Longtime No Online Poker

OK, I realize poker content has been lacking over here at BlindersPoker. It would help if I played more, but I can't seem to get myself motivated. Since the last BBT, I went on a cash game binge for a while to clear a FTP bonus. I won some cash, but never played enough to completely clear it out. That was about a month ago, and I have not been online since. There is a local cash game every weekend that I finally dragged myself to last weekend. It is .10/.20 NL with straddles welcome. Playing live with friends is about as fun as poker can get. Flopping quad 8s for a pretty massive pot (considering the blinds) helped as well. So all in all, I still appear to have the skillz to beat poker for a profit (live or online), but not the motivation to actually play. The online games appear soft again, so I don't really have any excuses. Just wondering what it will take to get me back in the game.

So, I have been writing a bit about politics instead lately, which I would guess most readers here do not like. I think we are in some pretty crazy times right now, with the American Dream getting trampled all over by our wealth redistributionist leader. It is like watching a train wreck in slow motion. His policies are not popular, and make no sense, yet he continues to push for them. I see a bloodbath coming in the midterm elections, and the end of Obama's unrestricted power. The ObamaCare bill is a complete disaster. It was pitched as a way to bend the cost curve down for all Americans. What we have is a bill that will increase costs for all Americans (unless you are poor enough for free health insurance), at a faster rate than if we did nothing. ObamaCare is just a new massive entitlement for the poor, at the expense of everyone else and the economy, pushed through at a time when our country could least afford it. The economy will never improve until Obama stops intervening. Drop the health care, and climate change bills if you want the economy to improve. Until all this needless uncertainty is removed, rich people and businesses are going to sit on their hands and not take risks. If the Democrats can somehow get this pile of shit passed against the will of the American people, they are going to get tossed out on the street next year, and a new congress can start undoing Obama's damage.

The latest talking point that drives me nuts is the notion that Obama saved us from the brink of a depression. First off, I am still in the depression camp. Until the economy starts to actually recover, you can't say that we have averted a depression. These talking points will come back to bite if the economy never improves under Obama which is very likely. Secondly, what exactly did Obama do to save us from the brink? TARP was passed by Bush, and 1/2 of the money went out to the banks long before Obama took office. Most of the Bush TARP funds have been paid back at this point. Obama requested the second half of TARP and pissed it completely away by bailing out GM and Chrysler, sending more money that will never be repaid to AIG, and by converting Preferred shares at that carry interest and must be paid back to common stock that gets no interest, and will never be paid back. Obama did pass the stimulus bill that has been a complete failure, and has done little to stimulate the economy (not a thing for small businesses) despite a near trillion dollars in borrowing to pay for it. So again I ask, what exactly did Obama do to avert a depression? I see a bunch of things he is doing to cause a depression, like pushing through a massive entitlement that we can't afford (ObamaCare), or pushing for an end to U.S. manufacturing as we know it, by unilaterally increasing energy costs in the United States (Cap and Trade).

The politics stuff I guess is more interesting to me than poker right now, so until I can drag myself back to the felt, you might find me bitching about U.S. Politics here more than some douche who check raised me on the turn with a naked draw.