Tuesday thoughts

Happy Veterans' Day!! My favorite vets get a special "WAHOO" for their service.

Several things for today that are fun and interesting.

First, holy crap, Batman - GM may be filing for bankruptcy .. talk about having a lump of coal in your stocking. It seems that there are no more debtor in possession loans available, which means that a Chapter 11 reorganization is beyond unlikely. Bloomberg today has an article that suggests things are dire - while JP Morgan says GM is a likely survivor, and rates their debt as a "buy."

Why should you care? Because, GM is a huge contributor to our nation's economy, and the consequences of a GM shut down would be dire. GM directly and indirectly employs more than 300,000 people - exclusive of the retail distribution and repair channels.

In most states, GM accounts for about 15% of sales tax revenues and about 9% of employment.

Just so you know.

What would happen to your state if 15% of the sales tax just vaporized? Or to your city of 9% of the employed were out of work?

This is not to say that I think GM needs to be preserved in its current form. The consequences of auto industry management decisions can be seen, though, in the collapse of Detroit. Detroit was one of the most glorious cities in the country; check out this picture from the New York Times reflecting downtown Detroit in the 1920s versus today via the website Forgotten Detroit. This picture shows nearly the identical spot on Washington Blvd.

Here is a neat discussion of the three scenarios possible for the US auto industry.

This is all analogous to the experience Houston had during the early 1980s when the price of oil collapsed and huge elements of the population were unemployed. It took the Houston area nearly a decade to return to economic health, but recall what's been happening to the price of oil these last eight years. Lots of economic stimulus for the center of the oil production universe.

There will be no such stimulus for former auto towns.

Detroit is much like New Orleans, post-Katrina. What was a thriving business center has now become an empty core that spreads outward - the lack of jobs causes and exacerbates a lack of housing and services that spiral on in an endless negative loop. You can try to build new jobs, but without housing, there will be no employees. You can try to build new housing, but without gas stations, groceries and schools, there will be no occupants. You can try to attract new occupants, but without them, there will be no jobs, no gas stations, no groceries and no schools.

Only massive government spending will begin to reverse the cycle.

Now, let's move on to more amusing things - there are a fair number of people who suggest that the Holocaust was a fantasy - just a public relations tale to promote Zionism. Seems that those folks were wrong - 28 pages of blueprints have been found in a Berlin apartment that pre-date the construction of the Auschwitz death camp, and include details plans for the crematory, gas chambers and body storage. While it's possible that these plans are a fake (as was Hitler's diary,) they seem to be quite genuine. The German archives are studying the documents, and we'll know more soon enough.

What are you doing on Saturday? Care to join the protest for human rights?

Check out jointheimpact.com and see where the nearest rally is being held. In Houston, it's being held at City Hall at noon. Invite your friends. All of them.

Where I've been hanging out, there is a great affection for "The View." The ladies (and I use that term loosely in a few cases) have been talking a great deal about Prop 8 and its pros and cons.

Elisabeth, whose bio suggests is unafraid to express her candid and conservative views, is one of the most ill-informed liars with a public platform who's not committed to the Fox networks. She's Sarah Palin with a better vocabulary, but a less soothing voice.

Elisabeth, get a few facts straight once in a while. Stop making crap up. Please. Just a suggestion. Or don't, because your "candid and conservative views" are without value when you keep inventing "facts" to support your bigoted theories. Makes it easier to swallow when one is clear that you're a lying idiot.

Whoopi is working to inject a fact or six into the discussion of Prop 8, to the great dismay of Elisabeth and Sherri (Sherri - a suggestion for you - take a bible study course. Actually study it. Then, start using it as a foundation again, AFTER you know what it says).

You know what? It's actually better for the non-bible thumping crowd to watch you parrot bigotry supported with non-specific bible citations than to actually have to expend the intellect to discuss a well sourced bible scholar. So, Sherri, you just keep on, gurl.

So, now when I'm watching the "View," I'll just sit in amused self-righteousness that the homobigots and neocons must resort to lies and making crap up to support their unsupportable venom.

One of the best explanations for why it's a wrong-headed idea to vote against rights for humans was given by Keith Olbermann on his "Special Comment" last night. Go have a read, or go to MSNBC.com and watch it.