Yesterday was my birthday. I awoke in a fog. For the past three nights I had been gigging, getting back late, and getting up earlier than I would have liked. It started out slowly, but what a day....
I spent most of the day hiking with my wife Andria and friend Drew. We headed up to the Longmont Reservoir on a picture-perfect Colorado summer day. On the way up we saw three huge Golden Eagles, gracefully and efficiently performing their concentric figure-eight hunting loops over the hilly terrain. Andria, as always, seemed to draw birds to our location. Soon we were inundated with a variety of species. It was one of those moments that defies description and is the real reason I love Colorado so much. The afternoon light of the red rocks of the foothills; the scent of pine on a warm breeze; the cobalt-blue sky above with thunderheads billowing off to the east; the river rushing over the rocks. Just perfect. Soon we reached our destination, a little cove along the the reservoir that was ideal for poaching a dip in the surprisingly warm water. It was a perfect place to relax and swim.
And we were not the only species to think so. As we got settled, we noticed pile after pile of cat feces and began to notice an aroma of cat urine. The more we looked around, the more we saw. It was a giant, well used Mountain Lion Litter Box. When Andria dove into the reservoir, she loosened a big rock as she jumped. The loosened rock somehow ejected a hearty serving of Mountain Lion poop into the water, and the floaters seemed to chase her around as she tried to get out of the water. All in all, there was a sizable area that was just literally covered in Cat Scat. You would think that there would have been a huge African Lion-sized pride of Cougars sunning about on the rocks all over the place. We didn't want to find out what their schedule was, and the sun was starting to get pretty low in the sky. Enough was enough. Time to leave!
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Supply and Demand: Simple Economics
30+ years of of aggressive deregulation, wage suppression, unchallenged monopolies and policy written for the corporations by the corporations for the sole purpose of accessing the US Treasury as as a primary income model have created a system in which all political action is now tethered to the profit motives of the trans-global mega-corporations. This system will fail due to basic supply/demand economics. If the bulk of the working population of any nation cannot afford to purchase goods and services without resorting to various forms of credit, there is no real economy.
There is nothing in our nation's history to suggest that we can survive in conditions where the majority of citizens have no meaningful non-credit based discretionary income available to them at the end of the month to purchase anything. Our nation's wealth and power was built on this concept and it is no longer applicable.
This has nothing to do with partisan politics. The terms 'conservative" and "liberal" have lost their meaning in what passes for debate in current times. The solutions to this problem are actually not that complicated when you remove the partisan blustering that is carefully designed to confuse, cajole and distract us from the simple essence of our current economy and direction as a country. The first steps as I see them are: Term limits, reinstating Glass/Steagal, amending the CFTC Modernization Act, and reinstating all relevant aspects of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act.
I absolutely believe that a free market cannot function with sane, fair regulatory oversight.
There has never been a more profitable and guaranteed business model than no-bid subcontracting from the US government. The entire necon model is predicated on removing "free market" risks and acquiring direct access to the US Treasury and it's Fed-controlled printing presses. All types of trans-global corporations now employ this as either their primary income model or at least their guaranteed backstop to risk. Clearly, unfettered monopoly capitalism cannot succeed without direct access to to our tax base. Corporate Socialism is the ultimate, and predictable, expression of the hard fascism these special interests have sought to guarantee their income models.
Sickly ironic, the entire psuedo-Libertarian concept of the "free market" as the ultimate impartial regulator of all transactions is in fact the polar opposite of the current increasingly fascist system we now have in place. And there is no better guaranteed income stream than to be on the supply side when the demand is artificially generated by a nation on permanent "war footing". As someone who actually embraces the concept of a sanely regulated free market, this entire bill of goods sold to the American public is totally offensive. We can have a smaller government that actually enforces common-sense regulation and oversight.
There is nothing in our nation's history to suggest that we can survive in conditions where the majority of citizens have no meaningful non-credit based discretionary income available to them at the end of the month to purchase anything. Our nation's wealth and power was built on this concept and it is no longer applicable.
This has nothing to do with partisan politics. The terms 'conservative" and "liberal" have lost their meaning in what passes for debate in current times. The solutions to this problem are actually not that complicated when you remove the partisan blustering that is carefully designed to confuse, cajole and distract us from the simple essence of our current economy and direction as a country. The first steps as I see them are: Term limits, reinstating Glass/Steagal, amending the CFTC Modernization Act, and reinstating all relevant aspects of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act.
