Blog Tools
Edit your Blog
Build a Blog
RSS Feed
View Profile
31 May, 10 > 6 Jun, 10
19 Apr, 10 > 25 Apr, 10
22 Mar, 10 > 28 Mar, 10
5 Oct, 09 > 11 Oct, 09
14 Sep, 09 > 20 Sep, 09
7 Sep, 09 > 13 Sep, 09
24 Aug, 09 > 30 Aug, 09
11 May, 09 > 17 May, 09
23 Mar, 09 > 29 Mar, 09
2 Mar, 09 > 8 Mar, 09
15 Dec, 08 > 21 Dec, 08
11 Aug, 08 > 17 Aug, 08
9 Jun, 08 > 15 Jun, 08
2 Jun, 08 > 8 Jun, 08
26 May, 08 > 1 Jun, 08
19 May, 08 > 25 May, 08
24 Mar, 08 > 30 Mar, 08
17 Mar, 08 > 23 Mar, 08
10 Mar, 08 > 16 Mar, 08
4 Feb, 08 > 10 Feb, 08
28 Jan, 08 > 3 Feb, 08
21 Jan, 08 > 27 Jan, 08
3 Dec, 07 > 9 Dec, 07
6 Aug, 07 > 12 Aug, 07
12 Feb, 07 > 18 Feb, 07
5 Feb, 07 > 11 Feb, 07
8 Jan, 07 > 14 Jan, 07
23 Oct, 06 > 29 Oct, 06
4 Sep, 06 > 10 Sep, 06
28 Aug, 06 > 3 Sep, 06
14 Aug, 06 > 20 Aug, 06
24 Jul, 06 > 30 Jul, 06
17 Jul, 06 > 23 Jul, 06
22 May, 06 > 28 May, 06
15 May, 06 > 21 May, 06
24 Apr, 06 > 30 Apr, 06
17 Apr, 06 > 23 Apr, 06
10 Apr, 06 > 16 Apr, 06
3 Apr, 06 > 9 Apr, 06
27 Mar, 06 > 2 Apr, 06
6 Mar, 06 > 12 Mar, 06
6 Feb, 06 > 12 Feb, 06
30 Jan, 06 > 5 Feb, 06
16 Jan, 06 > 22 Jan, 06
19 Dec, 05 > 25 Dec, 05
12 Dec, 05 > 18 Dec, 05
26 Sep, 05 > 2 Oct, 05
18 Jul, 05 > 24 Jul, 05
27 Jun, 05 > 3 Jul, 05
30 May, 05 > 5 Jun, 05
18 Apr, 05 > 24 Apr, 05
21 Mar, 05 > 27 Mar, 05
14 Mar, 05 > 20 Mar, 05
7 Mar, 05 > 13 Mar, 05
28 Feb, 05 > 6 Mar, 05
7 Feb, 05 > 13 Feb, 05
31 Jan, 05 > 6 Feb, 05
24 Jan, 05 > 30 Jan, 05
17 Jan, 05 > 23 Jan, 05
10 Jan, 05 > 16 Jan, 05
3 Jan, 05 > 9 Jan, 05
27 Dec, 04 > 2 Jan, 05
20 Dec, 04 > 26 Dec, 04
13 Dec, 04 > 19 Dec, 04
8 Nov, 04 > 14 Nov, 04
1 Nov, 04 > 7 Nov, 04
