Why I am glad not to be a Red Sox fan

The Red Ranger: I had the opportunity to attend the final Red Sox home game of the season last night with my family.  Luckily I was given the tickets as the face value of each seat was $130 which is well out of our family’s budget at this point given the state of the economy under Obama.  However, this post is not about Obama but about the Red Sox.

Before the game the Red Sox introduced their all-time Fenway Park team.  While I had no idea that this was going to happen before the game the reaction to some of these players seemed muted.  Not sure if it was because it was the last home game of the season and most of the true die-hard fans had already abandoned the Sox this year and the stadium was occupied by non-fans like myself.  I would have expected the likes of Carl Yastrzemski, Jim Rice, Fred Lynn and Dwight Evans to evoke long standing ovations.  Even Roger Clemens was in attendance and he was cheered and not booed mightily like I thought he would.

As a Yankee fan, all I can remember is that no matter how many times the Yankees would show Thurman Munson highlights on the scoreboard they would always inspire raucous applause.

Perhaps another factor that minimized the applause and overall rowdiness level was the fact that a 12 ounce domestic beer from a vendor was $ 7.75.  Not that I support irresponsible behavior or excessive alcohol intake but a jovial drunk at a baseball game can make it more entertaining.  I make this comment more as a reflection on the crazy prices at sporting events than anything else.  However, the Red Sox still somehow have their sellout streak intact although I believe this is due more to using Obama’s number crunches than actual ticket sales.

Nattering Naybob: Since our latest blog posting is about baseball, I will use a related metaphor and congratulate you on your Joe DiMaggio-like streak of 26 consecutive Red Ranger posts that included a dig at our President. You are more than halfway to the Yankee Clipper’s 56-game hitting streak. That being said, I enjoyed hearing your observations on the Red Sox’s recent quasi-Old Timers Day gathering. Ironically, even though I have been a lifelong Yankee fan, when I was growing up, Carl Yastrzemski was my favorite player. I am not sure why. It may be that during one game in, I believe 1978 or 1979, when the Yankees were playing the Red Sox at Fenway Park, Catfish Hunter gave up four consecutive home runs in the bottom of the first inning. Catfish’s arm was worn out from years of throwing 250+ innings, and he just did not have it that night, or for much longer from a career perspective. Yastrzemski struck out to put a merciful end to the inning, and rumor has had it that he struck out on purpose to spare Catfish any further embarrassment. As a Yaz fan, imagine my rage when I recently read that, having grown up on Long Island, he originally had wanted to play for the Yankees but their offer to him was too low, and his father convinced him instead to sign with the Red Sox for more money. The thought of him playing on the same mid-Sixties and early Seventies Yankees teams alongside Horace Clarke, Jerry Kenney, Frank Tepedino, Dooley Womack, and the immortal Celerino Sanchez, gives me goose bumps.

Regarding rowdy crowds, I too admit to a yearning for the days when baseball crowds were a little more raucous than they are now. I fondly remember the days during the 1970s and early 1980s when the Yankee bullpen car, usually a Datsun or (later) a Toyota, would drive the incoming relief pitcher to the mound via the dirt warning track that encircled the perimeter of the Yankee Stadium field. As the car passed the fans sitting in the field box seats, they would unfailingly pelt the top of the car with hotdogs, rolled-up napkins, half-eaten pretzels, and cups of soda, for much of the entire trip around the field. The driver of the car would have to actually use his windshield wipers to get rid of some of the thrown liquid and other offal that hit the windshield. It eventually dawned on the Yankees that they would be better off just having the car cut across the field itself to and from the bullpen, and not go near the fans. When the bullpen car first starting taking this safer route, the fans booed because they felt cheated out of the opportunity to use the car for target practice. Oh, those were the days my friend, we thought they’d never end….

The Red Ranger: I am saddened to see that even you have resorted to using inaccurate numerical representations much like our present administration.  Last time I checked 26 was not more than half of 56.  I believe that I would have had a dig at the President in 29 straight posts to be more than halfway to the DiMaggio streak.  Funny you should mention DiMaggio though as his brother Dom was one of the Fenway greats honored.

Nattering Naybob: My math may be off, but my grasp of the larger events that shape our day, is fundamentally sound, The Red Ranger.

Dom DiMaggio always reminded me of a physics professor.

 

Is it “Jimmy Obama” or “Barack Carter”?

The Red Ranger: The presidencies of Obama and Carter are really becoming strikingly similar. Both have proven to be inept at managing the US economy and now just like Carter, Obama is facing a crisis in the Middle East. Carter’s presidency ended with an economy in recession or at least on its way there and hostages in the Middle East. Obama leads an economy with a persistent 8%+ unemployment rate and US citizens murdered in the Middle East and our embassies under attack in multiple countries.

In contrast to one of your prior posts the attacks in Libya were part of a planned assault not part of some random protest. I watched your favorite, Rachel Maddow, last night for a little bit before I got nauseous and even he admitted to that fact.

Now there are reports that Hillary may have actually gotten some intelligence about these possible attacks but did not act upon the information.  Remember when under Bush we had threat levels and they varied based upon either upcoming events or “chatter” heard in the intelligence community. Those threat levels were too much for the Obama administration to handle so I believe they were done away with. Probably because someone felt they were offending our Muslim friends. These threat levels were routinely raised on the 9/11 anniversary and at least reminded everyone to be extra vigilant.

