Coming to a conclusion

My time here in Romania is almost done. I doubt I will be coming back here again. Its been three good trips here-I have most seen the mountains and Bucharest, not near all the country has to offer.

But enough. I’ve gotten to work and experience life in a European capital and that is more than I get to do in Shopping Mall USA, no matter which of my (insert bleak future prospects here) I end up in.

And as a bonus it has kept me from the lunancy that is American politics these days. Especially since Rick Perry entered the Presidential race. UGGH.

The man is George Bush on steroids. About as ignorant of how real economics works too. What I find most interesting is that , similar to Bush, Perry is backtracking on just about every major political pronouncement he has made in his public life-this so he can enthrall himself with the gang of douchebag tea party losers who now constitute the heart and soul of the modern Republican party.

But if you look hard enough-the facts are there to see about the man. You just have to have the courage to recognize them.

1) His so called “jobs miracle”

It is not really a miracle at all. Texas was just slower than other states to enter the recession, thanks in large part to high energy prices. ( A gift from his predecessor George Bush and his obsession with fighting worthless Arabs). But eventually Texas unemployment rose, at about the same percentage as the rest of the country, because the economy elsewhere had soured.

2) Texas has lower rates of default on housing.

That one is true-but only because Texas has much stricter laws than the rest of the states. It is the antithesis of Perry’s message about less government.

3) Texas has a lot of population growth.

Texas, like the rest of the south has a lot of military bases. So that makes for a lot of government work. Texas tends, in good years and bad, to have higher job growth than the rest of America. But it needs lots of new jobs just to keep up with its rising population — and as those unemployment comparisons show, recent employment growth has fallen well short of what’s needed.

So the bottom line is Texas is just like the rest of the country, and no matter how many lies Perry tells now, it still does not change the facts of the situation.

And I won’t even touch his pecularly whacked out religious beliefs or his endorsement of secession. ( Didn’t we settle that 150 years ago?).

And next week I get to go back to all this fun and games again.