Is Government Motors Unamerican?

The news of the day domestically is about GM and its emerging from the Bankruptcy Chapter 11 proceeding.  I haven’t seen the pleadings so I have to rely on the news accounts but apparently they did what is a 363 sale free and clear to create the “new” GM.  That is a standard procedure in Chapter 11.  It is used to sale some assets to raise money for creditors or to fund a portion of the Plan of Reorganization.   It is intended to be only a step in the process and is not to be used to circumvent the requirements of Confirmation for a Plan of Reorganization.  Those requirements are strict, technical and subject to the vote of all the affected classes of creditors and interest holders.  In the past there were cases where the Debtor in Chapter 11 attempted to use the 363 sale proceeding to effectively do their Plan of Reorganization.  The sale was so large and took the heart and soul of the company with it that it amounted to a Plan.  The remaining assets were not sufficient to effectively do a Plan.  Several of the circuit courts around the country have ruled on this issue and every time overruled the attempt to have a “sale” that in effect amounted to a Plan.  You can have a sale as part of a Plan but a separate sale outside of the Plan if so large as to dwarf the remaining assets and issues is taboo. 

As you have all heard by now GM is splitting into two entities with the good assets going to a new company majority owned by Government, Inc. and the unions and Fiat.  Interestingly, Fiat is not putting up any money to get its share of the new company.   If I had tried that the bankruptcy judge would have laughed me out of court.  They are kicking in “expertise” whatever the hell that is.   I mean have you been reading for the last few years about Americans screaming and begging to get Fiat quality?   I guess I didn’t notice all those millions of Fiats on the roadways.  The Italians are going to teach us engineering and industrial techniques?  Have low have we fallen.    Next we’ll be asking the Russians to give election and get-out-the-vote expertise to CORE.  Those creditors and shareholders left behind with the old GM are toast and the Government just views them as roadkill along the way to a socialist Valhalla.

I have sad feelings for some of the workers and management folks at Government Motors but not much.  They both are reaping what they sowed for several decades.  We need responsible people in the workplace, both labor and management, and we need people who will accept responsiblity.  Both of those qualities have been lacking for years at GM. 

Remember the Government strong-armed this whole thing from the beginning.  They acted like thugs muscling in on people with demands that couldn’t be refused.  Those bondholders got bulldozed and ignored.  The unions were pampered to no end.  They have lots of votes.  Bondholders have very few votes.  The Government didn’t have to respond to the request for loans in the first place and didn’t have to continue with them after the first round.  They could have and should have allowed GM to do its own Chapter 11.  It would have been successful and a new company would have emerged without any government loans or help.  They have valuable assets, someone would have paid a price for them and they can make good vehicles.  The Government Inc. folks have poured in 50 billion so far and that is only the down payment.  They will be subsidizing Government Motors for as long as they can convince the public to do it.  The Obama team has and will continue to demand that GM build only green friendly cars which will be quite expensive and no one will want.  They acted like pirates and mafia types in the negotiations with the parties involed except of course for the unions who were they partners in crime.  The White House is counting on a triple out of this one: first they get to keep locked in votes from the unions; second they will blare the horns about their envoirnmental policies and saving mankind from global warming and lastly, it is a huge wedge into the central planning role for government.  Rattner the 30 something car czar says that they will not micromanage how GM is run.  But he takes his marching orders from 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. and the boss there constantly talks about the green cars that will be built.  You can bet they will build green cars as long as they get the government subsidy.   It is nationalizing without calling it that one of our major industries.  Control and power is sought by Team Obama of all our economy.  Just look at cap and trade and the health care issue and the ownership of our major banks and insurance companies.  They do want to run the economy rather than allow the free market and people with their individual choices to determine where our economy will head.  Barney Frank has already stuck his foot in the door with “suggestions” about dealerships.  I don’t like our government being involved in private enterprise and I damn sure don’t like the government ignoring the rule of law and becoming the dominant player in our economy and market place. 

I will never buy another GM vehicle.  Hate that.  I loved my suburbans and some of my kids have Tahoes now.  They are good cars.  But if you buy a GM product you are endorsing and ratifying the actions of the government with GM.  Its bailout, its ownership of the company, its pandering to the unions for votes, its theories on global warming, and the idea that those green electric cars that go a whopping 100 per charge and cost a f0rtune are a reasonable price to pay for a green planet.  Of course all that ignores the fact that even if we used no more carbon from this day forward the Chinese alone would take up all that slack in carbon emissions and they have made it clear they intend to be petroleum based for at least several more decades.

I don’t want Government, Inc. to ever get the idea I approve of what they have done.  I don’t endorse their socialist activities nor their brutish behavoir and abandonment of the rule of law.  I hope those GM cars gather rust on the lots.  I’ll buy Ford.   They ain’t perfect but they haven’t taken the fruit juice yet.   Americans aren’t socialists despite what the current gang in Washington may think or wish.  Just like the coming Tax Revolt I hope there is a car revolt and Chrysler and GM whither into nothingness.   Government and their bureaucrats are running GM now and it will have the efficiency of the DMV in most states.  Patriots will avoid these like those toxic assets the
Government wants to peddle.

