Posts tagged ‘Politics’

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November 11, 2016

YOUR’RE FIRED is still in play!

by Steve Dana

Now that the election is over, it’s time to get to work.  For the new administration, a legislative agenda would be helpful.  For each cabinet position where a new appointee will take over, a preliminary legislative plan needs to be developed in coordination with the corresponding House and Senate committee chairs.  Whoever is managing the ObamaCare replacement needs to be working simultaneously with other folks working on defense and veterans affairs, EPA regulatory burdens, the IRS Tax Code, immigration, trade policy and all the other government issues holding back our economy.

Each of the Committee Chairs in the Congress needs to be working with the new administration to propose and draft legislation then hold hearings that can move toward adoption one after the other.  Negotiating a preliminary framework for target legislation in the weeks prior to the inauguration should be a job for a guy like Newt Gingrich who already has a history with the Contract with America. Newt and Mike Pence should be able to work together to make it happen.

For years these electeds have been sitting on their butts doing nothing.  Now it’s time for them to start working positively FOR something.

Striking while the iron is hot is key.  Call the Republican leaders together and get them working on something positive; keep their feet to the fire and get something done.  It will be a good test of whether leadership in the Congress is serious about moving the rock or just jacking their jaws.  I suspect that Mitch McConnell might have another agenda, but we will see.

President-Elect (PE) Trump comes to the Presidency from the private business sector so he should be able to recruit executives from very successful businesses to facilitate some of the leadership tasks.  One of the things we’ve learned over the years is that when your President calls and asks you to set aside your personal agenda to serve your country, you need to give it serious consideration. Historically, politicians have turned to business round-tables for input.  We have an enormous pool of talent in our country waiting to be tapped into.  This is a good opportunity to bring folks in from key disciplines to offer suggestions.  A SHARK TANK for government.

If our government is operating properly, then the environment for business is invigorated.  Business leaders should be able to identify specific ways to reduce governmental burdens while protecting consumers from unscrupulous businesses.

Finally, whoever is chosen to lead our Defense Department and State Department need to strap on their vests and sidearms and develop a preliminary plan to take the reins and send the message around the world that America will not be intimidated or disrespected.

This is an aggressive plan for PE Trump that calls for him to demonstrate his business management skills including delegation of responsibilities.  It will be a test of the appointees.  Ironically, it may be another chance for Trump to invoke his most famous line; “You’re Fired” for folks who are not up to the task.

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July 25, 2016

Trump: My candidate for America!

by Steve Dana

Where do I begin?

I’m getting tired of the right wing pundits pounding Trump as hard as the predictable left wingers will.  Folks I know who have been good Republicans for many years are now crazy NEVER TRUMPERS.  They suddenly become voters with a conscience with Trump when they were silent before with Romney and McCain before him.  Talk about do nothing candidates.

Last year before the primaries started, there were sixteen other candidates running for president ranging from private sector smart guys Ben Carson and Carly Fiorina to very experienced politicians with leanings from fairly middle of the road to very conservative; governors, senators and representatives in the congress.  There has never been a more experienced and highly regarded gang of presidential wannabees.

So when the Republican primaries are over and Donald Trump is the winner of the election process, some of these pundits and party insiders are outraged because the voters chose a guy they don’t like.  A guy whose persona offends them.  A guy who is characterized as unqualified to serve because he lacks political experience.  A guy they didn’t pick.

Let me tell you, the current president was elected enthusiastically twice without a lick of experience at anything besides “smooth talking”.  Frankly, the candidates MY PARTY put out there mostly had a very common characteristic, that of being a lawyer.  Remind me what lawyer you can remember who has a résumé with any accomplishments of note.  Being a professional elected official with a lawyer background is not a case for accomplishment or qualification.

If you listen to some of our most respected inventors and innovators and they will tell you that their success was not the product of a single try, but a lengthy list of failures leading up to a winner.  Jeff Bezos is a champion of trying and failing.  Then we get a look at the characterization of Trump and he’s branded a loser because of his failures.  Remember the smart guys tell you the only people not making mistakes are people not trying.

The right wing pundits are not happy with Trump even though he was the last man standing after a very lengthy, bloody primary process.  Even after a campaign lacking decorum and a seeming lack of reverence and respect for the job he aspires to, the voters still chose Trump and rejected the field.

Now the never Trumpers are willing to vote for Clinton so there is a clear path for a “REAL REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE” to run in 2020.  Talk about major stupid!  What about what happens during the next four years?  How about those SCOTUS appointments?  How about border security?  How about family wage jobs fleeing our country to the beneficiaries of NAFTA, WTO and now TPP?

Let’s be clear, I was not a Trump supporter when this process started.  I would love to have a Constitutional Conservative in the White House to help restore the Constitution in it’s original form as the guiding document for our government.  I believe in States Rights.  The corruption of the Constitution through crazy Supreme Court rulings that justify ignoring the words clearly outlined in the Bill of Rights and the Amendments distresses me to no end.

