Karen Bass and Banks: Do either one know how to think?

Okay, so I had some thoughts. It hurt for a minute, but I had them anyway. Here are some of my thoughts on politics on a warm summer day with no budget and an economy in turmoil:

Karen Bass - She went to LA over the weekend. She couldn't make it back for a Sunday budget meeting. She was unsure what flight she could make it on from LA to Sacramento. There are so many things wrong with this. Where do I start?

You went to LA? You decided to hop a plane back to Los Angeles when there is no budget? Do you realize that your main job, your only job, right now is to pass a budget? And you left? You earn over $100,000 per year and you thought this was a good time to go home? Really? You clearly have absolutely no concept about anything in real life. You are not expected to go home during a crisis but to lead. Lead means you cancel whatever the heck you have planned and stay here until the job is done. I keep calling you incompetent but I do not think that is a strong enough word. You are idiotically incompetent. (A little alliteration for our English majors reading this.)

You couldn't get back from LA? Its about 400 miles. How about the first plane in the morning? Or the second? Or you hop in a car and drive. Or you don't go. Oh wait, sorry I already had that portion of the rant. I don't want to pull a Karen Bass and be unable to complete a freaking thought. By the way, you should really return that college degree, which you think is a colledge deGre, since you clearly do not have the ability to think analytically. Isn't this like a 4th grade word problem? The Speaker of the Assembly is in LA. The State has no budget. She needs to be at a meeting at 2pm. It is 400 miles from LA to Sacramento. How can she get to Sacramento? A) High speed rail. B) Car. C) Plane. D) None of the above.

A is clearly wrong since there is no money for high speed rail in California. We have money to pay our legislators, but we have no money for high speed rail. B is wrong since apparently she has no driver's license or maybe she drives like Carol Migden - poorly and all over the road. C cannot be correct since she did not have enough flight options. There are only like 30 flights a day between LA and Sacramento. That doesn't even include her paying to rent a plane. I am sure she would charge the state, but a responsible leader would have paid for it out of his/her own money since it was his/her problem. Apparently, D is the right answer. It is probably the grade that showed up most on her report card in school.

Hey Karen - do me a favor? If your current brain is not functioning, go see Dr. Hfuhruhurr. Maybe he can help you. Or, here is an idea, quit now. Please? I got $20 if you quit. I am sure I can raise a bit more. Please?

Okay, so I know banks can't think, but how about their leaders. Banks spent $4.4 million on lobbying in California alone in the first quarter of this year. That is $4,400,000. That is $4 million plus another 10% of that. That is ridiculous.

Let me see if I get this right: the economy sucks. It sucks because of the housing meltdown. It sucks because banks made bad mortgages to people who shouldn't have had the mortgages. It was so bad for banks that they needed tax money to survive. Now they have an extra $4 million or so to lobby the government. And what are they lobbying on?

Two big topics for the banks: they don't want more disclosures to consumers on home loans and they don't want consumers to have legal representation when trying to deal with the banks. So, the banks are spending our money on trying to limit our rights. And the government gives this to them with no restrictions. Our leaders in the California Senate and the California Assembly are so blinded by money that they take this money and don't see it as a problem. They are taking tax money back from the banks to keep the banks from having any oversight and any checks and balances in the system.

Memo to the banks - if you couldn't run your business profitably, stop spending my money on your lobbying. I don't want you to spend the money trying to gouge consumers more.

Maybe Karen Bass and the people running the banks came from the same place - a place where responsibility is just not taught. Banks couldn't run a business without government bailout and now waste our money on lobbying. Bass can't even make it to LA for a meeting. OY!