Two America's

John Edwards couldn't keep his pecker in his pants and that, plus he was an idiot, led to his demise, but I agree with him on one point.  There are two America's.  It was interesting watching the Republican Debates last night.  Both the Republican contenders and their Democratic rivals are extremely wealthy Americans. There is really no body representing me in our government.
   I wonder when was the last time any of these people went to the grocery store?  or actually wrote a check to pay for their utility bill?  I don't think they realize what is going on here at home, let alone the rest of the world and international affairs.
   About all that was accomplished, from my perspective, was the installation of a great deal of fear.  It seems that everyone is out to get us and someone will get a nuke into a suitcase and visit one of our major cities?
This modern day in Eden is a very dangerous place!  I wonder how much of this is really true?
   The problem with "truth" is that everyone owns a little snippet of it and no one tells the whole story.  Truth is told from a perspective to substantiate a lie.  Our aid to Africa (a whole continent, fellas, not one country!) does make very bad people very rich.  That is true.  It also helps saves millions of lives and makes us look good, and that is true too.  We have run out of money and that is true too.
   It is a dilemma.  What to do?  Where to go from here?
   There was a lot of talk about "The Patriot Act".  What a bullshit title that is!!!  I mean, really!  Who could be against that?  It sounds unpatriotic to be against it.  What a clever name!  We could call Guantanamo a
"reeducation center" like the Chinese might or a lover's convention and maybe get more support for it?
   For over 300 years we have led by example.  We were the envy, the hope and inspiration for others.
Our shinning example is becoming tarnished.
   We know "things are not right".  We just do not know exactly what the problem is and it makes it all the more difficult when politicians lie and distort the truth.  What is a person supposed to believe?
   I think maybe getting our own house in order might be a good beginning.  We have plenty of mess and things to do right here at home.  We have a long way to go to become that shining example again.
   Two America's?  I just read that our football coach (go Ducks!), now retired on State supported, tax payers funded PERS account receives 42,000 Dollars a MONTH in retirement!!!  That is a cool Half Million a year in Tax payer's money!  Under the Democratic Proposal to raise taxes 3% on money after the 1st million dollars, he would still be safe!
   And what happens if we do nothing?  Choose to not become involved?  There are laws in place for that too.  The "Bush Tax Cuts" are set to expire next year.  That means that the "wealthy" will pay more anyway and so will we.  In order to pass these cuts in the first place we were bribed with about $300 in tax cuts for the average American family.  $300 in savings for us and over a Trillion for the rich guys.  Such a deal!
The Super Committee failure will automatically kick in a law to reduce the budget on the backs of the middle class, from Social Security and Medicare and take a half Trillion dollars from the military.
   If we can't govern ourselves how can we be expected to contribute to the World?  We are not a shining example even to ourselves.

"Take a Bath and Get a Job"

