tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-99696052024-03-19T04:19:10.143-05:00bobsthoughtsWhat I've thought about along the way.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger460125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9969605.post-65239482304720812062016-03-07T10:16:00.004-06:002016-03-07T10:16:49.130-06:00<div>
On Friday, March 4th, 2016 our dad, Robert H. Pflanz passed away. It was on his own terms, peacefully and at home. KCHospice was a support and provided comfort for him and the family in his last days. He will be missed. He was much loved.</div>
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<div>
This is our dad's obit. He wrote this years ago and all the words are his:</div>
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<br /></div>
<span class="im" style="color: #500050;"><br clear="all" /></span>
<div>
Obituary</div>
<div>
Robert H. Pflanz</div>
<div>
November 24, 1941 - March 4, 2016</div>
<div>
These are Bob's final words.</div>
<div>
Goodbye, it's been great to know you. I've had a great life and now it's time for me to go on to the next great adventure. Thanks for the memories.</div>
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All my life I considered myself lucky. I've had wonderful parents, loving sisters, brothers-in-law, brother and sister-in-law, great daughters and sons-in-law, grandson and loving cousins and friends. You all made my life a treasure to live and enjoy. Looking back, I have had very little to complain about. I enjoyed learning my whole life. I had a very good job with a great group of fellow employees. My whole family was always very supportive. I had the adventures that I desired and I leave this world with no regrets. Hopefully when people think of me they will smile - that's all I ask.</div>
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I loved you all and you made my life very pleasant. Thanks.</div>
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Bob was preceded in death by his mother, Lucille E. Pflanz, and his father, Henry R. Pflanz. He leaves behind his sisters, Janice E. Mackey and Carole A. Jennings, and his brother, James L. Pflanz, his daughters, Deborah J. Pflanz and Elizabeth A. White and his grandson, Zachary R. White.</div>
<div>
He attended Paseo high School, Kansas City Junior College, Kansas City University where he was an honor student. He was an Eagle Scout. He was a member of Delta Chi Fraternity. He worked for Builders Steel Company for over 40 years as a draftsman, estimator and project manager. He had a good life.</div>
<span class="im" style="color: #500050;"></span><span class="im" style="color: #500050;"></span><br />
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<a href="http://bobpflanz.blogspot.com/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">http://bobpflanz.blogspot.com/</a></div>
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<a href="http://bobsrecipes.blogspot.com/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">http://bobsrecipes.blogspot.<wbr></wbr>com/</a></div>
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<a href="http://rhp-pictures.blogspot.com/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">http://rhp-pictures.blogspot.<wbr></wbr>com/</a></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9969605.post-12451140140912399682016-02-22T13:00:00.002-06:002016-02-22T13:00:33.362-06:00Monday, February 22, 2016...A FINAL NOTE TO ALL<br />
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
My mind is sharp but my body is
breaking down in many ways, and quickly. I know that I am nearing
the end of my life. I accept that fact. I have had some great
adventures in the past, but my world has become increasingly
restricted. So, no more adventures for me.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
It was a grand life, surrounded by
loving family and great friends. I love them all dearly. 74 years
seems to be my tenure. If there is an afterlife, I look forward to
seeing my folks again and I will be waiting to welcome you when it is
your time.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Enjoy you life and have adventures
while you can.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Until we meet again,</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Bob </div>
<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9969605.post-4789354585139842982015-11-07T09:36:00.003-06:002015-11-07T09:36:46.353-06:00Saturday November 7, 2015...IT'S HARD NOT TO BE POLITICAL THESE DAYSIt's hard not to be political these days.<br />
<br />
Even though the election isn't until a year from now, we are plagued with politicians flooding our mail and our airwaves with political hubris. There are hundreds of DEBATES, both federal, state and local trying to winnow down the number that will be presented to us. The cost of running for any office these days is staggering. Only the rich or those supported by the rich can afford to run for office - except for Bernie Sanders. Bernie is only taking contributions for individuals and no corporations and no billionaires. We'll see how that works out. The political machines are trying to eliminate the competition so that we will only have their candidate on the left and their candidate on the right to vote for. Many people have given up on the political situation and refuse to vote, making it easier for organized, supported organizations to control the vote. I will vote, but with a sigh.<br />
<br />
But that's enough for now. Otherwise, we enjoy the beautiful fall weather and look forward to the holiday season. Time to think of giving thanks for what's left to celebrate. And then the one season of the year where we consider those less fortunate than us. That's when we consider them the victims instead of the perpetrator of their situation. I enjoy this time of the year more than any other. I wish we could have Christmas every month of the year.<br />
<br />
Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you have much to be thankful for.<br />
Merry Christmas! I hope you consider those less fortunate.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9969605.post-33225904632477664962015-07-12T11:03:00.000-05:002015-07-12T11:03:11.005-05:00Sunday July 11, 2015...I REMEMBER WHEN
I REMEMBER WHEN:<br />
<br />
<br />
I could wake up and bound out of bed, without a worry in my head;<br />
I didn't have a pain in my body;<br />
I could work all day and party all night;<br />
I could see and hear so well;<br />
I could eat anything and not get an upset stomach;<br />
I didn't have to take any pills;<br />
I didn't know as much as I do now, but I could remember it all;<br />
I didn't have trouble remembering names;<br />
A dollar could buy a hamburger, fries and a shake;<br />
You could fill up the car for three dollars;<br />
Hamburger was 3 pounds for a dollar;<br />
Coffee was 48 cents a pound;<br />
Milk was 3 half gallons for a dollar;<br />
Candy bars were a nickel;<br />
Stamps were 3 cents;<br />
America had the kindest heart and the sincerest wishes for the
world;<br />
Hospitals were charitable organizations and nobody had health
insurance because healthcare was inexpensive;<br />
Pharmacists mixed up the prescription in their shop and drug
companies sold aspirin;<br />
We had the best schools in the world;<br />
Public colleges were cheap and in some places free;<br />
<br />
<br />
Things have changed. <br />
Not all the changes are good.<br />
<br />
<br />
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9969605.post-46100445884330461032015-05-21T10:47:00.001-05:002015-05-21T10:47:29.516-05:00Thursday May 21, 2015...Too Little, Too Late?<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 1;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Greed
has corrupted our Earth and the future of the human race is
questionable. A revolution in our thinking and our way of surviving
is inevitable, but may still be too late. The Native Americans, who
survived for thousands of years, treated the Earth as “the Mother”.
They lived “with” the Earth without destroying it. Maybe they
had it right and our mantra of “progress” was wrong. We continue
to despoil the Earth.</span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 1;">
<br />
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 1;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Excerpts
from:</span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 1;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="http://thiscantbehappening.net/node/2761"><span style="color: black;">http://thiscantbehappening.net/node/2761</span></a></span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 1;">
<br />
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 1;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: sans-serif, Arial, Verdana, Helvetica;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Finally!
