Obama, GM, and Bain Capital

Comparing the GM bailout and Bain Capital is usefull and ludicrous. First of all both did the same thing, both present infusions of cash usually and a dramatic restructuring of the company. Both normally cause layoffs in order for the company to remain viable for the future. Both have risk. Both seem to be a mixture of success and failure.

It is ludicrous though because of where the cash came from. Bain has cash as a company and took investments from willing investors who believed leadership could make a profit, they chose to take the risk. Obama's money came from take payers who are forced to give money to the government and do not understand or choose to risk their money and do not stand to make a profit (nor did they.) Layoffs and hurt came to GM but not to the unions and union bosses who Obama took great pain to time when and who could sell stock before the price fell. Employees and factory workers took the fall. Democrat allies, not so much. Some of Bain's moves ended in both people losing jobs and losses. Some is the price that willing investor's pay. GM is looking to lose about $23B of taxpayer's dollars.

I know that Obama is going to attack Romney's business credentials. People will love it when he points out that people lost jobs and people will love it when he points out that Romney made money. That is the success and failure of Bain and people think negatively of both. Insane. Also notice how Obama will say, "I saved x number of jobs at GM." First of all, overall jobs went down, second of all you didn't save them, you paid for them with tax payer dollars. Give me $23 billion and I'll create thousands of jobs, and make a really large and beautiful park or thousands of new schools or something. Obama like to claim his results are better than the worst possible scenario, forgetting the same goes for Bain, who steps in on companies going bankrupt. What is the best possible scenario if the company followed what Mitt proposed? Would we be seeing the same results without the $23 billion loss to taxpayers? If there was a $23 billion loss, it would be investors who willingly put their money at risk, not me, who abhors giving any money to a government to poor at managing money.

Thoughts

In classic blogspot fashion when I went to publish this it deleted.
In classic BlakeGray fashion I forgot to ctrl+c it first

Yes, the stimulus saved current jobs and provided for future jobs.
Yes, but at the cost of current and future jobs.

Occupy wall street does not like how much "wall street" makes,
they also frame as the principle reasons of this problem the policies of Bush and Reagan.
Wall Street made more in the first 2.5 of Obama than in all 8 years of Bush.

Romney won't win because.....
he is not a "conservative republican" - The Evangelist
he is wierd - Obama Campaign Team
Insert instead "He is Mormon" and you get the same argument

Jack Welch is one of Obama's key men
Jack Welch took home $550 Million from 1997-2000
Jack Welch made an additional $200 Million in sale of stock options, selling most shares at $55 dollars a share before the value plummeted to about $23 today.
Now he makes a measly $357,000 from his pension and $377,000 for his consolting services, PER WEEK!
Maybe it is easy to stand by while your leader lambast selfish and unethical CEO's while continue to get rich. So when Obama or Jack are on the trail blasting selfish and unethical CEO's remember,
Jack Welch is one of Obama's Key men

The top five CEO's took home 4.8% of Corporation's profit in the 1990's (kind of ridiculous)
The top five CEO's took home about 10.3% or all Corporations profits around 2010.(Really ridiculous)
What is it that enabled or allowed the top 5 CEO's to take 1/10 off all profits home. ALL PROFITS created by ALL employees of the corporation. Madness.

2 quotes from a recent article, and 2 articles!

"The new borrowing took total public debt to $14.58 trillion, over end-2010 GDP of $14.53 trillion, and putting it in a league with highly indebted countries like Italy and Belgium."

"Moody's said Tuesday that the government needed to stabilize the ratio at 73 percent by 2015 "to ensure that the long-run fiscal trajectory remains compatible with a AAA rating.
http://news.yahoo.com/us-aaa-rating-still-under-threat-204040123.html


hmmm so what you are saying is that we need to cut our debt by roughly 25% by 2015 to ensure our trajectory stays compatible with a AAA rating. Likely..... not. of course we could keep our dept the same and just let our GDP grow, let see it would have to grow by a rate of about 7.5% over the next for years assuming our GDP ends in 2011 at $14.75 Trillion. Congress is cheering about reducing our spending by $2 trillion over the next ten years. Assuming a rate of growth of 2% of GDP we would have to cut our debt by about 4 Trillion in 4 years to meet their trajectory. Truth is the current plan still plans to raise the debt by $7.5 trillion over the next 10 years.
http://blogs.forbes.com/peterferrara/2011/08/04/a-budget-cutting-deal-that-boosts-federal-spending/

Amazing.... Amazing

New American Slave Trade

Who is it that is selling or sending Mexicans to America to work for lower wages and worse working conditions? (supposedly) Who is it that is forcing them to work in bad circumstances? Who is organizing and creating illegal ways to get to America from Mexico? It is not, by-and-large, America, it is Mexico. Akin to tribal Africans who sold captives into slavery (not just to U.S. slave traders) are those who pressure, force, or create the situation driving Mexicans to extreme measures. It is not Americans who enslave them, it is Americans who exploit them. I do not agree with either, I just see pictures of Mexicans piled into semi trucks and think of slaves chained in ships. Who is driving this? Is it America's responsibility? Do they also have a right to our goods?