One of the “changes” hoped for under Obama was improved relations in the Middle East. Obviously, this is an abject failure on his part. Even he admits that Egypt is no longer an ally of the US. This leaves the US with only Israel and Saudi Arabia as stated allies in the Middle East. Nice job by Obama.

Please do not come back with some illogical rant about Romney. An illogical rant about how wonderful Obama’s policies in the Middle East are would be much more enjoyable

Nattering Naybob: I have noticed that Republicans enjoy comparing President Obama to Jimmy Carter. I guess that is understandable since so many observers rightly contrasted the administrations of George W. Bush and Herbert Hoover. I suppose there is no “expiration date” to the comparisons of current Presidents, to past Presidents, such as comparing say Harry Truman to James K. Polk, or perhaps the George H.W. Bush to Chester Arthur. The possibilities are endless.

The Obama-Carter comparison is factually correct only in that the most recent US Ambassador to have been killed took place under Jimmy Carter’s term in 1979. I only hope that no future President has to be compared on a like-for-like basis to our most recent (Republican) President, under whose administration over 2,000 people were killed on US soil due to a report that may have been ignored.

To say that Obama is “soft” on Muslims, or afraid to hurt their feelings, is patently ridiculous. Why would have Obama ordered the killing of Osama bin Laden, if he were worried about the reaction of Muslims? Wouldn’t this act have had the most potential for violent backlash against the U.S. or its Western allies? I don’t know how you or any another Republican can logically think that the almost simultaneous conversion of several Middle Eastern nations from totalitarian rule, to a more democratic model, would be seamless and without bloodshed or unrest of any kind.

I think The Red Ranger’s conduct and his view in this post, are a mirror to the conduct of his Republican candidate, who likewise tried to score political points (and failed miserably) by exploiting an international tragedy without first gathering all the facts.

“My job is not to worry about those people”

Nattering Naybob: Well, Red Ranger, I suppose Mitt Romney only solidified his support with you and the rest of your Republican bretheren who think that all of Obama’s supporters are nothing more than people who “…depend on the government, who believe that they are victims….My job is not to worry about those people. I’ll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives”. Isn’t it comforting to you all to think that the person who (despite all his inadequacies as a candidate and as a person) still has roughly a 50% chance of being our next President, has such hatred to roughly 50% of the citizenry which he is trying to lead ?

The Red Ranger: This is Mitt Romney’s answer to Obama’s, “Clinging to their guns and religion” statement. I think I read somewhere that the video was uncovered by Jimmy Carter’s grandson. If that were true it would just strengthen the ties between Carter and Obama.

One issue I have with the statement is that just because 47% of people get a check from the government that doesn’t mean they don’t deserve it. While technically my mother is reliant on the government to mail her her Social Security check, she has worked most of her life (and still is) and is now getting back what she paid into Social Security. I know that some people will say that she is getting back more than she paid in but that is not her fault it is the government for not calibrating payments correctly

Nattering Naybob: That famous Obama quote has been compared to this, but honestly I think Romney’s is much worse for the following reasons: 1) It comes closer to Election day, which is now less than 50 days away. As ill-advised as Obama’s comment was, it came in, I believe, April or May, so he had time to recover from it. 2) Obama made his comment in the context of “wanting” those “bitter” people’s vote, but afraid he was not going to get it. Romney seems like he does not care whether or not he gets the support of the “47%”. 3) The video has Romney making rather foolish statements on a wide variety of issues, including foreign policy (in one comment he speculates what he would do if he were an Iranian terrorist trying to attack America with a “dirty bomb”).

I sense that The Red Ranger is getting more uneasy with each passing day about the fading prospects of the Republican candidate. An NBC News / Wall Street Journal poll released yesterday indicated that when people are asked “Who is better suited to manage the economy”, Obama and Romney got the same percentage of support (I believe 43%). I think this poll number is perhaps the most devastating to Romney, who was counting on his supposed advantage in all things economic, to propel him to the Oval Office. When the American people, who have seen 3-1/2 years of steady but slow economic improvement, think Obama would be just as good as Romney in handling the economy, that should be a sign that things are not going well for Romney. He better hope he has a fantastic debate performance (three of them might be necessary), or that the results from a wide variety of polls, are wrong.

Steve Sabol

Natterng Naybob: Steve Sabol died Tuesday of brain cancer at 69 yars of age. Sabol, along with his father Ed (still alive), were the creative force behind what became “NFL Films”, which became in itself almost as famous an entity as the game itself. The word “visionary” is used probably too often, but in the case of the Sabols, I think this description is entirely appropriate. As this New York Times article points out, NFL Flms was not without its critics who thought that it excessively glorified the increasing violence in the game, but by and large the Sabols were rightly praised for their contributions to American sports and, indeed, culture.

I regard the combination of the Sabols, along with the almost biblical voice of narrator John Facenda and the iconic 1960s background music composed largely by Sam Spence, to be a literally perfect, once-in-a-lifetime artistic collaboration. Watching the NFL Game of the Week, as well as assorted special broadcasts throughout the year, represent some of my truly fondest childhood memories, as I’m sure it did for you and literally millions of others in our age group. Here are two YouTube clips of typical NFL Films of the 1960s, one a tribute to Vince Lombardi, the other (fairly lengthy) from 1966 titled “They Call it Football” (check out 13:28 of the video for probably my favorite all-time NFL Films music). Although I never met Steve Sabol I was truly saddened to learn of his death.