Some climate crisis honesty</span></span></span></span></span></div>
<h1 class="western" style="border: none; font-weight: normal; margin: 0.04in 0.04in 0in; orphans: 1; padding: 0in;">
<span style="color: #777777;"><span style="font-family: sans-serif, Arial, Verdana, Helvetica;"><span style="font-size: 15pt;">Forget
About a 2˚C Future; It Will be 4˚-6˚C Degrees, and Soon</span></span></span></h1>
<div dir="LTR" id="node-2761">
<div style="line-height: 0.17in; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 1;">
<span style="color: #3f3f3f;"><span style="font-family: sans-serif, Arial, Verdana, Helvetica;"><span style="font-size: 9pt;">Wed,
05/20/2015 - 15:50</span></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 0.17in; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 1;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: sans-serif, Arial, Verdana, Helvetica;"><span style="font-size: 9pt;"><b>by: </b></span></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 0.17in; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 1;">
<span style="color: black;"> <span style="font-family: sans-serif, Arial, Verdana, Helvetica;"><span style="font-size: 9pt;">Dave
Lindorff</span></span></span></div>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 1;">
<br />
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 1;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;">Clearly,
the capitalist system, fully corrupted at this point because of the
size to which global corporations have grown, and the power they have
gained to buy governments, cannot and will not rescue humanity from
itself.</span>
</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 1;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 1;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;">The
notion that corporations and a capitalist politico-economic system
could ever take the necessary steps to halt climate disaster, for
example by adopting energy conservation and becoming "green"
companies, was always a pipedream. Just "going green,"
while still producing unneeded junk and continuing to try and grow
would never reduce total carbon emissions. It would require massively
scaling back the production of useless or polluting goods and
services, and shutting down many operations. And while the current US
Supreme Court majority may think, or pretend to think, that
corporations are people, they actually are institutions that are by
their very nature and structure devoid of conscience, devoid of
morality, and even devoid of any sense of long-term
self-preservation"</span>
</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 1;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 1;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;">A
person who made his living trapping sea otters, might, upon learning
that the animal was in danger of going extinct, voluntarily stop
hunting them, but a corporation, informed that it us overfishing and
will wipe out an entire fish species or fishing ground, will not,
unless forced to do so, and will predictably fight and bribe
politicians and regulators to allow it to keep fishing until there
are no more fish.</span>
</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 1;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 1;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;">At
this point, if we want to try and hold global warming to the 2˚C
limit that scientists say is the maximum increase in temperature that
would offer any hope of preventing runaway heating and the resulting
chaos of mass extinctions, huge human die-offs and the likely
collapse of civilization, we will have to halt the production of
internal combustion engines, shut down most corporate farming, close
down all coal-fired power plants, massively convert to on-site solar
and wind power generation, and most importantly, stop pumping and
digging carbon-based fuels out of the ground.</span>
</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 1;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="orphans: 1;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">We’re
talking here in other words about a revolution -- a total shift away
from an economic model that elevates “growth” to godlike status
to one that focuses on human needs (as opposed to wants), and away
from a philosophy that sees humans as destined to conquer and exploit
nature to one that sees humans as simply one integral part of nature
-- a philosophy that requires us to figure out how to fit in with and
preserve the natural world.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="orphans: 1;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 0.17in; orphans: 1;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">In
such a new world, there can be no rich, because the rich – even the
ones who may pose in their dotage as do-gooders -- are dangerous and
self-centered parasites. Neither can there can be poor because where
there are poor, there will be inevitable demands for more -- demands
that, while understandable, will lead to destruction of the natural
world. Only if all humanity shares to ensure a decent secure life for
all can there be any hope of long-term human survival on this limited
planet.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 1;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;">The
enormity of what humanity faces can no longer be avoided. The methane
is already boiling or even exploding up out of the Arctic permafrost
and, even worse, out of the seafloor of the coastal continental shelf
above Siberia and North America, and over the short term, methane is
about 180 time as potent a greenhouse gas as is carbon dioxide. All
over the perimeter of Antarctica, which we were earlier told was not
showing significant warming, we are seeing the ice melting now, while
the Arctic Ocean, solidly frozen year round for the last 2.6 million
years, will be ice-free in summer, possibly this year, but assuredly
in the next couple of years. Greenland, meanwhile, once a huge sheet
of white ice a mile thick, should now be called Greyland, as the
rapidly melting ice sheet has now exposed so much of the pollution
dumped there over several centuries of Industrial-Era snowfalls, that
its surface in summer looks like the remnant snow in New York City
three days after a snowstorm: more soot than ice.</span>
</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 1;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div>
<br />
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 1;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">For
now, the best that can be said is that we are leaving behind the
period of denial and the false hopes. As with addiction, the first
step is acknowledging one’s sickness, and we are now beginning to
acknowledge the real sickness of our capitalist world.</span>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9969605.post-3319195263945124392015-04-16T15:39:00.002-05:002015-04-16T15:39:25.968-05:00Thursday April 16, 2015...Preparing for the future<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Most of your life you don't
think of the eventual ending. When you are young, you are preparing
for the rest of your life. When you are a young adult, you are
working to establish a good life. When you are an older working
person, you are preparing for retirement. When you retire, you plan
on all the things you have put off to do in your retirement. We all
face an ending sometime, but we tend to put off thinking about it
because we have more immediate things to think about.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">I am now 10 years into my retirement
and have end stage renal failure. That means that my kidneys quit
functioning and without them my whole body would be poisoned and I
would die. I am now on dialysis (a way to filter my bodily fluids so
they don't
poison me). I was researching on the internet the life expectancy of
someone on dialysis. It's
hard to be definitive because so much depends on the general health
of each individual, but it appears that I should have between 3 and
10 years with an average of 5 years of life expectancy at this point.
It's good to be
prepared. So many others have no idea of how much longer they will
live and it is hard to budget and prepare when it is so nebulous. In
my situation, I now know about how long I have and can no longer put
off till some future date those things that I have always wanted to
do but would get to later. Later is now.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Actually, it's
comforting to have a glimmer of my mortality. It helps me prepare
and get said and done what needs to be.
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">I have had a wonderful life up to and
including this point. I can't
complain. Looking forward, I want to finish up some projects around
the house and leave some notes behind of thoughts I have had and
knowledge that I have gained. I'm
really not sure what lies ahead, after death, but it might be a new
adventure in another realm. I will go ahead of many of you and be
waiting on the other side. It's
hard to think that this persona that I have developed over all these
years will cease to exist – it seems to be a form of energy and, as
we all know, energy cannot be destroyed – it can only change form.
I hope that the I of me will continue to exist in this vast
multiverse. If not, I suppose I won't
know the difference.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">I
know that I don't want burial – just cremation and
ashes scattered in locations where my daughters and family will have
pleasant thoughts remembering. I don't want a long
drawn out end-of-life sequence where they extend, by mechanical
means, a miserable life for a short time. I'm
quite ready to accept a quick and painless death without a lot of
fanfare. Many of my friends and loved ones have preceded me and I
look forward to spending some time getting reacquainted. I guess the
question is: does time exist in eternity? And are there alternate
universes where I exist without the dialysis? Many things we
don't know and may not find out, ever. But I'm
glad I lived when I lived and how I lived and am glad for all the
friends and family who shared this time with me. </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">It has been
exceptional.</span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9969605.post-28161027787899746012015-04-10T10:05:00.000-05:002015-04-10T10:05:19.261-05:00Friday April 10, 2015...Afterthoughts of Iraq<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">We're hearing the war hawks speaking again about war - with Iran.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">They are once again saying how easy it will be and how necessary it is.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">We've heard this all before.</span><br />
<br />
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.467em !important; margin-bottom: 10px; padding-bottom: 15px !important;">
Before we invaded Iraq, all of the Bush administration cronies and war hawks in Congress were saying that the Iraq War would be easy, quick and relatively painless.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.467em !important; margin-bottom: 10px; padding-bottom: 15px !important;">
In March of 2003, <span style="color: black;"><a href="http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2008/04/16/21812/feith-iraq-war-easy/" style="outline: none; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;">Dick Cheney told Bob Scheiffer on Face The Nation</span></a> </span>that, "I'm confident that our troops will be successful, and I think it'll go relatively quickly ... Weeks rather than months."</div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.467em !important; margin-bottom: 10px; padding-bottom: 15px !important;">
Just a few months later, Condoleezza Rice proclaimed that, "I do not mean that we will need to maintain a military presence in Iraq as was the case in Europe."</div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.467em !important; margin-bottom: 10px; padding-bottom: 15px !important;">
And, then-Chairman of the Defense Policy Board and current Senior Fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute Richard Perle said that, "And a year from now, I'll be very surprised if there is not some grand square in Baghdad that is named after President Bush. There is no doubt that, with the exception of a very small number of people close to a vicious regime, the people of Iraq have been liberated and they understand that they've been liberated. And it is getting easier every day for Iraqis to express that sense of liberation."</div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.467em !important; margin-bottom: 10px; padding-bottom: 15px !important;">