Blake Gray

Gas Taxes, Subsidies

So we complain because we give oil companies tax subsidies and then high taxes on consumers at the pump. Let's think for a minute, why don't we just lower taxes at the pump and stop given subsidies? If we don't want to give money to oil companies (and since oil prices aren't driven by domestic producers) then we shouldn't. The only way to directly lower the cost at the pump is to lower taxes directly. Effectively this diverst from benefits from the companies to the consumers.

The Brain Training Drain, by Thomas Sowell

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2011/05/10/the_education_mantra_109799.html

A dangerous wish

I love America. Its people, its cultures, its history. I love questioning its people, its cultures, its history, its beliefs. I dig into it, knowing that I will find at the root of it goodness. I am not afraid to question the reasoning of a perfect God. It does not make me afraid to ask why, as long as I have the patience and fortitude to know that my lack of understanding will not be His fault. So therefore I am not afraid to dig into the depth of what makes this country what it is. Seeing the discordant and disinterested population I felt as if this country was failing politically because the people could not be brought to believe in the government for any purpose. There was no unity, not together we stand strong attitude about any policy or move. America was divided and weak, unwilling to spring to any form of action. I felt as if we could just be united in some movement, even a mediocre thing, that we could begin to rebuild the pride of this country. That is where I was willing to fight for evil.

I had written, this I freely admit, in praise and support for Obama. I also wrote that if Hillary Clinton were elected president I would not fight her policies and make this country weak. Instead, I vowed to stand behind her movement, to work with her. If she moved to make health care better for the people then I would fight for that. I'm hurt by this realiziation now. I would be an agent for evil. I would be on the supporting side of health care? I know that my attitude would change but I am somewhat horrified that I would play a part in todays great evil. Apathetic, mindless, following. We do it because it seems right, because the world wants it. Who can fight for climate change? Then let's support green peace. Ok, (what are they doing.... well If A is bad than B must be good..... how can I question out loud, won't that put me into the same category as someone who fights for climate change....don;t question, don't fight, don't cause friction. Just put your shoulder to the back of the wagon and push, your face so pushed against the great movement you are helping so you don't see the world around. Bury your face in the work, shield your eyes from the work, act with one purpose, that purpose being the great mass of the movement.) Ok is the answer, the thoughts buried deep within. Amanda wrote, "I cannot imagine anyone thinking when they are young, when I grow up I want to spend my time, effort, and money avoiding responsibility. How did our society get to this point? Through misguided ideals?" (I didn't think that was too personal to share to my one blog reader, me)

My mom would say, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. I always thought that meant good intentions, but never anything done about it. But good intentions with blind actions are just as bad. Our end goal is making the road, but along the way we make excuses to not pave it correctly, not fix that pot hole, and mostly overlook and allow bad work to happen around us. What we end up with is not what we wanted. I have to fight to make sure the things I want happen, even if me and someone else have the same end goal in mind, something as sweeping as education or health care reform needs supporters, but not the mindless kind.

Strong, not impervious

Built like houses, every reality would hit their roofs and slant off falling into the mud that had become their reality. Mixed with doubts and deep feelings of inadequacies, the mud was safe, and truth could hide in it’s murkiness. Neither the brilliance of their character, or the darkness of their failures could be clearly seen in the bromide. She, however, stood on the roof top. Strength had been defined as being able, not to withstand the world, but to avoid it. Push it away and down the road. Troubles and hardships became future battles and problems for another day. When life reared its sometimes ugly head and they raised their shields, she would step forward, and raise her fists. On the roof of life, drops of moments would fall to her, and opening her palms skyward she would catch the moments, and let them sink into her hair, skin, and clothing. Life was a part of her, she did not barricade herself from it, protecting herself and hiding. She was strong now, not impervious.
He pictured her as a Joan of Arc, or a womanly Alexander the Great. Charging ahead, acknowledging the arrows of the danger of acting in glory, accepting their danger. By being more vulnerable she was stronger than those who would only run into battle after seeing that one could survive it. Seeing her on horseback, she took the reins in her mouth, holding one sword high and the other outstretched towards the sky. I am strong, I am powerful, I will not settle for less, I am.
“She is cold,” Instead is what they whispered. He smiled as she tucked her feet under the couch cushions. Her feet were the only cold part of her body, because it was far from the great generator of her energy and beauty, her heart. He knew there was more warmth and truth in her then they could ever know. More intelligence than they can see through their squinted eyes, lids blocking what they were afraid to see. Her placid posture accented her dominion over the world around her. When conversations danced tepidly, trying to find meaning or display intelligence or humor, she was mapping, commenting and notating on the whole of it. They went from sentence to sentence, she stretched from eternal principle to eternal purpose.