I have no illusions about Trumps conservativism.  He’s not a conservative.  But, he is an American patriot who recognizes the perils of GLOBALISM.  The movement trying to diminish the sovereignty of countries in an effort to improve international trade to the benefit of who?  Clearly not American workers.  Where I would like to see opportunities for farmers and manufacturers in my state to sell their products overseas, it cannot be after we sell our working class down the river.  The boardroom characters who see international borders as an impediment to profits can take a flying leap.  If the folks running for office don’t put America and American interests first, then where will that leave Ameria?  We are being reduced down to a supposed educated elite segment, public employee unions and a service sector economy riding roughshod over the remaining small business owners and middle American taxpayers.  None of these groups contributes a thing to GDP.  The measure of our economic health is GDP and growth of GDP.

Which of those reliable Republican candidates who lost to Trump were the ones the pundits and conservatives thought should have been the nominee?  My first choice candidate was Ted Cruz since he was a Constitutional Conservative, but like Trump, those party elitists couldn’t stand Ted because he actually had principles and honored his promise to the voters in his state to fight for better government.  Absolutely vilified by his colleagues in the Senate, by the members of the Republican caucus in the House and by the right wing media.  Ted had balls and stood up for principles and he was torched.

Yet, the two candidates who were standing at the end of the election process were Trump and Ted.  The darlings of the party were dispatched one after the other.  What does that tell you about the sense of the traditional party insiders in measuring their voters?

It had to be very painful to the party insiders to have to hold their noses when they tried to get on the Ted Train to derail the Trump Train.  They had to support one guy they hated to hopefully squash a guy they hated more.  And, where are the darlings of the Party?  Up the trail, whining in their beer!

What I hope to see from Trump is the side his family members tell us exists that will give me confidence that he can be a level headed leader who can appeal to American unity more than Obama.  If he is a champion of women and minorities in his business empire, he needs to bring those folks out for the rest of us to see and hear from.  I know that if I ask Clinton or Sanders or even Obama how many jobs they have personally created they won’t have an answer for me.  Or, how many contracts or treaties they have negotiated personally that might demonstrate their negotiating skills and they won’t have any examples.  How about listing any accomplishments in their working life that might suggest they have the skills or life experiences remotely qualifying them to run for anything, let alone President of the United States.

If the only qualification for the job based upon the pundits and the elitists is years in government and nothing else, we are in serious trouble.  That is why the people are rising up today.  The people are sick of the party elite picking lawyers and Goldman Sachs finance guys as the leadership since they will reliably kiss the ring of the industrialists.  Surprise, surprise!

Donald Trump is the candidate that reflects the will of the Republican Party voters so the party elite better get used to the idea.  What is troubling to me is the failure of our elected official to honor their voters in favor of the lobbyists and contributors.  They need our votes but sell out for the money.  A Donald Trump sends the message that our votes are not for sale and where we would have liked to support a traditional Republican candidate, there weren’t any out there we could trust.  I’ll take my chances with Trump.  He may not be a proper politician, but proper politicians are proven losers.

Vote for America this November by voting for Donald Trump!

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October 15, 2008

Preparation H will help us through this election season.

by Steve Dana

As the end of the campaign approaches, the intensity of the television advertising is increasing.  In the course of a recent evening watching mainstream network primetime programming, I swear there were only political ads during several commercial breaks; sometimes several in a row from the same camp.  I am sure the strategists must be in cahoots with the advertising sales people in some way.  Maybe a brother-in-law or a cousin.

 

It doesn’t matter what party or candidate you favor, there is a commercial running them into the ground.  I know what it is like to be the recipient of negative political advertising, albeit on a much smaller scale than state or national.  I was elected twice to the Snohomish City Council and even though I ran unopposed the first time, that didn’t prevent detractors from disparaging me during the campaign.

 

As a candidate you accept the fact that as the office gets more important and the stakes are higher, there will be critics that feel compelled to throw mud at you during a campaign.  The higher the office, the more mud.  That strategy appears to work effectively.

 

Even though I was only running for a city council seat, some of the things said about me were pretty bad.  My family didn’t know some of those things about me.  Family members pay the biggest toll when a person files for office.  I really enjoyed the work so for me the heat I took was worth it.  My wife hated the negativity from the beginning.  She questioned me on more than one occasion “How can you let those terrible things they say about you just roll off your back?”  The only answer I could think of was that they were only words.

 

A couple years ago, I had a friend running for office and we had the opportunity to sit down with a very prominent political strategist to help us develop a winning plan.  We sat around a fancy coffee table in his house drinking cold beverages as we talked.  After a considerable interview, he started asking the really meaningful questions.  Essentially, all he wanted to know was whether we had any scandalous dirt on the opponent we could use to embarrass the person.

 

After all else is said and done, is comes down to negative campaigning.  He didn’t say that it was a waste of our money doing the feel-good, stand-up stuff, he just said that if we wanted results we needed dirt.

