Occupy Your Street

Just ask yourself, how long will this Occupy ____ Street last? Ask also how does it compare to the so-called Arab spring movements that we have seen this year?

And the real McCoy is this: Will the occupy movement (or whatever it is) escalate into a general action? What if there was a one day strike, as spontaneous as it could be?

Would that give it some gravitas?

My proposal is something of a compromise.

And by no means immediate.

File your taxes two days late. Exactly two days late.

Just to show you are paying attention.

Herm Cain Breaks Through, Rick Perry Boldly Follows

Herm Cain has peaked. Maybe.

But what a peak. His claim to faim, (it wasn't the deep dish Thursday specials at Godfathers...), was his tax plan, unrealistic though it is.

Now Rick Perry says "me too!"

A Flat tax is not the best idea, but its simplicity and lack of places to hide invites support, and Rick, seeking the proverbial port in the storm, has signed on.

His yet to be enunciated plan is rumored to be a flat 17% and excuses business from taxation, (Social Security has not been mentioned yet), and puts more of the national budget on the working poor and lower middle class, but lets not spit hairs right now.

The point is that the dam has broken.

Herm Cain did it.

update 1: Newt Gingrich has become a flat tax wannabe. More will follow is Herm can keep his momentum until December. I half expect a Romney tax proposal.

Just for the record, none of these ideas will happen, but they do translate well to media time and donations in the mean time.

here we go again

2012 just ain't gonna be your year!

Politics is politics, not a lot can be done to change that. Everybody has an opinion about the state of the nation and what needs to be done to set things right, (and unsaid with that is what things need not be done, so as not to upset the apple cart in what the individual feels are critical areas. I have my thoughts and you have yours, it's only human).

Like a small and unnoticed minority of Americans, I have been following the GOP debates and have been impressed with the huge disconnect between what most candidates say and what they have done in the past. The media has noticed it, and when any aspect is pointed out they are quickly painted with some epithet by Sarah Palin or Rush Limbaugh or one of the other apologists as "libtards' or "lamestream" or something to cover for the fact that there is no real explanation for the fact gap.

The gap is not good. The actions of the candidates are not necessarily bad, or indefensible, or representative or some flaw in character, but they do represent a failing to face reality when standing in front of people that they want something from.

I think that is one of the foundations of Ron Paul's attractiveness as a candidate. What you see is what you get, even if it is nuts. Chris Christie is, in many respects the same way. He has a talent for delivering a "yeah I did it, so what?" answer in such a way that it disarms without too much offense. He is also smart enough not to get into a shit throwing contest with people who would do what they are doing to get a job that they cannot do to enhance a reputation that (probably) cannot be enhanced.

So, how will the year turn out? (Besides not too good?).

Right now, I think that the GOP nomination will go to Herm Cain or Mitt Romney, and either one can be beaten by Obama. (Whether that will happen is anybodies guess...). In a Romney/Obama matchup, truthfully, it would be hard to distinguish between the two candidates in terms of platform, anything Romney says in terms of arch-conservative rhetoric would be seen as just that, (based on past performance as opposed to lip service), and he would suffer from the tepid support of the tea party and the fundamentalist factions, though I suspect that they are much magnified by the volume of their vocals. He would have the advantage of being able to bully the Congress a little bit, taking from them the mantle of "loyal opposition". But he would have to deliver, damn quick, or the GOP would suffer a fate similar to the one that Herbert Hoover bequeathed upon it.

A Cain/Obama matchup would be a bit different, but he would be the Obama of 2012, the man with simple solutions to complex problems. He would also have to problem of wanting to undo the popular things that Obama got through. Nevermind that they were done badly, they were done, like the Chiefs winning a game for once, a win is a win. He is a bit too much of an ideological purist, and his ideas, that sound really good, often don't survive a fifteen minute debate without some serious doubt.s being raised.

It ain't that easy, and above all else, none of the GOP candidates has a good explanation for why these plans embed, preserve and in some cases extend advantages to their own pet constituencies, (yes, that means the wealthy, but usually specific subsets of that overused term).

Any mention of that results in charges of "class warfare". Well, we seem to be in one, why not call it what it is?

Then there is Ron Paul.

At least the guy means what he says. I don't think he can get from where we are to where he wants us to be without completely destroying western civilization, but the guy has some balls.

His son is an asshole. Period.

Like I started with, 2012 is not going to be a banner year for anybody.