Potholes

Russia has notoriously bad roads. The US has famously good roads. Or so we thought. It is a well-known fact that in Russia money for road construction is largely stolen, and the quality of the road output is a far cry from what was paid for.

We live in the South of the US - North Carolina, to be precise. For years I was convinced that we don't have potholes in the roads and few road repair projects overall because Americans just do it right (well, illegal Mexicans actually, but for the sake of generalization let us consider all our construction workers American). Our engineers know what they are doing, they design roads well, we use proper techniques, we do not cut corners, we use good quality materials, and the output speaks for itself.

And then this winter happened (regards to Al Gore!). We've had two big snow falls so far - as in 8" of snow each time, which in Russia happens about every week. And all around the city our roads are a mess. We have so many potholes that we even stopped trying to go around them. There is simply no way. Our daughter damaged disks on two of her car wheels after she hit one of the potholes for they are deep. So our perception of superior American construction technique and materials goes out with a smoke, and the extent of the problem is so monumental that I am not sure how the city will be able to handle the road repair project of this scale.

Likewise, this recession opened up deep potholes in our whole economy. My perception of American business and political system as being well designed, fair and honest went out with a smoke. We simply looked good, but we were not built well. We were deceiving the whole world into thinking we knew how to "build roads," whereas we were just extremely lucky to not have had bad weather for 70 years through no achievement of our own. And I am not sure how the country will be able to afford the economy repair project of this epic scale. Oh, wait! Are they going to ask us to pay for it, too, just like for the faulty road construction?

Sure as Heck

So Sarah Palin is seriously considering a run for the White House in 2012. She claims she learned a lot in the past two years. She said, "I sure as heck better be more astute on these current events, national issues, than I was two years ago." And then, practically in the same breath, she doles out advice to President Obama on how to win re-election (as if she knows anything herself about win a presidential election) by recommending to play "the war card" - attacking Iran and showing stronger support for Israel. Apparently, she considers that "securing our nation and our allies."

(What allies, by the way? Does she seriously think we have any more allies left in the world, especially if we go back to the role of the world police? After what we have done to the world economy, I am seriously surprised that we have anyone still on the speaking terms with us, let alone being our "ally.")

To me this sure as heck sounds like Sarah has not learned anything at all in the past two years. Not that I expected her to. She has a pretty face, nice hair, but I am not sure about the size of her brain. Besides, she has an awful lot to learn - like, that Africa is not a country, that stopping for a plane refueling does not entail visiting a foreign country, that diplomacy is more than wildly winking at a plane of a foreign leader zooming over your head... (Basically, it feels like all of the foreign policy is still WAY over her head!) Speak of a steep learning curve! So poor uninformed Sarah's idea of a foreign policy is to wage more wars to make us more secure. Seriously, since Obama came to power we have been plagued with terrorism due to his soft stance on national security... Those explosions in our power plants... Oh, wait! It was a gas line explosion - never mind. Well, Washington, D.C. has been practically paralyzed with snow for the past several days! How can we be sure this was not a terrorist plot?

This country has 20% of people unemployed, sky-high foreclosure rates and people living in tent cities all over the country. We can't feed our homeless. We can't treat our sick. Our manufacturing industry is non-existent. And poor dumb Sarah thinks that what should be our first priority is to wage more wars and be preoccupied with a well-being of a foreign country (Israel)? Right!

If Sarah who sure as heck has not learned anything runs for President and wins, this sure as heck is not the country I want to live in.

A Union of Equals

One thing struck me in the latest news about thousands of emails exchanged between Todd Palin and the governor's staff in Alaska during his wife's term as the state's Governor: that Sarah Palin married her intellectual equal. Oh-h-h, what a heartwarming thought! It is always great to find out about true union of hearts and minds in nowadays families.

Through a series of interviews, we all know that Sarah Palin doesn't read and is sadly uninformed. Now we also know that her husband can't write. Just a small example. Here is a quote of it from MSNBC:

"When Sarah Palin complained that the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner wrote a critical editorial after she did them the favor of meeting with the editorial board, Todd Palin advised the press chief to "take the news miner off the press release address list for a few days, see how long it takes them to realize their not on the list."

