Perfect It Aint

As the title indicates, perfect it aint. I'll rant and rave, maybe even curse once in a while. You are welcome to join me with your comments. At worst I'll just tear out the rest of my hair. At best, I may agree with you. Or maybe I'll just ignore it, because you know, perfect it aint!

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Location: Barboursville, Appalachia, United States

Retired, Financial and Management specialist, lived all over country, but for some reason, decided to retire to West Virginia (that's the new one, not the Richmond one). Please note that all material appearing on this blog is covered under my own personal copyright as creator, except those items appearing in the Comments that do not appear under the screen name of Tanstaafl or are attributed to others by citation. No license is intended or given to copy or redistribute anything appearing in this blog unless written permission is first obtained from the author.

Thursday, July 31, 2014

C-SPAN Follies

Today I spent a lot of time watching C-Span1, 2 and 3.  If I had to recount all the stupidity I saw and heard I think I'd throw up.

The House spends two or three hours on a bill regarding the proposal by Mutt that they give him 3.7 billion for the border/child problem.  No resolution, no vote, no common sense from any participant.  Same with the Senate.  And I discover that, true to Washington, they can't pass up adding items to what should be a clean bill.  This one carries millions for fire suppression in the West, millions+  for the Israeli Iron Dome , and then whatever is left for the border/child situation.  But the money for the border/child situation doesn't even speak to the border, it is all about babysitting services once the kids get here.

You know, I may not have a lot of smarts, but even I know that if you cut the head off a snake it can no longer bite you.  But do our bleeding heart senators and representatives even think of that?  No, they're too busy campaigning for re-election already, and spit out the same old bullshit we have heard for the past six months, each one with their own little claim staked out and, by golly, don't you dare question my motives.

And then they talked about federal highway funds.  And they talked, and they talked.  I got so sick of seeing Nicky Joe standing there blustering, and saying nothing, I finally turned it off.  Then I find that the former second in command of the Palestinian whatever was speaking, and again, blah, blah blah.

I gave up and went outside and read on  a book.

Sounds like a good idea now.

Oops!

So, we all make mistakes.  In my last post I stated that the GDP had dropped for the past six months.  That was wrong.

Fact - the GDP fell , not only fell but went negative, in the first quarter of 2014.  But came back positive in the second quarter according to figures posted yesterday by the government.

The negative percent in the first quarter was 3.9% when first announced.  I never saw or heard of any adjustment but yesterday the government posted it as 2.1%.  The second quarter was +3.9%, again according tho the government.

But who can believe those people?  For a period of about 19 months running, the government touted the number of new unemployment filings, and consistently, a week or two later, revised them downward, usually by rather startling amounts. 

And the actual unemployment rate they shout about?  That is a totally fictitious number.  They calculate it by calling about 1100 people and asking them if they are working, and if not,  if they have looked for work within the past four weeks (or months, I can't recall right now.)  How's that for an accurate number?

I simply do not have any faith in any numbers the federal government throws out, maybe 30%  to 40% of what the state pitches, and not much better for local government.

Again, oops, sorry, I don't often make 'em but when I do, I 'fess up. Can you say your government ever does that?

Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Checking In


America will survive.  And prosper.  And re-establish itself as the premier nation of the world.

And the people of America, and the world, will again have confidence in America's leadership.

If and whenever the American people wake up and decide that they have had enough of this (insert your own descriptive term) that they voted in six years ago.

I decided about a year ago to cease cursing.  I am having a terrible time holding to that vow.  Even as a cock-eyed optimist. But, nevertheless, I am confident that change is in the air.  Not hope and change, just change.  The good change.

But the way is going to be hard when:        we have the Minority Leader of the House say, and  say again,    that HAMAS is a humanitarian group;  when:  There appears to be no difference whatever, other than party label, between the Majority Leader and the Minority Leader of the Senate, as neither is willing to move any kind of sensible legislation through the Senate;  when:     the Speaker of the House is unwilling to even listen to requests to pursue impeachment of the Mutt we have in the White House - or any other appointed Washington official;      when:      The US president does not object to Russia devouring Crimea and (insert your own area of the world);  when:    the Press in the US continually tout the great RECOVERY in the US economy, when as a matter of fact, the GDP has fallen for the past six months;  when;   by all reasonable standards, the world is going to hell in a hand basket, the US president and Congress feel it is correct to take off on an undeserved vacaction for three to six weeks .

I could go on, but what is the use, those who care agree with me and just nod their heads and those who disagree aren't intelligent enough to understand.