The lowest building in Lower Manhattan is a Wells Fargo building. Looking to retrieve just a few of my dollars I hold there (the singular purpose of a bank is to gain access to your own money, isn't it?) I entered the building this last Monday to a security desk clerk who explained that this was a corporate office only...not a bank in the traditional sense...and was directed to the nearest ATM which was seven blocks away.
I've come to the realization that I'm fuckering away an awful lot of fees, tariffs, charges and tolls to support a bank that puts up a big goddamn sign outside a building but won't offer commercial services inside, and to support the legalized grifting of several million people by vacuuming up an endless supply of loose nickels floating around in our accounts.
I very rarely need direct access to money remotely. These days I can do it all locally, mostly. I plan on going local, finding a local bank here in Sacramento that, while siphoning off fees, yes, won't be going to support the contract limousines of executives who have long refused to take the subway and 60-foot high marble interiors and bigleaf mahogany paneled elevators in an office building 3,200 miles distant that won't let me in to access a measly fifty bucks.
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Thursday, August 11, 2011
Thurman Heights
Franklon presumably shot up my cousin's apartmental unit the other night in South Sacramento. At least, that's what the guys who are being shot at are saying.
I've been bicycling through that area for over half a decade and no, I never feel particularly safe, but geez, to sit inside the apartment this afternoon while talking thrash metal, looking at the CSI bullet hole measurement stickers, I really didn't feel good about it. It took a good three beers to settle down, to sit instead of stand inside a doorframe. Yet about that couch I was sitting on -- it wouldn't offer protection from another .38 coming through the door or window. An odd feeling, yes.
But, something that Mr. Cousin has recently brought into his world, through associating with the neighbors across the way, recent renters (recent being 8 months). That world isn't just filled with chronic chemical dependents and loafers anymore, something I've been chatting about here on these monologues...no, add street thugs to that list, now.
I wonder. As we continue our slow march towards debt deflation and as our collective actions to address it will most certainly mean even more extreme wealth concentration, I consider the increase in social unrest that will inevitably result. I am increasingly of the opinion, particularly as I chose today to ride through Thurman Heights, that to not throw bones to those who have none is a bad way to operate, particularly when immigrants tell me this, too.
I can choose to stay as sheltered as I can, I suppose, in white suburbia (well, make that white-feeling suburbia), while this shit continues around me, and simply work harder to keep as far removed from it as possible. I don't like to think this is an option...but unfortunately, it's about the only one that will likely ever play out, based on the way we've built things here in this nation.
I'm hardly advocating living in gangland, but I do think that social policies that ensure economic segregation also ensure the creation of whole swaths of people who will never know the pride of work, who will never have something to strive to attain, who will never understand the value of purpose.
I've been bicycling through that area for over half a decade and no, I never feel particularly safe, but geez, to sit inside the apartment this afternoon while talking thrash metal, looking at the CSI bullet hole measurement stickers, I really didn't feel good about it. It took a good three beers to settle down, to sit instead of stand inside a doorframe. Yet about that couch I was sitting on -- it wouldn't offer protection from another .38 coming through the door or window. An odd feeling, yes.
But, something that Mr. Cousin has recently brought into his world, through associating with the neighbors across the way, recent renters (recent being 8 months). That world isn't just filled with chronic chemical dependents and loafers anymore, something I've been chatting about here on these monologues...no, add street thugs to that list, now.
I wonder. As we continue our slow march towards debt deflation and as our collective actions to address it will most certainly mean even more extreme wealth concentration, I consider the increase in social unrest that will inevitably result. I am increasingly of the opinion, particularly as I chose today to ride through Thurman Heights, that to not throw bones to those who have none is a bad way to operate, particularly when immigrants tell me this, too.
I can choose to stay as sheltered as I can, I suppose, in white suburbia (well, make that white-feeling suburbia), while this shit continues around me, and simply work harder to keep as far removed from it as possible. I don't like to think this is an option...but unfortunately, it's about the only one that will likely ever play out, based on the way we've built things here in this nation.
I'm hardly advocating living in gangland, but I do think that social policies that ensure economic segregation also ensure the creation of whole swaths of people who will never know the pride of work, who will never have something to strive to attain, who will never understand the value of purpose.
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Usefulness
A notorious slowdown as of late here on The Franklin Monologues. Too many things pulling me away from my business of complaining about everything.
Two weekends ago the high-tank toilet installation took the entire 48 free hours allotted to me. Leaks, leaks, and more leaks...but come 8:00 PM Sunday I was able to wrestle the connections together and since it's been flowing nicely.