Well, first of all, there is no "grand square" in Baghdad right now named after George Bush.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.467em !important; margin-bottom: 10px; padding-bottom: 15px !important;">
But more importantly, every single comment made back then about the Iraq War was wrong.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.467em !important; margin-bottom: 10px; padding-bottom: 15px !important;">
As we all know, the war that was supposed to last a few months AT MOST has been dragged out for 12 years.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.467em !important; margin-bottom: 10px; padding-bottom: 15px !important;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;">Since the Iraq War began on March 19, 2003,</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> there have been</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;"> 4,493 US military deaths in Iraq, and at least 32,021 soldiers have been wounded.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.467em !important; margin-bottom: 10px; padding-bottom: 15px !important;">
And those numbers don't include the tens of thousands of Iraqis - civilian and otherwise - who lost their lives during the war.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.467em !important; margin-bottom: 10px; padding-bottom: 15px !important;">
Simply put, the Iraq War wasn't easy, it wasn't quick and it certainly wasn't painless.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.467em !important; margin-bottom: 10px; padding-bottom: 15px !important;">
Instead, it's been one of the longest and deadliest wars in US history.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9969605.post-20675080513921751072015-03-22T08:36:00.001-05:002015-03-22T08:36:50.379-05:00Sunday March 22, 2015...SPRING SPRUNG - againWell, Spring has once more come to the Midwest and I really appreciate the 70 degree weather. It wasn't a harsh Winter here at all - not like it was back East - but it is still nice to anticipate the greening up of the grass and trees. That's the one thing I miss most in the Winter - the green and lush grass and forests. Perhaps that's why I love the mountains and their evergreen pine forests? We've tried to plant some evergreen trees in the backyard, but it is too wet and clayish for them to take root. Someday, we will have to figure out a way to drain the water out of the hollow back there. An underground rock formation has a slight rise at the edge of our property and that contains the moisture in the low spots. <div>
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My son-in-law has come back home from working the oil fields of Wyoming and Colorado. The work out there is diminishing with the advent of cheaper oil. So Chuck is home and has a night job picking up roll-off containers around the Crown Center and Plaza areas. It's tough work for truck drivers and their hours are long, But at least Chuck is home with his family. We all missed him while he spent those long years in the oil fields. He wouldn't get to come home except for a few times a year and he had to work 7 days a week from dawn to dusk. Now he works from dusk to dawn but he gets off a couple of days a week. It's good to have him home.</div>
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Last year was a medical year for most of my family. I'm really hoping that this year all will be well. My grandson, Zachary, will be 16 this year. He is a fine young man with a good head on his shoulders. And he has tall, broad shoulders. Zachary is already over 6 feet tall and taller than the rest of us and still growing. It's fun to watch his personality developing and his interests to expand. It's an entirely different world for him to approach than the world that I approached when I was his age. When I was 16 there were ample part time jobs available and many of my friends and I worked at them for spending money. Now those types of jobs are not available and many kids get into trouble trying to find some way to raise money.</div>
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Beth is still fighting a myriad of ailments, many very debilitating and painful, with her Hepatitus C and Fibromyalgia and Kidney Stones and Migraines. It seems that when one symptom leaves, another develops. I feel for sorry for her and wish that I had a cure for the pains that she has. I keep hoping that someone will come up with a way to relieve her symptoms - in time. </div>
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Deborah has a new job in IT in Burlington, Iowa. She has moved a lot in the last few years, but I'm hoping that this move will let her settle down for a while. She seems to really like her new place of work and the job itself. It's nice to hear her happy! She has had a lot of stress the last few years and deserves a break. Maybe she can explore the region and rekindle some of her past interests and hobbies.</div>
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I'm surviving the nightly peritoneal dialysis with little complications. I feel that I have some control of my life right now and that this system will give me the bit of freedom that I seem to require. When I had to go to the clinic for dialysis 3 times a week, it really beat me down. I basically lost those 3 days of time each week and felt that I couldn't really schedule much activity around those days. I was also very tired those days and had to rest a lot. Now I perform dialysis at home, in bed, at night while I sleep and wake up refreshed and ready to go. What a great change. It does limit you on travel, because of the equipment and supplies, but it is worth it.</div>
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I'm looking forward to a wonderful Spring, green and lush and maybe even a wonderful Summer.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9969605.post-89870168048208494482015-02-24T09:30:00.000-06:002015-02-24T09:30:07.103-06:00Tuesday February 24, 2015...Wheezing and Sputtering?<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
You know how an old car sputters and
backfires? </div>
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Sometimes the radiator lets off steam and sometimes oil
leaks from the engine. </div>
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The fuel pump gets clogged and the carburetor
wheezes. </div>
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The body gets scratched and dented.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
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The shocks and
struts don’t cushion like they used to.</div>
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<br /></div>
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You keep putting fuel in
the tank, but you don’t get the mileage or the performance that you
used to get. </div>
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<br /></div>
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Maybe your windshield gets cracked and you can’t see
out as well as you used to. </div>
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There are just so many tuneups in the
life of the old car and there comes a point where it starts to fall
apart. You try to clean it up and polish it, but it won’t ever be
new again. That’s all right – it gave some glorious trips and
some dependable transportation along the way and it’s not quite
ready for the junk yard.</div>
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<br />
</div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I’ve been sputtering and wheezing
this last week – luckily not to much backfiring, but I can tell
that the old jalopy is not new any more. I’ve been taking my
medicine and trying to get as much mileage as I can. Sometimes, when
you’re sick and tired, you look back on the course you’ve driven
and appreciate the wonderful views you’ve enjoyed and the great
scenery of your life. It’s been a great trip so far and I’m not
ready to detour yet, but I do appreciate all the fine people who have
copiloted with me. </div>
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<br /></div>
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Someday, we will all be gone and a new generation
will be taking their excursions. </div>
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I hope they have as good a time as I
have had. </div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9969605.post-85608681283674231202015-02-01T12:14:00.002-06:002015-02-01T12:14:37.800-06:00Sunday February 1, 2015...Core Issues that should be discussedThis from PopularResistance.org<br />
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I would have to agree with their analysis. We need more discussion of these issues.<br />
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Fifteen Core Issues the Country Must Face</h1>
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<li>These are fifteen core issues that are in crisis in the United States. This list was developed during the organizing process for the Occupation of Freedom Plaza in Washington, DC. There are solutions to each of these crises and many of them are supported by a majority of the population, but instead of considering these solutions, the government is headed in the opposite direction placing corporate greed before the needs of people and the planet.</li>
</ul>
<ol style="margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
<li><strong>Corporatism –</strong> Firmly establish that money is not speech, corporations are not people and only people have Constitutional rights. End corporate influence over the political process. End corporate welfare that enriches the few and instead treat government investment as something that all profit from, ensure corporations pay their fair share by ending corporate loopholes and tax subsidies and put in place a global tax so that off-shoring of money does not avoid taxes. Protect people and the environment from damage by corporations and end corporate trade agreements and partnerships that undermine consumer, labor and environmental protections.</li>
<li><strong>Wars and Militarism –</strong> End wars and occupations, end private for-profit military contractors and end the weapons export industry. War crimes, crimes against humanity and crimes against peace must be addressed and those responsible held accountable under international law. Reduce the national security state and demilitarize the police.</li>
<li><strong>Human Rights –</strong> End exploitation of people in the US and abroad. End discrimination in all forms (race, gender, sexual orientation and ethnicity), guarantee equal civil rights, and the right of people to travel across borders to work and live. Make the Universal Declaration of Human Rights a reality.</li>
<li><strong>Worker Rights and Jobs –</strong> Guarantee that all working-age people have the right to safe, just, non-discriminatory and dignified working conditions, a sustainable living wage, paid leave and economic protection. Put in place policies that allow worker owned and managed businesses, e.g. worker-owned cooperatives, so workers can build wealth and have greater control over their economic lives.</li>
<li><strong>Government –</strong> Guarantee that all processes of the three branches of government are be accountable to international law, transparent and follow the rule of law. Respect the civil rights of government employees. Create a work environment in government that empowers service to people, participation, honesty and integrity and that protects whistleblowers. Build policies and infrastructure that allow people to participate in decision making.</li>
<li><strong>Elections –</strong> Guarantee that all citizens 18 and older have the right to vote without barriers and establish universal voter registration. Guarantee that all candidates have the right to be heard in open debates and to run with low-threshold ballot access laws. Count all votes in a transparent method open to the public. Institute new voting systems so that more than majority views are represented, e.g. proportional representation; and voting systems that avoid voting based on fear of the greater evil, e.g. instant run-off or ranked choice voting. Create a level playing field by funding public elections with public dollars and clean election laws. Require that all donations directly and indirectly to elections should be transparent, i.e. no anonymous funding of elections.</li>