The Red Ranger: Absolutely agree, NFL Films was a fantastic production that certainly was something I fondly remember watching as a kid.  Even today, I see some of the old time classics on the NFL network. Like most I think my favorites were always the follies. Watching the old films certainly make you realize how far we have come with video capabilities over the years. However, the old NFL films have a certain mystic about them with their simplistic approach. Sometimes today NFL games become difficult to watch with all the on screen graphics which show not only the score of the game you are watching but scrolling scores of the other games along with statistics for fantasy football nuts plus a promo for the upcoming premiere of some new TV shows.

Oh the good old days.

What are these people thinking?

Nattering Naybob: A recent national poll by Public Policy Polling has revealed the frightening level of ignorance demonstrated by many voters who control who is our next President. The question was “Who do you think deserves more credit for the killing of Osama bin Laden: Barack Obama or Mitt Romney?” The results showed that 62 percent of Republicans in Ohio, and 71 percent of Republicans in North Carolina, believe that Romney deserved more credit, or that they were not sure who deserved more credit between Obama and Romney. 

Please note that the other choice than Obama, was not George W. Bush, but Romney. Although I would not agree with the theory that George Bush deserved more credit (especially since he famously once said in a press briefing, “I don’t really worry that much any more about Osama bin Laden”), there at least is a rudimentary rationale for choosing “Bush” over “Obama”, perhaps by virtue of the perceived planning or groundwork supposedly previously laid by the Bush administration. But Mitt Romney had absolutely no connection whatever to any arm of Government, the CIA, or the Defense Department during the time that the raid on bin Laden’s compound was being planned. 

Red Ranger, I know you are a stickler for documentation, so below are the exact results of how Republicans answered:
 
Ohio
Obama: 38%
Romney: 15%
Not sure: 47%
 
North Carolina
Obama: 29%
Romney: 15%
Not sure: 56%

I submit that if a Republican President had taken the same action, and under that President”s overall command, the Navy SEALs had achieved the same success, that Republicans in Congress and on Fox News would be clamoring for an additional head to be carved onto Mount Rushmore. Check out this article from the New York Times  that discusses these poll results

I cannot help but be reminded of the classic segment that Rachel Maddow did during the 2010 Senatorial race between Lisa Murkowksi and Joe Miller (remember him?) when she asked some Miller supporters why they were supporting Miller. The two people she spoke to were absolutely convinced that Attorney General Eric Holder and President Obama were out to get their guns, except for one small detail: They could not explain what evidence they based this on. This exchange typifies the brand of mis-information that continues to be propogated by Americans who hate Obama. Your reaction.

The Red Ranger: The level of ignorance is equal on the Democratic side.  Please view this video and go to the last couple of minutes to see where these people get their information from. [Note: Some of the user comments contain adult language, as they, regrettably, frequently do on YouTube]

It is truly unfortunate that the vast majority of voters in this country do not take the time to educate themselves on the issues at hand. It is amazing how little people know about basic facts of this country and how it operates.

Nattering Naybob: Nice try, these “Obama voters” were all obviously actors recruited by Andrew Breitbart before his death, and paid for by Karl Rove’s SuperPAC.

“Sports Pope” snoozes

Nattering Naybob: Don’t know if you heard about this, Red Ranger. Mike Francesa, for those of our readers who don’t already know, is the host of a long-running sports talk show on WFAN in New York, simulcast to several other networks and stations nationwide, including the New York Yankees’ YES Network. Up until a couple years ago, he was one-half of the renowned “Mike and the Mad Dog” show, with Christopher Russo, until Russo defected to his own show (in fact, his own channel) on Sirius / XM Radio. I still think that one day the two of them will re-unite as a team, probably back on WFAN… but I digress.

Francesa is known for being… how can I put this ?… “confident” about his opinions and analysis. If someone calls in about a player, a game, or an issue that Francesa does not know about, he typically berates the caller for asking a question that is not germane to the day’s topic, or he disputes the caller’s grasp of the facts. He is also known for repeating himself over and over again within the same spoken paragraph, almost to the point of obsessiveness, about a topic or viewpoint he is trying to get across. The sports broadcast columnist of the New York Daily News, Bob Raissman, has dubbed Francesa “The Sports Pope” for his occasionally high-handed and dismissive manner.
 
Accordingly, the fact that Francesa fell asleep yesterday for about 45 seconds while (ostensibly) listening to Yankee beat reporter Sweeny Murti talk about the current Yankees-Red Sox series, was met with great glee and amusement by many who have followed Francesa over the years. As his former partner Chris Russo might have shrieked had he been on hand during this, “Takin’ a little SNOOZE there, Mikey???…. Want your Teddy bear, maybe your little jammies?…. Glass of warm milk??? Haaa haaaaaa….”

The Red Ranger: Not being a fan of sports talk radio I probably would have also fallen asleep listening to anyone talking about the Yankees/Red Sox series.  Being up here in Boston there is a total lack of interest.  In fact my company was giving away to the first two respondees to a Boston-wide e-mail four free tickets to the game the other night.  It took over twenty minutes to give the tickets away whereas similar giveaways in the past were snapped up instantaneously.  However, somehow the Red Sox sellout streak remains intact.  Despite my allegiance to the Yankees I actually went to a Red Sox game the other week.  It was an interesting game, the Red Sox jumped out to an 8-0 lead but then managed to lose 14-13 in extra innings to the Angels.  Being the die hard fans that we are my family left in the 8th inning with the scored tied 9-9.

