Random Thots:

Well damn! Inflation is up and expected to continue that way. Interest rates are up, and expected to continue that way. Gasoline prices here in Eastern Carolina are $2.35 and expected to continue to rise. The stock market, where Dear Leader wants you to invest your Social Security retirement, is down about seven percent for the year. Joblessness appears to be OK, but that seems primarily to be illusion created because people have stopped looking; nonetheless, there aren’t a lot of jobs being created.

I listened to an interesting piece on NPR last week. Morning Edition did a piece on a young couple who had come down from a small mining town in WVA to Hickory NC to look for “good” jobs. Hickory apparently is a job-hunting destination from the Mountain State - both are on I-77.

What no one had told them was that Hickory had lost over 20,000 “good” jobs since 2001. A “good” job being a job in a factory making furniture or textiles or clothing. The few jobs being created were in retail or needed more education than these kids had: high school and ninth grade.

After living for five months or so with an aunt, they packed up and went back to the hollow. There the husband owned the home that he had inherited and at least they could find some sort of work an hour or so over the mountain - now if only the gas prices stay low.

So what’s your point Cranky?

It occurred to me that our “leaders” in Washington should have higher priorities than impeaching judges who are doing what they are paid to do, destroying most of the New Deal, and passing even more tax cuts for the super rich - hell just modifying the elimination of the speciously named “Death Tax” could fix the Social Security “problem.”

But after all, they’ve got their real job to do: pandering to the religious right, selling their soul to the corporations and the fatcats, and running for office. I don’t know why I bother.