<li><strong>Criminal Justice and Prisons –</strong> end stop and frisk and other racial profiling police practices that lead to police harassment, brutality and even killings of civilians; respect constitutional rights against search and seizure, right to counsel and against self-incrimination. End the drug war and adopt a public health, evidence-based drug policy that respects individual rights and does not rely on law enforcement. End private for-profit prisons, end mandatory sentencing, recognize prisoners have the right to humane and just conditions with a focus on rehabilitation and reintegration into society and abolish the death penalty. Police need to protect the right to peaceably assemble to redress grievances and the right to Freedom of Speech without infiltration or other police practices that undermine those rights.</li>
<li><strong>Healthcare –</strong> Create a national, universal and publicly financed comprehensive health system, i.e. improved Medicare for All, which provides full health coverage throughout life with no out-of-pocket costs. Promote wellness in public policy. Recognize that health is a human right not a commodity.</li>
<li><strong>Education –</strong> Guarantee that all people have the right to a high quality, publicly-funded and broad education from pre-school through vocational training or university.</li>
<li><strong>Housing –</strong> Guarantee that all people have the right to affordable and safe housing. End predatory mortgage and foreclosure practices.</li>
<li><strong>Environment –</strong> Adopt policies which effectively create a carbon-free and nuclear free energy economy and that respect the rights of nature. Confront climate change with a rapid and comprehensive transition to an energy efficient, wind, solar and other renewable source-based economy that ends the wasteful use of energy. End the extractive economy and move toward a circular system where there is no waste and everything is re-used. Remake land use planning to support a healthy environment.</li>
<li><strong>Finance and the Economy –</strong> Break up the too big to fail banks, develop public banks in every state and major city, encourage community banks and credit unions, create local stock exchanges to allow investment in local communities and create microfinance loans to encourage entrepreneurship and support local businesses. Re-make the Federal Reserve into a transparent, democratic institution that responds to the needs of the economy and not to the needs of big banks. Put limits on the discrepancy between worker and executive pay. End policies which foster a wealth divide and move to a localized and democratic financial system. Guarantee that people’s deposits are protected and that the public does not pay for financial institutions that fail. Reform taxes so that they are progressive and provide goods, monetary gain and services for the people including creating a guaranteed national income.</li>
<li><strong>Media –</strong> End the concentration of media by a small number of corporations. Democratize the media by recognizing that the airwaves and the internet are public goods and recognize independent and citizen’s media as legitimate media outlets. Require that media be accurate and accountable to the people and that the internet be accessible to all people, respect people’s privacy and promote the sharing of information.</li>
<li><strong>Food and Water –</strong> Create systems that protect the land and water, create local, affordable and sustainable food networks, encourage community supported agriculture and farmer’s markets and diversify local food supplies so that food does not depend on transit over long distances. Encourage organic food production free of chemicals and end genetically modified foods. Guarantee the right to produce and harvest seeds. Stop commodification of water and guarantee access to water as a public good.</li>
<li><strong>Transportation –</strong> Provide affordable, clean and convenient public transportation and safe spaces for pedestrian and non-automobile travel. Develop land use planning that creates walkable and bikeable communities, with mass transit so that people do not depend on automobiles. Improve travel by train, rapid transit and commuter rails, so people are not dependent on air travel and automobiles.</li>
</ol>
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</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9969605.post-36651773334430646322014-12-21T08:43:00.001-06:002014-12-21T08:43:33.238-06:00Sunday December 21, 2014...It's a wonderful life<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
December 21, 2014</div>
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Approaching the end of another year, it
is officially Winter now. It's been quite a year, personally, for
many of the members of my family. Many health issues to deal with,
but at the end of this year it appears that we will all survive and
be of good cheer for next year.</div>
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</div>
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I was watching “It's a wonderful
life”, a movie starring Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed. The story
brought to mind the similarities in our lives today with what
occurred to George Bailey in the movie. There was a calculating
wealthy man, named Mr Potter, who wanted to increase his wealth and
power at the expense of the working people in the town of Bedford
Falls. George Bailey resists Mr Potter's efforts and makes his world
a better place. The people of Bedford Falls turn out to support
George when a crisis occurs and you can feel the love that this one
man created by unselfishly trying to help others.</div>
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I sometimes forget that, although we
are surrounded by Potters, there are unselfish, loving people out
there who will willingly help others with no reward in mind. Our
world right now is dominated by the Potters but, hopefully, the
unselfish, loving people will triumph. I know that most all of the
members of my family would easily qualify for the Bailey mode of life
because they love and give freely when the need appears. I would
hate to have a bunch of Potters in my family. Like George Bailey, in
the movie, it takes some effort and some sacrifice to maintain that
helpful, unselfish lifestyle, but the love that you create comes back
multiplied and leaves a better world for everyone.</div>
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This is the season for giving and
caring. Hopefully, that will spread to the Potters of our world
today, and there are a lot of them out there - especially surrounding politicians.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9969605.post-81357048505831580932014-10-06T19:07:00.003-05:002014-10-06T19:07:59.416-05:00Monday, October 6, 2014...Life goes on<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Life goes on.</div>
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Recently a long ago friend of mine
died. He was a classmate of mine and he remains in my memory as the
young athlete/scholar that we was. Several of my classmates have
passed on in the last few years and they still remain vivid memories
in my mind. A portion of who that person was live on in my memory.
If you think about it, aren't we keeping those people alive with our
memories? I would like to think so. I know that I remember my
father so well that sometimes I expect him to be around the house
ready to give me his counsel. Often my dreams include folks who have
been gone a long time, but still remain in my mind. Someday, when
our whole generation has passed along, we will be forgotten and there
will be no memory of us – just names on a page. I suppose that's
why I write a bit about what I'm thinking – just in case someone
may read it someday and realize just who I was and what I thought. I
wish I had some of the thoughts from earlier relatives expressed on
paper so that I would know who they were and what they thought. We
are here such a short time (in retrospect). The world goes on and
life proceeds.
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I'm not sure that I left this Earth a
better place than it was when I was born. Collectively, we have made
a mess of our home and it really is time to clean up the mess. When
we were young we assumed that we had plenty of time to correct any
mistakes we made. Looking back on life, it's obvious that we should
have made corrections along the way when they were small instead of
waiting until they became tremendous. It appears that Climate Change
will affect the whole human race within the next few decades. I hope
that man can adapt.</div>
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I have noticed that mankind has taken a
path that leads away from the general welfare of humanity and towards
the accumulation of wealth and power by just a few. I had thought
that those days, like the 1890s and the robber barons, were through
but the rich and powerful are trying their best to wrest control of
everything away from the people of the Earth. I suppose it will take
a catastrophe or a revolution to restart society on the correct path.
Of course, I won't be there to witness, but I'm hopeful that it will
happen. During my lifetime, I have seen many changes – many
innovations – many changes in attitude. We seem to be drifting
away from caring about the employee, or the customer, or the student,
or the hungry, or the homeless. It's sad to see that change.</div>
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This has been a year for health issues in my family. I ended up with kidney failure and now exist because of daily dialysis. My daughters are both fighting Fibromyalgia, which can be very painful. My brother just had a complete hip replacement - he had been in much pain and could hardly walk. My sister was hit by their car while trying to hook up their camping trailer - she broke her back in several places and her leg and has some serious contusions and remains in the hospital looking forward to months of rehabilitation. Hopefully we will all get better and have a much better year in 2015. It doesn't hurt to hope. You adjust your life to the new situations as they occur and life goes on. </div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9969605.post-44445329064340899262014-08-01T11:05:00.002-05:002014-08-01T11:05:29.418-05:00Friday, August 1, 2014...This from the Green Shadow CabinetTHIS FROM THE GREEN SHADOW CABINET 08/01/2014<br />
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<br />
The only real solution to a sustained US recovery is for <b>massive
public government investment</b>, that then subsequently creates
income. <b>Investment precedes</b> income creation, it does not
necessarily follow it any longer in a world of 21sts century global
finance capital. Just calling for income growth (via minimum wage
hikes, more contingent job creation, tax cuts, or whatever) will not
necessarily result in US-based investment if Capitalists continue to
shift to more profitable financial speculation offshore; public
investment must therefore occur prior to income growth in order to
generate a sustained recovery.<br />
<br />
<br />
In today’s world of 21st Century Global Finance Capital, don’t
expect capitalists to invest in real production and thus jobs and
income in the US economy as they did decades ago. They are too busy
making greater profits offshore and in financial asset speculation,
leveraging the trillions of dollars of free money and credit created
for them by the Federal Reserve. If real investment in the US
economy is ever to return, it will have to come via <b>major public
investment initiatives</b>. And if not, expect chronic economic
stagnation to continue, as has been the case since 2010.<br />
<br />
<br />
Meanwhile, we continue with our military empire, trying to
maintain our supremacy in the world.<br />
<br />
<br />
Rather than fixing the infrastructure, which the American Society
of Civil Engineers ranks in its annual report card as a D+, the
federal government’s “financing is lavished without stint to
promote every kind of war industry, and foreign investing by U.S.
