PRETENDING A DEAD TEENAGER IS STILL ALIVE

Reporters for the late News of the World hacked into a missing teenager's cell phone and DELETED MESSAGES, which almost certainly led the police to think that she was still alive. Instead, she had been murdered.

What kind of person thinks that a headline news story is worth contaminating a child's murder investigation?

News of the World was owned by News Corporation, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch.

When Rupert was questioned by the British Parliament, there was no "the buck stops here" response.Rupert blamed the whole thing on subordinates.

There are A LOT of rumors that the phone hacking was part of a corporate culture of breaking laws and paying large sums of hush money if caught breaking laws.

SPECULATIVE CONSPIRACY THEORY:

I have always wondered if the 2008 financial meltdown was done on purpose.

If the meltdown was done on purpose, who was in a position to effect such a meltdown?

If you own the Wall Street Journal and the Dow Jones Industrial Average, then it is pretty easy to manipulate the "public opinion" of Wall Street. If you also own Fox News, then it is pretty easy to blame the entire meltdown on the wrong people.

I think that the motive might have been to return us to the 19th Century. Some people are angry that too many women and minorities are getting "uppity" and "do not know their place".

We can not have a free and equal society if rich men are allowed to use the media to distort the truth.

GOOD ADVICE NO ONE WILL TAKE

The Republicans are using the Tea Party as a stalking horse. (A complex concept. See Wikipedia.) Nixon used his Vice President Agnew as his stalking horse.

The stalking horse is the one who gets all of the blame. The person using the stalking horse almost always gets the credit. Being a stalking horse is generally highly risky. The only reason to use a stalking horse is so you can leave the stalking horse "hanging in the wind" if necessary. ("Hanging in the wind" is an Agnew quote.)

Republicans are setting the Tea Party up to take all of the blame for the deficit budget raise the credit limit mess. No matter what happens, unless the debt ceiling is raised without changes to Social Security and Medicare, the Tea Party is probably history.

I agree with many in the Tea Party on legalization of marijuana. A libertarian in the Tea Party has already joined in introducing HR 2306, which will make marijuana an issue for the states, like alcohol.

I strongly suggest to the Tea Party that they trade being reasonable about the debt ceiling for votes to legalize marijuana.

The political life they save will be their own.

WATCH OUT FOR FRAUD -- FEAR MAKES YOU STUPID

People are starting to get afraid that there will not be a deal on the debt ceiling.

PLEASE DO NOT BUY AND SELL STOCKS AND BONDS RIGHT NOW. Right now the stock market is a game for insiders, some of whom will lose their shirts. While the US is deciding on the future of social welfare programs, the stock market is going to be erratic.

DO NOT INVEST IN a easy way to make money that you got from the internet. DO NOT SEND MONEY in order to get some amazingly large amount of money. THIS IS ALWAYS A SCAM.

I do not understand why we have to risk chaos in order to insure funding for the sick, for college students, for schools, for the SEC (who we need more than ever).

Republicans are now a one trick pony. NO TAXES, NO TAXES, NO TAXES.

TRASHING JUSTICE

California Courts are going to have to lay off hundreds of clerks and commissioners. (Commissioners are not judges, but they act as judges for the simpler cases.)

Attorneys will still get their clients' cases heard. But the people who cannot afford to hire an attorney will have trouble getting the attention of the overwhelmed judges. Listening to, and helping, the people who try to represent themselves takes time, The judges will be having trouble just getting through the huge number of cases they have been assigned. If a person has trouble speaking in public, they may be unable to get any sort of justice from our courts.

For years, people have worked to make justice more available to everyone. The programs developed to help people get divorced, take care of a sick persons, and other necessary legal work, are going to be gone, because there is no funding for them.

For thirty five years, I have been quietly working, in my own way, to help the courts provide justice for everyone. Now I am seeing the work that I, and countless others, have done is just being thrown away on the grounds of "we will never agree to raise taxes".