“I know of no way to secure the repeal of bad or obnoxious laws so effective as their stringent execution”.  –  US Grant  www.olcranky.wordpress.com

Can Do It, Will Do It–Weapons and Economic Conflict

In the military there is the old principle about assuming for planning purposes that if there is something your enemy can do you best plan on them doing it.   If you rummaged around the bowels of the Pentagon you would find someplace where there were dozens are probably hundreds of books that were the War Plans worked up by Operations officers on staff there.  For years the military has always tried to anticipate where the next conflict might be and with whom.   They draw up detailed plans about how to respond to lots of different scenarios.  You assume that country X attacks country Y and that we have to defend Y.   They draw up the plans about which units will be deployed to the battle, how they will get there, what the logistical needs will be, the type of gear and equipment that will be required by the troops, which weapons will be the most useful and lots and lots of other details.  Often they test drive these plans with war games where different sides take to the “field” on the game board and the referree decides who handled the battle best.  When going through this exercise the planners do use the assumption that if the enemy can do something then you better plan for them doing it.  If there is a bridge that they can take because they have more troops in the area, you better assume when your forces arrive later they will have to fight for the bridge and that it will be destroyed if you defeat them on your side of the river.    So you will need an engineer battlion near by for a Baily Bridge or pontoon bridge to replace it.

That same principle and planning should apply today with regard to our dealings with Iran and N. Korea.  They clearly have nuclear capability and they have made direct threats to use them.  The really dangerous part is that they have missiles for the delivery system.  If they attack, either one, we had best plan on losses to the Navy.  The gatling gun defenses on those ships have never been tried in true combat situations and Murphey’s Law will come into play sure as the world.  You are reminded of the effectiveness of those Exocet missiles against the British Navy during the Falkland’s war.   If our political leaders will stay out of the way I trust the military to devise the best defense and response to any attack by these two.  The smart thing is to take out those weapons systems before they are operational.  Then they will not do what they cannot do.  

The same principle applies to the cyber attacks that have been launched against us.  So far those incursions into our systems have been weak and not concentrated or very sophisticated.   But you know darn well that somewhere there are hackers who are very sophisticated and and have access to the latest equipment and software and for money would be only to glad to destroy our economic infrastructure.   Our power grids  and water supplies could be subject to very severe harm that would cost us untold billions to repair not to mention the harm it would have on the population doing without power or water for a few weeks.   An attack on the Stock Exchange or the New York Federal Reserve is also a very scary thought.  What if for a period of several weeks no one could prove they owned stocks or the assets in their IRA’s or 401K’s?  If you couldn’t access your money then our economy would be ground to a halt.   If such an attack is made you better assume that you will not be able to use your credit card.  None of them will work or those that do will not be trusted by the merchants because the upstream system is so clogged.  Also imagine a world without PC’s or cell phones or Iphones for a couple of weeks.  I don’t know what preparations we are making to defend against these attacks but I sure hope someone much smarter than me is working on it very hard.   Whether I like it or not our world is dependent on the use of those computers for all our vital economic activities and indeed for the basics of life like water and power.   Those Islamist terrorists would love nothing better than to bring the West to its knees with such an attack.   Osama would do it in a heart beat.  Plan for it.

If Russia can cause us trouble with oil prices they will.  I don’t think they will militarily attack in the foreseeable future but they sure aren’t our pals.  I heard yesterday that the Russian were all on board with the reduction of carbon emissions and climate control efforts.  I literally almost fell out of my car when I heard that one.  The Russians don’t have an alturistic bone in their body.  The only difference between them and the French is that they don’t speak French.  They look out for themselves and no one else.  That has been their history for centuries now.   Do you believe the Russians give a tinker’s toot about the envoirnment?  Have you seen what they have done to the Aral Sea, the Caspian, and their other major waterways.  Oil is their best money source at the present time.  They want the world to need lots of oil and they want to sell it at the highest price they can get.   I don’t care what annoucement they make they will in fact not lift a finger to reduce the consumption of oil.  It is not in their best interests and only the insanely naive would believe they would sacrifice anything for polar bears or the poor Bangledeshis from rising sea waters.   I think some of that attitude goes back to their Communist heritage.  That ideology doesn’t acknowledge any Higher Power or higher purpose for man other than what it before them right now.  Food on the table and a roof over their heads and they are good to go.   What do I know.  But I will bet anyone that even though they might sign this or that envoirnmental accord that in fact they will not do anything to reduce emissions.  They love that money pouring in.  They will likewise do nothing to keep the price of oil low.  Higher prices equals  higher profits for them.  They don’t want to kill the golden goose but they sure will push it to its limits.

We are the Can Do people and we need to apply that gumption to the several tasks at hand we face these days.  We face some hard choices but so did our ancestors.  Nice words don’t make enemies into friends; nor rivals into partners in an particular enterprise.   www.olcranky.wordpress.com

The Dorm Room–D-Day for Dads

Even after you have been married for 20 years or so there is still much to learn about ladies generally and wives and daughters in particular.   As my oldest daughter neared that time to leave for college I was excited at the new adventure she was taking in life.  I was also somewhat abashed at the cost for college and especially realizing that I had 5 more right behind her.  I didn’t have any qualms about the basic tuition, housing and board costs as they were know and to be expected.  But as the fateful day neared I began to smell a rat–of Shakespearean proportions.  I would over hear occasional comments between the little lady and daughter about things they needed for her dorm room.  I didn’t pay a lot of attention at first.  After all how complicated can it be to move a few items of clothing and personal paraphernalia into a little 14 by 14 room to be shared by two gals?  Well, I was about to find out how it equals moving the Chinese from one front to the other. When I went off to college I packed my stuff in the trunk and back seat and then went to pick up my new roommate and loaded his stuff in there also.  Two guys, one car, a standard sedan, and we were done.   When we arrived it took several trips up and down the stairs but we were done in about an hour and had our belongings arranged in the room.   As well as two guys were going to arrange anything.  Our dorm room was in the Athletic dorm so it was very military style. The beds were bolted to the floor as was the shared desk and there was one closet with a divider down the middle and some built in shelves.  The window had blinds and the floor was linoleum.  It was not air conditioned and that is why I noticed the older team players hauling in fans.  That hadn’t occurred to me.  Sure wish it had.   We put sheets on the beds that first time.  After they got dirty we mostly just removed them and slept on the mattress and had a bed spread to pull up over it.  Since it was the Athletic dorm all the football players had their room inspected at least once a week.  It was always a random time so it was a surprize inspection.  The freshman football coach was in charge of the inspections and shortcomings were punished with having to run the stadium steps.  The Stadium was right across the street.  I don’t remember now but there were well over 50 rows so that was a lot of steps.  You had to run up then then you were allowed to walk down but soon as you were at the bottom you made a u turn and went right back up.  We were all young, healthy and in shape but still a few of those and the thighs burned and the lungs cried out for more air.   The coach would never open your closet door nor open any drawers.  But if they were open he would look into them.  We had to mop and sweep our rooms at least once  a week and the bed had to have the bed spread pulled up and tucked in military style every day by 10 am.  So that was the kind of envoirnment I was used to when thinking ab0ut a dorm room and moving into one.   That experience was nothing compared to what I was about to endure.

