Eastwood and the Stool

“When I saw the stool sitting there, it gave me the idea.”
— Clint Eastwood, 2012

“Do you have any idea how much fun it is to google the words ‘Eastwood’ and ‘stool’?”
–Tom B. Taker, 2012

As usual I have only the barest of threads of an idea for a post. That means it’s go time. Where’s the damn “publish” button? I got nothing to say!

Oh, crap. I might go a little political here.

I know what you’re thinking. “Did he already post today or not?” Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement I kind of lost track myself. But being as this is a WordPress blog, the most powerful blogging platform in the world, and would blow your head clean off, you’ve got to ask yourself one question: “Do I feel lucky?” Well, do ya, punk?

If you do, make the jump. If you don’t, that’s okay, too. I’ll be driving circles in my Gran Torino, firing scatter shot at the kids on my lawn, and foolin’ around with my orangutan. You know, because I’m a serious guy. That’s why they call me The Dirty Hairy. I think.

Still image released by Abyss Productions from “Eastwood and the Stool,” now a major motion picture. I have no idea what the story is here but I photoshopped this all by myself.

Clint Eastwood gave a speech at the GOP convention where he famously scolded an empty chair that represented President Barack Obama. Later, Eastwood said he wanted to make a point that Obama had broken promises and that Americans should feel free to get rid of any president they feel is not doing a good job.

Obama gets criticized for the slow speed of the recovery. There is almost universal agreement that when Obama took office he inherited a whole mess of shit from his predecessor. Eight years of George W. Bush had thrown America into an economic recession and two foreign wars had exploded the debt. (Yeah, that same debt that the GOP had up in lights at their convention.) Estimates for the cost of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq vary between 2.5 trillion and 4.5 trillion. I personally feel these estimates fall short.

The GOP had a tizzy about the unemployment rate for which they apparently blame Obama. Meanwhile, about 16% of Americans are without health insurance. About 50 million Americans. They didn’t seem to broken up about that. In 2000 about 64 percent of the population received health insurance from employers. By 2010 that number had fallen to 55 percent. “Much of the declines in insured rates in recent years can be attributed to the loss of employer-provided coverage, which fell amid sustained unemployment and as employers continued to cut back on benefits.” (Source: CNN Money.)

If employers won’t do it and we’re against the government doing it, what then? I think this must be where “everyone for themselves” type of criticisms are born.

U.S. companies and corporations have created millions of jobs outside the country while cutting millions of jobs back home. A trend, by the way, going back well before Obama took office. Either way, how is that a president’s fault?

Hint: When Bush was president FOX News pumped the message that presidents don’t control the price of gas. When Obama became president FOX News pumped out attacks against him for, you guessed it, the price of gas. Maybe it works something like that?

This all impacts the economy. Less jobs means less disposable money for American consumers. Less health care means more disposable dollars diverted from the purchasing of shiny widgets and consumption. All of which hurts the economy. Even in the face of this and record-setting opposition and obstructionism, Obama has eked out a recovery. So what to do? Blame him for it not being fast enough.

Not the most cohesive thing I’ve ever written but then again, you must have felt lucky or you wouldn’t be here. I guess your luck ran out. It’s Sunday morning and I’m out of energy. That means it’s time to click PUBLISH.

Enjoy.

A weird search result but interesting none the less.