Last weekend took me to screw maintenance -- the need to organize a collection of free nuts, screws, bolts and the occasional washer, something I'ven't done since 1994. I will gain more hours in the future not looking for things, having spent eight of them Sunday organizing them...or so I think.
These things are free. These don't cost money to perform; at least, provided the materials are already paid for. My neighbor who rides the bus with me, the one who I fixed a few leaky sprinkler valves last summer, had a recent toilet problem and was quoted $650 to have a new one installed. $650.
I have to think that I've been able to pay off my mortgage and keep some cash in reserves simply because I've not had to resort to paying such money to others to do things around the housal unit. Indeed, I haven't taken a weekend wine/bed-and-breakfast/mudbath spa extravaganza to the Napa Valley in some time, either, because I'm too busy fashioning leak-free gaskets for the new [already leaking] supply valve on my disc sander.
These are the tradeoffs we make. I am fortunate to have learned early on that self-sufficiency is among the most valuable economic traits one can take on as you minimize the number of on-call visits by professionals to fix things.
Can I install a toilet as efficiently as a plumber?
Hell no.
Yet, I can do it.
The thing is a work of art, something worth having in a housal unit. Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.
Two weekends ago the high-tank toilet installation took the entire 48 free hours allotted to me. Leaks, leaks, and more leaks...but come 8:00 PM Sunday I was able to wrestle the connections together and since it's been flowing nicely.
Last weekend took me to screw maintenance -- the need to organize a collection of free nuts, screws, bolts and the occasional washer, something I'ven't done since 1994. I will gain more hours in the future not looking for things, having spent eight of them Sunday organizing them...or so I think.
These things are free. These don't cost money to perform; at least, provided the materials are already paid for. My neighbor who rides the bus with me, the one who I fixed a few leaky sprinkler valves last summer, had a recent toilet problem and was quoted $650 to have a new one installed. $650.
I have to think that I've been able to pay off my mortgage and keep some cash in reserves simply because I've not had to resort to paying such money to others to do things around the housal unit. Indeed, I haven't taken a weekend wine/bed-and-breakfast/mudbath spa extravaganza to the Napa Valley in some time, either, because I'm too busy fashioning leak-free gaskets for the new [already leaking] supply valve on my disc sander.
These are the tradeoffs we make. I am fortunate to have learned early on that self-sufficiency is among the most valuable economic traits one can take on as you minimize the number of on-call visits by professionals to fix things.
Can I install a toilet as efficiently as a plumber?
Hell no.
Yet, I can do it.
The thing is a work of art, something worth having in a housal unit. Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
Oldsmobile Ohm
I enjoy criticizing both political parties in this hallowed nation. I criticize...and vote third party. Always. This way, I can never be held accountable for voting in some Republican or cretinous Democrat; I vote third party to never have to worry about what my actions might have done to wreck the nation. It's the equivalent of having not voted at all, and I sleep quite well at night.
Which supports my positions regarding the two major parties quite aptly. I am a personal fiscal conservative, yes, but I cannot support a Republican party hijacked by moronic Christian religionists. I am a dyed in the wool liberal with respect to social policies, but cannot support unfettered "tax the rich" and massive government programs that perpetuate an entitlement state.
I vote third party, along the platforms that most represent the bulk of my interests, and while these represent unelectable candidates at the moment, perhaps they might someday. I'm not holding my breath.
I mention this, because recently we've been subjected to a new 54.5 MPG standard for automobiling by 2025. Not immediately, no, but over time. In fact, over fourteen years -- by the time I'm a decade from retirement fourteen years from now, the standard will require hybridization and all electric fleets to meet the standard. It's not as if we will build a better ICE engine; no, that will slightly improve, yes, but the CAFE standards will be met by allowing a sixth generation 18MPG Yukon to be offset by an all electric Oldsmobile Ohm, or a Chrysler Couloumb, or a Mercury Mho, or a Suzuki Siemen, or a Hyundai Hertz, or a Jianghuai Joule, or an AvtoVAX Ampere, or a Mitsubishi Maxwell, or a Geeley Gauss, or a GMC Weber, or a Volkswagen Watt, or some other predictable, greenish, electric-ish name.
In the same way that the carbureted engine simply couldn't match the performance characteristics of fuel injection, ICE engines will concede to electrics...in my little opinion. I just hope, really, that we don't have to suffer through shitty worksmanship and piss-poor production, that we'll have the ability to buy a car that will last twenty years of mild use and get better mileage.