firms.” As Seymour points out “there is no public ‘space’
for dialogue on how to improve the quality of our lives. Such topics
are subordinate to ‘how to make war.’”<br />
<br />
<br />
Not only does Empire foreign policy undermine the federal budget,
with 55% of discretionary spending going to the military, but it also
undermines the US economy as jobs are shipped overseas and
corporations hide trillions of dollars in assets overseas to avoid
paying taxes Empire economics does not serve the workers in the US
or abroad and does not serve the security of people as safety nets
are shredded as austerity is needed to fund weapons and war.<br />
<br />
<br />
The cost of war has escalated. Just one weapons system, the F-35,
a fighter jet that has been grounded because it does not work, has
cost $49 billion per year since the program begin in 2006. Hayes
Brown of Think Progress made a list of what that money could have
been spent on instead. It could have bought a mansion for every
homeless person, fed every school child in the US, funded every
humanitarian crisis or provided global security through the UN or
provided funding to rebuild America.<br />
<br />
<br />
The last 100 years of Empire and imperialism brought the US great
wealth, creating the largest economy in the world which the IMF
values as $17 trillion or one-quarter of the global economy. Today,
the US economy is struggling with high unemployment, record numbers
of Americans dropping out of the job market, large trade deficits and
declines in many measures of standard of living. At the same time,
other countries, most notably China, India, Brazil and Russia, are
beginning to challenge the US. These countries along with South
Africa joined together to create the BRICS development bank to
challenge the World Bank and IMF, which are dominated by the US and
its western allies. This may be the most important challenge to US
economic dominance since 1945 especially when combined with bilateral
agreements between countries that omit the US dollar, weakening its
position as the reserve currency of the world.<br />
<br />
<br />
The scenario ends with:<br />
<blockquote style="page-break-inside: avoid;">
<em><span style="color: #25371c;">“</span></em><em><span style="color: #25371c;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="font-style: normal;">After
years of swelling deficits fed by incessant warfare in distant lands,
in 2020, as long expected, the U.S. dollar finally loses its special
status as the world's reserve currency. Suddenly, the cost of imports
soars. Unable to pay for swelling deficits by selling now-devalued
Treasury notes abroad, Washington is finally forced to slash its
bloated military budget. Under pressure at home and abroad,
Washington slowly pulls U.S. forces back from hundreds of overseas
bases to a continental perimeter. By now, however, it is far too
late.”</span></span></span></span></em></blockquote>
<blockquote style="page-break-before: auto;">
“Counterintuitively, as
their power wanes, empires often plunge into ill-advised military
misadventures. … These operations, irrational even from an imperial
point of view, often yield hemorrhaging expenditures or humiliating
defeats that only accelerate the loss of power.” He points to the
invasion and occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan, with war threatened
in Pakistan.
</blockquote>
<br />
<br />
“Despite the aura of omnipotence most empires project, a look at
their history should remind us that they are fragile organisms. So
delicate is their ecology of power that, when things start to go
truly bad, empires regularly unravel with unholy speed: just a year
for Portugal, two years for the Soviet Union, eight years for France,
11 years for the Ottomans, 17 years for Great Britain, and, in all
likelihood, 22 years for the United States, counting from the crucial
year 2003.” (Note: the year of the invasion and occupation of
Iraq.)<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #0066cc;">“If, however, we were to dismantle our
empire of military bases and redirect our economy toward productive,
instead of destructive, industries; if we maintained our volunteer
armed forces primarily to defend our own shores (and perhaps to be
used at the behest of the United Nations); if we began to invest in
our infrastructure, education, health care, and savings, then we
might have a chance to reinvent ourselves as a productive, normal
nation.”</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9969605.post-22505290884624839412014-07-08T14:35:00.003-05:002014-07-08T14:35:50.366-05:00Tuesday, July 8, 2014...World ViewsCompanies look at the Earth as a potential source of income.
Their immediate goal is to use the resources of the Earth to make
profits, regardless of the consequences to the environment. They
would kill all the buffalo and chop down all the redwoods and pollute
the rivers and streams and dirty the air and tear down the mountains
and eradicate the fish from the ocean – all in the course of making
profits. Long after the companies are gone, the injured Earth that
they left behind will have to heal or suffer for generations to come.
<br />
<br />
<br />
People look at the Earth as a home – a place to provide them
with food and shelter. The Earth that they desire is renewable and
ever freshening. They want the clean, clear water to drink and the
clean, clear air to breathe and food that isn't contaminated. They
want an Earth that their children and grandchildren can enjoy. They
want to protect the Earth – it is all that they have and it belongs
to each and every one of them.<br />
<br />
<br />
People elect governments to administer programs for the benefit of
all of the people. Where one person cannot provide roads and water
and electricity and fire protection and police protection, they
collectively can have these services provided by their elected
officials. We need elected officials who will think of the Earth as
our home and look to providing services for ALL of the people – not
just small, wealthy special interests.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Somewhere along the line we have become a corporate world and the
world view that prevails is to use it up and discard it and move on
to the next resource, ignoring the ultimate destruction. We leave behind the scrapyard of a once
beautiful planet.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9969605.post-14531204158637920692014-05-02T12:27:00.003-05:002014-05-02T12:27:51.355-05:00Friday, May 2, 2014...I missed May Day -- again<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I remember, back in childhood days in
the early 50s, celebrating May Day. We had displays and activities
out on the playground and even set up a May Pole for kids to dance
around. The people of the United States appreciated the unions and
the workers for bringing up their standard of living.</div>
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</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Excerpt from article <span style="color: #9c162e;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;"><span style="font-size: 9pt;"><i>By
</i></span></span></span><a href="http://www.truth-out.org/author/itemlist/user/48676"><span style="color: #9c162e;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;"><span style="font-size: 9pt;"><i>Justin
Doolittle</i></span></span></span></span></a><span style="color: #9c162e;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;"><span style="font-size: 9pt;"><i>,</i></span></span></span><a href="http://truth-out.org/"><span style="color: #9c162e;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;"><span style="font-size: 9pt;"><i>Truthout</i></span></span></span></span></a><span style="color: #9c162e;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;"><span style="font-size: 9pt;"><i>|
Op-Ed</i></span></span></span> <span style="color: #999999;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">Thursday,
01 May 2014</span></span></span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
“On May 1 - or May Day - citizens of
more than 80 countries will officially celebrate some version of
International Workers' Day. Many more will do the same in an
unofficial capacity. It is a day to thank and honor workers and the
labor movement for their immense contributions to our societies.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Sadly, we can be certain that millions
of Americans have never even heard about this, as May Day has never
been seriously recognized in the United States and probably never
will be, despite the fact that it was Chicago's infamous Haymarket
riots and their aftermath that became the inspiration for the
holiday.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Not only is May Day not recognized
here, but it was rejected with extreme prejudice by the US
government, on the grounds that it had communist overtones and was
too strident in its celebration of labor</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
First proposed by the American Bar
Association, "Law Day" was also meant, at least in part, to
"suppress the celebration of May Day." On "Law Day,"
we are encouraged to celebrate the rule of law, for some reason.