I got my first real doze of reality when I realized that our Suburban which was quite large wasn’t going to hold everything they intended to take.  We had to use my daughter’s car and her mothers for just the clothes and personal stuff.  Those hair dryers and whatever else was in all those boxes and bags.  I mean there were teddy bears and just one box for shoes!  How many flats, sandals and boots can one young gal need?  More than you will ever imagine.  I guess to women shoes are like peanuts when you try one you just can’t stop there.   Anyway I knew I was in for something when we had to caravan to college with three cars.  I had assumed that I would unload the stuff in the room and closet and help her set up a few things and that would be that.  But I now had a miniature refrig, TV and music stereo system and other unknown items lurking all over the house to pack up.  I was also informed that after I had everything unloaded and carried up to the room I had to go buy carpet.  Carpet!  Yes, those young ladies don’t like walking on linoleum and expect wall to wall carpet.  Not only that you can’t just grab some old sheets around the house and pillow cases.  Everything has to be brand new.   Selecting pillow cases can take an entire morning.  The bed spreads and sheets are another adventure at the mall.  It never occurred to me that you also had to have “window treatment”  for the one window.  I thought blinds would be fine.  Why do women call it window treatment?  I mean it is drapes they are talking about.   So that was another project that had to be done on the move in day. 

We arrived with enough stuff to outfit a small orphanage.   It took hours to get everything up to the room.  The stairs were very crowded with other dads doing the same thing, schelping their daughter’s gear and you could forget the elevator.  It took forever to have one and when the door opened it was always full to capacity.   We got everything in the room.   I went to get the carpet and then brought it back and had to cut it for the room configuration.  Naturally, after much anaylysis and instruction to me from the ladies, they thought the carpet wasn’t really the right color and were making comments about having to redo it.  I think something about my beady eyeballs discouraged them from pursuing that thought further.  Then the drapes had to be installed with much back seat driving by the ladies which of course included the roommate and her mom at this point.  Try to satisfy 4 women at one time with the how high the drapes should be off the floor. 

We had arrived early in the morning full of enthusiasm and spit and vinegar.  Now it was dinner time and all I wanted was to be released from the involuntary servitude. 

I must admit at the end of the day that room didn’t look like a standard issue dorm room any more.  The bed was cute the refrig was humming, the drapes were hung, even if a little crooked and my little girl was about to embark on her grand adventure.  Seeing her there brought back strong memories of the little girl about 4 sitting on her bed playing with her dolls.

We made it home in time for the 10 o’clock news.  I was exhausted.  It was like working in the cotton patch all day with a hoe in August.   So, guys, you are warned in advance.  Just prepare for it.  It is a major undertaking.  Get used to it and be forewarned that the ladies will brook no dissent for this mammoth operation.  I got to do it all over again twice more.  Don’t forget your camera.  You can cry alone when you get home.  www.olcranky.wordpress.com

Madoff For Treasury Secretary or SS Trustee

Let’s give the devil his due, Bernie managed to run a giant Ponzi scheme successfully for about 20 years.   Not bad considering the whole thing was built on smoke and mirrors from the git go.   He understood quite correctly that “image” was everything and knew how to manipulate that image so others were envious of his position and he had those yapping puppies all around him begging to let him take their money.   He lived very well and indeed took care of his own people rather well also.   Apparently his pay was higher than what you would find in most of the private market.  It was only that nasty day of reckoning that brought him down.  Other than having to pay back the money he was alleging holding for others he was in great shape.   He had “books” and regular statements that proved he was in the black as were all the accounts he was managing.  The problem was that someone finally decided to pull back the curtain and see what was there and just like in the Wizard of Oz there was  a little fellow pulling on the levers and pretending to be the great Wizard.   He turned out to  be  another fellow that owed more than he could pay.   His books were phony and so were the assets he alleged held for the account of others.  Maybe he could run the US Ponzi scheme better than the Treasury or the Social Security Administration.

The Social Security Administration and its assets are often referred to as a Trust Fund.  Implying that there is a separate, segregated account with all this money in it just for those who are paying in for the enforced retirement account.  A Ponzi Scheme means that you take money from folks and promise to give it back but you spend the money on other things and depend on a continuing influx of new “investors” to pay out what you owe to the earlier investors.   Social Security does not segregate all those taxes they collect from us during our lifetime.  Yes, some of the money collected is used to pay those entitled to retirement benefits but many years ago that revenue source was insufficient to meet the payments to the recepients.  So the Government merely gave itself an IOU for the so-called Trust Fund in Social Security and spent the money collected for SS on whatever bills had to be paid by the Government.  Money is a fungible after all and it doesn’t really matter what the money was spent on, whether for interest on  the National Debt, Income Tax refunds or social programs like Medicare or food stamps.   The money collected was spent and the Trust Fund got those IOU’s from the same Government that owed the money to the Social Security recepients.   The system depended upon new people coming into the system constantly and paying in fresh money to pay out to the older folks who were entitled to their money back.  Of course the Social Security system doesn’t even promise you will get back all the money you paid in over your lifetime.  You only get a regular payment and if you die a few years later then the excess money you paid in stays with the Government.  They don’t make a lump sum payment to your heirs.  They just keep it.  Boy, would Bernie have loved such a deal! 

