The alarm went off at 5:00 AM. I got up and knocked on the office door. Lu said she was awake, so I got my workout clothes on, got the last bag of trash put together and carried all of it out to the road through the snow. We have 1 1/2, maybe 2 inches of snow (light powder) overnight, so I went in and checked the weather forecast. It looked like it was snowing here and through Ohio and some in Pennsylvania, so I let Luanne know she had some difficulties to overcome in her drive back home. But, it didn't look too bad and she was determined, so after saying our goodbyes, she left around 5:45 AM for home.
I did my daily ablutions and got dressed for work. I left, but made a stop at my local precinct to vote in the Michigan Presidential primary. Michigan pulled its primary ahead, and now it's all snarled up in the courts, etc., so I'm not sure how much my vote will count, but I wanted to make my statement and make a difference. We have SUCH problems in Michigan (Democrat woman governor, and that says it all!) that the idea of a Democratic President scares me to death!!! I was the fourth voter in my precinct (at 7:05 AM).
After work, I had to take Jake home (Carla had an unexpected meeting that ran late) and I missed Luanne's call. She left me a voice mail at 5:20 PM that said she'd been driving in bad snow all day, avoiding numerous accidents. She was exhausted, and so was stopping for the night at a Day's Inn in West Virginia and would be continuing her journey tomorrow morning.
I realized I didn't have enough water to redo Newt's aquarium, so I filled my medium stock pot with tap water to let it sit for the night (Newt DOESN'T like fresh tap water. The chlorine makes him squirm). So, instead, I put together the plastic shelves I bought over the weekend.
Long time readers may remember when I bought the exact same shelving unit and put them in the downstairs closets to hold all my paint, stains, varnish, etc., so they wouldn't freeze over the winter.
This time I made them into two 2-shelf storage units. One went on the other side of the downstairs closet for overflow kitchen pans and pots, etc. and the other went under the wood shelf downstairs for the outdoor statues, etc. I posted a couple of photos.
Now I'm getting hungry so I made dinner. I got to use the three pan breading station that Sadie and Luanne gave me for Christmas, so I posted a photo of that, too. I made one of my favorites, fried catfish and a side dish of wild rice. I patted the filets dry, and then put them first in corn starch, then egg and finally yellow cornmeal. I fried them in about 1/2 inch of canola oil until golden brown. I plated it and the wild rice and then topped the fish with red hot sauce.
I went in and started watching some of the shows that taped over the weekend. Suddenly, the doorbell rang. I went and found a guy on the porch, holding my mailbox. He apologized and said he lost control of his four-wheeler on the icy road and slid into it. It's too dark to check and see what can be done tonight, so I put it in the front hallway and will try to fix it tomorrow.
So did you leave a key for your postal worker so he can deliver your mail?
ReplyDeleteDamn! I should have thought of that! No, today I will rig up a temporary one he can use until the ground thaws. The pipe he hit was a four-inch galvenized pipe buried in concrete and he bent it at least 30 degrees!!!
ReplyDelete@ Jyl: I don't think most of Michigan's woes can be blamed on the US automakers not wanting to build highly fuel-efficent vehicles. Just a few quotes (I didn't quote sources, but trust me I didn't make these up) to explain my take on the problems:
ReplyDelete“...Michigan, which has the highest unemployment rate — 7.4 percent — in the country and soaring home foreclosures.”
“University of Michigan economists predicted 51,000 more jobs will be wiped out in the state this year in addition to the 400,000 lost since 2000.”
“Right now, young people graduating from (Michigan) colleges cannot find employment and are leaving; we're experiencing a brain drain.”
“Of the 50 largest school districts in the US, Detroit ranks 11th, but has the lowest graduating rate: only 27.7% of students graduate from High school.”
“...FY2008 state budget that resulted in a four-hour shutdown of non-essential state services in the early morning of October 1, 2007 until a budget was passed and signed. The widely unpopular budget cut services, increased the state income tax and created a new set of service taxes on a variety of business activities, from ski lift tickets to interior design and landscaping, to address a state budget shortfall... The budget crisis eventually led Standard & Poors to downgrade Michigan's credit rating from AA to AA-.”
So, in short, we are bleeding jobs, the workers who lose their jobs cannot find work (you can bring in all the high tech jobs you want - not that she has - and it will not help a laid-off worker who has just a high school diploma and 30 years experience on an assembly line) and those workers who lost their jobs cannot sell their house and move to another state where there are jobs due to the housing crisis.