Interesting side note,  when living in New Jersey, I had the opportunity to play basketball a couple of times withe Christopher “Mad Dog” Russo.  He actually is a pretty normal guy off the radio.

Libya: A strange way to show gratitude

The Red Ranger: So the United States aids in removing Qaddafi from power in Libya and for our thanks the Libyans go and kill our ambassador because of some film maker’s movie about Mohammad.  I though Obama was going to make everyone love us.

Nattering Naybob: Yes, it is unfortunate that Obama does not have the ability that all the previous Presidents had, to make fanatical militants, love America.
 
We are still not clear what role the amateur YouTube “film” (if it can be justified by such a term) played in all this. But I assume you heard that it was promoted heavily by Terry Jones, the so-called Florida “Pastor”, who gained notoriety last year for threatening to burn the Quran. As deliberately incendiary as his actions were, both then and now, the United States faces an impossible mission in bringing stability to the Middle East if every single nut-job who slurs Islam, whether in print or video, sparks murderous retribution towards the United States.

Mitt Romney’s statement (issued at 12:01 AM, so he could keep his pledge to leave politics out of the remembrance of 9/11), that President Obama was showing “sympathy” towards our enemies (based on a mis-interpretation of an earlier State Department statement), did not help matters either. Is this the kind of ham-handed and potentially dangerous foreign policy path that we can look forward to in a Romney administration? 
 
I see where the aforementioned Pastor Jones addressed a chapter of the Tea Party earlier this year. Don’t worry, Red Ranger, I am not holding the Tea Party responsible for the behavior of Terry Jones. But I wonder if the roles were reversed and if a pastor (or anyone) who had recently addressed a subsidiary of the Democratic Party, thereby indirectly leading to the killing of a United States Ambassador, what Fox News would be saying right now.

The Red Ranger: Whoa there, Nattering Naybob, don’t get your feathers in a tizzy so quickly.  But it is good to see that you are so willing to defend your failing leader with the usual “no one else has done it” or the “it was inherited” or “no one realized the enormity of the problem” excuses.  

I was not really trying to criticize Obama just trying to highlight the utter lunacy involved in trying to deal with these Middle Eastern countries and their citizens.

Nattering Naybob: I could tell you were trying to criticize Obama by the tone of your voice, Red Ranger. You forget we have known each other for about 42 years.

“Convention”-al wisdom (or not)

Nattering Naybob: Some (overdue) reflections on the recently-concluded Republican and Democatic National Conventions…

Admittedly, I saw more of the Democratic Convention as compared to the Republican’s. I did watch some of the Republicans’ shindig, but I quickly tired of their game plan, which consisted basically of four elements: 1) saying that President Obama apologizes for America 2) continuing the ridiculous, out of context “We Built It” attack (accompanied by a nauseating song performed by a prototypical, cowboy-hatted, no doubt pickup-truck-drivin’, country singer right out of Central Casting), 3) legislators and governors (most notably serial bully Chris Christie) who talked more about themselves and their alleged accomplishments, than about the Romney / Ryan plan, 4) an empty chair (to go along with, I assume, the Republicans’ empty rhetoric).

By most accounts, the Democrat’s Convention was much more effective and memorable. I know that this is not the most authoritative indicator of electoral success, but it did my Progressive / Liberal heart good to finally see an unequivocal defense of Obama’s record, and the beginnings of a long-overdue response to the distortions, exaggerations, and “mis-rememberments” (I am trying to be polite, Red Ranger) that have been coming from the Republicans. Just about the only misstep of the entire three days was, in my view, not including the moving address given by John Lewis, the Georgia congressmen who is one of the true heroes of the Civil Rights Movement, in prime-time.

Otherwise, below are some of my favorite lines delivered by Democatic speakers, acknowledging that some were designed as “red meat” for the Democrats in the arena…still, they were funny:
 
John Kerry: “Ask Osama bin Laden whether he is better off than he was four years ago.”
 
Fomer Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm: “[Romney] loves cars so much, they even have their own elevator…[but] in Romney’s world, the cars get the elevator, and the workers get the shaft!”
 
John Kerry, again (why couldn’t he be this funny in 2004?): “It isn’t fair to say Mitt Romney doesn’t have a position on Afghanistan. He has every position. He was against setting a date for withdrawal — then he said it was right — and then he left the impression that maybe it was wrong to leave this soon. He said it was ”tragic” to leave Iraq, and then he said it was fine. … Talk about being for it before you were against it! Mr. Romney — here’s a little advice: Before you debate Barack Obama on foreign policy, you better finish the debate with yourself!”

President Obama (on the Romney /Ryan plan): “…All they have to offer is the same prescription [that Republicans] have had for the last thirty years: ‘Have a surplus? Try a tax cut. Deficit too high? Try another. Feel a cold coming on? Take two tax cuts, roll back some regulations, and call us in the morning.’ ”
 
Ted Strickland (former Ohio governor): If Mitt was Santa Claus, he’d fire the reindeer and outsource the elves.”
 