25 Oct, 04 > 31 Oct, 04
18 Oct, 04 > 24 Oct, 04
11 Oct, 04 > 17 Oct, 04
4 Oct, 04 > 10 Oct, 04
27 Sep, 04 > 3 Oct, 04
20 Sep, 04 > 26 Sep, 04
13 Sep, 04 > 19 Sep, 04
6 Sep, 04 > 12 Sep, 04
30 Aug, 04 > 5 Sep, 04
23 Aug, 04 > 29 Aug, 04
16 Aug, 04 > 22 Aug, 04
9 Aug, 04 > 15 Aug, 04
2 Aug, 04 > 8 Aug, 04
26 Jul, 04 > 1 Aug, 04
19 Jul, 04 > 25 Jul, 04
12 Jul, 04 > 18 Jul, 04
5 Jul, 04 > 11 Jul, 04
28 Jun, 04 > 4 Jul, 04
21 Jun, 04 > 27 Jun, 04
14 Jun, 04 > 20 Jun, 04
7 Jun, 04 > 13 Jun, 04
31 May, 04 > 6 Jun, 04
24 May, 04 > 30 May, 04
17 May, 04 > 23 May, 04
10 May, 04 > 16 May, 04
3 May, 04 > 9 May, 04
26 Apr, 04 > 2 May, 04
19 Apr, 04 > 25 Apr, 04
12 Apr, 04 > 18 Apr, 04
5 Apr, 04 > 11 Apr, 04
29 Mar, 04 > 4 Apr, 04
22 Mar, 04 > 28 Mar, 04
15 Mar, 04 > 21 Mar, 04
8 Mar, 04 > 14 Mar, 04
1 Mar, 04 > 7 Mar, 04
23 Feb, 04 > 29 Feb, 04
16 Feb, 04 > 22 Feb, 04
9 Feb, 04 > 15 Feb, 04
19 Jan, 04 > 25 Jan, 04
12 Jan, 04 > 18 Jan, 04
1 Dec, 03 > 7 Dec, 03
6 Oct, 03 > 12 Oct, 03
4 Aug, 03 > 10 Aug, 03
28 Jul, 03 > 3 Aug, 03
21 Jul, 03 > 27 Jul, 03
14 Jul, 03 > 20 Jul, 03
7 Jul, 03 > 13 Jul, 03
30 Jun, 03 > 6 Jul, 03
23 Jun, 03 > 29 Jun, 03
16 Jun, 03 > 22 Jun, 03
9 Jun, 03 > 15 Jun, 03
2 Jun, 03 > 8 Jun, 03
26 May, 03 > 1 Jun, 03
19 May, 03 > 25 May, 03
12 May, 03 > 18 May, 03
5 May, 03 > 11 May, 03
28 Apr, 03 > 4 May, 03
21 Apr, 03 > 27 Apr, 03
14 Apr, 03 > 20 Apr, 03
7 Apr, 03 > 13 Apr, 03
31 Mar, 03 > 6 Apr, 03
24 Mar, 03 > 30 Mar, 03
17 Mar, 03 > 23 Mar, 03
You are not logged in. Log in
Entries by Topic
All topics  «
Click dates for Archives
Don Burns Homepage
Saturday, 22 August 2009