Just like Bernie the Government cooks the books and shows those IOUs as assets for the Social Security Trust.  But that means the Government has to get the money from somewhere if it is going to pay those notes.  Now where does the Government get its money?  They have an advantage that Bernie would have died for.  They can tax and make people give them money on a regular basis.  In a few more years when those Boomers’ bills come due and they want their money the funds will be depleted to nothing.  Even those IOUs won’t be of any use because with all the other expenses of the Government there simply won’t be enough money to pay everyone what they have been promised by SS.   The Ponzi scheme will crash just like Bernie’s.  

The Treasury is doing about the same thing with its pals at the Federal Reserve.  It is supplying money to run the Government with deficit budgeting and spending by selling bills and notes and when there aren’t enough buyers they have the Fed “buy” the bills and notes.  They have already done so to the tune of hundreds of billions already and are primed to buy more before year end.   This is the Mother Lode of Ponzi schemes because the Fed can simply print up all the money it needs.  Bernie would never have crashed and burned if he could have printed up money.  Since he is so experienced with these matters I think it would be the honest thing to let him out and have him head up both the Treasury and the Social Security Administration.   Maybe Geithner could swap places with him for tax evasion.  Bernie is sure familiar with cooked books and phony record keeping so he would be right at home.  He couldn’t do any worse than those in charge now when it comes to an honest accounting of our financial affairs.

Love your family.  They truly are your treasure on earth.  That more than wealth will be in your last thoughts, not your bank account.  www.olcranky.wordpress.com

Industry On Parade–Infrastructure and Stimulus

When I was a youth I loved to watch the newsreels at the movie house.    Lowell Thomas was the best known commentator of that era.  His voice would give a pronouncement of the current events around the world.  It would be a mix of serious news and at least one fun item.   They only lasted about 5 minutes but I thought they were fascinating.  I wasn’t into reading the daily newspaper yet and TV wasn’t in our house and even later when it was the news was very limited and so boring.  Those early newscasts were 15 minutes long and covered the basics.   Most folks used the daily paper(s) for their news of the day.  The news reels were updated every week.  So for that time it was pretty current.  

In school I was a weird one because I actually enjoyed those films we would have every other week or so about one of our topics–history, science or maybe geography.  I thought they were really neat and a great break from the boring talks by the teachers.   They were scratchy and in black and white and the productions were definitely below B grade movies.  But some biography of Edison or a story of the Hundred Years War always got my attention.  When we got a TV in time for the Notre Dame v. SMU game in ‘49 the telecasts were very spotty.  TV was on only about 4 days a week and even then only from the late afternoon to about 10 at night.  That changed quickly and soon it was on most of the day, seven days a week.  Sometimes in the afternoon they would have “filler” spots between the regular programs.  There were lots of local “variety” shows usually sponsored by a grocery chain or 7/11.  There would be big promotions all the time so that if you bought from one of the sponsors you would get coupons and you could use them to buy products during one of the local shows.  I went to a couple of those with my mom.  The ladies bought irons, fans, drapes, etc with the coupons on an auction basis using those coupons.  The show would always have some local entertainment.  It was uniformly awful.  I was even part of that on one show.  My elementary school had a square dance club or whatever we were called.  I was part of that.  You can guess who’s idea that was.  Yep, Mom never could understand why I wasn’t just thrilled as a 11 year old boy to be in a flamboyant cowboy shirt and square dancing my little heart out.  I can only imagine the chills and thrills that went through the TV audience at home watching us do our dosey does.   My favorite “filler” short on TV was “Industry On Parade”.  They were about 15 minutes long and produced by a trade association of manufacturers or the US Chamber of Commerce.  It was an early version of Modern Business you see on the History Channel these days.  They would take a particular industry each week and go into detail about how it worked; how they produced their goods or products.  It would be the steel industry one time, then autos, then commercial fishing, an agricultural product another time.  They displayed the US manufacturing process on every conceivable product from TV’s to pet food.   I loved that show.  I was interested in how things worked, the details.  Most of my friends thought it was boring as the devil.  So my weirdness goes back a long way.  It is hard to believe but at that time the US made everything that the world wanted and we built almost all of our consumer products right here.  There was no such thing as offshore manufacturing.   Americans built irons, washing machines, radios, TVs, cars, bulldozers, blenders, furniture, all our clothing and shoes were made here and very little of our crops were imported from Mexico or anywhere else.  We were very self sufficient and the world acknowledged that we were the benchmark for all manufacturing processes.  For decades we were the world leader in building all the electronic products–Zenith, RCA, Motorola, to name only a few.  “American Made” meant the best quality in the world.  We were the envy of the world in the variety and and quality of all our products.   It is not only sad but damaging that we no longer have that reputation.  Our manufacturing base is pretty much gone now.  I fear it will never return.   Others do that work cheaper and with good quality.  We used to laugh at the early products from Japan or Taiwan because the quality was a joke.  We don’t now.

