Opening Eddie Jones to Celebrate the Great Recession!?

There will undoubtedly be a ribbon cutting and a pic on the front of The Pioneer for the new brick Edward Jones east of town. I don’t know about you, but haven’t recovered from the Great Recession, and it’s given me permanent qualms about the financial industry.

This past week, we celebrated the 10-year anniversary of the fall of Lehman Bros. Much of America will never recover, & none (not one) of the perpetrators is in jail.

Curious about previous recession and depressions I went on line, found this, and recommend it highly: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/were-bankers-jailed-in-past-financial-crises/

It essentially says no bankers or financiers went to jail after The Great Recession or the Great Depression, but we did better after the Savings & Loan crisis. Several of the people did time: Charles Keating, David Paul and other biggies. A slew of ordinary people were chewed up, stood in bread lines, lost their homes, etc.

A critical eye with subtraction skills observes that 1) greed, 2) lack of regulation and 3) American Dream excess brought us these horror shows in 1929, 1980, and 2008. They are becoming more frequent, and student debt may bring the next one on in 10 years, according to some reports.

Eyeball Rolling & Head Shaking at City Council

 Cascade City Council is drowning in discussions of the tennis court and drainage problems at the Community Park!

Though an hour long, the late August meeting discussion left me exasperated and not a lot wiser. It featured much head shaking by Mr. Rausch and eyeball rolling by the city administrator.

 A citizen, Dick Atchison, repeatedly suggested moving the excess water to the west, which nobody bothered to point out won’t work—if that’s what they did think! You can’t run water uphill, unless you install a sump pump, which is v. costly.

Somebody should have said, “Look, that won’t work or it costs too much, or we don’t care to do anything till the rest of the issues are solved." Or whatever.

Wonder of wonders: Terry Gravel appeared at the early Sept. meeting and told them there isn’t enough fall there to put in drainage tile. So they will try to move part of a berm and make some other slight adjustments, but there you have the wages of the sin of building anything where Mother Nature decides she wants to drain water.

A Smelly City Situation You Didn't Read About in the Pioneer

     After the Hometown parade, sitting in the beer tent somebody suggested I start publishing The Cascade Interpreter again. (Well, we were drinking!)
     "God Forbid!" I said, "Dead skunks in my mailbox, and working from 5 a.m. till midnight."
     However, by bottoms up I decided a council rundown here on Critical Eye Q might be a good thing. Cascade certainly should know what was discussed at special meeting the last Monday of July, with no other reporter or citizen there. I went to complain about farmer west of me spraying fungicide, (I presume) while there were kids in the pool and on the playground.
     The first half of the meeting featured Marty Hoffman & Phil Gehl, city workers, describing a smelly situation that exists on the water line servicing the Bent Rim and residences in that area. The water smells so foul their clothes stink when they do laundry. Not to mention how it tastes.
     In hot weather, Phil & Marty are obliged to flush the line. They explained water the city pumps from the aquifer has a small amount of ammonia in it. When that combines with the fluoride & chlorine the city adds and then gets in the old, lead pipes, (I presume, though, nobody really knows) the chemicals interact and the water stinks to high heaven.  Worse in hot weather. 
     The remedy is obvious: a new water line, but, of course, there isn't any money.  The second half of the meeting told us more about that than the first. Mayor Greg Staner laid out projections for new city growth, which he said would have to happen north of town, because we are hemmed in on the south side by the river. Hardly, there is already a big development there.
      In short, what the city cares about more than its obligations to its existing and long-time residents, is getting more. Development, growing no matter the cost.

Casting a critical eye on the scene I didn't complain about the fungicide. After an hour, I was convinced nobody gave a damn anyway. What they care about is growth. I went home.

     

What IS Wrong with Us?

Aren’t you a little concerned about the overall American IQ? I mean, What is with us?

Friday the European Union put in place a new set of privacy regulations to keep guys like Gates and Zuck in line. Their immediate response to the Cambridge Analytica scandal--already the EU has regs in place, which we may even benefit from.

Tho’ there is this from the UK Register:

 The UK's official registrar of businesses and organizations, Companies House, lists an active company called Emerdata Limited, headquartered at the same offices as SCL Elections and run by much of the same management and investors as Cambridge Analytica. It even describes itself as a "data processing, hosting and related activities" organization.

Nonethelesss, the feckless U.S. House and Senate did nothing.

Australia had a mass shooting 19 years ago in Port Arthur. An intellectually challenged young man shot 60 people. Thirty-five died, and the country promptly organized a gun buy-back. Hasn’t had a mass shooting since.

We have almost one a week, many take place in high schools, and still nothing.

Anybody with a critical IQ has to wonder about the IQ of the American populace. Other countries can do it. Why not us?

Royal Pain the Pocketbook

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle got married yesterday, and the hoopla was horrific. You can watch it again this aft. on IPTV, if you can bear it.
Guarantee yourself as long as the hoi polloi will turn out for over-the-top occasions financed by their own tax bucks/£, the royals will continue to stage them lavishly.
Social justice costs money especially in these days when the population of the world is burgeoning and many jobs being consigned to robots. Spending money on social justice is just not the amusing spectacle a royal wedding is. We would rather give loud lip service--a ranting black bishop from Chicago. Make no mistake, the people paid for every one  of those flashy uniforms, all that gold braid, flowers, horses, carriages, hats, hairdos etc.
An aristocracy that includes a black actress is no less an aristocracy, and no more a bargain.

Let them eat bread and circuses. Or royal pain-in-ass wedding cake. Though in the run-up to the thing, I heard that the commoners invited had to bring their own bag lunch. Sounds par for the course.

My Birthday Wish: Punch Right to Life

It’s my birthday, so do a get a wish? I’d like: to punch the head of Right to Life in the face. Myriad reasons. I believe they are the organization behind the most embarrassing legislative bill ever, (The Heartbeat Bill) which the governor signed (embarrassing herself) yesterday making Iowa the laughing stock of the 50 states.

That’s not my real beef, though. It’s that they are so out-of-touch. Principally with the reality that human population is totally out of control, and the environment will not survive the rise to 8 billion of us predicted in the next dozen years.

The Science types keep describing what is going to happen; it keeps happening and R to L only doubles down.

Now, they are totally over the line. They’ve posted a big billboard urging “Compassion” for somebody who wants to die. Now there is compassion! And logic! I you have a right to life, you have a right to die.

If somebody wants to, buy him/her a drink, thank him for service to the environment, and let them alone. There is no right to life or liberty, if there is no right to deal with it as you believe.

Why Must We Praise Scumbags When They Croak?

The best thing that could be said about Barbara Bush is she never had a facelift. Nonetheless, when she died this week, the usual paroxysm of eulogizing ensued.

Of course, it wasn’t as excessive as when Nixon, impeached president-cum-scumbag-par-excellence kicked the bucket.

But why do we have to perjure ourselves and say positive things about these people? I mean, this woman’s main life accomplishment was snagging the scion of a rich family. As nobody seemed to recall why we had impeached Nixon, nobody seems to recall Barbie’s hubby and her spawn, embroiled us in numerous wars that other women’s sons fought.

Hers, W, used his connections to remain stateside during Vietnam, lied about it when he wanted to be president and was eventually tossed unceremoniously out of the Texas National Guard.

Way to raise an honorable son, Barb! And have we all forgotten WMDs? The possibility he purloined his second term? 

Wrack my brain, the Critical Eye can’t begin to come up with a reason for this. When I die, PLEASE tell the truth: she was a dour, loudmouth Socialist on two wheels!