I just love this "THEIR." The type of a mistake that his spell checker would sadly miss... Did Todd Palin go beyond 3rd grade at school, I wonder? OF COURSE, that would not be necessary to be the dog sled champion, let alone to father 5 kids, so that would not disqualify him in the least from being Sarah Palin's husband. I was just curious, that is all. What an endearing love story theirs is! She can't read, he can't write, yet they live happily ever after and even attemp to rule America. Oh-h-h-h!

Pet Politician, Anyone?

A friend of mine opined a few days ago that we should all give up on this country as of last Thursday when the Supreme Court reversed the McCain-Feingold Act on campaign finance reform. As a result, corporations, unions, and special interest groups with deep pockets are now free to use their funds to promote "their" candidates right up to the election day. No longer are the candidates required to include "I am so-and-so, and I approve of this message" verbiage in those ads (a more appropriate message now would be, "I am so-and-so, and I my vote was purchased by such and such corporation"). Personally, I think what has happened in the country for the past 12 months has been good in that it allowed us to see clearly what is what and who is who. Now we KNOW for a fact that our government is there to protect the interest of the financial elite, not the citizens; now we KNOW for a fact that any wars we may be waging are wars strictly for valuables, not values; and now we will KNOW clearly who exactly bought up our elected officials. I am not sure that knowledge is power in our case, but it is certainly better than ignorance and illusion.

Anyway, just today I came across a cartoon which I loved and which summarizes all of this nicely. Enjoy!

Goldman-Sachs Allumni in the US Administration

I recently had an argument on one of the Internet forums with a rather recent Russian immigrant into the US who still has rose glasses on. He believed the President does not only mean, but will actually do everything he promised, he trusted that there is no corruption in the US government, he was convinced that our domestic and foreign policy is always dictated by the considerations of the common good. I maintained that the current Administration is so heavily dominated by people with the closest possible links to the Wall Street, that Washington turned into a Wall Street instrument of political power, and that all efforts so far have been aimed at saving only the top players in the financial sphere. Here is a concise list of people previously closely connected to one firm only, Goldman Sachs, who are serving or have served in a variety of leadership positions in the current and past Administration. This is just a quick reference guide in case you would need to look it up.

Epiphany from Ben Bernanke

This is a compilation of quotes by Ben Bernanke collected by Gerald Celente. A couple of months ago, on this website I shared my concerns that Mr. Bernanke would be re-appointed despite his woeful lack of qualifications and skills for the job (or maybe, brain or conscience - pick what you like more). He did get reappointed. He was recently reassuring the Congress that the recession is over and that we are returning to the pattern of growth. How much trust can be put in his words, can be seen from this document:

Economic Forecasts from
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke
2007 & 2008

May 17, 2007: “The effects of the troubles in the subprime sector on the broader housing market will likely be limited, and we do not expect significant spillovers from the subprime market to the rest of the economy, or to the financial system.”

October 15, 2007: “The banking system is healthy… Rather than becoming more crisis prone, the financial system is likely to emerge from this episode healthier and more stable than before.”

November 8, 2007: “We have not calculated the probability of a recession. Our assessment is for slower growth, but positive growth going into next year. We think that by the spring, early next year, that, as these credit problems resolve and as, we hope, the housing market begins to find a bottom, that the broader resiliency of the economy, which we are seeing in other areas outside of housing, will take control and will help the economy recover to a more reasonable growth pace.”

January 10, 2008: “Thus, notwithstanding the effects of multi-billion dollar write-downs on the earnings and share prices of some large institutions, the banking system remains sound… The Federal Reserve is not currently forecasting a recession.”

April 2, 2008: “Monetary and fiscal politics are in train that should support a return to growth in the second half of this year and next year.”

June 3, 2008: “We may see somewhat better economic conditions during the second half of 2008, reflecting the effects of monetary and fiscal stimulus, reduced drag from residential construction, further progress in the repair of financial and credit markets, and still solid demand from abroad. This baseline forecast is consistent with our recently released projections, which also see growth picking up further in 2009. Futures markets continue to predict that commodity prices will level out.”

Clearly, we have the brightest and the most qualified leading us out of the recession which they could not even see and recognize.