Some of those early newsreels would show Germany on occasion.  This was done well into the ’50’s.  Their infrastructure was decimated during the war.  Every important bridge or train trestle was destroyed.  The manufacturing had been bombed into oblivion.  The water and power systems were all legitimate targets and destroyed and likewise the power grids and distribution systems.  Every major city there had hundreds of square miles of nothing but rubble.  We had so thoroughly destroyed the German nation that in the last few months of the war the Air Corp literally had run out of targets.  There were no strategic targets left.  The air missions were strictly used to find “targets of opportunity”.  Naturally there was no sympathy after the war to aid the Germans.  They got very very little aid from us or anyone else after the war.  They were on their own.  No politician here or anywhere else would be about to recommend spending money to help the Germans.  That would have been political suicide after the war. They didn’t have a stimulus bill to rebuild their infrastructure.  This was a nation of about 60 million people.   Within 15 years they had new infrastructure in place.  There were still pockets of destruction in the major cities in the housing stocks.  They had their water and electricity up and running in short order.  Many had thought it would take five years to get those two vital systems working properly but it only took them about 2 years for most of the country. 

We have had a trust fund for our infrastructure for decades now.  We just passed an almost 800 billion stimulus bill and that Ominibus Bill for 410 billion don’t forget and yet we have those crying the blues that everything we have is about to fall down and it is the worst catastrophe in the known world, only behind the disaster of Global Warming.  My advice is get a grip and get some perspective.  Like so much of human endeavor will and a can do attitude is more important than anything when it comes to achievement.  Those Germans didn’t get 3 breaks a day for a Starbucks and weren’t retiring after 30 years with a big pension and didn’t have health insurance at that time.  Just like our early settlers tamed this wild land without aid from anyone.  Big Government was rarely around to give you any help in Kentucky in 1803 or Germany in 1952.  Our early pioneers did manage to build roads and bridges and so did those Germans with virtually no government support.  What support there was came from private enterprise in both cases. 

We need a stimulus for our hearts and souls not a government bank balance made up of phoney money created on debt and printed money.  A few more calluses on hands wouldn’t hurt either.

China has 1.5 trillion of our debt.  They are our largest creditor.   The new guy talks constantly about our dependence on foreign oil and buying it from people who are not our friends.  He points out how dangerous that is.  Well, is China our friend?  And we are expecting them to buy even more of our debt, lots more.  How wise is it to owe that much money to someone who is not your pal?  www.olcranky.wordpress.com

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Surviving Catastrophe–Plan B

I am not a survivalist.  I don’t have a bomb shelter in my back yard and don’t plan to construct one any time soon.  Although I do remember a few occasions during the Cold War when I thought it would have been nice if one was magically there.  Those under 40 or so really don’t have an appreciation of the tenseness of the Cold War from time to time.  Normally, it was nothing you thought about much and went about your daily affairs but then something would crop up like the Cuban missile crisis or the Czech revolt in ‘68 or the building of the Berlin Wall right under our noses and those threats from the Communist took on a bite that got your attention.  Dr. Strangelove rang too close to reality and made us realize that we were only 30 minutes away from an Armageddon.   Like most folks though I went to bed at night worrying more about my bank balance than I did about a mushroom cloud.   I can even recall when we had those anti-missile rockets located near all our major cities during the sixties.  One battery of rockets was only about 50 miles from where we lived and you could see the facility from the highway.   It has long since gone.  They probably wouldn’t have worked very well anyway.  They were mostly designed to attack enemy aircraft more than missiles.   But it was nice to think that something was there to at least give it a try.

Everyone can remember 9/11 because that was only a few years ago.  Do you recall how devastating that was to our economy?  For about 5 days there were no planes in the sky.  That was pretty weird after so many years of looking at the sky and being able to see at least a few aircraft at any one time.  The stock market was shut down and the banks for a couple of days.  Folks were very nervous and scared.  After all it was hard to get those images out of your mind watching people jump out of windows in the Twin Towers to their death to avoid the flames.  I don’t think we have a serious worry about the Russians or the Chinese launching a nuclear attack.  But I do think with each passing year the odds of an Iran or N. Korea or an Al-Queda or Taliban type terrorist group could attack with nukes.  Sadly I don’t think that is hysteria but dealing with a likely reality.  We don’t seem to have the backbone to deal with the dissemination of those weapons on the front end so we will reap the pain on  the back end.   It would sure be possible for those enemies, and they are our enemies make no mistake about that, to mount a coordinated attack.   They will be capable in a  few years of launching missiles and then combining that with sea borne or truck borne weapons to strike some of our major cities and ports.   Imagine the destruction of “only” 10-12 such devices that were detonated on the east and west coasts and selected cities inland like Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Denver and Pittsburgh.   Our financial system would not collapse completely but would be quickly reduced to a shadow of itself.  Even if the casualties were “only” 1 percent of our population that would be a few million.  Travel would be restricted greatly and transportation of goods and services would be disrupted for a very long time.   Especially if they spaced out their attack and had another couple of devices following a month later.  The panic and upheaval would be dramatic.  It would be the Lord of the Flies.  It wouldn’t last forever but it sure would last longer than a few weeks.

You and your loved ones need your plan B in the event such an episode would ever occur.   It is not being paranoid or pessimistic but merely realisitc.   Those weapons are out there and in the hands of people who wish us nothing but death and destruction.  Not only that but they have said they will use them.  Forget about all those batteries.  A few would be great but they won’t last long enough.  You are better off with candles.  In the affected areas power and water could be out of service for months, not days.   Communications will be sporadic at best because of this.   It takes power to communicate.  Generators will need new fuel after only a few days and where will it come from?   You would do well to have a remote area for your family, a lake house or ranch or even a vacant lot somewhere.  You’ll need water don’t forget.  You will need access to a lake or river or creek.  A Boy Scout Field Manual would be worth its weight in gold as would the US Army Field Manual.   You’ll need guns for hunting game.  Bows would be even better if you have them.  You make your own plans but you folks younger than me should think about these things.  I am not recommending that it become an obsession but a bit of prudent planning in advance is only rational.  At a minimum have a plan were those you love will meet.  You won’t be able to call on your cell phone.   If somethning bad does happen at least they will know where to meet.  Hopefully, it will be like so many of the War Game Plans that the military does in anticipation of possible events that never occur.

