problem as I see it is that the educational system is still based on an 18th century agricultural economy. With factory farms kids don't need to be wasting three months of the summer goofing off on the premise that they need to work on the farm to bring in the crops. It's become so mechanized that even in the last ten years it takes about 1/2 the people to do hand picking. And on the family farms that are left a columbine can do in a few hours what used to take days. There in lies a big problem. What to do with a population of skilled and semi skilled workers. We're becoming so efficient that fewer and fewer workers are needed to produce and service our needs. I remember in my own profession a big job would involve thirty or forty guys. Now that number is down to fifteen or twenty. So I'm thinking where will the jobs be now and in the near future? Many of the "green" jobs don't require a lot of workers. Solar panels do require a great deal of labor to build but I'm sure someone will automate the process cutting the number of workers needed.

David Carradine is dead - I liked the characters David played over the years. Most of them were calm calculated types. My first thought was that he had chosen his own demise in some type of ritualistic thought. I guess it could have been worse. He could have been found with an inflatable a jar of mayo and a sheep dog. But that would be going too far and disrespectful.

Health care - Our health care system is about to collapse. Yep you heard it here first. How so you ask? 600K people are out of work each month. That rate has been going on for some months now and is expected to continue. Assuming that 80% of those workers had some healthcare plan that's nearly 1/2 million people without health insurance which usually runs out 60 days after a layoff. In six months that would be 3 million people. That would be an addition to the already 50 million people without insurance right now. At some point the number without insurance comes close to over half of the working population of the U.S. With no alternative insurance companies will be forced to raise premiums causing employers to drop coverage or raise co-pays and premiums on workers. My guess is that they'll drop it all together both employers and workers. This will put a major strain on hospitals as the out of work seek emergency room medical.
I'd say that in six months or less we'll see a situation much like Wall Street and the banks experienced last October. Much like overleveraging sucked the life blood out of banks the lack of insurance money will suck the life out of our medical system. Remember you heard it here first.

The Whig (Republican) Party

Watching Keith Olberman last night gave a good run down on what's happening to the Republican party. Looking back to the Whig party of the 1800s we're seeing history repeat itself in exactly that same way. The issues are slightly different but the process is exactly the same. What happened back then? The party split on an issue of slavery and states rights among other things. Those (and I refer to moderates) not holding the party line (that supported slavery by the way) were banished, kicked out if you will from support of the party. Those that left were anti slavery and they included Abraham Lincoln who was later elected as a republican. Seems the Republican party is following the way of the Whigs. If you're not for us then you must be a socialist or communist or some other implied derogatory term. So it appears the the Republicans are very busy eating their own. Banishing anyone not up to very extremist standards. Much like trying to polish a rotten apple this is one apple that will end up in the dumpster of history. When the Whig party was in power they had the control of most of the newspapers of the day. The Republicans of today thought they could do the same forgetting that the internet provides by the second fact checks that easily dispell any lie or falsehood they could diseminate. They think that if they repeat themselves enough times on the airwaves that the populice will believe what they are selling. Their latest has been to try and change history and blame those who have been out of power for over a decade. It doesn't and won't work but they will try none the less. It's so easy to fact check what they say that it can be done in seconds. The Republican Party is so much like the Whig Party of your great great grandpa's era that maybe it's time to put them to rest. If we're kind we'll just send them off to the retirement homes where they should have been in the first place. You wouldn't let grandpa have control of the TV remote. Why would you let him run a country?

How to get CEOs and government to do our bidding

I just had one of those bizarre thoughts buzz through the old grey matter that make one laugh. With greedy CEOs and and self serving government cronies a thought came to me. Why not insource these positions just as they do to us? We could get Apu who's great experience at running the Kwik E Mart would be an asset to running GM. There's those Cuban mechanics who've been maintaining old 40s and 50s U.S. cars for what fifty plus years now? How much more efficient can you get than that? Think of all the money we could save on salaries and bonuses. Sorry Mr. CEO we cancelled your golden parashute and we have you're replacement here. You won't mind showing him the ropes before you leave. And the new guys would feel like kings coming from near third world countries.
We could do the same for government. Take all those dictators we've been supporting and stick them in Washington. Imagine what that process would do for their psyche. Overwhelmed with lobbyists and special interest groups they'd be forced to hire image make over consultants. This would be far better than a coup or any type of torture we could dream up.

That's a monkey brain dessert up there by the way... Mmmmmm