WE HAVE ONLY OURSELVES TO BLAME. If the Democrats do not instantly give us what we want, we do not bother to vote. If you are working to save the trees, but the forest you love gets cut down, you say, "Well, I just won't vote for anyone then."

Now we are all seeing our lifes' work get ruined.

If you were working to improve education, all of your work to do things like lower class size is now trashed.

If you were working to improve the support system for the sick and elderly, most of your work is being trashed.

If you are working to research space, inner space, or any science, your work is in danger of being trashed.

If you were working on improving our infrastructure, your funding is going away.

If you were working on improving the economy, your work is being trashed big time.

ALL OF THIS BECAUSE, if you did not get exactly what you wanted, YOU DID NOT VOTE.

Can you fix this? Yes, call your Congressperson and tell them you do not want to use raising the debt ceiling as an excuse to trash all of the social progress we have made over the last thirty five years. Then give at least $25 to the Democrats. Let the Republicans know that if they again endanger the world wide economy, they will be history, like the Wigs.

FOX NEWS AND THE LONDON PHONE HACKING

Did you know that Fox News is owned by the same person who owned the News of the World, of London phone hacking fame? Rupert Murdoch owns News Corporation which owns Fox New and the recently defunct New of the World.

If you have not been following the phone hacking scandal in Britain, you may not know that reporters working for News of the World hacked into the phones of celebrities, royals, and murdered children. It is now coming out that the police may have either helped or turned a blind eye. Certainly the police never bothered to even read all of the evidence they collected regarding the hacks.

I have always wondered how Fox News could continue to get so many people to believe in so many incorrect things. Fox News LOVED the birth certificate insanity. Fox News slanted its coverage so that the idea of invading Iraq seemed like a good idea. Yet you all still listen and BELIEVE. I guess fiction is WAY more fun than facts.

Murdoch may be our generation's William Randolph Hearst. Hearst is the newspaper owner who helped start the Spanish American War so that he could sell more newspapers. Hearst also campaigned against marijuana, cheerfully telling lies that the DEA still repeats.

I remind you, THOSE WHO DO NOT REMEMBER HISTORY ARE CONDEMNED TO REPEAT IT.

DO NOT PANIC ABOUT THE DEBT CEILING

No matter what happens regarding the debt ceiling, it is important for us "little guys" to NOT PANIC. Do not sell ANY investments until the market settles down.

History tells us that a US government shutdown will not last very long.

The debt is not really anywhere as large as the media keeps saying. About 32% of the 'debt' is owed to other US governmental agencies. This is sort of like you 'borrowing' from your vacation savings, which is not at all the same as borrowing from the bank. This means that comparing the US debt to other countries MUST take into consideration the amount of debt the other countries owe to themselves. (This is why my Dad would say that the biggest lies are told using statistics.)

Now is a really stupid time to play debt ceiling chicken. (Chicken is a game where young idiots drive cars aimed at each other until one of them turns away.)

But the issues this time are really important. The Republicans want to keep all tax breaks for the rich, and cut Social Security, Medicare, and essential services for the poor. Many of the newbie Republicans are unwilling to listen to advice regarding the reality of politics. These newbies remind me of the tenderfoot in the Old West. (Death rates for a tenderfoot was even greater than the death rates for people who play chicken.)

Running a country requires a combination of pragmatism and idealism. Idealism on its own usually leads to disaster for the idealist.

A shutdown coming in August will close the Washington Monument and the Smithsonian museums, leaving tourists with nothing else to do but yell at their Congressperson.

Please Congress, save us all the hassle. Give the President the authority to raise the outside the US government debt by up to 100% of GDP. Give the President the authority to authorize borrowing within the US government.Then everyone can either praise or blame the President for the debt.