 

Thankfully, we didn’t have to pay for those nuggets of wisdom.  Any nitwit can do negative campaigning.  We were hoping to get some honorable insight from a professional and what we learned was “winning is everything” and you do what you have to do to win.

 

My question at the end of that process was this “Are the stakes really so high that we have to destroy the opponent personally to win an election?”

 

I think we are all getting a little weary of the negativity and the tension!

 

I am ready to get back to the commercials selling high blood pressure medication, hemorrhoid medication, erectile dysfunction medication and heartburn cures.  Commercials for products that will help us cope with the outcome of the elections.

 

Those are the good times.

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October 9, 2008

Am I “Wall Street” or “Main Street”?

by Steve Dana

Let me see if I understand what is happening.  The banking industry demonstrated questionable judgment by making poor loans that put their businesses in jeopardy of bankruptcy.  In some cases the mortgage companies and/or banks did actually go bankrupt.  Isn’t that what happens when we get careless?  It happens to consumers every day.  How is this situation different?

 

So I have some questions.  Did all this happen because the housing market failed to continue its unreasonable meteoric growth rate?  What drove that meteoric growth?  When the market was exploding upward was anyone concerned that the real value of the underlying assets was much lower?  Was everyone seduced by the unreal returns?  Since we all know the cyclical nature of the real estate market didn’t some smart guys see the end coming in time to raise a warning?  Who is supposed to be listening for a warning?  Is there supposed to be someone looking for warnings?

 

Then when the housing market crashed, weren’t there safeguards built into the regulatory system to soften the landing?  Aren’t there safeguards in the system?  What should reasonable safeguards be?  Where should they be imposed?  Is this a State or Federal issue?

 

Is this whole thing a failure of government or the private sector?  Should government be the “Black Knight” and let the failed institutions fail and let the market take care of it or should the government be the “White Knight” and come to the rescue?

 

The crisis became a catastrophe when we learned that most of the major financial institutions were infected with the disease.  Could that be characterized as massive corporate greed?  When it was just a crisis, we let the individual institutions be swallowed up by scavenger investor institutions.  Isn’t that just the way of the world?  Then when it became a catastrophe, the stakes were too high to let the banks go under.  There must have been too many failing banks for the “big boys” like JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo and the Bank of Americas to step in and rescue (steal) with infusions of capital.  When Warren Buffet put up $5 Billion to prop up one of those fat cats, he didn’t do it without demanding a pound of flesh with an equity stake.

 

Since Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were privately held public corporations how should they be treated in all this mess?  If they hold trillions of dollars worth of mortgages that are performing and a couple hundred billion that are not performing, what are they worth?

 

In the end, if you had your retirement funds invested with one of these major financial institutions you pretty much lost it all.  In the case of Washington Mutual, the company was taken over by JPMorgan Chase for a fraction of the capitalized value of the shares.  Everything that made that company worth investing in was gone along with the value.

 

If the government is stepping in to prop up “Wall Street” so we can save “Main Street”, what are share holders whose IRA’s and 401K’s are invested in those companies, “Wall Street” or “Main Street”?  If the home owners are the “Main Street” part, how exactly are they to be helped?  If your retirement account has been destroyed because you invested in financial stocks how are you saved?  If you borrowed more money than you can repay, why is the government stepping in to save you and not the folks who saved enough to invest and now face the loss of their retirement investments?

 

There is no doubt that the executives and boards of directors of many publicly traded companies are responsible for this debacle.  By not providing the proper amount concern about the downside risk, they put the shareholders in jeopardy.  There is nothing wrong with taking advantage of good times, but we now know if you don’t prepare for the down turn, you might be left holding the bag.  Let this be a warning to little investors; if the directors of the companies in which you own shares are not looking out for your interests, can you afford to invest in that company?

 

In light of all this corporate failure there has been a lot of conversation about executive compensation.  Some opinions suggest that there should be limits to executive pay.  I can’t support that any more than I would a limit on profit.  Share holders hire executives to increase share value.  Confidence in a corporation comes from smart executives who develop management policies and efficiencies that produce goods and services for a profit.  When it is working, things look pretty good.  If investors are willing to pay a hundred times earnings, should anyone be concerned?  You cannot limit executive pay any more than you can a movie star or a ball player.  Super stars command high salaries.

 

Free market advocates have now seen that there is too much greed and corruption for that system to work the way it is supposed to, but at the same time, most of us are not interested in a Socialist State either.  We are looking for a “modified free market system”.  For many years the system seemed to work, what changed?  Can we shove this thing back into the box?

 

I sure hope we are making a list of lessons we have learned and formulating some plans for rebuilding the regulatory system to safe guard consumers from predatory lenders and share-holders from irresponsible corporate managers.  As for every formidable task, we will have to eat this elephant a tiny bite at a time.  If we put a lot of hot sauce on this rotten meat, we can get it down.

 

I suspect that it will be easier to protect consumers than share holders, but in this difficult time we need to be working on it.

 

I still haven’t figured out whether I am “Wall Street” or “Main Street”.  I could use a bail out.

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