The thing to remember is that increased efficiencies will not, I repeat will not, lead to less foreign energy consumption. It will only result in more energy use. Only more. If American families will save $8,200 on fuel as touted by the Obama press release, please note that each family will simply go out and buy another fucking vehicle with that savings, so Billy and Martha, both teenagers in the same middle-class suburban familial unit, won't have to share one vehicle but will instead have one each. This is what efficiency gains give us -- more energy use and a "better" standard of living, per the metrics used to gauge such things in this consumeristic nation of ours. Take note -- increased efficiencies have only ever, ever!, led to more energy use...never less.
Because Billy and Martha have never lived in a community where the family vehicular unit(s) weren't requred for every facet of living, from mailing a letter to a treat at Baskin Robbins, they will never be able to live without one or two or three of their own, and yet we tout "MPG efficiencies" as somehow decreasing our reliance on foreign energy.
This is among the biggest lies of them all...but one that's been told by every president since Nixon, but it's no longer a lie if even the constituents believe it, is it? Our dependence on foreign oil has only increased every year since. Our dependence on foreign manufacturing has only increased every year, too. Our dependence on foreign nations purchasing our debts has only increased every year as well.
The Oldsmobile Ohm won't, I repeat, won't reduce our dependence on oil.
Which supports my positions regarding the two major parties quite aptly. I am a personal fiscal conservative, yes, but I cannot support a Republican party hijacked by moronic Christian religionists. I am a dyed in the wool liberal with respect to social policies, but cannot support unfettered "tax the rich" and massive government programs that perpetuate an entitlement state.
I vote third party, along the platforms that most represent the bulk of my interests, and while these represent unelectable candidates at the moment, perhaps they might someday. I'm not holding my breath.
I mention this, because recently we've been subjected to a new 54.5 MPG standard for automobiling by 2025. Not immediately, no, but over time. In fact, over fourteen years -- by the time I'm a decade from retirement fourteen years from now, the standard will require hybridization and all electric fleets to meet the standard. It's not as if we will build a better ICE engine; no, that will slightly improve, yes, but the CAFE standards will be met by allowing a sixth generation 18MPG Yukon to be offset by an all electric Oldsmobile Ohm, or a Chrysler Couloumb, or a Mercury Mho, or a Suzuki Siemen, or a Hyundai Hertz, or a Jianghuai Joule, or an AvtoVAX Ampere, or a Mitsubishi Maxwell, or a Geeley Gauss, or a GMC Weber, or a Volkswagen Watt, or some other predictable, greenish, electric-ish name.
In the same way that the carbureted engine simply couldn't match the performance characteristics of fuel injection, ICE engines will concede to electrics...in my little opinion. I just hope, really, that we don't have to suffer through shitty worksmanship and piss-poor production, that we'll have the ability to buy a car that will last twenty years of mild use and get better mileage.
The thing to remember is that increased efficiencies will not, I repeat will not, lead to less foreign energy consumption. It will only result in more energy use. Only more. If American families will save $8,200 on fuel as touted by the Obama press release, please note that each family will simply go out and buy another fucking vehicle with that savings, so Billy and Martha, both teenagers in the same middle-class suburban familial unit, won't have to share one vehicle but will instead have one each. This is what efficiency gains give us -- more energy use and a "better" standard of living, per the metrics used to gauge such things in this consumeristic nation of ours. Take note -- increased efficiencies have only ever, ever!, led to more energy use...never less.
Because Billy and Martha have never lived in a community where the family vehicular unit(s) weren't requred for every facet of living, from mailing a letter to a treat at Baskin Robbins, they will never be able to live without one or two or three of their own, and yet we tout "MPG efficiencies" as somehow decreasing our reliance on foreign energy.
This is among the biggest lies of them all...but one that's been told by every president since Nixon, but it's no longer a lie if even the constituents believe it, is it? Our dependence on foreign oil has only increased every year since. Our dependence on foreign manufacturing has only increased every year, too. Our dependence on foreign nations purchasing our debts has only increased every year as well.
The Oldsmobile Ohm won't, I repeat, won't reduce our dependence on oil.
Fit And Finish
So. Consumer Reports, the arbiter of all things consumeristic, has declared the new Honda Civic unworthy of a rating.
I could have told you that. Indeed, I have told you that, here on this blog. My little Honda Civic, while a fantastic car regarding fuel efficiency, is a complete piece of shit regarding fit and finish.