That is Newt's take on the Occupy Wall Street Protesters and it brings back so many memories.  Our wars now that we have grown to hate and realize that we can no longer afford have cost the lives of over 4,000 Americans, our youth at that.  Our strongest and best.  Imagine Vietnam where we lost over 50,000, sometimes 500 every single week and always on the Nightly News where we could see the battles while eating dinner.  We were tricked then too, told of the "domino theory" and commies taking over the world.
Real History was avoided.  We were seldom told of Vietnam's struggle for National Independence, their 100 year battle with the French nor the hundreds of years of warfare to become independent of the Chinese.
Communist smomunists, they just wanted us out.
   Now they are a major manufacturer of computer parts and Air Jorden Tennis Shoes.  They are a rice exporting nation and our friends.  Funny how when you quit fighting that can happen.
   We had huge protests in those days.  President Nixon called the college kids "bums" and riot squads were called out all accross the country.  Protesters died.  Universities were shut down.  These were serious protests ot the kindly organized and pretty polite ones that we are having today.
   We got out of that war by voting our way out.  We realized we were being lied to and switched to more peaceful political candidates, but it was the protesters that made us think.  They started the ball rolling.
   It is so easy to say "take a bath and get a job,"  especially if you make a couple million a year, but I am not sure they can be dismissed so easily.  Most have grown up in a system that has failed them.  There are no jobs.  They feel as though they have been lied to.
   The 1% will lose.  They will lose their money, their power and their position.  Aristocracies fall and history has proved that time and time again.  It is not necessary but it will happen.  It always does.
The funny thing is that in our democracy we must like them.  In some perverse way we honor them.  The "Super Committee" couldn't reduce our budget 10%.  The Bush Tax Cuts for the Super Wealthy are firmly entrenched.  The committee had a lot of incentive to get this done, now a law will go into effect which will get this money out of Social Security, Medicare and the Military.  You have to get the money somewhere and that is the law!  I could have done a better job on a bad day before breakfast!
   Yes, get a job and take a bath but please don't quit protesting.  Eventually we will learn, maybe read a little more on the issues and finally we will vote.  We will get the government we vote for and finally accept some responsibility and admit we did this to ourslves.  Maybe Nixon got it right after all.  "Throw the bums out!"
But it is still our job to discover who the bums are!

My gallery is coming along but it is like watching paint dry!

Visible Saints

Do you ever wonder why it is so difficult to get money from the Super Rich?  Why can General Electric make over 14 Billion Dollars AND be subsidized to the tune of 3 Billion Dollars (tax payer's money) and still pay No Taxes?  The Top Ten Executives of "Freddie Mae" and "Freddie Mac" split a cool 100,000,000
Dollars in salaries and bonuses!  This is not "earned income", it is tax dollars.
   On a local level, in my little town, the top 1% make as much money as the bottom 87 Thousand People!
Most of us can't count that high and couldn't dream of that kind of money.  There has to be a reason that it is difficult to "tax the rich".  They do not pay into Social Security nor Medicare nor support the local transit system.  The average person might be taxes at close to 30% and their money is stuck at a 15% tax bracket.
This might even work if it weren't for the loopholes and obscure deductions we don't even know about.  Enough deductions that many of them pay nothing.
   The "Super Committee" in Congress made up of Republicans and Democrats couldn't agree on a solution to reducing our National Debt.  They didn't do anything so I think they should probably all be fired.  The Republicans are happy to take an axe to the budget and attempt to balance it on the backs of the Middle Class, even thinking to raise the age for Social Security and Medicare to 75! Cuts to the local levels would be massive with no aid to the local police or firefighters.  Libraries, of course would be closed.  This is austerity gone amok, clearly it wouldn't create a single job.  Quite the contrary, with the Republican proposals, hundreds of thousands more would be laid off.
   Democrats might compromise on some of these issues but the "line in the sand" for both parties is the issue of increased revenue.  No one is talking about an equal playing field, nothing that drastic.  The issue is a mere 3% on money after the first million dollars a year!  I would happily pay it.  Heck, I have never seen that kind of money, I would pay 10%!!!  If you win a million dollars on the lottery you pay a lot more!  After taxes that Million becomes $5,00,000 and then if you want cash that is cut in half to $250,000.  Why don't we complain about that?
   I know the answer and will attempt to explain it to you.  The answer lies in our first 100 years of our own History.  We are a country founded by the Puritans and their influence is all around us today.  It is how we got the idea that land can be conquered and resources exploited, used and used up. It is the reason that we attach reverence to wealth.  It is where we get the idea that "blessings from God" can come in the form of material possessions.
   Let me try to explain this a bit more.  Our Puritan Founders and virtually every single person on the street in those days, seriously believed in Predestination over free will.  It is pretty easy to understand the basis of this belief.  If God knows all, the past, present and the future, then He already knows whether you will be going to Heaven or Hell.  He knows this before you are born.  If you believe this, and for a long time in our history most Americans did, then what is the point to anything?  How do you get out of that predicament?
   So, here is the "catch" and the reason that we work so hard.  He Knows!  But we don't!  But we think that there might be an indication?  If some were blessed, some predestined to Heaven, there might be a sign?  Some visible way to determine who might be in His good graces?  Maybe even He would bestow wealth upon them?  "Blessed" we still think of it like that.  "Lucky" now, we are not so religious but we still value wealth and always equate it with success.  It is how we measure things.  Higher up the ladder is closer to God.  This is the single most important reason that nicer houses are always built high up in the hills and Churches have tall steeples.
   Somehow taxing the rich, deep in our subconscious is an affront to the way we think things should be.
It is ingrained.  How quick are we to say "yes sir" and be a bit subservient to the well dressed person in the very nice car?  The guy could be a bank robber for all we know, or steal from the government or one of those people who pay no taxes and our natural predisposition is to say, "yes, Sir" and clear the path for him to step to the front of the line.
   There are books on this idea but now you do not have to read them.  You know.  Think about it.

