Detroit- "We built it, We Abandoned it"

Any community that depends on a single form of manufacturing can not survive if those companies pull up stakes and leave.  NH is a great example of corporate desertion with many “mill towns” that suffered after a manufacturing exodus.  Sure, after a very long period of adjustment, some towns like Manchester and Nashua have recovered, but others never did.  

After fifty years the mill buildings in Manchester  have clawed their way back to near full occupancy. (Yet some are still vacant today.) Detroit was once the  “Motor City” and the center of auto production. Today it produces fewer cars than any auto plant in America.  The auto giants gradually motored out of town in search of  lower paying, non-union assembly plants in the south, Mexico and Canada.  

The people who depended on those jobs, and the city itself, was a blur in the “Big Three’s” rear view mirror. I realize our “free enterprise” system is under no legal obligation for the welfare of a community, even if they built the community. But it stinks- both morally and ethically-  to benefit from a community and then abandon the city they built  in search of maximizing profit. The free enterprise system will endlessly seek the lowest possible labor cost, wherever it may be, in what ever country it may be.  

Maybe the Republican big business motto should be, “We built it, we abandoned it.”

Zimmerman Verdict: Justice Aborted in an Anti-Abortion State

This is what bothers me about the Zimmerman verdict: If a twenty something black guy, armed with a gun, stalked a 15 year old white kid returning from the store with a box Skittles, and the little white kid had the nerve to try to defend himself, and was shot and killed in the process, what would’ve happened to the black dude with gun? He’d be on death row now,  that’s what.

Southerners  hate to see the race card waived in their face, but damn, wake up!  Zimmerman could’ve defended himself with his fists.  That’s  what Martin was trying to do. If Martin had the upper hand on him, Zimmerman would’ve been a very sore and beat up guy, but he’d still be alive!  Shooting an unarmed man, even in a scuffle, has always been considered excessive use of force, that is, unless you’re a white guy pulling the trigger and a black guy receiving the bullet.

Republicans keep whining about Obamacare- Now the delay, Why?

Republicans will never stop whining about Obamacare, but they should just get over it. It’s the law of the land.  No one ever said reforming our healthcare system would be easy. The law was passed in 2010, with a plan to phase in various aspects of the program so as not to create chaos, and allow a smooth transition. 

Delaying the employer mandate a year should be a welcome relief to businesses(many whom are Republicans), but Republicans  don't want healthcare reform. They want chaos and dissension. They want Obamacare to fail.  Giving the Government another year to phase in mandates helps, not hurts, the implementation. That’s why Republicans are whining about the delay.  They want healthcare to be denied to millions of Americans.  Obamacare is far from perfect, but it's way better than the Republicans -“Nocare”.  

Despite their constant opposition, Obamacare is a major compromise to the  Republicans. Other than expanding healthcare to people who don't have it and taking on all comers, keeping healthcare reform in the hands of for-profit health insurance companies does little to improve care or reduce costs. True healthcare reform will come by lowering the Medicare eligibility age to zero,  and have one single payor system for everybody. Then healthcare will be fixed.