Ben Franklin gave us so much.  Some of the most common words in the electrical jargon of today were coined by him–battery, charge, and conductors were all his words and we still use them to this day.  He was as great a scientist as he was a statesman which is often forgotten.  He was even a member of the Royal Society in London which was the Nobel prize of its day.  wwlw.olcranky.wordpress.com

The Earlier Rip Van Winkle(s)

We all love a good legend or fable.  One of the favorites of Americana is the story of Rip Van Winkle which we all know well.  That legend was from the earliest days of the Colonies and is still read in English classes today.  At least I hope it is.   We have those urban legends that live on in every major city around the country.  Every big city has a lake somewhere and there is always the “lady of the lake” story about tragic love and ghosts.   Those stories are older than many realize.

In the Roman era when the Vandals were marching and conquering much of the former Roman world a new legend was born.  It was in the late 4th or very  early 5th century.  The Romans were already paying tribut to the Vandals to leave Rome itself and the Vandals had descended on Spain and had crossed the Gates of Hercules and were making their way east along the coast of northern Africa.  They had even taken the great city of Carthage.  Again that city was brought low by invaders from across the Meditterranean Sea.  The Christians around the Empire were desperate for succor and relief.  The legend came out of modern day Turkey, the city of Ephesus where so many tourists have strolled when their cruise ship docked near there. 

Much earlier than the Vandals the Roman  Emperor Decius had been persecuting the early Christians without mercy.  To escape the death and destruction seven noble youths of Ephesus hid themselves in a cave in the side of a mountain near the city.  But they were discovered by the Decius and he ordered the entrance sealed with huge stones that could not be moved.   The nobles inside fell into a deep sleep.  Their slumber lasted for 187 years without any aging.   After that passage of time the stones were removed by a new owner of the mountain for a new building.  When the stones were removed the youths awakened and thought they had been asleep for only a few hours.    They believed the persecution was still occurring and their hunger drove them to select one of their number to sneak into town to acquire some food.   Jamblichus was the one selected and he immediately noticed that things had changed.  Nothing was familiar.   He even noticed that a cross was over the main gate to the city.  His clothing was not as others and when he tried to purchase bread the coin he offered was from a Roman Emperor long since dead.  He was dragged before a Judge for his suspicious behavoir.  When he told his story everyone was amazed and realized the great passage of time.

There was a great unproar by the bishop and even the Emperor Theodosius came to visit these miracle men.  They were blessed by the Bishop, told their story and then died.

This legend was translated into many languages and became religious lore for the faithful from Abyssinia to Russia.   The fame even spread beyond the Christian world and the prophet Mahomet used the story as an example of divine revelation in the Koran.    So old Rip didn’t have nearly as old a tale as we might have believed.  The sleeping interval and brief return are old legends. 

You notice that the PIPP program is now going to be for 50 billion?  It was announced with such great fanfare and headlines about being a trillion dollar program to save those banks and remove toxic assets.   The private sector doesn’t want to play with the Government, Inc. goons I reckon.  They have watched the strong arm tactics enough to get the message.   That is 1/20th of the original deal.  You recall the papers all had graphs and charts showing exactly how these investments were going to be made in those partnerships between government and private investors.  I wonder if it will even do the 50 billion.  www.olcranky.wordpress.com

Two Cents Worth

Again with a tip of the hat to Blackie Sherrod, the greatest sports writer ever, I offer these tidbits of wisdom or poltoonery for your amusement or consideration.

Last year we had the special program to aid home owners who were defaulting on their mortgages.  It had a catchy name like Home For Homeowers or some such.  A couple of months ago the new guy came out with another one to spur new home sales throught FHA funding.  Again you don’t have to prove much other than employment and you certainly don’t have to come up with any money down at the closing to purchase your home.  The Feds will kick in 8 grand for your down payment and they encourage you to get other help with closing from grants from NGOs.  Sure sounds like merely an update to the CORE program that got us into the sub prime mortgage crisis in the first place.  Under that program you will recall that the banks were required, not merely encouraged, to make a certain percentage of their loans to the “disadvantaged” who couldn’t meet the ordinary credit requirements for a mortgage.  We all know how that worked out for us.  What genius in the new white house suddenly that a skunk wrapped in Christmas paper would smell better?

Now that Governement, Inc will be the majority owner of GM I wonder how the future product liability cases will fare.  I note that after intense negotiations that those claims will be going to the “new” GM.  You think the trial lawyers had any input in those conversations?   When the suits actually hit the courts it will be curious to see how Government, Inc. defends them.  I assume the government would like for GM to make some profit but it can’t afford to offend one of its masters–the trial lawyers association.

You know there is something fundamentally wrong with the proposed card chek program to allow unions to sign up new recruits and form a union without an election when George McGovern is opposed to it.  He is the orginal liberal icon and he thinks it is a dangerous idea to abandon the secret ballot for these matters.  After he left public office he owned and operated a hotel.  That was his first venture into the private market place and he got a new perspective on things.  It would be wonderful if all our politicians had some real world experience rather than coming out of academia or government.