The Congress is trying to put together a national health "something".  Not sure if it's a policy, insurance program, plan or what have you because they are not sure.

Some say it has to have a public health option. Some don't.   Republicans unanimously want a change and to have a national health program run by the insurance companies.  Then someone points out that they already have that so they declare a victory for change and do nothing.

Democrats  on the other hand agree on nothing and want to shoot the Republicans for not agreeing with nothing. So they line up their  firing squad in a circle.  The Republicans will duck.  They always do, and the Democrats end up shooting themselves.....again.

In the meantime the President says he'll support whatever comes out of the Congress.  Since he knows by now what that is....he went on vacation.

Meanwhile working class people are showing up at town hall meetings, which have nothing to do with healthcare, to protest the federal program they are most likely to benefit from because it is "socialism".  So are highways, public schools, the police, courts and practically every government agency.  Go figure.

There is an old saying that God looks out for small children, drunks, imbeciles and the United States of America.  Appears to be true. 


Posted by donburnshomepage at 9:29 PM EDT
Updated: Thursday, 3 June 2010 5:20 PM EDT
Post Comment | Permalink
Sunday, 10 May 2009

It's official.  Colin Powell is no longer a Republican.  

Not because he changed his registration.  He didn't.

Not because he said he no longer was a Republican.  He hasn't said that.

Not because the party expelled him......yet.

No.  He's no longer a Republican because former Vice President Dick Cheney says he isn't.  

God has spoken.

As for those few remaining voices of reason like Bill Bennett who say there is still room in the GOP for moderates.  They fail to add the part about the prerequisite of keeping their mouths shut and following the party line. 

So......If you have a masochistic bent, unquestioning loyalty to hypocrisy, enjoy being used and call yourself a moderate the New Republican Party wants you.  Well, really all they want is your vote.... and your silence.


Posted by donburnshomepage at 11:33 PM EDT
Post Comment | Permalink
Thursday, 26 March 2009

Chapter II "Where did all this money come from and why doesn't anybody want it?"

 In the Wiemer Republic (Germany after WWI) money became so plentiful that it wasn't worth the value  of the paper it was printed on.  Reason:  The government printed more than it could back up and people believed it was worthless.  As a result, it was.

One of the fears the Republicans (and a handful of Democrats) worry about is too much money that can't be paid for will make it worthless and it will take a wheelbarrow full of it to buy a newspaper.  The official name for this is "Inflation".

 So, between the potential for inflation where we run out of money and so much debt we can't pay it back or pay the interest on it to boot, the Republicans have a good point.  Their alternative is business as usual which was taking us into a Depression where we wouldn't have any worthless money to pay off the debt the Republicans already gave us.

If any of this is right it's a matter of picking your poison.  On the other hand, we are talking about politicians and their track record for being right.....is usually wrong. 

 


Posted by donburnshomepage at 1:07 PM EDT
Updated: Thursday, 26 March 2009 8:21 PM EDT
Post Comment | Permalink
Tuesday, 24 March 2009

Economics 101, Chapter I 

The President is starting to take a few hits about all the money we are spending to replace all the money that was lost that no one can find.

Course' the folks that lost it ain't talking about who they are or where they put it which sort of raises the question of, where did it go?

 I figure it this way.  Now suppose you own stock worth $100 bucks.  (For the big time players just add a lot of zeros to this number).  Suppose the stock drops dramatically to half its value and you now have $50 dollars worth of stock.  Where did the other fifty bucks go?

If I gambled at the casino and lost, I know where it went.  The casino and the state got it.  So who got my stock money?  Obviously the companies that sold the stock.  And they lost it to wherever they spent it and can't pay it back with dividends 'cause they lost it to someone else and their profits are down, but somebody else got it, and they're not moving it on.

So all the President is doing is shelling out replacement money for the money that isn't being spent to keep the economy moving until such time as the people holding the money decide to spend it or loan it to someone who will.

Tomorrow:  Chapter  II  "Inflation"  or "Now I got so much money nobody wants it".

 


Posted by donburnshomepage at 8:39 AM EDT
Post Comment | Permalink
Friday, 20 March 2009

 

 

 

 

 

 

AIG motto: 

"Never will so few take so much from so many for so little."

 

 


Posted by donburnshomepage at 9:39 PM EDT
Post Comment | Permalink
Wednesday, 4 March 2009

Welcome, to the Great Recession.  That's the latest buzzword for the fix we are in. 

For those of us that are old enough to remember the Great Depression or know somebody who does, I suspect we have a ways to go yet.  Sometimes it's hard to know where one stage ends and the next begins.

But the best way to tell is:

In Boom Times you can afford a car. 

In a Recession you can only afford the gas for the car, providing the car is already paid for. 

In a Great Recession you can't afford the gas even if you still had the car, which has been repossessed.

In a Depression you hope you know a friend who has a car and will give you a ride. 

And in a Great Depression your friend's car stopped running three years ago.

