Saturday, January 10, 2015

Gaslight Theater

"[The TARP program] repaid taxpayers every dime and more of what my administration invested in you."

Then Obama leaves Michigan and flew to Phoenix to talk about housing in terms responsibility and recklessness empathizing with responsible folks that fell victim to forces beyond their control, the "market plummeting ." While somebody else was acting irresponsibly, poof, there goes the next paragraph in smoke.

"Weather on Wall Street, or folks who weren't responsible in terms of how they were dealing with their real estate -- ordinary families got hurt bad ."

Empathy.

Filling up the room with empathy.

Then off to Knoxville Tennessee to a State Community College to speak about the centerpiece of his education agenda, as you know, to make community colleges free because a quality education cannot be a thing reserved for a few.

I used to think that. If having degrees is so important then a degrees really should be free to the young person getting it but not free to society, because they ae expected to use it is some way or another upon graduating. So yes, pay for it and when the person continues on to  employment their debt becomes repaid. It's an investment in educated citizenship. I used to think that.

I still kind of do. I thought we are doing it already. There is a weeding out process that determines if one is up to it. And teaching can be a lot less expensive and probably will be.  Obama would like to see federal government changes that put federal government in the central role while changes in education occur elsewhere. There is a lot you can learn online. Plus people like to explain things. I can find pretty much any answer I want because all those people out there like to explain things. They give it to you for free.

When the Oreck portable overheated last night due the intake tube being jammed with styrofoam bits my first instinct is ask the internet how to fix it. That was after my first instinct was ask the internet how to put the bag replacement door back on, expecting a diagram.

I could be a plum-uh!

I passed thirty semester hours by taking exams. Certifications will replace traditional degrees. A boss is going to want to know if a person can do something and certifications give that assurance.


All this is on the American Elephant written by The Elephants Child, a group of some 11 writers. In a column titled Practicing up For the State of the Union Speech!


State of the Union?!


I'm invited? To watch the State of the Union? Thank you. This is such an honor.

*mops bathroom floor instead*


The writer at Elephant mentions but does not specify where the claims are made, here and there that Obama says 2014 was a breakthrough year with 240,000 new jobs. The group disputes this. They question his motives and they describe his behavior in unflattering terms.

The piece begins stratghtforwardly, "Obama is out campaigning and making speeches, his favorite thing to do, in preparation for the upcoming State of the Union Speech.

I visualized Joe stuck in Phoenix airport, his flight disrupted by Obama's plane. He had just told me.

There were thirteen planes lined up for takeoff and held back so out there on the tarmac in queue then second from front, the pilot realized he hadn't enough fuel so  turned back. Stuck as passenger in the fuselage for so long and having his appointments in Denver disrupted. Today he mentioned the traffic to the airport before all that, with streets blocked off.  I asked how many passengers on the plane. He said 138 and I imagine the ripples of disruption he described multiplied by that many, and then by the other planes full of people all going somewhere and payed for it that didn't have to return for more fuel but were still disrupted, to make way for a president's plane -- with one man and his posse. Wherever a president goes the ripples of disruption emanate like rings by his presence, as if with every single footstep disruption ripples outward.  Disruptions he cannot imagine all at once with each footstep, if even anecdotally, even away from everybody else out there a tarmac.  At the peak of Joe's irritation he talked about giving up flying altogether knowing full well that will not happen and I could tell even then he was put off by the president just a wee bit pleased to have a good story. Because I heard it twice.

10 comments:

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

Last night's episode of Star Trek TOS was The Squire of Gothos. That's the one where the bad guy is Trelaine, who was the progenitor of Q. I know that because I'm so highly educated. Credentialed, too.

The guy who played Trelaine was pretty good, I thought, and he doesn't come off at all like a homo, which I should think took considerable effort on his part.

The intertubes tell me that his name was William Campbell, which is kind of an ordinary name, but he got to bang the crap out of Judith Exner, with the full approval of God and the State of California, so he must have been an accomplished stickman.

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

It has been said a million times by a million people - Obama has his a speech, and little else. Wrapping his blind faithful around his finger with words of hope. It's mostly empty promises, contorted truth, false optics, half-truths and lies - and it causes much disruption to regular people, but it sure sounds nice.

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

The most recent episode of The Big Bang Theory was something of a disappointment. The warm-and-fuzzy between Leonard and Sheldon reminded me of the worst excesses of M*A*S*H. What was Larry David's directive for Seinfeld? Oh, right. No hugs, no growth.

Anyway, that bit about Raj and his anxiety was obviously contrived so we can finally get to find out that he's really an observant Hindu. Bogus. Tacking on the dumb cliche that science and religion are perfectly compatible made a bad thing even worse.

Oh well. Not every batter hits a home run.

Some Seppo said...

Emperor 0 the First touted Tennessee's successful "free" CC program. The law was passed in '14 and no one has been educated for "free" yet, so it's just another "hey we made a statement of our concern, don't question us about followup" typical of the misadministration.

Funny enough, our program in TN is actually funded by Lottery money, Obama's is funded by powdered unicorn horn sales.

Unknown said...

Eric - we have the seasons 1-5 - which are still pretty funny.

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

It took a while, but I've finally gotten used to Penny's new hair.

Progress!!!

ricpic said...

"Weather on Wall Street...."

The weather on Wall Street's frightful,
But commissions, they are delightful,
As long as the churning grows
Let it snow let it snow let it snow...

Leland said...

Gaslight... that' exactly how I took the free community college education speech. He makes a pledge, he does the turn, but the prestige is nearly status quo. So Obama says "free community college", the press says "this is new" while others note "this is just wrong", and then a memo goes out to regulators "hey, look the other way on late payments to federal student loans until my tenure is up".

He did the same thing with immigration last month. When you really think about it, he did the same with healthcare. On healthcare, if this was really his main priority, do you think he would have not known about the website problems until it made the news? Do you really think he knew and is lying or will you consider he was making a pledge, while actually planning to spend more time on the links?

Gaslight Theater is a good term for it.

I'm Full of Soup said...

I'd love to see a detailed list of who got what from Tarp and how much each paid back- I'd bet we lost money on it despite their claims we didn't. They just make shit up and no one asks for the proof.