What Nincompoops Say About Wasting Votes

Have you ever heard some deep thinking nincompoop state that if you vote for a third party candidate, you will be "wasting" your vote?

As one might see on the game show "Jeopardy!", the correct answer is, "what a ninny might say."

Now I'm not exactly sure what a nincompoop is, but I have a conceptual image of one in my head. As a matter of fact, that particular nincompoop happens to be running for a local public office. Go figure. He believes in the wasted vote theory of ninnies.

Now I know some brainiacs, bloggers, and a Ph.D or two who have also parroted this "conventional wisdom." Undoubtedly gleaned from like minded souls and held in reserve until the precise moment when they can spring this "common sense" argument on an unsuspecting third party supporter. And at first blush, it actually makes sense. I mean voting for a third party... well that's a lost vote for a party that can't win.
Isn't it?

There's where the ninnies come in. As long as they believe this, the game continues. It's like an eternal shell game and no matter what shell you pick-you never find the pea. So you just keep picking a thieving democrat or a thieving republican. Believing that this time, you'll get the pea. But you never do. And fortunately, you aren't smart enough to quit playing or try something different. You are too mired in your existing belief system and well...government is glad you are. They will play the shell game just as long as you are willing to continue losing. Just keep banging your two thick skulls on that government wall.

A simple metaphor.

I have two men working for my business. They are both thieves and they steal from me. When I confront them, the first thief vows he is innocent and blames the other thief. The second thief claims the other thief is responsible for my losses and that he in fact is innocent. I turn to the evidence.

I roll the "not so secret" video tape. Both thieves are caught on film stealing from me. Gosh, what should I do? Keep both of them? Believe one and fire the other?

Or would the wise business decision be to fire both of them? Wow! Maybe I should just fire both of them! That's how my crazy mind works.

That is our current political landscape. We have two absolutely inept and self serving parties. They are made up of elite power brokers. They don't give two shits about public service or serving the vast majority of hard working folks that built this country. They are self centered and righteous. They enrich their lives. They tell constituents what they need to say to get re-elected, cut deals with lobbyists over cocktails, then receive handsome campaign contributions or no interest loans, maybe a future job as a consultant with whatever business they have enriched.

Here's Max Baucus of Montana. Career politician and leading the health reform charge. Just check out those contributors. Wouldn't you just love to see more current contributions...say those in the last 3 months? I'll keep checking.

Max Baucus
First Elected: 1978
Next Election: 2014
SENATOR (D - MT)
Max Baucus

Select cycle and data to include:

* Campaign Cmte Only
* Leadership PAC Profile Only
* Campaign Cmte & Leadership PAC Combined

Committee Assignments:

* Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry
* Environment and Public Works
* Finance, Chairman

Leadership PAC:
Glacier PAC
Cycle Fundraising, 2005 - 2010, Campaign Cmte
Raised: $11,502,866 Sparklines Explanation coming soon
Spent: $9,290,879
Cash on Hand: $2,283,214
Debts: $0
Last Report: Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Top 5 Contributors, 2005-2010, Campaign Cmte
Contributor Total Indivs PACs
Schering-Plough Corp $76,200 $64,200 $12,000
Goldman Sachs $47,900 $47,900 $0
KKR & Co $47,000 $47,000 $0
American International Group $46,750 $37,000 $9,750
Aetna Inc $45,250 $35,250 $10,000
Top 5 Industries, 2005-2010, Campaign Cmte
Industry Total Indivs PACs
Securities & Investment $839,650 $694,150 $145,500
Lawyers/Law Firms $684,354 $472,412 $211,942
Insurance $558,075 $259,525 $298,550
Pharmaceuticals/Health Products $507,313 $203,964 $303,349
Health Professionals $504,641 $120,141 $384,500

The problem is that if honest politicians actually acted in the best interests of their constituency-they would not have any money in the form of campaign contributions to run for re-election. Paltry contributions from mom and pop farmer don't win elections. Big money is what wins elections. Big money comes from business and high finance. It comes from the elite like Warren Buffett and Joe Kennedy. And if you actually support the vast constituency, as opposed to big business and our Frankenstein government, big money contributions will flow to your opponent and they will take you out. Any honest guys finish dead last and are forgotten.

There is no win for John Q. Public in this scenario. He is hosed, plain and simple. Get a bad guy in, business makes sure he gets re-elected. Get a good guy in, one who supports working stiffs as opposed to big business and government, and big money takes him out.

Now I could go on a rant about campaign and election reform but just who is going to do that? Who is going to pass that law? The thieves who benefit from existing law? Not hardly. You'd have a better chance of seeing four horsemen just before you vanish in the rapture.

To simply vote incumbents out punishes the few who do good work. (But it's a start) That leaves us with the last remaining option. The only option that does not take an act of Congress-the only solution that remains. The citizens of this country must unite. They must unify under a third party or a fourth and fire those two thieving employees, Mr Republican and Mr. Democrat. Adios. Sayonara.

When I hear a nincompoop tell me that I wasted my vote when I vote for a third party, do you know what I say? The only wasted vote is any vote cast for any member of our existing two parties. A vote for either ensures that one thief will stay employed in my business. One thief is one too many. Now if you want to argue about who is a more clever thief, or an articulate thief, or a pro business thief, or an abortion supporting thief... well you certainly can. Interesting conversation for nincompoops perhaps, but not very useful.

I personally would like an honest, anti government, save me money worker if such a thing exists.

I have a business to run. So do you. I don't have time to waste listening to ninnies debate the merits of retaining one thief as opposed to the other thief. Keeping thieves employed is simply not part of any successful business plan. And government keeps proving it.