I absolutely believe that a free market cannot function with sane, fair regulatory oversight.
There has never been a more profitable and guaranteed business model than no-bid subcontracting from the US government. The entire necon model is predicated on removing "free market" risks and acquiring direct access to the US Treasury and it's Fed-controlled printing presses. All types of trans-global corporations now employ this as either their primary income model or at least their guaranteed backstop to risk. Clearly, unfettered monopoly capitalism cannot succeed without direct access to to our tax base. Corporate Socialism is the ultimate, and predictable, expression of the hard fascism these special interests have sought to guarantee their income models.
Sickly ironic, the entire psuedo-Libertarian concept of the "free market" as the ultimate impartial regulator of all transactions is in fact the polar opposite of the current increasingly fascist system we now have in place. And there is no better guaranteed income stream than to be on the supply side when the demand is artificially generated by a nation on permanent "war footing". As someone who actually embraces the concept of a sanely regulated free market, this entire bill of goods sold to the American public is totally offensive. We can have a smaller government that actually enforces common-sense regulation and oversight.
Let it begin.
So here it is, my first blog. Late to the party? Indeed. Why now?
I have been posting all over the place for years. Huffington Post, The Denver Post, various music sites and blogs, guitar forums, even some sports related forums and more. It seems I have a lot to say, that I enjoy the give and take of debate and conversation (and rant-oriented feedback), and I would like to have one place to collect the whole shebang.
Mostly, my online presence has been focused on music. I am a singer/songwriter/guitarist and music is my passion and my profession. I just released the first of two "back-to-back" records in mid-June. Like everybody else who seeks to navigate the internets in hope of turning a wide swath of humanity on to their music, I am experimenting.
At first I thought it would be better to have some sort of separation between my music world and my political/philosophical/sports/guitar excursions. I subscribed to the idea that in the age of ultra-saturated media bombardment, where it seems that everybody in the music world (and obviously many other fields) feels compelled to abuse social media with cloyingly trite personal and biographical details ( "OMG, I'm like so tired!"), I would sit it all out as best I could and let the music speak for itself. Why contribute to and endless sea of twittering banality, devoid of meaning and so heavy in volume that the whole process loomed like a bland, monolithic and impenetrable fortress sinisterly designed to increase our collective Attention Deficit Disorder? Why would anyone gain further interest in my music and gig schedule because I chose to describe my breakfast? And would my political and religious views ( even my sports takes) alienate potential fans?
I was over thinking it. And I was looking at the whole enchilada the wrong way. This is an opportunity. My main underlying philosophy is to trust yourself, be yourself, think for yourself and be a kind, loving person. Honesty and compassion. As an avid reader and someone who is passionate about a whole variety of life's offerings, starting a blog seems like a good idea. So welcome, and thanks for indulging me.
I have been posting all over the place for years. Huffington Post, The Denver Post, various music sites and blogs, guitar forums, even some sports related forums and more. It seems I have a lot to say, that I enjoy the give and take of debate and conversation (and rant-oriented feedback), and I would like to have one place to collect the whole shebang.
Mostly, my online presence has been focused on music. I am a singer/songwriter/guitarist and music is my passion and my profession. I just released the first of two "back-to-back" records in mid-June. Like everybody else who seeks to navigate the internets in hope of turning a wide swath of humanity on to their music, I am experimenting.
At first I thought it would be better to have some sort of separation between my music world and my political/philosophical/sports/guitar excursions. I subscribed to the idea that in the age of ultra-saturated media bombardment, where it seems that everybody in the music world (and obviously many other fields) feels compelled to abuse social media with cloyingly trite personal and biographical details ( "OMG, I'm like so tired!"), I would sit it all out as best I could and let the music speak for itself. Why contribute to and endless sea of twittering banality, devoid of meaning and so heavy in volume that the whole process loomed like a bland, monolithic and impenetrable fortress sinisterly designed to increase our collective Attention Deficit Disorder? Why would anyone gain further interest in my music and gig schedule because I chose to describe my breakfast? And would my political and religious views ( even my sports takes) alienate potential fans?
I was over thinking it. And I was looking at the whole enchilada the wrong way. This is an opportunity. My main underlying philosophy is to trust yourself, be yourself, think for yourself and be a kind, loving person. Honesty and compassion. As an avid reader and someone who is passionate about a whole variety of life's offerings, starting a blog seems like a good idea. So welcome, and thanks for indulging me.
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