Thankfully, "Law Day" and "Loyalty Day" - it's
difficult to even write the latter without cringing - continue to be
largely ignored by the public.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Not that American workers have much to
celebrate. Unions have been beaten into submission: Fewer than 7% of
private sector workers now belong to a union; membership peaked at
around 35% in the 1950s. Workers' voices are effectively shut out of
the political process; a recent, high-profile study out of Princeton
University showed that the United States' political system is, for
all intents and purposes, oligarchical, with wealth and influence
being all that really count when it comes to shaping policy.”</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
---</div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
So, we don't get to celebrate May Day
and honor workers and the labor movement. Maybe the Owners are
afraid to let the people think of the difference the workers and the
labor movement has made for the common person.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9969605.post-13078898079705400542014-05-02T10:09:00.000-05:002014-05-02T10:09:07.056-05:00Friday May 2, 2014...It's been a whileIt's been a while since I last posted. The world is pretty much the same - still in a mess and still not figuring out how to fix it. But, here at home, it's been a different situation. I was in the hospital in December and again in January. The first and second time in my life I've had to stay more that overnight. My kidneys have decided that they have had enough and they are now pretty much retired. The rest of me wants to keep on going, so I have been going to dialysis (a mechanical process of filtering my blood) 3 days a week for 4 hours at a time. That leaves me pretty exhausted, so my life has been up and down every other day while I am tethered to the dialysis center. In about 2 more weeks I will start a different method of dialysis, where I can do it myself, at home, without machines, on a daily basis - a little at a time. I'm really looking forward to that. Maybe then my ups and downs will settle into a maintenance level and I will be able to post more often. <br />
<br />
Meanwhile, be sure to check out the recipes at <a href="http://bobsrecipes.blogspot.com/">http://bobsrecipes.blogspot.com/</a><br />
I've added some stars to the best ones and I'll try to add some more favorite soon.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9969605.post-73475857987245636382013-12-31T08:59:00.001-06:002014-05-02T09:53:05.748-05:00Tuesday December 31, 2013...Last day of this year<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
For those of you who have lost their
jobs or lost their homes or lost their food stamps or lost their
unemployment you will be glad to know:</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Fueled by the Fed's easy money policies
and an improving economy, U.S. stocks are poised to close their best
year since 1995. Prior to the final day of trading for 2013, the Dow
was up 29% when dividends are included and the S&P 500 32%.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
AND:</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Private-equity firms are set to return
over $120B to their investors for this year, surpassing the 2012
record of $115B, Cambridge Associates estimates. The P-E sector has
been assisted by low interest rates, which have helped P-E backed
companies sell $66.2B worth of debt in 2013 to fund dividends to
their owners, up from $64.2B a year earlier.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The rich DO get richer while the poor
get poorer. The inequality of our system is showing quite well.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Now all you have to do is survive until
it trickles down. But, don't hold your breath!</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9969605.post-31886602795855691512013-12-15T12:29:00.002-06:002013-12-15T12:29:17.913-06:00Sunday December 15, 2013...The "benefits" of Austerity<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt;"><b>THE
“BENEFITS” OF AUSTERITY</b></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Greece is the latest example.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
This was written by Representative Alan Grayson</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div align="LEFT">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 9pt;">From
a recent 188-page </span></span></span><strong><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 9pt;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><a href="http://www.euro.who.int/__data/assets/pdf_file/0006/215196/Review-of-social-determinants-and-the-health-divide-in-the-WHO-European-Region-final-report-Eng.pdf">report</a>
</span></span></span></span></strong><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 9pt;">by
the World Health Organization come these ghastly and appalling
factoids:</span></span></span></div>
<ul>
<li><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 9pt;">Suicide
rates rose 40% in the first six months of 2011 alone.</span></span></span></div>
</li>
<li><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 9pt;">Murder
has doubled.</span></span></span></div>
</li>
<li><div align="LEFT">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 9pt;">9,100
doctors in Greece, roughly one out of every seven, have been laid
off.</span></span></span></div>
</li>
</ul>
<br />
<div align="LEFT">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 9pt;">Joining
those doctors in joblessness are 27.6% of the entire Greek labor
force. By comparison, in the depths of the Great Depression,
unemployment in the United States peaked at a lower percentage than
that. Among Greek young adults under 25 years old, unemployment
reached an abominable 64.9% in May. (Yet the unemployment rate in
Greece was as low as 7% as recently as 2008.) </span></span></span><br /><br /><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 9pt;">I'm
sure that my Tea Party friends will blame universal healthcare, paid
sick leave and "generous" unemployment benefits for this
catastrophe. "If we simply stopped helping people, then they
wouldn't need our help," they would say. You can see where that
"logic" leads. The dead need no help whatsoever, except
possibly burial. Sort of like this: "The Republican healthcare
plan: Don't Get Sick. And if you do get sick, Die Quickly."]</span></span></span><br /><br /><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 9pt;">Maybe
you think that I'm kidding about what my Tea Party friends would do.
I'm not. A few years ago here in Florida, we had a children's health
insurance program called KidCare, with a waiting list of over
100,000. The Tea Party Republicans didn't like that. So they
eliminated the waiting list.</span></span></span><br /><br /><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 9pt;">But
back to Greece. A lot of people blame Greek government debt for the
current suffering. According to the Central Intelligence Agency, that
most authoritative of all conceivable sources, Greek government debt
stands at 160% of GDP, which seems like a lot. But Japanese
government debt stands at 215% of GDP, and the unemployment rate in
Japan is only 4%.</span></span></span><br /><br /><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 9pt;">Moreover,
Spain's unemployment rate is virtually as high as Greece's, but
Spain's government debt stands at only 85% of GDP. That's less debt
than Singapore's, and Singapore's unemployment rate is 1.8%.</span></span></span><br /><br /><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 9pt;">So
we cannot properly attribute the catastrophe in Greece to labor
protection, nor can we attribute it to government borrowing. What is
the cause, then? The World Health Organization has the answer:
austerity. "Austerity" is a bloodless term for gross
economic mismanagement, animated by heartlessness. That robotic
cut-cut-cut mentality that deprives us of jobs, of public services,
of safety, of health, of infrastructure, of help for the needy, and
-- ultimately -- of our economic equilibrium and the ability to
survive. The mentality that ushers in, and welcomes, a vicious war of
all against all. Austerity is destroying an entire country, right
before our eyes.</span></span></span><br /><br /><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 9pt;">Or,
as the World Health Organization put it: "These adverse trends
in Greece pose a warning to other countries undergoing significant
fiscal austerity, including Spain, Ireland and Italy. It also
suggests that ways need to be found for cash-strapped governments to
consolidate finances without undermining much-needed investments in
health."</span></span></span><br /><br /><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 9pt;">In
America, we have a rich and powerful lobby that has the same
prescription for every economic malady: austerity. Cut-cut-cut. Cut
Social Security and Medicare. Cut teacher and police and firefighter
jobs. Cut health care. Cut pay and cut pensions. It all boils down to
that one ugly word: austerity. And austerity always brings disarray,
disaster, decay and death.</span></span></span><br /><br /><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 9pt;">People
often ask me my position on various issues. Well, I'm for certain
things, and I'm against others. But on one issue, I'm very
consistent. I'm against pain and suffering. Especially avoidable pain
and suffering. And therefore, I'm against austerity. It begins with
seemingly innocuous budget cuts. It then leads inexorably to the
destruction of countless lives.</span></span></span><br /><br /><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 9pt;">Why
am I telling you about Greece? In 1935, Sinclair Lewis wrote a book
called "</span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 9pt;"><i>It
Can't Happen Here</i></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 9pt;">."
But it can. And it's up to us to prevent it.</span></span></span><br /><br /><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 9pt;">Courage,</span></span></span><br /><br /><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 9pt;">Rep.