Why I love Grant Hill

http://thequad.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/16/grant-hills-response-to-jalen-rose/?ref=todayspaper

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704132204576190260787805984.html

Battling the Uncertain

In these situations,
I'll often act in patience.
Because things are so uncertain,
I'm afraid I will hurt them,
or myself;
So my eratic act shelf.
And I'll wait on the moment,
wait to take it and own it.
But then in a split second of fear,
I worry if I should hold her near.
I try to resist this impetus,
and wonder if she is into this.
In these situations,
I cannot yield to patience,
I should wrap her in my arms and dance.
I should risk it and take the chance.
The only way to know if things are right,
is to take this moment on Valentine's night.

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/labor-force-participations-plunges-fresh-26-year-low

I don't like to just watch movies,
I watch movies to move me.

She was the sand

If there was a storm, she was always in the middle of it. Where the peace was and the person can see clearly. Nothing disturbed her person, she was not altered by it, it was altered by her. When her dark hair hung relaxed by her side the air would surround it and playfully toss a strand from time to time. When the wind raged her hair would ride the waves of the wind and stretch out against the sky in beautiful defiance. Her eyes would not cloud with the fear of the future. Her lips would never purse, so I would watch them and wait for them to open and her to smile. When she smiled the angels would sing and then her lips would close and the world would go silent again, and the birds would chirp peacefully in the trees.
In the field were she stood the sand rolled in the wind and danced across her feet. It would be carried for a while then lay quietly underneath and between the mesquite and the brush. The sand was sand before it began and sand when it ended. Just like when the storms raged and the clouds of fear crowded their eyes, she quietly let the wind carry her to a new place. She was beautiful when it began, and she was beautiful when it ended.

Sands

I felt like the sands,
course and incomplete.
Pieces of a greater past,
crushed beneath the current's feet.

Like I was lost,
amongst the tussle.
Like I was the cost,
of the great struggle.

I lay like the wounded,
underneath the mesquite.
Where the wind laid me,
my forfeit replete.

Unfair winds had carried me,
had dashed me on the rocks.
I had been captured in,
lifes bars and locks.

I lay prostrate in the shade,
with other fallen soldiers.
With the dead I lay,
shoulder to shoulder.

Then again came the wind,
and laid me on the hillside.
And looking to the sunset,
I reflected on my killed pride.

I felt like the sands,
pushed by unknown winds.
I was with the beaten,
The lost were my kin.

Commitment Issues

You can save $10 on 3 dozen roses if you order now.

Sometimes inspirational quotes are depressing. E.g. In his speech The American Scholar Ralph Waldo Emerson states, "The true scholar grudges every oppurtunity of action passed as a loss of power." I stood up, looked around tried to do something, and then sat down at work. I got nothin' What the heck can I do with my life right now?

Diversification, Index and Mutual funds have led us to overinvestment in poor companies.

I cannot believe

I could not believe,
that steel could still your body,
or steal your soul.
That any thing could fill this hole,
and make me feel whole.

I could not conceive,
That reality could reel me in,
and to my chagrin,
make my skin to freeze.
---

I would not concede,
to the fatal reality of The Fall,
That our bodies could fall at all,
I would lie you could not lie there,
6 feet under, under His care.

I will not recede,
into black closets,
and sack cloths of loathing,
I will continue on holding,
that steel cannot steal your soul.

I cannot believe,
that blacktop could stop the seas,
of the beliefs of you and me.
I cannot, will not recede,
and back away from what you left in me.

I walked passed the poor

I walked down the street,
and smiled as the poor passed by.
I had long yellow teeth,
and a glistening gleam in my eye.

I patted dusty shoulders,
and shook the stained dirty hands.
I asked them of the future,
and they did not have any plans.

I wondered why the poor,
cast their eyes down that way.
Why when I gave a smile,
a frown responded in dismay.

I wondered why the poor,
allowed this life to stay.
They woke with a curse,
and with curses end their day.

I continued to walk,
passed a long bread line.
And at the very end,
was the spot that was mine.

I waited patiently,
laughing with those near by.
When they spoke sorely of their life,
I paused to asked them why.

Taking my cut of bread,
and the small bowl of soup.
I waved goodbye,
To the little ragged troop.

And then started walking,
down a day labor line,
I saw a spot at the end,
and said that spot is mine.

I left the poor behind,
and joined the tired throng.
Who worked while out of work,
and kept their spirits strong.

At night when I climbed,
into my shelters little bed.
Thoughts of the poor,
ran slowly through my head.

I had left the poor behind,
yet had no home at all.
I had left the poor behind,
when I started walking tall.

For though I be poor in pocket,
my soul will not take pity,
I will not let my luck,
drag me to those trenches of the city.

I woke up with the poor,
and left them all behind.
Because today is a day in a life,
and today, that life is mine.