My "gallery" is coming along.  My shop and garden are HERE

Keep the One Percent!

I watch these protesters from the comfort of my easy chair.  I certainly don't venture forth into the cold to join them and it has been over 20 years since I have slept in a tent.  I don't disagree with all they say but I wish they could find leaders, someone to vocalize their anger, refocus their efforts and be a little more rational in what they want.  I see so much anger there when in most cases they are the cause of their own problems.
It is really easy to get back at the 1% if that is what you want to do.  Quit supporting them.  Don't go to Sam Walton's stores.  Throw away your Ipod! and, only if you are pretty enough, take off your foreign clothes!
   I like the 1%.  Walmart has done some good things and I am sure they are listening now.  That is how they got to be the 1%, by listening and filling a need.  Walmart offered us the $4 dollar prescriptions, cheap eye glasses, and they are beginning to provide local produce and an organic section to their food departments!
Steve Jobs was a multi gazillionaire, selling telephones basically!  How cool is that?  I like Bill Gates and the whole group that make up this 1%
   I don't even want their money, not much of it anyway, not enough that they would notice much.  I think the Democrats are after just 3% on money made after the first million dollars!  Do you really think this would cripple Microsoft?  I doubt it.  It certainly won't equal the playing field and that is probably a good idea.
   I wish Politicians were forced to study Economics.  I wish they knew our own History and I wish they could find countries on a map, at least, say ten of them.  It would be nice if they knew that Africa was not a country.  There are "laws of economics" and I wish they understood these.  Sometimes opinions and emotions can be destructive of what we are after.
   There is a food chain and as killing the sharks disturbs the ecosystem in the oceans, destroying the 1% would probably have disastrous effects all down the line.  Someone else would just replace them.  There will always be 1%.
   Our Congress can't even agree on vegetables for school lunches!  That is right, that measure failed.  It was an Obama backed measure and, god forbid, passing it might have made him look good!  So we will continue with pizza and french fries and cold corn dogs because we can't agree on anything!
   20% of our population is taking mood altering prescription drugs!  25% of women do this!  Probably 50%
are on non-prescriptive drugs, alcohol and marijuana!  It is a ship going down and unlike the Titanic we are not even dancing!  Like rats caught in a maze we are reduced to eating each other!
   Our National Debt is about 62% of GNP.  Italy's is 118% and Japan's is over 200%. I do not know what is acceptable, reasonable and ordinary.  I do know the fear, the anger,the finger pointing, the emotions of it all are preventing any kind of reasonable solution.  I know that we shouldn't implement reforms and see what will happen.  It is not necessary.  We know what will happen.  You can look to recent history and see what will happen, look to Greece, to England and Ireland, look to what will happen soon in Spain.  Look to what happened in Germany when their money was so devalued that a worker was paid three times a day, devaluing a hundred times in a matter of hours.
   There is a science to this and an historical precedent. It would be nice to have leaders who actually read books.

My Art, shop and garden are HERE