But by far the most memorable moment, for me, had nothing to do with partisanship or electoral politics. It was when Gabrielle Giffords, a year-and-a-half removed from a bullet to the head delivered by yet another mentally unstable, socially mal-adjusted person with too-easy access to a gun, recited the Pledge of Allegiance (assisted by DNC Chairman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz). Democrat, Republican, or Independent, I defy anyone to have watched that and not gotten a lump in his or her throat.

The Red Ranger: I did not watch much of the conventions so I do not have much to say about them, however, I will make a few comments:

It is great that Giffords is recovering from her gunshot wounds.  One thing that bothers me is that the Dems seem to be using this little known (at least before she was shot) representative who barely got re-elected in 2010 and portraying her as the greatest thing since sliced bread.  Her shooting was certainly tragic but let’s not make her out to be more than she actually was.  I wonder if the Dems keep trotting her out trying to keep their ill -informed masses thinking that this is what the Tea Party caused since the first reports about the shooter were trying to link him to the Tea Party.  We all know that radical left-wingers have a short attention span and are allergic to the facts so the only thing they remember about the incident is the first thing they heard about it.  I actually think Giffords called herself a closet Republican or something like that one time.

So it seems your favorite lines were for the most part negative attacks on the Republicans.  It is interesting how there are few references to actual successes of the Obama administration.  I guess when you really don’t have any successes there is nothing you can say about them.

One speaker at the Democratic convention that I really have to question is Sandra Fluke.  Who is she and why does she get to speak at the Democratic convention?  Like typical Dems you really do not need any credentials or accomplishments to get air time with the party. Do the Dems really believe that someone promoting a promiscuous lifestyle supported by others is the face that they want to present to the country?  If you cannot afford to pay for your own contraceptives then do not have sex.  However, I guess she fits in perfectly with the mantra of the Dems of denying personal responsibility and requiring others to pay for the outcomes of your actions and/or bad decisions.

Nattering Naybob: Regarding Sandra Fluke’s credentials, there is something called “Wikipedia” on the internet that gives one basic information on just about any public figure. Below is a summary extracted directly from Wikipedia regarding Sandra Fluke’s credentials and past work in the area of women’s health. if you did not take your cues from the spiritual and intellectual leader of the Republican Party, Rush Limbaugh, who famously called Fluke a “slut” on multiple occasions on his show, on multiple days, you might have realized on your own that Fluke stands for issues other than “promoting promiscuity”. If you sincerely believe that her credentials below did not justify her providing testimony before Congress on issues of women’s health issues and reproductive rights, and the representation of the traditionally under-served in our society, there is little I can do at this point in your life to convince you otherwise:

 
“Fluke is a native of Saxton, Pennsylvania, and graduated from Pennsylvania’s Tussey Mountain Junior/Senior High School in 1999. She graduated from Cornell University’s Program in Feminist, Gender, & Sexuality Studies in 2003.She co-founded the New York Statewide Coalition for Fair Access to Family Court, which successfully advocated for legislation granting access to civil orders of protection for unmarried victims of domestic violence, including LGBTQ victims and teens. She was also a member of the Manhattan Borough President’s Taskforce on Domestic Violence and numerous other New York City and New York State coalitions that successfully advocated for policy improvements impacting victims of domestic violence. She worked in New York City for Sanctuary for Families, which aids victims of domestic violence and human trafficking. She is the 2011 recipient of the Women Lawyers of Los Angeles’ Fran Kandel Public Interest Grant,which supported her production of a video on how to take out a restraining order.She also “represented numerous victims of domestic violence and human trafficking” and also worked to help “child victims of domestic human trafficking” in Kenya.Sandra Fluke graduated cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center in 2012 and served as president of Georgetown Law Students for Reproductive Justice.While at Georgetown University Law Center, she worked on issues that involved domestic violence and human trafficking.”

 
(All these citations above were fully documented with footnotes, which I have deleted for the sake of clarity here, so please don’t try to claim that Wikipedia is mis-stating or exaggerating her activities or credentials, or is a tool of the main stream media as is your wont).

Had Republicans allowed Fluke’s testimony to be entered into the record as scheduled, instead of barring her from testifying, like the reliable Fascists that they have become, she probably would not have come into public prominence to the extent she has. It was chiefly the justifiable outrage at her being banned from speaking that put here in the spotlight.

With respect to Giffords, I think that all the Democrats were trying to do was to include a member of their own party who was senselessly gunned down while attending a community town hall meeting with her constituents. I do not believe that any Democrats, either individually or as a Party, has ever tried to politicize the issue in any way other than to bring attention to the need to examine the issues of easy it is to acquire guns, regardless of one’s mental capacity or emotional balance. If there was a erroneous report in the moments immediately afterwards, that Gifford was attacked by a Tea Party member, then shame on the reporter, but please don’t extrapolate that out to the entire Democratic party. Much of the Republican Party has been erroneously claiming for years now that the President of our country was not born in the United States, yet I do not see you expressing the same outrage. Finally, if your barometer for someone making a speech at a Convention is how pertinent they are to the overall National discourse, what business did Clint Eastwood have speaking before Romney’s acceptance speech, other than making a complete jackass of himself and detracting from Romney’s presentation?

The Red Ranger: While I know you libs consider Wikipedia akin to the Encyclopedia Britannica it is hard to fully accept something as fact when anyone can post there. 

