There are days like yesterday where I was feeling emotionally down, but all in all, I have plenty to be thankful for. The attached article states that one in eight Americans is on food stamps right now. That is HUGE!!!!

We all know at this time the pay differential between the boss class and the hourly class is higher than it has ever been. Just after the bailout, bonuses are reaching record numbers. By the same token, foreclosures just keep marching along. You are just one medical bill away from that in most cases. and more people need unemployment and health care.

This administration faces larger issues than any since the Great Depression. The debt is increasing, the WORLD financial system had to be bailed out. There is little real manufacturing done in our country. The are two wars that were finally put on the books (in case you did not know the Iraq war was completely off the books, let someone else pay for it. Like your grandchildren. all that for the oil rights, that really are going to corporations, many of whom are not American anyway. Great deal for Shell.) Someone is going to have to reign in defense spending. Whoever does will be painted as unAmerican!!!! Medical costs are skyrocketing. There is no consensus that insurance coverage and the current rules are bad. Single payer is anathema to the right--How will companies survive with out the free market? The incessant whine is amazing. The national debt just keeps getting bigger! The bail out-- did it work? The world market did not fail. So in that sense it worked. You could have given money to every American with a bad mortgage and helped them refinance and maybe have gotten better results. Less foreclosures means less junk mortgages and higher property values all around.

Speculation aside, people are angry that they have lost their jobs, their houses, are on the government dole, have less health insurance and so on. Oh yes, credit card rates border on usary right now, too. Rates are changes becasue they can be. The consumer credit card protection bill goes into effect 2013, so you can bet rates will be increased to max, so card companies will maximize their profits until then, screwing people until the 2012 election. And if business wins the next election, the bill will be overturned and they get to keep their higher rtaes.

There is an increasing anger and there will be a concommitent rise in populism. Period! People know they are getting screwed. They don't know by who. and they will latch on to the loudest, angriest voice to lead them. If the far right gets its shit together, they will reap the harvest of the anger, even though the "supple side" economics--can we all sat "trickle down" together? really does not help anyone, except those making the rules and deciding how much they want to trickle down. Yes, I will buy that second Porsche today so we will help pay the wages of one truck driver to deliver it. Oh, and maybe a stable boy to help polish it.

The dems need to get on the stick and make themselves look populist, at least. Otherwise it will be a quick power cycle and all the news will be that the populist Republicans led by Sarah Palin and her ilk (I can see it now, Palin and Bachman, what a ticket!) could win. Currently that won't happen. Look at upstate New York. However, more people get angry and united, who knows what could happen? Break up banks too big to fail, go after credit card companies now, save Americans money, get a jobs program and the country will be Democratic for 40 years!

This to the middle bipartisanship will only doom the Democratic party. It may be good for the country, but...

Just a small taste of why health care insurance sucks. 1) I have had a number of Xrays and stuff on my knees. I can use them as flashlights at night if I care to bare the kneecap when walking the dogs after dark. I spent almost three hours on the phone making sure my doctor was on their list for knee replacement. No problemo. Schedule the surgery and then Explanation of benefits come back for routine exams stating "Doctor out of network!" Call and they said "oops, my bad." So one year of treatment and visits out the window, start looking for a doctor again. and start all over, for the third time. 2) my wife received a concussion one night while walking the dogs. They started to run, caught her unawares and she fell and smashed head on the sidewalk. A neighbor who witnessed this (I was out of town on business) took her to the emergency room. We received an invoice for a very large amount for her treatment. The hospital was covered, but the particular doctor who was on duty was out of network. So we pay 80%. When you go to an emergency room, do you need to check the hospital, the janitor, the doctor and the nurse beforehand to ake sure they are all in network? The helpful insurance representative stated we needed to check to see if that doctor was in network after we got the hospital to avoid such an incident. 3) My wife had a migraine and we waited to take her to an urgent care center, so it would be covered. Even though I could find them on the insurance list, they couldn't. and the billing done by a third party they couldn't find so I lose.

the deck is rigged, folks.

rojo