Stuff and things.
Been off this pony for a couple of weeks - kind of unusual for me, frankly - so I'm just going to run through a few items. Bear with me.
Guns, guns, guns. The sickening Connecticut grade school massacre appears to have moved the discourse on guns a bit over the last week, as you might expect any mass slaughter of innocents should. Call me a cynic, but I've reached the point where my expectations are extremely low when it comes to finding solutions to national problems. Once all of those young, young (too goddamn young) people are in the ground, my guess is that the backpedaling will begin in earnest. We are dealing with a hard core of tri-corner hatted fanatics, driven by an industry hungry for profit. "Take away our 30-round ammo clips and next you'll come for our flintlocks!" With each outrage we imagine reaching a turning point, but it never seems to come. I'm ready to be pleasantly surprised, but... it would indeed be a surprise.
Fiscal cliffhanger. Boehner can't get his conference to approve even a massive tax cut extension that includes many of the richest people in the country (like those who earn up to $1 million a year - know anyone like that?). That's because the outgoing House cohort was sent to Washington to wreck the place and the country in the process. They know no other way, frankly. Give them the wheel, and they'll drive us into the ditch. So if anyone is pinning their hopes on a majority of House Republicans discovering reasonableness over the next week and a half, keep dreaming.
Moral hazard. HSBC has been hit with a record fine, but no executive at this massive money-laundering operation will be going to jail. Why? I've heard suggestions that regulators worry about undermining public confidence in the banking system, but that doesn't even pass the laugh test. If they send some banker to jail for knowingly facilitating bank transfers for drug cartel thugs in Mexico, that banker will be replaced by another suit who might just have the fear of God in him/her, having seen his/her predecessor hit with criminal charges. If they let bankers get away with paying a fine that represents maybe a single quarter's profits, they're giving them the green light to break the law again and again.
One nation. Two justice systems. That simply cannot stand.
luv u,
jp
Guns, guns, guns. The sickening Connecticut grade school massacre appears to have moved the discourse on guns a bit over the last week, as you might expect any mass slaughter of innocents should. Call me a cynic, but I've reached the point where my expectations are extremely low when it comes to finding solutions to national problems. Once all of those young, young (too goddamn young) people are in the ground, my guess is that the backpedaling will begin in earnest. We are dealing with a hard core of tri-corner hatted fanatics, driven by an industry hungry for profit. "Take away our 30-round ammo clips and next you'll come for our flintlocks!" With each outrage we imagine reaching a turning point, but it never seems to come. I'm ready to be pleasantly surprised, but... it would indeed be a surprise.
Fiscal cliffhanger. Boehner can't get his conference to approve even a massive tax cut extension that includes many of the richest people in the country (like those who earn up to $1 million a year - know anyone like that?). That's because the outgoing House cohort was sent to Washington to wreck the place and the country in the process. They know no other way, frankly. Give them the wheel, and they'll drive us into the ditch. So if anyone is pinning their hopes on a majority of House Republicans discovering reasonableness over the next week and a half, keep dreaming. Moral hazard. HSBC has been hit with a record fine, but no executive at this massive money-laundering operation will be going to jail. Why? I've heard suggestions that regulators worry about undermining public confidence in the banking system, but that doesn't even pass the laugh test. If they send some banker to jail for knowingly facilitating bank transfers for drug cartel thugs in Mexico, that banker will be replaced by another suit who might just have the fear of God in him/her, having seen his/her predecessor hit with criminal charges. If they let bankers get away with paying a fine that represents maybe a single quarter's profits, they're giving them the green light to break the law again and again.
One nation. Two justice systems. That simply cannot stand.
luv u,
jp
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