It's all my own fault.

It's been, what, 11 days since I last posted? I've been off on vacation to Hell. I couldn't afford it, of course, but I had to go somewhere nice long enough to recharge and remember that there -is- something better than my current situation in life. As potential Presidential Candidate Herman Cain has been saying....

Ah, ha. See there? All my problems are my own fault. No matter how anarchistic, progressive, or liberal one is, if ya grew up in a Republican family in the age of Eisenhower, this is your eternal truth. The problem is I, me, my, mine. The world is my oyster and I'm allergic. I'll have to stop surfing the web and go out there and get me a better job, yahoo. I ain't lookin' fer no bailout that'll make you poor rich bastard son-of-a-bitches pay the kind of taxes I do, no sirree, Bob. Heck, I make enough to eat meat every now and again. I'm not 'plannin'.

Oh, by the way, my mania for collecting pics of old WPA posters and art has been turning up a few real goodies. The "W.P.A." stood for "Works Progress Administration". It was one of Roosevelt's policies during the depression to get people back into jobs. The government paid for the unemployed to work building roads, damns, and etc. - and artists to make public art. This one was called "The Lord Provides":

 and this little gem seems topical, if a bit faded. Of course, government doesn't pay for education much anymore. Building houses, fixing roads, educating people into trying for a better position in life - these ideas may have paved a way for the great economic boom of the 50's and 60's but they're old hat now.

Which reminds me, have I posted this one yet?

Ah, yes, move on, move on.

Ya gotta have money to live here.

Living here has become more and more problematic as the poor and the non-rich old have been targeted to be pushed out.

Which reminds me, I got a postcard from Laura over at Austanspace while I was away. She's still up in Maine where a friend has taken her in until her home is approved for human habitation. You wouldn't believe the shenanigans going on over these Melrose apartments where she live(s)(d). The town seems intent on obstructing the tenants return, especially after the affordable housing folk spent a ton of money to fix them up after the hurricane (kill two birds with one stone, anyone)? It looks like what they really want is to get rid of  subsidized housing. Those folks don't have the money to support the antiques dealers, art dealers, and jewelers in town. I wonder how they'll get rid of the trailer parks (i.e. affordable housing for the folks who used to have the good jobs that closed or moved away)?

O my gosh, lookit the time. I gotta get off to goin' workin' - winter's coming and around here it does get a mite cold. The Baptist Church sold off its signed Tiffany window to get their certificate of occupancy for having their overflow shelter where the homeless can sleep overnight when it's below freezin'. I'm not sure if I'll be there or not. If I cancell my health insurance, I'll have enough to pay my bills so maybe I'll be able to stay in my studio apratment.

The thing I keep wond'rin' about is what are they going to do with those of us who can't pay our bills? (Which in the United States of America seems to be the biggest sin you can commit. Just look around, bankers almost never go to jail.) We certainly can't stay here, it seems. Nor can the elderly, nor can the disabled. Us folks just don't fit into the image the powers that be want for Brattleboro. Where are they gonna put those of us whom they tell to keep moving on, to just go away?

 

  

And the world goes 'round...

Whoa! did'ja see the headline and story in the New York Times?

Recession Officially Over, U.S. Incomes Kept Falling
By ROBERT PEAR

Published: October 9, 2011
--------------------------------------------------------------
Well, of course incomes kept - wait. Recession. Over? Wha?
I went on to read the first lines....
 
WASHINGTON — In a grim sign of the enduring nature of the economic slump, household income declined more in the two years after the recession ended than it did during the recession itself, new... scan down...  Between June 2009, when the recession officially ended, and June 2011, inflation-adjusted median household income fell 6.7 percent, to $49,909, according to a study...
 
STOP. The "Recession ended in 2009"?... "the average inflation-adjusted" STOP. We're admitting that there's inflation now?    "inflation-adjusted median household income fell 6.7 percent, to $49,909, according to a study." STOP. The average income is DOWN to $49,909.00? Who are these people and how do I identify them? So am I, suffering from the inability to acquire enough venture capitol to pay my most modest and basic bills, am I paying for this curse of not being "average"? (I think I'll flip my hair and mutter, "Oh, Dear, i am getting so confused...")
 

First off, did anyone remember that the recession had ended back in 2009? I had to go look that one up. Sure enough, there it was - the National Bureau of Economic Research had declared the Recession over in 2009. There was a bit of an explosion of commentary about it back then. The National Bureau of Economic Research is the outfit which calls the beginnings and ends of recessions.
 

