36 degrees (feels like 26) this morning. Walk 25:33 minutes
The 2016 Presidential Election campaign is already one for the ages and is even getting more weird. I can imagine the fun Political Scientists and Historians will have analyzing this election, no matter how it turns out.
Of course, it will always be overshadowed by the decision that any amount of money can be spent on a candidate. Big Monday and lobbyists already had too much power in elections before and now they can secretly spend any amount of money. Obscene.
Any concept that corporations are a “person” is absolutely unbelievable Corporations are artificial constructs and certainly have demonstrated they have no heart, soul or ethics. They exist solely for the stockholders, and probably more so, for the Board and top officers.
Not that a corporation is bad in itself, but trying to give human rights to a corporation is absolutely wrong. A corporation exists to provide a service or product, which is great, but it should not participate in elections nor be considered a legal “person” and certainly should not be given carte blanche to throw any amount of money at a candidate, in return for huge favors.
Of course, almost as bad, allowing any individual to throw money at politicians in return for favors should be illegal. Somehow it seems to violate the equal rights of individuals and the concept of one citizen, one vote.
The cough seems to linger on. My early morning walk doesn’t seem to bother me, I think because I keep my mouth covered and breathe through my nose. When I am out in the weather otherwise, I think it irritates my throat enough to continue the coughing.
I have a Doctors appt. in several weeks and hopefully that will pinpoint the problem. It is more of an annoyance now than a continual problem, but it is still coughing several times per day (depending on how much time I spend outside) which I’m sure is not good.
An example of what I mentioned above about “congressional giveaways” was illustrated recently by a story about the (locally owned) 7-11 stores that received a 49 cent PER GALLON “kickback” on CNG gas by congress, apparently some lobbying payback.
It was a payoff to the fat cat corporations, but 7-11 is giving it back to their customers, since they consider it an illegal kickback and political payback and unethical (I my be using some poetic license here, but that is the general concept) so they are passing it on.
Anyway, it basically made CNG gas .49 cents per gallon, meaning 10 gallons will cost $4.90 etc. It will continue until the payoff is fully passed on to customers.
Of course other stations continue to charge full-price and take the kick back for “profit”.
There are many reasons I only buy gas at 7-11. When we first moved here, we were shocked a the stations that advertise a low price for “10 % ethanol”, and, of course a high price for “100% gas” (whatever that is). THEN, they base the “premium” on the “100% gas price, meaning premium gas was frequently over a $1.00 more than the advertised price! (At the time, our only car required premium).
7-11 stores were the only ones we found that were fair about providing 10% Premium also, so we only got gas at 7-11.
In addition, whether you agree with the lottery or not, 7-11 does not sell lottery tickets, I assume based on the owners feelings about gambling, although it may be there is just not enough money to mess with it!
Of course, you could argue that 7-11 is not providing a needed service to residents, but, I expect it is because the owner’s feelings about the lottery. Plus there are plenty of places to buy lottery tickets if you want one.
In addition there is another convenient store chain that is in all other parts of the state, but not here because the owner of the other chain refuses to compete against 7-11 because the owner did him a favor when he first started.
Ethics in a corporation, how refreshing!
That’s it for now, Sunday, January 24, 2016.
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