Monday, September 16, 2013

CALCULATING NO CHANGES WHAT-SO-EVER


CALCULATING NO CHANGES WHAT-SO-EVER

(Via Karl, Strategic Economic Decisions, Habatchii)

(Rob Port, USA Today, Frazer Chronicle)

 

And you thought gridlock was a recent history only phenomenon, wrong desert breath, gridlock has been practiced by government here in the United States even before there was a grid that could be attached to a lock. Shortly after the turn of the twentieth century…..circa 1918-1919 there were the first reminisce of gridlock…..between horse drawn wagons and those horseless carriages, and it was frightening to the locals.

 

Gridlock in the beginning was little more than a traffic jam without movement caused by the blockage of key intersections within a grid of streets…..hence, gridlock. Politicians picked up on the term quickly by the 1920’s, or the newspapers of the day coined the phrase; it’s hard to track down who exactly was responsible for the term.

 

But without much fanfare the political sector that worked the halls of Capitol Hill in Washington were soon embracing the term as well as the concept of the word. Many people as well as politicians have been angered by how Washington operates under the guise of working as politicians when what they actually were doing was…..nothing what-so-ever.

 

STALEMATE

 

Probably a better term for what happens on Capitol Hill these days would be stalemate, now there’s a kind of neat word, stalemate. You’ve got everything going with this word, something that is stale; having lost freshness, effervescence, or palatability, lacking originality or spontaneity. Law having lost effectiveness or force through lack of exercise or action. Hard musty, or dry, flat taste, (beer) and no longer new.

 

Yes definitely, stalemate needs to replace gridlock in the political arena that is our halls of legislature, laws, bills and acts that are debated every day. What is happening on Capitol Hill is all of the above…..plus. It might also be called at stand-off, halt, or standing in place. Yes-sir-ee, stalemate needs to replace an outdated word in political jargon, out with the old and in with the new…..stalemate forever.

 

From the very beginning of our nation, there has been a differing of opinions…..on everything; I guess it’s the nature of our political beast. Different ways of looking at issues is the American way, its part of what has made our country what it has been.

 

However once a majority had settled an issue it used to be time to move on to other meaty issues, and to do the job that these jokers were hired to do, get on with the work of the republic, working always towards a common goal, because after all, no matter a person’s political taste, at the end of the day everybody was an American.

 

POLARIZATION

Another great word that describes our political process would be the word polarization, again you have everything in just one word, there’s Pol, ar, and ization! I’m not sure what ization means, but pol, and ar could be like a pol for pole-vaulting, and ar could be a shorter word for are…..I’ll have to work on ization.

 

Does this sound funny, or stupid, well yeah I can see where some people would look at it that way…..but remember I’m just one guy with no political power what-so-ever, my decisions only effect me, and possibly my wife, but when our elected officials practice the game of politics using terms like gridlock, stalemate, or polarization, sometimes millions of people are effected…..adversely.

 

Polarization is actually no way to operate a country’s government, again because next to nothing gets done. There is much consternation today about our dysfunctional government and the seeming run-away spending emanating from Capitol Hill and our legislature.

 

And it is true; by far the biggest expansion of government spending and departmental creation came under the Bush administration between 2000 and 2008. Pushed by a war on terror the Bush era administration took advantage of politicians and much of the civilian population caught up in patriotism, and a news media that was dead at their word processers, to spend money in an epoch manner seldom seen in American history.

 

In addition they, (Bush administration) developed the biggest department in the history of the United States under the guise of protection. In the process the actions by the Bush war-time administration did exactly what Bush said he wouldn’t do; create more gridlock, stalemate, and polarization. The word roughshod comes to mind with regards to explaining what the Bush White House did.

 

ANTONIN SCALIA

Here is a direct quote from a speech that Scalia gave in the fall of 2011, “Gridlock is a sign that American Government is working,” close quote. Talk about a person who is completely out of touch with Americans, it sounds like Scalia is a man with a paper behind, and no’s little of what he’s talking about…..and he’s a member of our Supreme Court! Next time Tony it would be advisable to keep your opinions to yourself.

 

Of course it’s healthy to debate an issue…..from all sides, however at the end of the day, like I said, politicians need to come to some sort of compromise, settle the issue and move on to other work. The way things are now in our government, local, state, and federal levels, nothing gets done, and whether you use gridlock, stalemate, or polarization to explain how our government isn’t working we need to get our political forces into the same camp at the end of the debate, compromise, that’s how America works.

 

Pessimism is ubiquitous throughout the Western World as the issues of massive debt, unemployment issues and an anemic economic growth divide both the U.S. and many Western countries into warring political camps, Right and the left ideologues deflect talking points, one to the other side of the aisle all day…..every day, almost no matter the issue.

 

Unless the left meets the right, there is really no telling how long our nation, our way of life, and under what conditions that we work will last. Because down at the end of the road, it is impossible for us all to maintain deficient spending…..and that’s the facts Jack!

 
HAVE A NICE DAY!

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