So you are not disputing her basic premise that any woman should be able to have sex with any one at any time they want and if they cannot afford contraceptives then someone else needs to provide it to them.

You can’t actually be questioning the credentials of Clint Eastwood one of Hollywood’s legendary actors and directors. Perhaps if it was George Clooney speaking at the Democratic convention you could have gotten that tinkly feeling down your leg like you Dems are known to get.

Our biggest problems, Part two

This is Part 2 of an examination of The Red Ranger’s seven of “Our biggest problems” (see Part 1 here). We resume with…

 The Red Ranger:
Issue # 5: Rising gasoline prices 
Gas prices, which seemed to be heading downward several months ago, have now gone in the opposite direction and are nearing $4.00/gallon again; they may already be there in some parts of the country. In regard to gasoline prices I believe that this is one area where some greater control may be warranted. It has always baffled me how the impact of any negative event always has the immediate impact of increasing gas prices but the effects of positive events are always muted and delayed. I rate this impact as MINIMAL at this time, only because we have become accustomed to higher gas prices since Obama took office and made that his goal.

Nattering Naybob: There is very little that Presidents can do to influence gas prices. Any President is in a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” bind when it comes to steering the country towards sources of energy other than petroleum derivatives. If he (or “she”, someday, hopefully in 2016) takes steps to divert demand away from the oil industry, Republicans (and some Democrats from oil-producing states), cries foul. Regarding the charge that Obama “made [it] his goal” to increase oil prices, that is nothing more than another urban myth propagated by Republicans while sitting around their “Get Obama” campfire. In the March 13th edition of “The Fact Checker”, the Washington Post gave this bogus claim, “Three Pinocchios”. The article is a little lengthy but it covers all sides of whether he did or didn’t.

The Red Ranger: So in reading the article, Obama didn’t come out against higher gas prices initially but wanted to put more money in people’s pockets. Is this just another veiled attempt for wealth redistribution where lower income families would get more money to pay for their gas at the expense of higher income families. He didn’t come out against higher gas prices until he realized his initial statement was causing him grief. Also, Energy Secretary Chu, has stated that the US needs to get its gas prices as high as Europe. I have not heard Obama refute that statement and since Chu is part of Obama’s administration I have to believe he supports this position.

Nattering Naybob: I see… when Obama wants to put more money in people’s pockets, it is “wealth distribution”. When Obama is perceived as taking money out of people’s pockets, he is accused of… well, taking money out of people’s pockets. This is typical of the Modern Republican habit of ALWAYS having some kind of “yeah, but” response for every scenario no matter what happens. If Obama suddenly announced that he had discovered a definitive, final cure for cancer, your reply would be “he should have allowed the private sector to cure cancer”, or “what took him so long to cure cancer, he’s been in office over three years”, or “sure, he cures cancer NOW…. right before the election. What a cheap stunt”. Regarding the statements made by Chu, these were uttered BEFORE he joined the administration, and Chu recanted them subsequently, as outlined in an article in USA Today by David Jackson on March 14th, 2012:
 

As for Chu’s comment, White House spokesman Jay Carney said critics “who try to suggest that the statement of someone who wasn’t even in government at the time is somehow a more significant indicator of the president’s policy than the president’s policy are engaging in politics on this issue.” After yesterday’s Senate hearing, Chu himself said: “There is a real hardship that Americans are suffering at the gasoline pump. The recovery is fragile. Another spike in gasoline prices could put that recovery at jeopardy. So there are many, many reasons why we do not want the price of gasoline to go up.”

The Red Ranger: Chu recanted his statement so that gullible people like yourself would be fooled into thinking that this wasn’t the Energy department’s policy going forward.  Or maybe Chu really was so desperate for the position that he was willing to give up his stated beliefs and make a 180% change on policy  just to get the position (unlikely).  Am I to believe that there wasn’t one equal candidate to Chu out there who was on the record agreeing with Obama’s policy without having to recant prior statements.

….On to Issue 6: Stagnant wages
This is one of the major obstacles to future prosperity in the US. Unless you are part of a government union, meaningful wage increases are getting harder and harder to come by. As world economies become more and more intertwined wages are tending toward an equilibrium that is above those in third world countries but below those in developed countries thereby raising the standard of living in some countries and lowering it in others. I don’t really see how the US can grow with wages increasing at 2% and basic necessities increasing at 4%. We will all be doing without in the future. I rate this one as SEVERE.

Nattering Naybob: Not much argument here that wages are stagnant. I think that American workers as a whole have become the victims of their own productivity. Corporate profits are at an all-time high as detailed in this June article from business.insider.com, but wages remain, conversely, at an all-time low based on real-dollar adjustments. From my decidedly “un-studied” perspective, I think there are two problems with this, first, why would corporations high more workers if the ones the ones they have, keep taking on more responsibilities in the wake of the layoffs and downsizing of the last decade or so? Second, the workers who DO remain employed, trying to avoid the specter of unemployment in this tough job market, seem only too willing (understandably) to take on this extra work if it means saving their own job.

There are other factors to this, including the erosion of unions, woeful inadequacy of the minimum wage, the eagerness to send American jobs overseas to workers who are content to receive literally pennies on the dollar compared to wages (however stagnant) back in America… but these topics are too complex to talk about in this post, perhaps a future SGM offering.