BILLS -- HIDING THE PAST DUE AMOUNT

Since the recession, many of us are a little behind on our bills. Some of us were ALWAYS behind on our bills. Delay in bill paying even has a physiological diagnosis -- bill paying anxiety.

Lately, it seems to be a new policy to have the phone computer tell the customer only the total amount due, not the past due amount. The theory seems to be that, if you do not know the past due amount, you will pay the total amount due. Instead of doing what the companies want, customers just wait to talk to (or yell at) a customer service representative.

Additionally, the extra hassle makes the customer less likely to be eager to call and pay the bill.

I know, you think I am totally weird, because I do not pay my bills on line.

I do not pay my bills on line, because I know how the internet works. You can protect your own computer, and the company can protect the data on its computer, but the information going from your computer to the company's computer is totally unprotected. Companies could provide an encryption so that the data going to and fro is protected, but they do not.

When I pay bills by making a phone call, the company can store my phone number. I notice that many companies add an extra layer of identity questions if I use an unusual phone to pay a bill.

It should be as easy as possible to pay a bill. It should be just as easy to pay the past due amount as the full amount. Playing games with necessary information just angers the customer and delays the paying of any amount of money to the company.

THE DEBT CEILING MESS -- RISKING ANOTHER MELTDOWN

The debt ceiling is really just the government authorizing itself to borrow more money. If we do not borrow more money, then we either default on our debt or most of the federal government stops working.

Why do we care? Don't you remember? "THE FINANCIAL MARKETS RUN ON TRUST, WITHOUT TRUST, THERE IS NO MARKET." Failure to raise the debt ceiling will almost certainly cause a lack of trust in the financial markets. Are we so stupid that we would deliberately risk another global financial crises?

Republicans are refusing to authorize an increase in the debt ceiling unless the Democrats agree to take money from the old and the sick.

Republicans like to ignore the fact that most of the debt was caused by the Bush Administration cutting taxes for the rich and spending WAY TOO MUCH. Then the debt was raised again in order to increase the supply of money to prevent a world wide depression. The sudden drop in the supply of money was caused by the Republican notion that we do not need financial regulations. No one predicted the drop in the supply of money, because no one could believe that any large company would be so stupid as to agree to insure almost every mortgage in the US.

Surely you know people like these Republicans? We all know at least one person who will loudly blame other people for a mistake he/she made.

We do need to work towards a balanced budget. Cutting some of the tax loopholes would help. Raising taxes for those earning over $250,000 would help. Cutting social services is only helpful on paper. In reality, cutting social services causes great difficulties for our most vulnerable citizens; and causes a drop in the GDP, which cuts into overall government revenues.

Republicans are risking the financial health of the US and of the world. I think they do this just so they can have a good slogan for next year's election.

I am afraid that Democrats will have to risk a world wide financial crises in order to protect the old, the poor, education, and our infastructure.

All so Republicans can brag that they held a tea party. Too bad that they are dumping old people instead of dumping casks of tea.

ATTRACTIVE, INTELLIGENT, AND SUCCESSFUL

Some people who are attractive, intelligent, and successful believe that they will always be attractive, intelligent, and successful.

For women, it is usually the attractive that is the first to be gone. Our society only considers young women to be attractive.

Intelligence can be taken by injury or stroke.

Success is the most fragile of all. Success can disappear overnight. Your company may go bankrupt, you may get fired by a boss who spreads incorrect rumors of your incompetence, a new concept may make your life's work irrelevant, the government may decide to stop funding your research.

It is easy to be a libertarian if you are attractive, intelligent, and successful, because you have no personal knowledge that bad things happen to good people.

Sometimes I think that we should make everyone spend a week living in a homeless shelter.

Other times, I think that nothing will teach empathy. For those who continue to live life as if it were an extension of high school, nothing will teach them that the rest of us have value.

I do not want to stop the rich from enjoying and spending their money. I just think that the rich can afford to pay a little more in taxes.

I do not understand why anyone would take from the poor to give to the rich.