Alan Grayson</span></span></span><br /><br /><br />
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9969605.post-19320908278556855572013-12-14T13:44:00.002-06:002013-12-14T13:44:36.281-06:00Saturday December 14, 2013...GROWN-DOWNSAll those younger years I looked forward to the day when I would be "grown up". We were all small when we were young and we always looked up to the older folks. We anticipated the future when we would be "grown-up"and be able to do the things we wanted to do without anybody else's approval. We went to school and studied and eventually got jobs where we learned more duties, all part of "growing up".<br />
<br />
I did my part, I studied, I worked, I tried to fit the part of a grown up. The years flew by and here I sit in front of my computer looking back. I grew up. But somewhere along the line, things changed and I started growing down. For some inexplicable reason, my stature has diminished – my spine has compressed, and I'm shorter than I was. I have grown down instead of up. I don't know how to act as a grown-down. All my life I wanted to be a grown-up and worked hard to become one. Now that I'm a grown-down, I'm not sure how to act or what to do. <br />
<br />
I'm pretty sure that a grown-down walks a little slower, and keeps his eye on the ground in front of him. He walks a little more stoop-shouldered but has a pretty good idea of where he's going. A grown-down doesn't have to put on airs. He's satisfied with who he is and what he has done. He has thought through his philosophy of life and knows what he knows and you can't change his mind. Clothes hang a little different on his grown-down body, but he's not as worried about his appearance as he was when he was younger. He doesn't have to impress people any longer.<br />
<br />
I tried to find some books and reference materials about grown-downs, but there isn't much out there. I think the grown-downs have figured it out and don't want to share the answers. They just want to be left alone to live comfortably now that they've reached this point in their lives. I know I'm more content with what I've got, and I'm quite comfortable looking back over the memories I've created during my lifetime. I think most grown downs have a tendency to look back about as much as they look forward. Pleasant memories that reside in your brain are like a good book that you can come back to and reread any time you wish – complete with sounds and picture.<br />
<br />
My daughter tells me that I'm really not a grown-down. I'm more of a worn-down. Perhaps she's right. I've had a lot of my rough edges smoothed over, and I'm not as frisky as I used to be. I don't take as many chances as I did once, and I don't recover quite as quickly as I did when I was younger. My mind still seems to be pretty sharp, but parts of my body have retired before some of the others. My mind tells me to do something, but my body says "no way". So I suppose I'm more of a worn-down-grown-down, which is still perhaps a bit better than being an up-and-coming grown-up. So all of you grown downs out there, just sit back and relax and go with the flow. There is no hurry and there is nowhere you have to go – just be.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9969605.post-43612131465672399382013-11-22T11:27:00.002-06:002013-11-22T11:27:27.086-06:00Friday November 22, 2013...Fifty years today<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Friday, November 22, 1963</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I remember that day. Friday afternoon
the head of my department came into the room and announced that the
President had been shot. He sent everyone home for the rest of the
day. Nobody knew exactly what was happening. We were all is a state
of shock that something like this could happen in the United States
to our young and vibrant President. I spent that whole weekend glued
to the old black and white television that continuously reported on
the events taking place in Dallas and later in Washington. The whole
country watched the memorial and the burial and the killing of
Oswald. The whole country stopped for that week after the
assassination and watched. We watched as the Vice President Lyndon
Johnson, who we really didn't even know, took over the reins of the
federal bureaucracy. We watched John John as he saluted his father's
casket. We watched as the Kennedys gathered sadly and stone faced.
We waited to see who had been up on the grassy knoll behind the
fence. We wondered how one man could have been so accurate so
quickly to hit the moving cars. I think most everyone assumed it was
a hit squad covering the route from several points. It had us all
watching and waiting and sadly missing President Jack Kennedy.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9969605.post-276019608880965192013-11-21T10:15:00.003-06:002013-11-21T10:15:56.606-06:00Thursday November 21 2013...Medicare for All<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZrh2NhJpnoJvB-Usmbl75n9ZyDptJijbvGHK3wFLLaYyMGQVnuflFhyphenhyphencjo4o9PMMMabJzsOUjzetxSEn3MdEbC8jbE_xJZzYP-q2_r4naprMg8Ah__RHHEVoOc6dfLwNzsCKL/s1600/MEDICARE+FOR+ALL.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="276" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZrh2NhJpnoJvB-Usmbl75n9ZyDptJijbvGHK3wFLLaYyMGQVnuflFhyphenhyphencjo4o9PMMMabJzsOUjzetxSEn3MdEbC8jbE_xJZzYP-q2_r4naprMg8Ah__RHHEVoOc6dfLwNzsCKL/s640/MEDICARE+FOR+ALL.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9969605.post-10836250071619567592013-11-09T16:59:00.000-06:002013-11-09T16:59:00.927-06:00Saturday November 9, 2013...THINGS CHANGETHINGS CHANGE<br />
<br />
<br />
I'm now in the elder state of life. I, and my fellow elders, can
now remember a world that is no more. My father used to tell me of a
world before I came of open prairies and clean, clear streams. He
missed the fenceless open pasture of central Kansas and the
unpolluted streams that you could drink from. I never knew that
world, so I didn't miss it. I remember a world of small farms and
small towns with local and state highways connecting them. I
remember drives into the country through town squares and country
cafes and burma-shave adds and telephone poles along each road. I
remember one car families with empty streets during the day. I
remember stay at home mothers caring for their kids after school.
Before television, we would play outside a lot and in the evening we
would listen to radio programs. Neighbors all looked out for each
other and their kids. There were neighborhood markets and dime
stores and drug stores and movie theaters all withing walking
distance. Milk was delivered by the milk man and bread was delivered
by the Manor man. When it snowed, some of the hilly streets were
closed off from traffic and the children went sledding in the
streets. There were no shopping centers, no Kmarts, no Walmarts, no
chain drug stores, no super markets, no Home Depots. There were no
visa or mastercard credit cards. You had to establish credit with
each store you shopped in or with money loaned to you by the bank or
cash on hand. You had a local gas station where they also worked on
cars. All the local stores hired young kids to help on a part time
basis which gave a young person their first taste of employment and
cash management. Music was only available over AM stations and there
was no stereo. It wasn't until the development of transistors that
there were portable radios available. Television, when it came, was
only in black and white and only on in the evenings to start with.
Air conditioning was only available in movie theaters and ice cream
parlors. There were no fast food restaurants, only cafes and a few
drive-ins. Any after school activities had to be within walking
distance because dad had the family car to go to work and mom was at
home doing the laundry, without a dryer, or preparing dinner, without
a microwave or prepackaged food, or doing dishes, without a
dishwasher. Clothes were not wrinkle free and had to be ironed by
hand. Houses were left open during the warm season to help cool and
they needed to be dusted quite often. Before oil burners and gas
burning furnaces coal had to be stored in the coal bin and shoveled
into the furnace daily. The coal deposited a fine black dust on
clothes that had to be washed off. Before calculators and computers
there were comptometers to add up figures for offices and many people
were employed at comptometer operators. Engineers used sliderules
and books of logarithmic tables to help calculate. There were no
copy machines, so people used carbon paper to make copies of what
they were writing or typing. Typewriters were all manual (no
electric) and any mistakes had to be dealt with on the original as
well as the carbon copies. Records were only available on 78 rpm
hard plastic disks before 45 rpm and eventually 33 1/3 rpm vinyl
disks were invented. There were reel-to-reel recorders available,
but very expensive. 8 track and cassette player/recorders came along
later. Later yet, CDs and DVDs and digital recording became
available. Before jet planes, the constellation was the largest
airliner used to fly between cities. Planes and trains were the
fastest way to travel across the country because there were no
interstate highways.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
These are some of my memories of a world that no longer exists and
that younger folks would not recognize. Their memories will be of a
different world. Whose world is better? Who really knows? Things
change, some for the good – some for the bad. I like my memories,
I liked my world. Some things have gotten easier and the world has
become more instant and seems smaller. But that's my viewpoint, from
one of the elders.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9969605.post-19870935157066229252013-11-04T12:20:00.000-06:002013-11-04T12:20:12.597-06:00Monday November 4, 2013...Help the poor or Support the military-industrial-complex<div style="line-height: 0.23in;">
<span style="color: #25371c;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">We're cutting back on food stamps and head start and education and medicaid, but not on our Miltary-Industrial-Complex.</span></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 0.23in;">
<span style="color: #25371c;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 0.23in;">
<span style="color: #25371c;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">During
World War II, this nation converted its civilian manufacturing base
into the creation of weapons and military equipment. However, the
arms industry did not revert back to its original functions upon the
war’s end; instead, it continued to grow and expand. The Cold War
did much to precipitate the amount of money our government was
spending on the arms race and to counter the Soviet threat. Today,
the U.S. spends fifty cents out of every discretionary tax dollar on
war and militarism. We spend almost as much on the military as the
rest of the world combined, and we are by far the largest arms
exporter in the world, accounting for 78% of such sales. Russia is in
second place with 5.6%.</span></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 0.23in;">
<span style="color: #25371c;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 0.23in;">
<span style="color: #25371c;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">The
term “Military Industrial Complex” was first coined by President
Eisenhower in 1961 during his </span></span></span><a href="http://coursesa.matrix.msu.edu/~hst306/documents/indust.html"><span style="color: #5596aa;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">farewell
address to the nation</span></span></span></span></a><span style="color: #25371c;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> to
describe the unprecedented American arms industry coupled with an
immense military establishment. He warned us to “.</span></span></span><em><span style="color: #25371c;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="font-style: normal;">..guard
against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or
unsought, by the military industrial complex. The potential for the
disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.</span></span></span></span></em><span style="color: #25371c;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">”</span></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 0.23in; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #25371c;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">The
military aid that the U.S. “gives” to other countries comes in
the way of credits which can only be used to purchase U.S. weapons
systems, equipment and training. The cost of those aid credits comes
directly out of the pockets of the American taxpayer and right into
the bank accounts of the defense industry. The U.S. provides around
$50 billion dollars in aid annually to over 150 nations, with at
least $17 billion of that being military aid. Our foreign military
aid programs keep the Military Industrial Complex (MIC) machine well
oiled and running smoothly; with big profits for the likes of
Lockheed Martin and Boeing, all courtesy of American taxpayers.</span></span></span>
</div>
<div style="line-height: 0.23in; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 0.23in; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #25371c;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">The
“rise of misplaced power” that Eisenhower warned of is easily
seen by the influence the Military Industrial Complex has on Congress
and the decisions it makes about war, budgeting, and foreign policy.