The obvious problem is the American Consumer. Any consumer who wants a well-built car also doesn't give a rat's ass about fuel efficiency; if they are willing to pay good money for a vehicular unit the cost of operating it is immaterial and the manufacturers know this. The most fuel efficient cars are also the worst built.
You will never be able to find a 45 MPG car whose windows won't fail to retract in a few short years, or whose roof paint won't completely disentegrate in five years' time, or whose radio will inexplicably short out and fail to work in hot weather, or whose cheap interior vinyl trim won't begin to crack, or whose road noise at 57MPH isn't equivalent to a 1979 Ford F150, or whose rear shocks won't whine in protest over every pebble in the road, or whose trunk fails to open with the manufacturer's specified key. No. You won't. To buy a car that gets 45MPG means it's gonna be shittily built.
All these things are currently in play with my Honda Civic, and it's not anywhere near 45 MPG. More like 31.
Against the backdrop of an Obama administration that's mandating 52MPG by 2025, I know that these future cars will all be completely fucking worthless based on the way the world builds fuel efficient cars today. There is no ability to buy a 40 MPG car today without it being built of the cheapest pot-steel and inferior Burmese rubber components, because any American willing to buy good things doesn't give a shit about fuel efficiency.
And, consider how every well-to-do American immigrant seemingly buys the most expensive rigs known to man. That someone spent the greater part of their lives working and educating themselves to escape the living conditions of their former nations means that fuel efficiency is about as low a priority as a snake's ballbag. Status is all that matters -- and indeed, if you were to take the median vehicular unit's price driven by the 45% employees at SMUD who are foreign born, I'd wager it's close to $39,000 -- far in excess of native born employees, and a harbinger of where developing nations are headed.
Going forward, I still won't drive all that much, not with my biking and my bicycle commuting, but I will refuse to buy a cheap car again. My Honda Civic represents a throwaway, consumerist, economic paradigm that I will refuse to continue to support, and I will spend my money on something that is simply built better...and that means something that ain't gonna get great miles per gallon as I see things going forward. So be it. Environmentalism isn't just pinned on MPG -- it's as much about only having to buy eight cars over your lifetime rather than nine, or simply not driving as much.
I could have told you that. Indeed, I have told you that, here on this blog. My little Honda Civic, while a fantastic car regarding fuel efficiency, is a complete piece of shit regarding fit and finish.
The obvious problem is the American Consumer. Any consumer who wants a well-built car also doesn't give a rat's ass about fuel efficiency; if they are willing to pay good money for a vehicular unit the cost of operating it is immaterial and the manufacturers know this. The most fuel efficient cars are also the worst built.
You will never be able to find a 45 MPG car whose windows won't fail to retract in a few short years, or whose roof paint won't completely disentegrate in five years' time, or whose radio will inexplicably short out and fail to work in hot weather, or whose cheap interior vinyl trim won't begin to crack, or whose road noise at 57MPH isn't equivalent to a 1979 Ford F150, or whose rear shocks won't whine in protest over every pebble in the road, or whose trunk fails to open with the manufacturer's specified key. No. You won't. To buy a car that gets 45MPG means it's gonna be shittily built.
All these things are currently in play with my Honda Civic, and it's not anywhere near 45 MPG. More like 31.
Against the backdrop of an Obama administration that's mandating 52MPG by 2025, I know that these future cars will all be completely fucking worthless based on the way the world builds fuel efficient cars today. There is no ability to buy a 40 MPG car today without it being built of the cheapest pot-steel and inferior Burmese rubber components, because any American willing to buy good things doesn't give a shit about fuel efficiency.
And, consider how every well-to-do American immigrant seemingly buys the most expensive rigs known to man. That someone spent the greater part of their lives working and educating themselves to escape the living conditions of their former nations means that fuel efficiency is about as low a priority as a snake's ballbag. Status is all that matters -- and indeed, if you were to take the median vehicular unit's price driven by the 45% employees at SMUD who are foreign born, I'd wager it's close to $39,000 -- far in excess of native born employees, and a harbinger of where developing nations are headed.
Going forward, I still won't drive all that much, not with my biking and my bicycle commuting, but I will refuse to buy a cheap car again. My Honda Civic represents a throwaway, consumerist, economic paradigm that I will refuse to continue to support, and I will spend my money on something that is simply built better...and that means something that ain't gonna get great miles per gallon as I see things going forward. So be it. Environmentalism isn't just pinned on MPG -- it's as much about only having to buy eight cars over your lifetime rather than nine, or simply not driving as much.
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