Is There A Need To Rub Your Nose In It?

For a record breaking (for me) 3rd time, I’m pasting in yet another copy of the same photo, in an attempt to illustrate a point that still isn’t sinking in with the American public, hence use of the words “rub your nose in it” in the title of this screed……

The Odd Couple? Mmm, not so much anymore.

That guy on the right of the happy couple above who seem to be nearly walking hand in hand, he’s the President Of The United States of America, Mr. Barack Hussein Obama II.  And that guy who is on the left? Well, he’s Jeffery Immelt, the C.E.O. of the General Electric Corporation, a man who was recently appointed by that very same President Obama to head the President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness. This may be the all time ironic definition for “Fox in the henhouse”, a description that is soon to be found in Wikipedia with a photo of Immelt.

Sleep tight tonight, your eggs are safe!

In charge of “Jobs and Competitiveness”? Mr. Immelt is a key player in off-shoring thousands of jobs at G.E. to more “competitive” working environments (which should be read as “cheaper labor“). If you’re reading this while on a flight at +/- 25,000 feet in the sky, be aware that General Electric makes jet aircraft engines that until recently went through their maintainence and repair at strictly monitored facilities in the U.S., but now that work is outsourced to distant repair stations in China, Singapore, El Salvador, the Philippines and Mexico and other far away locations with strange sounding names, at which many of the other major fleets of American-based airlines also undergo their maintenance.  I’m not sure I’d want to be onboard a flight in some JumboJet that was checked over or repaired by some “Close cover before striking school of aircraft maintenance” graduate who was hired by a lowest contract labor bid plan.

An example of cheap labor savings?

Full disclosure; while serving in the U.S. Air Force a few decades ago, I was a grunt like the guys mentioned above, turning wrenches as a test cell and flight line mechanic on jets that were then state of the art aircraft like the  C, D, and E series of the F4-Phantom, all of these were powered by the General Electric J79-15 engines. Because of the fact that many of my fellow mechanics who later went on to work with the airlines showed up drunk or stoned (hey, it was the late 60’s after all), I never took the Air Force up on their offer to have a flight around the high desert area in the front tourist seat,  which they had offered to me in the hopes that I’d re-up. I’m sure that they just didn’t pick up on my feelings about lifers, or they wouldn’t have bothered to make that offer.

An example of the sort of Baby Burners I worked on

Please note that I’ve used the uppercase “C” for corporation in the top paragraph because the Supreme Court of the United States has recently ordained that corporations are now and forevermore to be considered persons, which says they may be only a bit more intelligent than the average Fox news viewer.

N.B., The ownership of any and all photos, opinions, and/ or quotes above (including those of my own) belong to the material’s creator(s). Credit is given when it’s known, but as always, success usually has a million parents and failure is an orphan.

Feel free to ignore any ads that are shown below this advisory, I don’t get to choose them and even more sadly, I don’t make a penny off any of them, so in the holy name of capitalism I rebuke and don’t endorse or support any of them, unless of course they’re made of funny stuff…..  

P.S., check back for occasional updates and rewrites….

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Are You As Mad As Hell Yet?

Do you find yourself saying the words Peter Finch said while playing Howard Beale in the film Network, “I’m as mad as hell,. and I’m not going to take this anymore!!”?

More than anytime in my memory we are nationwide in need of recall campaigns to remove the filth, scumbags, jerkoffs (not necessarily in that order, fill in the descriptive derogative of your choice) politicos that oozed their way into office complements of the tea party a-holes last year, especially but not limited to the governors of Michigan, Wisconsin, and that egregious thief in Florida. These true are true “Know-Nothings”, supported by media hacks with buzz words and well scripted conservative talking points, who received financial aid from the Uber-wealthy to gain entry into that office, and have created a massive and needless panic with perfect solutions to problems that don’t actually exist.

People’s Exhibit “A”

Equally guilty and in dire need of serious re-education programming (or a solid bitch slapping) are the ones who are (in theory, anyway) against the jerks listed above, but will never do anything out of fear of losing their privileged position by revenge seeking conservatives. It’s clear that for those who seek an elected office there are only two real jobs for them; 1. Get elected, and then 2. Get re-elected. That’s it, and anyone (or as has been shown now in the case of corporations, anything) that helps in that quest gets rewarded before too long.

People’s Exhibit “B”

The easy first step would be to do whatever is possible to make political life a bit less attractive to the dilettantes, the ones that don’t place the actual needs of the public first, and this could be as easy as ending the gift of medical insurance of any kind to any elected official, make them purchase their own coverage which will not be subsidized in any way by taxpayers, and see how long their war on Obamacare continues. This would be followed by the removal of their subsidized rents, airfare, cars or other transportation that isn’t clearly used 100% in serving the public interest.

Next? We will need to find some way to make every lobbyist have every one of their sponsoring employers / clients listed, and provide us with a careful audit showing the travel of every penny or other perk passed along in any form of a bribe that passes through their grubby hands. We as a country need to know who pays who, i.e. who pays to influence “OUR” law makers and how much they pay them.  At this moment, the only apparent exceptions to the very long list of politicians who are deep into someone’s pocket seem to be Representative Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), and U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (Vermont), there are no others that I’ve been able to find, much less verify as even close to being strictly kosher…..

The ownership of any and all photos, opinions, and quotes above (including my own) belong to the material’s creators, credit is given when known.