Defense firms spend millions lobbying Congress to protect their
weapons programs from spending cuts and to promote military actions.
Senators who voted in favor of a military strike against Syria
received an average of </span></span></span><a href="http://www.democracychronicles.com/defense-industry-syria/"><span style="color: #5596aa;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">83
percent more money</span></span></span></span></a><span style="color: #25371c;"> </span><span style="color: #25371c;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">from
the defense industry than senators who voted against the resolution.</span></span></span>
</div>
<div style="line-height: 0.23in; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 0.23in;">
<span style="color: #25371c;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">When
chemical weapons were used to kill civilians in Syria recently, the
U.S. was quick to say that President Assad had violated international
law. But instead of referring the case to the International Criminal
Court for adjudication, the Obama administration came very close to
waging war.</span></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 0.23in;">
<span style="color: #25371c;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">The
United Nations charter prohibits the threat or use of force against
any other country except in the event of self defense, yet in just
the last 12 years the U.S. has launched two full-blown wars in Iraq
and Afghanistan and we have attacked Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia with
hellfire missiles launched from drones. We have used the two most
recent wars to justify the use of torture, external rendition and
indefinite detention, as well as multiple violations of the Geneva
Conventions.</span></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 0.23in;">
<span style="color: #25371c;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">In
addition to refusal to become a party to the International Criminal
Court, a permanent tribunal to prosecute individuals for genocide,
crimes against humanity and war crimes</span></span></span>
,<span style="color: #25371c;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">
the U.S. has also refused to sign on to the Landmine Treaty, the
Cluster Munitions Treaty, the Biological and Toxin Weapons
Convention, the Convention against Torture, and the Anti-Ballistic
Missile Treaty. Even though the Chemical Weapons Convention was
ratified, the U.S. set extensive limitations on how it could be
applied in the U.S., essentially gutting its provisions.</span></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 0.23in;">
<br /><br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 0.23in;">
<span style="color: #25371c;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Since
1961 we have built a foreign policy through fear, intimidation, and
coercion. We have ignored opportunities to join the international
community and have instead shown arrogance and disregard for other
nations and their peoples. We espouse support for human rights, but
ignore them in the interest of corporate profits. </span></span></span>
</div>
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<div style="line-height: 0.23in; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9969605.post-12102757916008754672013-10-28T13:29:00.000-05:002013-10-28T13:29:04.936-05:00What is happening to our Democracy?
Excerpt from Chris Hedges: “Our Invisible Revolution”<br />
<br />
“Corporations, freed from all laws, government regulations and
internal constraints, are stealing as much as they can, as fast as
they can, on the way down. The managers of corporations no longer
care about the effects of their pillage. Many expect the systems they
are looting to fall apart. They are blinded by personal greed and
hubris. They believe their obscene wealth can buy them security and
protection. They should have spent a little less time studying
management in business school and a little more time studying human
nature and human history. They are digging their own graves.<br />
<br />
Our shift to corporate totalitarianism, like the shift to all
forms of totalitarianism, is incremental. Totalitarian systems ebb
and flow, sometimes taking one step back before taking two steps
forward, as they erode democratic liberalism. This process is now
complete. The “consent of the governed” is a cruel joke. Barack
Obama cannot defy corporate power any more than George W. Bush or
Bill Clinton could. Unlike his two immediate predecessors, Bush, who
is intellectually and probably emotionally impaired, did not
understand the totalitarian process abetted by the presidency.
Because Clinton and Obama, and their Democratic Party, understand the
destructive roles they played and are playing, they must be seen as
far more cynical and far more complicit in the ruination of the
country. Democratic politicians speak in the familiar
“I-feel-your-pain” language of the liberal class while allowing
corporations to strip us of personal wealth and power. They are
effective masks for corporate power.<br />
<br />
The corporate state seeks to maintain the fiction of our personal
agency in the political and economic process. As long as we believe
we are participants, a lie sustained through massive propaganda
campaigns, endless and absurd election cycles and the pageantry of
empty political theater, our corporate oligarchs rest easy in their
private jets, boardrooms, penthouses and mansions. As the bankruptcy
of corporate capitalism and globalization is exposed, the ruling
elite are increasingly nervous. They know that if the ideas that
justify their power die, they are finished. This is why voices of
dissent—as well as spontaneous uprisings such as the Occupy
movement—are ruthlessly crushed by the corporate state.“<br />
<br />
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/our_invisible_revolution_20131028<br />
<br /><br />
<br />
<div style="line-height: 100%;">
Just for reference, Under Bill Clinton,
NAFTA came into being resulting in a major shift of manufacturing
from the United States to Asian countries and the dismantling of
banking controls under the Glass–Steagall <em><span style="font-style: normal;">act.
Under Barack Obama the TPP is being pushed through and stronger
security controls are being </span></em> foisted upon the population
while the wealth of the nation is being siphoned into the pockets of
the super-rich. Dissent and whistle-blowing is being crushed and our
privacy is being shredded. Can this all be happenstance and
ignorantly ignored as coincidence?</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%;">
<br /><br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%;">
And all this happening under Democratic
presidency. Think how much worse it would probably have been under
Republican. We, the working poor, have been led down this path
unknowingly by our leaders under the supervision of the super-rich.
They have accomplished much during our lifetime. We can only start
to slowly divest them of their controls with a united front.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9969605.post-28517802957890156202013-09-24T14:17:00.000-05:002013-09-24T14:18:29.725-05:00Tuesday September 24, 2013...The case for medicare for all<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
THE CASE FOR MEDICARE FOR ALL</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
What we have now, prior to Obamacare,
is medical care for only those who can afford it and the rest can
die. Obamacare is a start, albeit a flawed one. The drug companies
and medical equipment suppliers and insurance companies all end up as
winners under Obamacare. They will be able to secure even greater
profits from their government-provided patent monopolies since the
ACA does little to rein in costs. As a result, we will still be
paying close to twice as much for drugs and medical devices as people
in other wealthy countries that have national healthcare overseen by
their governments. The agenda now has to be to squeeze the parasites
out of the health care system and bring down the costs.
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0