The greatest generation .. I think they must be crying.

Tom Brokaw wrote in his 1998 book The Greatest Generation, "it is, I believe, the greatest generation any society has ever produced." He argued that these men and women fought not for fame and recognition, but because it was the right thing to do. My father and uncles were there.. two part of the D-Day invasion, one missed it .. his bomber having been shot down earlier he was sitting in a German POW camp.

I thought of this the other day when listening to a netcast where some were debating the use of an accounting maneuver that, while legal is questionable in the moral sense. It allows a US company to transfer large sums of it's earnings to offshore banks and therefore not pay US tax on it. Corporations making billions of dollars paying insignificant amounts.

What got me about this was not so much that they would do it .. but when one of the panelists suggested that a "good" company .. in this case they were talking about Google .. should just not engage in the practice. One of the others said that if the CFO would take such a step he would be replaced immediately for breach of fiduciary duty. I wondered what the members greatest generation would think of had they know they were hunkered down in foxholes across Europe so that some rich people .. exceedingly rich people could plot to defraud the government of income. How would they respond when asked their opinion about a person being fired not for doing wrong, but doing what most would consider morally proper.

I think they would just shake their heads

What's really scary to me

So there are a ton of blogs out there talking about the goings on in Wisconsin's capitol. I have read many and agree with some and not with others. One of the things I've noticed and scares me the most is the reaction from people I would consider to be "the middle class".

Now many talk about the tens of thousands of people who have been showing up at the capitol every weekend. Thats great. But what scares me is when you talk to average working folk who are not in support of the protests .. have no problem with what Scott Walker is doing. In talking to many it's like they're saying these teachers are the enemy .. These working folk seem to be disturbed by the fact that these teachers (and others but teachers seem to be the vocal point) have something they do not .. they have pensions ... and adequate time off ... and benefits and .. gasp ... HEALTH CARE! ...why .. I don't have those things .. I know .. the only way to make it fair is to take it away from them .. to make them under compensated, under privileged, generally under appreciated like me .. ya ... that will make it better ... that will make my taxes go down.

Where do these ideas come from? Well .. here in Milwaukee .. Mark Belling .... Charlie Sykes .. and at the national level Rush, Hannity, Beck and that total loon Mark Levine ... Now the thing that baffles me is that these are people making like $50K .. $60K a year ... maybe a little more but not anyone I would think would be tossing down single malt scotch with Rush. Somehow these media types have convinced many, many working people that the problem is not that the multi-millionaire ... nay, BILLIONAIRE has a staff of accountants finding ways he can pay less tax ...that he's got more money tucked in an offshore account than this poor chump will ever make in his life time ... no .. they are not the problem .. it's this $40K a year teacher. It's not the fact that for years the corporate tax in Wisconsin has declined while the income tax from private individuals has gone up ... no .. thats not the problem .. it's these union leaches. Teachers get paid too much? You try spending 5 or 6 hours a day, 5 days a week in a room with 25 5 or 6 year olds .... I'm betting many will be ready to off themselves by day 3.

The conservatives are playing (and I think winning) a game called divide and conquer. Get the working people fighting amongst themselves, Divide them ... get rid of unions .. because unions might stop the fighting and show them the true enemy. It's all about the profit. The less that goes to the workers .. the more left for people at the top. Convince people that taxes are bad .. that public is bad .. only private is good .. private healthcare, private schools, private cars, private roads ... nothing public is good. In Europe they pay big taxes... do you want that? .. Never mind that productivity wise they kick our butt ... never mind they do that while enjoying life, taking time off, not wondering how they'll get the medicine they need to survive...

So .. how do we re-establish the middle class as an independent group .. a group that people are proud to be part of.. a group that does not feel "grateful" to work a 9 to 5 job but rather understands what a really important part of the process they are? A group that understands that the previous generation .. some call the "greatest" ... was middle class ...

The middle class made this country great .. and without them there would be no mega millionaires ... They should be proud.

Mid life crisis?