The Red Ranger: Agree with your thoughts on workers. I certainly am constantly taking on more responsibilities but like you astutely point out that with my improved productivity I can take them on without as much hardship as in the past. I disagree with your comments about unions as I believe that unions are one of the biggest causes of our issues in the first place. Why do federal employees need unions (I believe that even FDR said that was wrong). The same progressives who tout the benefits of government largess are the ones who belong to unions to protect them from the evil government who may force them to work too much. Not to rile up our loyal readers too much but why do teachers need unions?  So now the Chicago teachers go on strike throwing 400,000 kids out into the streets of Chicago. Just what Chicago needs given the lawlessness that is running rampant there currently. If the teachers truly cared about their students they would work without a contract. If one kid who should have been in school gets killed during the strike they should throw the head of the teacher’s union in jail.

Nattering Naybob: Using the trademark Red Ranger reasoning, if a teacher invokes their contractual right to strike, and a child is “killed” as a result (specious as that connection may be), is that the same thing as when a Republican governor tries to eviscerate a police department, or cuts firefighters to pay for a tax cut for the rich, and someone dies as a result, is that governor responsible for the death? And please explain the criteria for forming a union? Why should public sector employees be prevented from forming unions? Or are you against the concept of unions totally?

The Red Ranger: Chicago teachers are just about the highest paid in the country and have the shortest workday. Chicago is facing serious financial challenges, funny how that happens when you have Dems in charge and they consistently spend more than they bring in. While they may have the right to strike that doesn’t make it the right thing to do.Just like the Dems, and you in a previous discussion, view the constitution as an outdated document that has not kept up with the times, I view unions as outdated and unnecessary except in a few limited conditions.

Nattering Naybob: I think you had a seventh problem, any chance we can defer this to another post?….

The Red Ranger: No…

Issue # 7: The fiscal cliff is coming
Given the current makeup in Congress I do not see how anything productive will arise on this problem. I am hoping to be pleasantly surprised but am not holding my breath. 

We are on the fringes of the perfect storm. Since the consumer drives 70% of the US economy we are on the precipice of a very long and scary decline. I just do not see any way around it at this time. The Fed cannot do much more to stimulate the economy. QE1 and QE2 have basically just kept us afloat. Any future QE will just do the same. If the Fed is doing QE 6,7 and 8 isn’t safe to say that the QE efforts did not work otherwise they would not have had to keep doing them.
Rating is ON HOLD, pending future decisions to address.

Nattering Naybob: My response is simple. Until both parties put aside their differences and come up with a plan in which they both give up something, and walk hand-in-hand “over the cliff”, so that one party does not seem to be solely wearing the black hat, nothing will get done with regards to the fiscal cliff. Hopefully after Obama is re-elected (a prospect that has become more likely since the respective Conventions, as reported by the reliably non-partisan and insightful political prognosticator Nate Silver), the Republicans will stop trying to impede Obama at every turn and realize that the American people come out the losers when partisan ideology trumps all.

The Red Ranger: No surprise that Obama gets a bump after the way the conventions were handled by the media.  Any short-term bump from the skewed coverage will shortly wear off after another dismal jobs report.  Maybe my next topic will be about the way the administration distorts the jobs figures. 

Natering Naybob: Another odious and tiresome Modern Republican tactic: Obama receives good poll numbers, it is the work of the fawning, liberal, “main stream media”. Obama receives bad poll numbers, “the American people are finally rejecting his Socialist agenda”. Red Ranger, we all understand the Modern Republican shtick, and we are tired of it.

The Red Ranger: I know you cling to the belief that CBS, NBC and ABC are the bastions of true and honest journalism but those days are long gone.

Our biggest problems, Part One

The Red Ranger: Just sitting around thinking about the issues impacting us at this time. I see seven specific areas of trouble, and will detail each one in this post, and a Part 2 post in a few days: These issues are: 1) lack of jobs, 2) rising government debt levels, 3) stagnant home prices, 4) rising food prices, 5) rising gasoline prices, 6) stagnant wages 7) the coming fiscal cliff

Nattering Naybob: Very thorough and imposing bill of particulars, Red Ranger. You must have been curtailing your viewing of the Deluxe DVD version of “Sarah Palin’s Alaska: Season One” to devote your time to more studious pursuits. OK, lay it on us:

The Red Ranger:
Issue 1: Lack of jobs.
There is no job creation in the US.  We no longer manufacture much of anything.  The service industry can only go so far if there is no one able to afford service since they are not working.  Our number one goal needs to be to bring back some well-paying manufacturing jobs to the US. In addition, we need to implement some serious efforts to keep jobs that we have in the US and not offshore them and to try to bring back other jobs that may have been off shored already. This would probably require some serious tax incentives which of course any good liberal would reject. We desperately need to increase the monetary pool of created value in the United States, otherwise we are just continually trying to redistribute the same shrinking pool of dollars. The Red Ranger rating on this issue: SEVERE.

Nattering Naybob: Agree on the corrosive effects of outsourcing, off-shoring, or whatever one wishes to call it. However I suggest you contact your Presidential candidate Mitt Romney (I know you have him on speed dial), who seems to be against the concept of bringing jobs back to America. This past January, after President Obama proposed the very same type of tax incentives you suggested, to bring manufacturing jobs back home, Romney said that this was not in the best interests of companies’ profitability, and that Obama’s proposal showed he is “hostile to free enterprise”. Perhaps if you tell Romney that your Red Ranger rating on this issue is “Severe”, he will call you immediately after he tells his next lie or flip-flops on his latest issue, now that his underwhelming Republican National Convention is over (more on the two conventions forthcoming soon.)