And those of us fortunate enough to have a job and a house they can afford? Well, our homes are worth 20% less than they were two years ago, violent crime is going up and we get taxed on every damn thing in the world.
And, yes, I blame the governor and the Democrats.
How much of the unemployment is in manufacturing and automotive? We have seen growth in professional services, education, health, IT. As I have mentioned to you on the telephone, I know Michigan IT companies with open positions for months to years and simply cannot find any qualified applicants.
ReplyDeleteFor at least 20 years, we have known that the automotive industry was tottering on the edge. These laid off workers you speak of have had plenty of time to retool.
The longer you wait, the harder it is. Call me unsympathetic, but folks should have gone back to school in the 80s and 90s.
Hell, they TOLD us in high school that manufacturing jobs would be dead by the time we hit the work force. It was quite clear that we would need to be ready for the information economy.
ReplyDeleteDuh!
Well, before you go blaming the workers, please remember three things:
ReplyDelete1. The vast majority of these people were the poor, disenfranchised people who came here from down South (both white and black)to whom "college" or even "trade school" was a very foreign concept.
2. Both the auto companies and the unions consistently told them this outsourcing would NEVER happen.
3. Not every person is like you and so willing to trade time with their family for work/school, even if it means financial stability some years down the line. You are thinking logically; they were, sadly, not.
Not that I voted but for an "on the fencer" what are (democrats/republicans) going to do that (democrats/republicans) are not?
ReplyDeleteThat’s all we need here: an instigator!
ReplyDeleteWell, to answer your question, in my perspective, at the Presidential level, there is not much that you can do to revive a State’s economy. Campaigning in Michigan, McCain said manufacturing jobs are gone and won’t be coming back (true). Romney says he’ll bring them back (ain’t gonna happen). But, you will note Romney won. Nobody really wants a politician who tells the truth.
The only real difference between the two parties is philosophical. Republicans are pro-business, believing a strong economy lifts everyone up. Democrats are pro-social programs, believing business and people with jobs and money should be taxed to help the poor.
Who’s right? Well, my heart sides with the Democrats, but my head tells me the Republicans make more sense.
Captain: "Democrats are pro-social programs, believing business and people with jobs and money should be taxed to help the poor."
ReplyDeleteThat seems to be in direct contrast with:
jwg: "These laid off workers you speak of have had plenty of time to retool... Call me unsympathetic, but folks should have gone back to school in the 80s and 90s."
See, this is all too confusing. That's why I think we should just let the government make our decisions for us because they know what's best.
P.J. wrote: “I don’t think most of Michigan’s woes can be blamed on the US automakers not wanting to build highly fuel-efficient vehicles.”
ReplyDeleteMichigan, home of the “Motor” city, is dependent on the automotive industry. Here are a couple of quotes and sources:
“Michigan's economy has declined as the American automobile industry has struggled.”
“Economists, academics, and business leaders all agreed that researching new technologies and pursuing new businesses is the key to fixing Michigan's struggling economy at a conference Monday and Tuesday.” http://media.www.michigandaily.com/media/storage/paper851/news/2007/10/17/UAdministration/Tech-Industry.Is.Key.For.States.Future.Leaders.Say-3037538.shtml
“Michigan's economy is powered by the automotive industry, which has been struggling.” http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/01/15/michigan.issues/
From the link just above, here is exactly what Republican Presidential candidates were focused on for the election we just voted in:
“During the campaign, Romney said he believed he could bring back lost jobs and pledged that in the first 100 days of his presidency, he would convene a summit to rebuild the Big Three automakers.
McCain, on the other hand, said many of the auto industry jobs were gone forever and vowed to focus instead on retraining for jobs of the future.”
In an article that uses the first two of your exact quotes, both Romney and McCain are focused on:
“Romney has criticized McCain for asserting that jobs lost are "not coming back," calling it defeatist. McCain hit back, saying he would be "ashamed and embarrassed" if he were to claim that old jobs were coming back and proposing improved retraining programs for those who lost their jobs.
McCain said new increased fuel efficiency standards recently passed by Congress, which raised fuel-economy standards to an average of 35 miles per gallon by 2020, could help manufacturers develop cars that rely less on foreign oil.
"I have great faith in the auto industry that they'll be able to meet these ... standards, we'll move to hybrid cars, we'll move to hydrogen, we'll move to batteries, and I as president will do everything I can to help them do that," McCain told reporters after a campaign event in Warren, Michigan.” Here’s a link: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080112/ts_nm/usa_politics_dc
ReplyDeleteAnd here’s a note from:
Lou Glazer, President, Michigan Future, Inc.