Your Bank Is Your Enemy

Politicians, many of them lawyers and bankers like Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, and Hank Paulson should be marched into the square. These worthless pieces of shit are in part responsible for the pillaging of America.

You will see this in a movie about Capitalism due out next month by our favorite editorial director.

Here today is a clip of a gal who says fuck it.



Good for her. This gal, like many of us, is trying to figure out what the difference is between a corrupt banking system and a corrupt government that enables thievery and then bails out their co-conspirators with our money. Cops and prosecutors know about fraud and racketeering statutes. But alas, they are in fact "government workers." Which is to say-that some little wimp like Madoff gets prosecuted for running a Ponzi scheme, yet the greatest Ponzi scheme ever concocted in the form of Medicare and Social Security is ignored. Bernie spent his ill gotten gains on houses and shit, our government spends its ill gotten gains on interest and wars. At least Bernie had something to show for it.

This Blogging Is Hard Work

It's 3:00 A.M. my time. That's how it is for us serious bloggers.

Guided by a psychotic sense of impending doom, I was up scouring the media for the latest "gerry rigged" figures due out this economic week.

Small wonder that government workers compile such data. Real compilation and truthful reporting is hard work and as the blog name implies, there simply ain't no such thing.

Now I like a lot of doom and gloom just like the next guy, but when I saw 500 rental ads go up on Craig's List in just one day here in Boise, I paused.

You see my mother thinks it's because so many people have bought and purchased cheap real estate on the come. I just smile. That ain't the truth. But you see, only true morons argue with their moms.

The truth is, and the numbers support this, that real unemployment is north of 17%. Banks simply aren't lending freely and I damn sure don't know how you qualify for a 8000.00 dollar tax credit when you are disqualified because you owned a house in the last three years, you lost your house, and now you need a job.

There are a couple of other problems. The consumer price index, or CPI is due out this week. That figure has been "gerry rigged" by Helicopter Pilot Ben Bernanke and the Fed. You see Ben is a bright guy. He figured out that deflation prolonged the Great Depression. We had this arcane idea back in 1929 that in order to print a worthless paper dollar that we should have enough gold in reserve to back it up. Every dollar in circulation could only be printed when we acquired enough excess gold to print more.

Therefore we suffered through huge deflation. People holding a lot of debt and finding out that there was only a limited supply of dollars got their ass kicked. Too few dollars chasing too much debt. Dollar values skyrocketed. The rich or elite, debt free, made out like robber barons.

That idea, the gold standard, was a very good one. But then the bankers and FDR figured out that they could print a lot more money and make a lot more money if we just got off that ridiculous gold standard. That and they were getting sick of all that doom and gloom dust bowl crap. After all, they weren't getting any younger and you can't get re-elected 4 times if you can't figure out a solution to a little problem like a Great Depression. And so they printed. And thus began the declining value of the dollar, unabated more or less...and then...

Fast forward to the fall of 2008. From September to December, the U.S. was deflating rapidly. You can find a supporting chart at the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which I have taken the liberty of pasting here.

Year Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Annual HALF1 HALF2
1999 0.2 0.0 0.1 0.7 0.1 0.0 0.4 0.2 0.4 0.2 0.2 0.2
2000 0.3 0.4 0.6 -0.1 0.2 0.6 0.3 0.0 0.5 0.2 0.2 0.2
2001 0.6 0.2 0.1 0.2 0.5 0.2 -0.2 0.0 0.4 -0.3 -0.1 -0.1
2002 0.2 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.1 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2
2003 0.4 0.5 0.2 -0.4 -0.2 0.1 0.3 0.4 0.3 -0.1 0.1 0.3
2004 0.4 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.4 0.4 0.1 0.1 0.3 0.5 0.5 0.0
2005 0.1 0.3 0.4 0.4 -0.2 0.1 0.6 0.7 1.4 0.3 -0.4 -0.1
2006 0.6 0.1 0.2 0.5 0.3 0.2 0.5 0.4 -0.4 -0.4 0.2 0.5
2007 0.1 0.4 0.5 0.3 0.4 0.2 0.2 0.1 0.4 0.4 1.0 0.3
2008 0.4 0.2 0.4 0.2 0.5 0.9 0.7 0.0 0.0 -0.8 -1.7 -0.8
2009 0.3 0.4 -0.1 0.0 0.1 0.7 0.0

Check out those last five months of '08-squished in here due to my complete ineptness at o dark thirty.

To stop this rapid deflation and impending depression, the boys started dropping money from helicopters. Loans, stimulus packages, tax credits, cash for clunkers, student grants and loans. There is one major problem with that.

We got robbed again. You see, when they print and dump all that fiat currency, it dilutes the value of your existing dollars. And thus our currency trades at all time lows with a real value of about 3 cents. That's right, 3 cents. And that big economic rebound that the media keeps talking about? Well folks it ain't materializing. Because 20% of this country's population is out of work and you can't drive a consumer based rebound with 1/5 of your labor pool watching Oprah and eating generic potato chips.

Now you can cheer lead all you want. Call yourself an optimist or worse yet, a Democrat. The cold hard truth is that our economy sucks so bad that Helicopter Ben is printing and dropping all the fiat he can and it is barely holding off deflation. Ben's trick bag is just about empty and his new buddy is going to ask him for additional help.

So hang in there doom and gloomers. The day of reckoning draws near. Next time Barack asks for another political quick fix, Ben may just shrug his shoulders and say...

"Have you seen the apartments and houses for rent on Craig's List in Boise?"