Hmm .. I always thought that a MLC was supposed to be when I bought a sports car, started hanging out with young girls and partied a lot .. you know.. fun stuff. Recently a friend of mine told me I was going thru a MLC when I was talking to him about thoughts I had watching the President's inauguration speech and then listening to some commentary later that day from some "conservative" talk show hosts.. you know the ones I mean .. Rush, Hannity and Belling (for those of you in SE Wisconsin).

I was appalled by their mean spirited comments. First they, and this also applied to the press coverage in general I thought, spent a lot of time knit picking his phrasing .. I always thought this was sorta like an acceptance speech .. setting the tone for the next 4 years .. a Presidential pep-rally. I thought there should be some flex given here. Then it got bad ... Rush saying he wanted the President to fail .. because he had a different ideology .... Man. Is this what we have become as a country? This petty and partisan? Rush, a guy who claims to have "talent on loan from God" wants the President to fail because I guess that would mean that Obama was right and he was wrong. And by he I mean in general the conservative movement.

This really got me because you see several years ago I would have been listening to him and not having a lot to complain about. I use to listen to these guys all the time. Rush often went a little overboard .. I said to people "he's an entertainer .. he does many things for laughs" ... but this was going way out there. In general I listened to these guys and nodded ... not always in total agreement maybe but I listened.

Or is it me who has changed? Frankly I still listen (once in a while) to these guys .. but now to get angry. I mean I know I'm going to be annoyed but I listen .. and am seldom disappointed. I hear ramblings from mean, evil spirited defeated people who frankly don't like being beat. Dennis Miller said that he did not agree with Obama but "hoped he hit it out of the park" .. because that would mean the US was winning ... that things were working. And isn't that what we should all want? So maybe it is me ... I've gotten old enough to think different ... a little smarter .. dare I say a little wiser? OK .. getting too deep there but anyway

... is this my mid life crisis? Man .. I was really looking forward to the car ..........

My own renewed interest in net neutrality

So it was recently my birthday and one of my darling children bought me a Roku system. Now Roku for those of you who are not aware is a neat little box ... and I do mean little like 4" x 4" .. that you hook to your TV and then to your home network and it streams video from your Netflix account to your TV. Very cool. You need a Netflix account of course but I had one of those .. and the box is a one time charge. Something like 12,000 titles are currently available and that number is growing. HD is also available.

So, what does this have to do with Net Neutrality? Well ... Time Warner .. my ISP and several other popular broadband ISPs like Comcast and AT&T are starting to make noise about some of their customers using to much bandwidth. Seems like some of us are piggies and are using up bandwidth and TWC and the rest are so concerned that they think they need to do something to protect all the rest of the folks. Why, those people are downloading illegal movies and pirated music .. must be it .. they should be charge extra for their excessive use. Ya ... TWC and AT&T are worried that all their customers don't get a full share. Hey .. ya don't think that it might be more like them being concerned that others are selling content over their network do ya? I mean they would not be concerned that I can have access to 12,000 "on demand" selections via my Roku / Netflix deal for a small fraction of what it costs me to get at their pitiful list right? Heck, recently TWC can not even get their "on demand" to work ... My grandson likes some shows that are available only on demand at my place ... somedays they are there , others days they are "un available" ... sort of goes against on demand doesn't it?

So ya .. TWC wants to charge me for my excessive use of bandwidth .. but here is what I suspect ... that in their pricing scheme ... your purchase of a move say from Amazon unBox, downloaded to your Tivo will cost you ... but purchase the same movie from one of TWC's Pay-Per-View channels and I'm betting it won't get charged to your data use .... So they get around , sort of , the net neutrality idea by saying they are just charging for bandwidth use but the concern has to be if they are going to favour bandwidth use of thier own content .... Time will tell I guess.

In the meantime I encourage all of you to contact your federal representatives ... there are bills currently in the house addressing this. The OpenInternetCoalition has a lot of info as does the site SaveTheInternet. The President-Elect sounds like he is interested in keeping the 'net open for all ... like I say .. time will tell.