 


Posted by donburnshomepage at 10:48 AM EST
Updated: Friday, 20 March 2009 9:32 PM EDT
Post Comment | Permalink
Monday, 2 March 2009

Well what do you know.  AIG has done it again.  They have lost more money.  At this point they seem to be losing it faster than the government can replenish it.  Probably the parties.  The government is shoring up Citibank too.  Seems they are running a contest with AIG to see who can lose the mostest the fastest.

And then there is GM and Chrysler waiting in the wings to spend our money too. Probably waiting in their planes.  They don't drive their cars.  

Of course the big Kahuna looming in the background is "what happens if and when the government runs out of money?"  Not to worry, they're insured with AIG.

 

 

  


Posted by donburnshomepage at 9:14 AM EST
Updated: Wednesday, 4 March 2009 10:32 AM EST
Post Comment | Permalink
Saturday, 28 February 2009

One might have hoped that with a new President, a Democratic Congress, and the Republican inspired financial meltdown that put Democrats in power that the Republicans would have learned something.  Doesn't appear to be the case, at least not if you listened to Rush Limbaugh, the self appointed leader of the Conservative  wing of the Republican Party (translation: what's left of The Republican Party).

Speaking at the National Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, Limbaugh who previously stated he wanted the President to fail, which sort of implies that the rest of us will go down with the ship too, railed at Democrats, Liberals and the remaining moderates in the Republican Party (all two of them, there used to be three but I left in November) about how the country was going to go to hell in a handbasket with the President's economic policies.  His message seems to be that Conservatism failed only because it wasn't conservative enough.  Translation: the cure for poisoning is stronger poison and more of it.

Considering that for six of the past eight years the Conservative Republican Party had the Presidency, the Supreme Court that elected him, both houses of Congress and most of the governorships and state houses and have managed to just about duplicate 1929 all over again, pardon me for being skeptical. 

I can't tell you that what the President is going to try and do will work, but I can tell you what hasn't worked and what got us in this mess to begin with and if he should meet Mr. Libaugh's hopes and expectations and fail because the hole was too deep to begin with, Limbaugh's solution will be in 2012 to turn the government back over to the clowns that dug the first crater because they know how to dig better holes?


Posted by donburnshomepage at 8:44 PM EST
Updated: Wednesday, 4 March 2009 9:20 AM EST
Post Comment | Permalink
Tuesday, 16 December 2008

I see where the President was quite taken with himself today in how he deftly dodged two 30mph fastshoes from an Iraqi reporter at his news conference in Baghdad.  Personally, anybody that can chuck an oxford with that kind of accuracy and reload speed has my admiration any day.  Another 20 mph and he'd have gotten his man.

George convinced himself that the fellow was just looking for notoriety.  So, as usual, the point that was being made was about thirty miles over his head.  It hasn't yet dawned on him that this Iraqi fellow doesn't like him any more than we do, he is just a little more creative with the tools at hand.  

It would just never occur to an American that a Tom McCann penny loafer had any other use than walking.    

 


Posted by donburnshomepage at 12:20 AM EST
Post Comment | Permalink
Monday, 11 August 2008

The President deplores the Russian invasion of Georgia and rightly so, but where does he think they got the idea.

Their argument is that they are saving the people of South Odessa (a breakaway Georgian province) from the Georgians, just like we saved the Iraqi's from the other Iraqi's.

Unless President George plans to send in troops, and at this point in time about all he has left is the Girl Scouts, he tends to sound a bit naive and doesn't have any moral ground to stand on.

Perhaps he could convince the American people that the Russians might be developing weapons of mass destruction and intend to launch a nuclear attack on Peoria or Brooklyn and we need to invade Russia and get them before they get us.  After all, it worked before.  Only problem is....this time they have and they could, so don't bet that he's going to do anything but talk.....I hope.

 


Posted by donburnshomepage at 11:36 PM EDT
Updated: Saturday, 28 February 2009 11:11 PM EST
Post Comment | Permalink

Newer | Latest | Older