Soooo, back to our day and its story. Here's a little interesting factoid referring to the study cited in the Times: "Gordon W. Green Jr., who wrote the report with John F. Coder, called the decline 'a significant reduction in the American standard of living'." Who, ummm, are they anyway? Well, it turns out that those two used to work for the U. S. Census Bureau. For 25 years.  They should know. Shouldn't they? So. Who funded their new report? (surf-surf-surf-did-did-dig-ta da!) Why, it was funded by our friends over at the National Bureau of Economic Research. The Bureau, as it turns out, doesn't really mean to imply a Federal connection. They are a private, non-profit economic think tank. They note that they have 16 Nobel Laureates for Economics on their staff. Oh, and they specialize in Behavioral Economics. I looked that one up, too. Here's a couple of that division's  most recent reports: Increasing Efficiency in the Indian Electric Power Industry. Race and Ethnicity in the Classroom. Decision making and Capital Allocation within Firms. And my two favorites: Leverage across Firms, Banks, and Countries, and the ever popular Deregulation and Consolidation Add Efficiency in U.S. Nuclear Power. Gee, there's a lot of parameters to economic research, huh?

 
And, just because I'm an irritable, grumpy bastard, I looked for the National Bureau of Economic Research's funding. Here's what's known: not much. All their money comes from foundations. The Rockefeller Foundation is a long time supporter.
 
Ah, the Rock. Why, they have money all over the place. Not long ago, it came out that the Rock was funding a World Health Organization project "Research on the Development of Methods of Fertility Regulation", which included research into both “injectable Immunocontraceptives” and implantable ones. Uh, huh. And guess what? The Rock has been funding work on anti-fertility since back in the mid 1930's! And those modest guys didn't even make public mention of that until their annual report noted it in 1969! The Rock also funds Agricultural development (GMOs), which fits neatly into their support of population control and eugenics programs in universities.
 
Before I forget,one of  the National Bureau of Economic Research's major funders seems to be the Scaife Foundations. That's a group deal - 4 different family foundations all controlled by reclusive billionaire Richard Mellon Scaife. They fund the American Legislative Exchange Council which, after the 2010 midterms, boasted that 3 of 4 former state legislators elected to the Senate were Council Members. And 27 of the 42 new House members were too! ALEC works behind closed doors to encourage legislation to benefit  Corporate bottom lines. They are even so nice as to introduce and pass bills handed to them by the Corporations. Those bills do so much to undermine environmental regulations, deny climate change, undercut health care reform, defund unions, define redistricting goals,  extend prison sentences for the private prison industry, and so on and so forth. ALEC was instrumental in the "New Right" movement of the mid 1980's, when Donald Rumsfeld was ALECs chair of the business policy board. And they've been up to all kinds of things since then. For instance, they're tied in to the Heritage Foundation. And they've been working hard to change banking regulations in all 50 states. I think that the executive director of ALEC is still Kathleen Teague Rothschild. Oh, yeah, I should probably note that both Coca-cola and Koch Industries serve on the ALEC governing board.
 
 
That's a glimpse at who funded the study.
 
Aha moment: the release of this study's information publishes the week the Senate starts debate on the Jobs bill.

 
Other points in the study as mentioned in the NY Times article:
 
Two main forces appear to have held down pay: the number of people outside the labor force — neither working nor looking for work — has risen; and the hourly pay of employed people has failed to keep pace with inflation, as the prices of oil products and many foods have jumped. The average time a person who lost a job remains unemployed: 40.5 weeks. One reason pay has stagnated is that many people who lost their jobs in the recession — and remained out of work for months — have taken pay cuts in order to be hired again (an average 17% less).  For example, income, after adjustment for inflation, declined fairly substantially for households headed by people under age 62, but it rose 4.7 percent for those headed by people 65 to 74, many of whom are not in the labor force. The change was negligible for those 62 to 64.
 
Singles took a worse real income hit than families. Men living alone showed a bigger decline than women living alone.
 
A few other things not in the study which should be noted for those debating a jobs bill:
 

Income inequality is grinding down the middle class, increasing the ranks of the poor, and threatening to create a permanent underclass of able, willing but jobless people, a generation of lost opportunity. And even before the recession, the share of income held by the top 1% was 23.5% - at the time, the highest inequality measured since 1928. That inequality  has led to lower levels of educational attainment, poorer health and less public investment. It also skews political power, because policy almost invariably reflects the views of upper-income Americans versus those of lower-income Americans. The financial sector, with regulators and elected officials in collusion, inflated and profited from a credit bubble that burst, costing millions of Americans their jobs, incomes, savings and home equity. First they got bailed out, and then they got bonuses. And no one except Bernie Madoff has gone to jail or been forced to repay that money.