The Red Ranger: Did Obama propose those tax incentives at the same time he was vetoing the Keystone Pipeline that would have created thousands of jobs for the US? I fear that Obama has gotten us too comfortable with an unemployment rate of slightly more than 8%. The US citizenry has been brainwashed into believing that without Obama’s efforts the unemployment rate would have been so much higher so we should just be grateful at where it is now. Are your ready for my second issue?

Nattering Naybob: I suppose….

The Red Ranger:
Issue 2: Rising government debt levels
We cannot continue to spend at the levels we are. The deficit is a spending issue and not a revenue issue.  However, the situation is so severe that an increase in revenue is probably required to help get things stabilized.  We must control spending now.  This means not just reducing the level of growth but also reducing the total spending level.  This is one of the simpler things to fix but no one is willing to bite the bullet. The Red Ranger rating on this issue: SEVERE.

Nattering Naybob: I don’t think there is much debate that we need to curb long-term spending. However neither should we implement a European-style austerity program, as this has proven to be a dismal failure so far for the Euro countries. Nor should we cut spending just to then give millionaires yet another tax break, which Romney and Ryan (‘Ayn Rand’, as pointed out in a previous SGM post…?), want to do. I too am disappointed that Obama could not bring back the nation to the same surplus that we were left with under Democratic President Bill Clinton, a surplus that was promptly frittered away by George W. Bush. Perhaps you forgot about your most recent Republican President. The Republican National Convention, concluded to huge yawns last week in Tampa, certainly seems to have.

The Red Ranger: Can you provide an example of a European country where a fully implemented austerity program has been a dismal failure.  If this is true, than to use your frequent argument to explain why the stimulus failed (it was not big enough) then I would say that the austerity program was not austere enough. 

Please see this article, I like the headline: “Estonia and Austerity: Another Exploding Cigar for Paul Krugman”

Nattering Naybob: Now you have really crossed the line, Red Ranger. You have insulted Paul Krugman, America’s most accurate pundit!! Ordinarily nobody insults Paul Krugman to me and gets away with it, but since I know you are still smarting over the Giants’ Week 1 loss to the Cowboys, I will let you off the hook this one time. Watch it in the future though.

The Red Ranger:
Issue 3: Stagnant home prices.
I say “stagnant” only because home prices have already fallen 20-50% from their peaks and probably will not fall much further.  Given that interest rates are already near rock bottom and they will probably rise in the future, interest rates should not be looked at as a potential boon to the housing market. The only thing that would drive up home prices at this point would be an increase in worker’s wages.  However, that is unlikely. The Red Ranger rating on this issue: MODERATE (only because the majority of the damage has already been done.)

Nattering Naybob: I believe in our inaugural “Second Grade Minds” blog, The Red Ranger blamed the housing market crisis on Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter (you spared Franklin Delano Roosevelt from your wrath, for which I am grateful.) But since you and your lovely family own your own home (as does one of my brothers), I sincerely hope home values rebound.

The Red Ranger:
Issue 4: Rising food prices
Drought is wreaking havoc with corn, wheat and soybean crops driving up prices that will ultimately be passed along to the consumer.  The Red Ranger rating on this issue: MINIMAL for now. However, future years of poor harvests will rapidly raise the impact to moderate or severe. We should be planning right now based upon the assumption that we may have another year of poor crop output.  At least then we can hopefully avoid a crisis situation and if it turns out the next crop is a bumper one then at least we should have learned something from our preparedness.  One thing we have not had to endure in the US is a full-fledged food shortage and I hope we never do. 

Nattering Naybob: Beyond the specific issue of prices (I need to run some more pricing algorithms based on the past 100 years of food pricing based on region, climate, etc.), I see two central issues with food: a) most Americans today, including probably myself, eat too much of it, and b) too much of it is wasted. Amazon.com can now get the latest iteration of “Grand Theft Auto” to a customer anywhere in the country on a same-day basis, yet we cannot get surplus food routed to people who need it. A terrible failure of the vaunted American Ingenuity, if you ask me.

The Red Ranger: Yes, we do all probably eat too much.  I know I have been known to down a few White Castle Cheeseburgers in my day.  One of the things that I firmly believe is that no one should go hungry in the US unless of course you are a lazy Occupier who wants food delivered to their encampment. I would love to know how much food is discarded by supermarkets. One of the things that I would like to see would be to have the food stamps program (now known euphemistically as SNAP) transitioned into a food delivery program so that people are actually getting healthy food with their benefits. This should be fully supported by loons like Bloomberg since then the government can fully control what people eat. Oh well, time to head over to Burger King for my super colossal bacon cheeseburger with a giant Slurpee and mega fries cooked in trans-fat and smothered in salt.

Nattering Naybob: Your dietary choices, like your politics, is unfortunate. Question: Why is it OK for the government to dictate what lower-income people eat, via SNAP, but not OK for the government to dictate what people eat if they buy it on their own? I think I know what your answer will be, The Red Ranger, but we will wait for next time on that. I think we have given our small but loyal band of readers enough to chew on for now (get it? “Chew on”?….)