Month: November 2013

President Obama announced that Secretary Kerry and diplomats from a few other nations have worked out a deal with Iran on nuclear energy. There is a lot of disagreement on exactly what’s in the agreement. Near as I can tell, Iran has promised not to build a nuclear bomb for six months if we give them $7 Billion.

Israel and Saudi Arabia were not in on the deal, and neither was a bunch of our Senators. They seem to doubt we should take the word of the Ayatollah and Ahmadinejad.

Did you hear than J.P. Morgan Chase agreed to pay a fine of $13 Billion? I didn’t even know the bank had $13 Billion. Where’s the money coming from? Well, it’s coming from those that have got it: the stockholders, primarily the mutual funds that own those stocks. Where’s the money going? Well, I heard $7 Billion is going to Iran.

Oh, I know it’s not the same $7 Billion. But John Kerry has to get it from somewhere. And even though they announced a 6-month agreement, I bet it’s for 12. They don’t want ‘em to bomb anybody till after the election on November 4. Couldn’t stand the bad news. Even on the Affordable Care Act they postponed one deadline from October 15 to November 15.

That health care website has only signed up a hundred thousand people. Democrats are disappointed, but not as much as computer hackers. They’ve been counting on grabbing millions of bank account numbers for their Christmas shopping.

The Senate voted to outlaw filibusters on nominations made by the President. A few years ago Senator Reid was against this “nuclear option,” but as Senate Leader he’s all for it. From now on it will take only 51 votes to approve a nomination, not 60. Shucks, I don’t know which is better, but filibusters are more fun.

I sure wish Congress would get serious and pass the farm bill. The holdup over how much to slice from food stamps is like the tail wagging the dog. Except the “tail” is four times bigger than the dog.

Historic quotes by Will Rogers:

“The only problem that confronts this country today is at least 7,000,000 people are out of work…. These people that you are asked to aid, why they are not asking for charity, they are naturally asking for a job, but if you can’t give ‘em a job, why the next best thing you can do is see that they have food and the necessities of life.” Radio, Oct 18, 1931

(on Thanksgiving Day) “In the days of its founders they were willing to give thanks for mighty little, for mighty little was all they expected. But now neither government or nature can give enough but what we think it’s too little. Those old boys in the Fall of the year, if they could gather in a few pumpkins, potatoes and some corn for the winter, they was in a thanking mood. But if we can’t gather in a new Buick, a new radio, a tuxedo and some government relief, why we feel like the world is agin us.” DT #2594, Nov. 28, 1934

“Diplomats are just as essential to starting a war as soldiers are for finishing it.” Saturday Evening Post, June 9, 1928

“There is one thing no nation can accuse us of, and that is secret diplomacy. Our foreign dealings are an open book, generally a check book.” WA #45, Nov. 18, 1923

Are you confused? I sure am, and I’m the first to admit it. President Obama has been saying for three years that if you like your health care plan you can keep it. If you like your doctor you can keep your doctor. Period. Exclamation point!

Before the Affordable Care Act passed, Speaker Pelosi announced that Congress had to pass it before we could find out what was in it. Now it appears that President Obama still hasn’t found out what’s in it. I rather doubt Mrs. Pelosi knows either.

President Obama said he is sorry that millions of people are losing their health insurance after he assured them otherwise. But he still did not apologize for misleading the public in the first place, and for doing it consistently for more than three years. If he had come clean after the bill was signed and finally passed muster with the Supreme Court (after changing the word “penalty” to “tax”) the present occupant of the White House would probably be Mitt Romney. How many votes would he have lost if he had announced last October, “I was wrong. Some of you can keep your health insurance, but millions will be dropped because of Obamacare. Some will save money, but most will pay more. And by the way, losing an Ambassador and three others in Benghazi to a planned terror attack was my fault.”

Now, the President implies he wants to help people get back their dropped insurance plans. How can he persuade private insurance companies to extend canceled policies when he cannot even persuade Democrats in the Senate to change part of the healthcare law? Nobody trusts Congress or the President since they exempted themselves and their staffs from paying the same out-of-pocket monthly cost as other individuals. Labor unions lobbied for the health care law, but they have also been granted an exemption.

We spent $600 Million on a website that barely works, and may cost a Billion to get it running full speed. Maybe we should have used that Billion to subsidize insurance for those with pre-existing conditions, and leave the rest of us alone. Wouldn’t that be common sense?

As I say, I’m confused. If you figure out a logical conclusion to this mess, let me know.

Historic quotes by Will Rogers:

“This day is no doubt the greatest day in all the world history. Armistice Day, when you think that a half dozen men could sit down and casually sign a pact to stop millions of men from killing each other. But if they don’t stop these guys making these speeches over the radio on Armistice Day, why we are liable to have the same war over again, only worse.” DT #1028, Nov. 11, 1929

“Celebrated twelve years of continuous peace yesterday, and we looked about as bad as we did twelve years ago when we celebrated the end of two years of war… Peace is kinder like prosperity. There is mighty few nations that can stand it.” DT #1343, Nov. 12, 1930

The Boston Red Sox won the World Series. The victory came the night before Halloween. Several players reportedly disguised themselves for Trick or Treat by shaving off their beards. Nobody recognized them. The players who kept their beards got up before daylight and went duck hunting.

I read that some schools in New York had closed their playgrounds to baseball, dodgeball, and tag. I guess because somebody might fall or get hit by a ball. Then the Post Office was forced to throw out millions of new stamps showing children having fun playing different sports. Someone noticed that one stamp shows a kid standing on his head, without a helmet. And another jumping into a pool. He didn’t have a helmet either. I knew helmets were recommended for football and bike riding, but swimming and gymnastics?

I guess “my” old habit of lassoing girls’ feet from behind as they walked to school would be frowned on today. It was frowned on back then too, but nobody passed a law agin’ it. Those girls always got even though, made me wish I had a helmet.

Congress is still working on the Farm Bill. Both the Senate and the House voted to cut a little from food stamps, they just can’t agree on how much to cut. The problem is they want to cut everyone the same amount. Maybe a better idea would be to line up all recipients from the poorest, neediest, hungriest ones on up to folks that barely quality because they are healthy and their income is above the poverty level. Common sense would say you take care of the folks at the bottom, and when you run out, the ones who are not so poor can buy their food the same way they did a few years ago. But in Washington, this is no time for common sense.

Historic quotes by Will Rogers (on farm bills):

“Here is my Farm Relief bill: Every time a Southerner plants nothing on his farm but cotton year after year, and the Northerner nothing but wheat or corn, why, take a hammer and hit him twice right between the eyes. You may dent your hammer, but it will do more real good than all the (farm relief) bills you can pass in a year.” DT #169, Feb. 13, 1927.

“Hoover called on Congress to aid farm relief. Up to now there has been one thousand and twenty-seven bills introduced; one was for farm relief and one thousand and twenty-six to aid the members that introduced ‘em. It was supposed to be just for Farm Relief, but they got ‘em in there for everything from Birth Control to Mass Production.” DT#850, Apr. 17, 1929

“(The farm bill) gives relief to the farmer in so many complicated ways that even if he received no relief at all, why, just trying to study it out will keep him so busy that he will forget he ever wanted relief. Then there is two or three billion appropriations in there to put mortgages on farms at a small rate of interest and long time payments. Well that’s fine but they all already got ‘em on… Then there was gold and silver. All in the farmers’ bill mind you. Now the poor farmer hasn’t even seen a few copper pennies, much less any gold or silver.” WA #542, May 14, 1933