Why is it that the administration was so hesitate to condemn the Iranian government and support the people in the streets but it only took 24 hours for it to be all over the Honduran congress and people for throwing out a socialist despot like Zelaya?  The guy was violating the constitution and ignoring the rule of law and the people there responded with their Supreme Court and the legislative branch to restore it.  But our government condemns them.  Couldn’t we have just been quiet a few days at least and see how events turned out like he did with Iran?   It is reminiscent of Allende in Chile over 30 years ago.  Folks only hear the liberal media version of how that ouster came about and forget that he had thrown out the rule of law and was ruling by fiat and edict when the governing congress there called for his removal.  He was trying to establish a communist dictatorship without any allowance for democratic reforms.  In fact the Chileans have done quite well since his overthrow and you would be hard pressed to find any Allende sympathizers except in the editorial room of the NY Times.  Good luck to Honduras.

First TARP was not used for its intended purpose to buy toxic assets and now the PIPP program is being abandoned also.  You recall its annoucement a couple of months ago to great fanfare about buying up all those toxic assets with those partnerships of government and private investors.  Read the news and you will see that it has cratered before it even started.  Ain’t going to happen or at least the scale will be so different as to be unrecognizable from the original announcement.  None of the major players are going to be involved and they aren’t going to be buying a trillion dollars worth anymore of those mortgages but now maybe buying some of the securities backed by them.  Government, Inc. quickly learned that no one wanted to be their partners in business.  Imagine that after the vilification that government officials starting with the new guy have been heaping on their heads since day one.  Why partner up with someone who runs you down and you know won’t keep their word and will change the rules of the game anytime the political winds change direction.

Australia and New Zealand are two very left leaning countries and very progressive on all social and envoirnmental issues.  You haven’t seen much press about it but both of them are reversing course on their programs to reduce global warming.  A complete turnaround.  They have serious questions now about the basic science and whether it is a change at all and if so whether it is due to activity of us huminoids.

I wish I could remember why all the planets and stars are spherical.  I know it has to do with physics and gravity and a certain critical mass amount.  The small comets and such are not necessarily round but once a certain size is reached gravity requires that the shape be an orb.  www.olcranky.wordpress.com

Old Solution for Health Care

Let’s do a thought experiment today about health care.  Those experiments worked really well for Einstein and maybe we can do some good with the same approach to a quandry.   Of course the very phrase “health care” already frames the argument in favor of doing something radical because the use of that phrase implies clearly that there is a problem with our health care system and that we are not getting adequate  medical services.  That is not correct.  We don’t have a health care problem in this country we have a cost problem for medical services.  We have without a doubt the best medical care in the world.  Our research and training hospitals are the best in the world.  The standard of medical training is second to none.  The actual medical treatment we receive is superb.  Our pharmaceutical firms are the best and do the most advanced research anywhere and produce wonder drugs like Mother Nature produces rainbows.   We have excellent doctors for the most part.  I know that there are glitches in the practice.  I recognize that sometimes the doctor or hospital makes a mistake.   I have personally been witness to that in my own family.  Some of those mistakes were almost tragic and each was the result of human error and improper communication.  I don’t pretend to argue that our medical services are infallible but on the macro scale they are at the top of the chart.

Our problem is how to pay for our medical services.  They are very expensive these days.  I don’t deny that.  We expect world class medicine and regrettably we have allowed ourselves to become enmeshed in a world class explosion of medical costs because we expect miracles everything granny or our child gets sick.  When someone we love is sick it is the old “cost is no object” syndrome.    So many of us expect to live our lives without any regard to healthy habits or diets and then expect the medical profession to fix us with a pill or treatment when the body revolts against our excess.  The cost of a hospital stay can be enormous.  Those ICU days are off the chart.  The hospitals charge for every item and then their billings are incomprehensible to even an educated person.  They charge one thing then show some discount or credit and you can never ascertain what anything cost or what exactly you were being charged for.

Just imagine for a moment that tomorrow there was no health insurance for anybody for anything–not for the doctors or the hospitals or the rehab clinics  or those scooter chairs.  Nada, insurance.  What would happen?  Well, the doctors and hospitals would all still be there.  They wouldn’t disappear like a will-o-the-wisp.  They would still be in business and the doctors would need to make a living and the hospitals would have to operate at a profit or at least make enough money to break even for the non-profits.   Most doctors I believe do like to earn a good living but additionally they are devoted to their profession.  They enjoy practicing the art of healing.   It is not only money that motivates them but the passion for their work.  That is part of the classic definition after all of a profession.  Today that term has been mongrelized to the point it has lost its esteem.  A professional is someone who practices their craft because of a passion for it and coincidentally it provides them with remuneration.   That is why historically there have only been four recognized professions–doctor, lawyer, teacher and preacher.   There are no “professional” house painters.

So on that day with no insurance people would still be sick and need treatment.  Without any insurance you would take your sick child to the doctor and ask for help but you would also ask about his fees.  If he wanted $700.00 for splinting a fractured forearm but you couldn’t afford it you would ask if he could take $200.00 down and the rest over a few months.  He would probably accept that.  Likewise if you had to go to the hospital with your child you would ask about the cost of a room and every treatment they were going to perform.  You and the hospital would work out a payment arrangement.  Remember the doctors and the hospitals need you as much as you need them.  It is in both of your best interest that you work out an agreement for costs and payments.  There would be immediate competition between the doctors for your business.  They would be sensitive to what the “market” price was for their services.  Same is true with the hospitals.  They would want you to come to their facility.   They would offer cut rate deals to some.  They might even bring back the old idea of the ward for the not seriously ill to lower costs rather than the semi or private rooms that are the norm today.  We would all still be receiving treatment but the method of payment would be different and we would be paying a lot of attention to every item.   With the way our health insurance is structured today the overwhelming majority of us never even ask about cost of the doctor or the hospital.  Other than our deductible we know it is covered by the insurance and we have no incentive to haggle over costs or even keep an eye on them.  Be honest when last you and or a family member needed treatment did you even ask about any of the treatments or procedures?   Did you know in advance how much that MRI would cost?  Did you inquire if there were cheaper methods to make a diagnosis or if by waiting a while things might improve?   We watch or co pays and deductibles and that is it.  We have allowed a Rube Goldberg crazy quilt system to evolve over the last 50 years.  The government with the best of intentions has fomented this system with Medicare, Medicaid and then the push for HMOs and PPOs.  Those after all were only created under extreme government pressure to lower costs but all those programs have done nothing to create more cost.