Donald Grimes, Senior Research Associate
Institute of Labor and Industrial Relations
University of Michigan
“Michigan lost nearly 163,000 manufacturing jobs from 2000 through 2003 (Republican John Engler was the governor of Michigan from 1991 to 2002), a decline of 18 percent. This steep decline is Topic A in discussions about the future of Michigan’s economy. There is a widespread concern that the lost manufacturing jobs are gone forever and, even more worrisome, that many of the more than 700,000 remaining manufacturing jobs are at risk.”
Source: http://www.cherrycommission.org/docs/Resources/Economic_Benefits/NewPathToProsperity.pdf
“The state's seasonally adjusted jobless rate increased to 7.6 percent in December. Michigan's annual average jobless rate for 2007 was 7.2 percent and the state wound up with a smaller-sized work force for the first time since 2003.
The Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Growth said that's due to buyouts and continued restructuring in the state's auto industry.
http://blog.mlive.com/annarbornews/2008/01/michigan_unemployment_hit_76_p.html
P.J. wrote: “I didn’t quote sources…”
ReplyDeleteHey, no problem. I found enough sources for the both of us. :)
P.J. wrote: “Right now, young people graduating from (Michigan) colleges cannot find employment and are leaving; we’re experiencing a brain drain.”
From Kenneth Darga, State Demographer, at the Michigan Revenue Estimating Conference, January 11, 2008:
“Fallacy #1: Michigan has a chronic problem of net out-migration.”
“Fallacy #2: Michigan has a chronic pattern of high out migration by young people.”
“Fallacy #3: Michigan has a chronic brain drain.”
“Fallacy #4: Michigan has a chronic unemployment problem, and it currently has one of the highest unemployment rates in the nation’s recent history.”
“Fallacy #5: Not much hiring takes place during difficult economic times.”
All of these fallacies are addressed here (complete with charts): http://www.michigan.gov/documents/hal/lm_census_RevEstConf08-0111_221465_7.pdf
"Darga said the media perpetuates myths about Michigan’s population. He said while many young people and college graduates leave the state, about the same typically migrate to Michigan as well. The same is true for other states, he said.“
Source: “Michigan’s Brain Drain is a Myth, Demographer Says” http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080111/NEWS06/80111045/1008/NEWS06
P.J. wrote: “you can bring in all the high-tech jobs you want […] and it will not help …”
ReplyDeleteThen why is McCain focusing on “high-tech” jobs, if it won’t help?
P.J. wrote: “our homes are worth 20% less than they were two years ago”
Your son’s Michigan home has increased in value. I am sorry, if yours has not.
P.J. wrote: “housing crisis”
A lack of jobs is not the only thing contributing to the housing problems in this state. Apparently, there is no shortage of “jobs” in the mortgage scam industry:
“Michigan ranks among the nation’s leaders in mortgage fraud, costing residents millions of dollars and adding thousands of homes to the region’s record number foreclosures.” Here’s more:
“Danny Stokes used to sell drugs, before he discovered it was safer and more lucrative to sell mortgages.
Samer Fawaz and Bashar Farraj were students in a mortgage fraud class where they learned to inflate appraisals and bilk lenders. They murdered one of their fellow con men in their Sterling Heights mortgage office when the scheme began to unravel.
Nelson Sumpter served time for fraud in a scam that drew national media attention in 1994. That criminal record didn't stop him from beginning a new career as a loan officer. He was recently indicted for fraud.
Michigan ranks among the nation's leaders in mortgage fraud, costing residents millions of dollars and adding thousands of homes to the region's record number of foreclosures, a Detroit News investigation found. Here, scam artists found the perfect combination of eager, unsophisticated borrowers and lax regulation.
[…]
The Center for Responsible Lending estimates that mortgage fraud has cost Metro Detroit $500 million in bad loans, lost property taxes and reduced values of nearby homes.”
Link: http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071128/BIZ01/711280402/1148/auto01
And just in case you are interested in bringing up that well-it’s-just-a-Republican-forced-to-clean-up-after-a-Democrat line of thinking again, I’ve got plenty of information (and sources) to have that discussion with you, too. :)
@ Jyl: 218 lines, 1434 words? These are supposed to be comments, not dissertations!
ReplyDeleteI don't think I can afford the storage space on this server necessary to continue this debate.
Then it will be “dissertation” money well spent. Two “in need” Michigan families that I know have already benefited from the information that I have posted here.
ReplyDelete