We must go back to a system that makes each of us responsible for our own costs and to have an incentive to seek the best prices we can for our medical services.  The latest proposal is nothing more than an extension and expansion of what we already have and will  increase the cost even more.  There is nothing in the new proposal that will make each of us sensitive to costs and have a real reason for shop for best prices. 

We will discuss another day some thoughts on how to implement a medical insurance program that will enhance competition, not among the insurers so much as between the medical service providers.  That is where we need the competition and where we need to the government to stand down, not up.  We individually and as a group can make a medical market place function more efficiently than any government bureaucrat.  www.olcranky.wordpress.com

Fences and Walls Make Better Neighbors

Ben Franklin and others long ago recognized that good fences make for good neighbors.  That has been true for lo these many millenia.   Earliest man quickly learned how to construct walls around the places where they lived and later raised their crops as a protection against the wild beasts and from the ravages of their fellow man bent on mischief.

There is the Great Wall of China, the fences that line the entire 38th parallel in Korea separating the north and south, there was the Berlin Wall until Reagan got it torn down, the Walls of Jericho, the fencing along portions of our southern border with Mexico and all the great cities of Europe had their walls surrounding them from Greek and Roman times until only the last few centuries.  There is a long and tried history with the use and protection of the walls or fences.  The Great Wall of China was built to protect it from the Mongols and it worked reasonably well for a very long time.  Hadrian’s wall in the north of England kept the Scottish hordes from middle and lower England for a long period of time.    That fence and minefield separating the two Koreas has worked out pretty well for us for over 50 years so far.  With the way things are going in North Korea we should be glad that it is there.   I do recall several times over the last few decades when one liberal or the other thought we should dismantle it as a gesture of good faith to the North!    Funny how no one is talking like that now.

Fences don’t project a negative or hostile attitude toward those on the other side of the fence necessarily.  Some neighbors who are close friends have fences between their homes and are happy for the privacy it affords.   Yes, a fence does convey the message that “this is mine” and entry is by permission only.  There is nothing wrong with that at all unless you want to live in a society that does not permit private ownership of property.  The Commies didn’t allow private ownership and even they built walls.  Their walls were all by the State and definitely conveyed the message that this did not belong to you and you couldn’t cross without the requisite permit.   They had not only the Berlin Wall but they had “walls” everywhere.  During the Cold War the people in the Communist lands couldn’t travel anywhere even within their own borders without a pass from the government.  They had walls within walls. 

We need a wall along our entire southern border, not just the 700 miles that was planned.  I use the past tense because it is obvious that the new guy will not even build out that much.  Mexico is in near chaos at the moment and has been teetering on the brink of such a condition for years now.  Their cultural is fine for them if they like it but it is not an American cultural or even close to it.  They have a very socialistic outlook on economic theory.  I offer Pemex as exhibit A in that regard.  They have tried to expand their economy with experiments here and there with some free market efforts but they have been feeble and mostly ineffective.   They do in fact look to the Government as the answer to all their problems andissues.   They do not comprehend the concept as we know it of the rugged individualist.  They are more like the Chinese and view most things through a group effort whether that “group” is a political set or subset of their nation, the Catholic Church or some cartel these days.  We of course have some of that cooperative spirit ourselves as do all peoples.  There has to be some of it to have any sense of community or willingness to join together for a common good.  But the differences in magnitude are tremendous between Mexico and the US in that regard.  We will never be pals with Mexico.  We can and should be good neighbors.    We have the right to expect the same thing from them.  The corruption there is to the point of being now endemic and so corrosive that it is accepted as the ordinary course of business.  We need to protect ourselves from the negative effects of that corruption.  There is absolutely no evidence on the horizon that that situation is going to change anytime soon.  Policemen are bribed and bought regularly and they even resign or are assasinated on a weekly basis.   Their army is no better.  Who could you turn to there for help?   

Let’s build that fence and make it airtight.  We will be better off for it in the long run.   We have the right and the obligation to our own citizens to protect ourselves from the violence corruption and cultural and economic differences between our nations.  If they are allowed to continue to swarm over the border we will become the Balkans.  If you think it couldn’t and won’t happen I suggest you read some more history.  They will not quit coming until they can’t.  Every nation must decide its own destiny and those peoples ultimately get and deserve the government and economic system they allow to rule them.

If my math is right Government, Inc. has just doled out over 7 billion to the car companies to build those green cars, electric.  That is in addition to all the tens of billions that was already advanced to them.  How many people will pay the extra price for those electric cars.  I have another concern for those folks.  I wonder how long the batteries last in those cars?  Ten thousand miles?  One thousand miles.  What will it cost each time they have to be replaced?  I bet it is more than pocket change.  Just buy four size D batteries at the store.  In addition where will they go to get them replaced?  Will you have to leave your car there for an entire day to change the batteries?  What will be the service charge for those new batteries?   It is going to be an expensive proposition, far beyond anything that has been discussed  to date.   www.olcranky.wordpress.com