And bigwigs wonder why people are protesting?

And claim the the occupying "mob" has no message?

Not paying attention now, are we?

I doubt that many of them even know that they are privileged.

As the 82 year old whose pension and investments vanished forcing him back to work put it:

"Off with their heads!"

As things fall apart

Jesus H. Keyriced. October 9th? WTF? One of the more horrible times of the year is almost upon us, "The Holidays". Halloween is only days away, and Ron Paul and Michelle Whats-her-name are no longer media darlings and thus aren't around to scare the crap out of nice little democrat children everywhere. And the old folks. And the populace at large. House majority leader Eric Cantor is still spewing words that added up sure sound like hate to me - hatred of the principles of this country and its everyday people trying to keep to a moral code while getting ready to starve. Only he doesn't know it. He's not old enough to know what having rights is like. He doesn't remember when the people were sold the dream that all they really wanted was a nice big house with a mortgage, a big fancy car, and don't forget the 2.3 replacement child workers. Forget hope. And he has too much money to know what standing in a supermarket checkout line is like. He's never had to decide between rent or food + every thing else. Plus, tied as he is to the extreme religious right, he's never had the freedom of not worshipping. He's never really had free choice. Except maybe when he ran the family business while working in "real estate development". And we know what he chose. (oh, oh, I know, I know - a wife who is director of a bank!)

And thus the wolly bully spaketh to the crowd on the 7th of October in the fourth year of the great smiting:

“I am increasingly concerned about the growing mobs occupying Wall Street and other cities across our country... Believe it or not, some in this town have actually condoned the pitting of Americans against Americans...”

WHAT?

Did anybody ever teach that guy the word "hypocrisy"? Oh, wait, he's too young to have had a real education, isn't he?

Hmmm. Just when did anyone decide that people like him or the Fundabrainless crowd was running the country? Well, from what I can see, they did. Self proclaimed. With God on their side. Who believes , and/or agrees with all their nonsense? No global warming, or warming your houses in winter either. The evolutionary theory is wrong. No rights to your own body. No rights to equal pay, and yes, that means you women who should really be home birthing babies (in the cold).

So. The thing is this: he is leading a minority bullying their way into the playground. The people who didn't want to be bullied have fled Paris, as long as they could afford to. Those who tried to stand up to them were knocked down, spat upon, called vile names, and in general had their reputations besmirched to the point that they no longer comprise a threat to the bullies. No one will follow that lead - it's not just that others have seen what will happen (haven't they Senator Wellstone?) and backed off, it's that the bullies have destroyed the capacity for anyone to lead. The bullies use the media they own to throw mud pies at anything nice, or good. Earth's excrement covers just about everything these days - except for the gated communities and the occasional off in the woods hunting lodges with unfortunate names. Just two days ago, the not really the majority bully Eric Cantor tried to kick start the redefinition of the "occupy wallstreet" participants as a "mob". Oh, I have chills running up and down my spine now. Mobs get angry and take things into their own hands. Cantor is really telling the police and national guard to be ready to step in. He (and his Wall Street backers) fear the mob. As an 82 year old man I know who had to un-retire after his pension fund was snatched put it, "Off with their heads!." Yes, the mob has potential. Squirm you little bastard, Cantor. Flail around awhile, his disciples. What he doesn't know is that when push comes to shove, the crowd gets him. He won't be accepted at the hidden ranches. (Look at his last name.) And his really scared friends on Wall Street won't take him in - they're too used to hiring him and ordering him around than to elevate him to their level. See Mr. C? This is the world you and your friends made, and welcome to it.  It's the one the rest of us have had to live in for far too long now.

Hell, even little Brattleboro had an "Occupy the Common" on Friday. Starting at 12pm. Going to 3. Perfectly timed to avoid real working people, with enough time to go home before the tourists arrive and the lower to middle middle class workers get out. These wonderful women turn out, wearing their memory of hippy garb, wearing their green dresses, with green undies, with little green children, in their happy, green with envy little lives. It's just so hard being better than everyone else. Who do they think they are, anyway? The upper middle class? Oh. Wait. They are. Off with their heads!


Hugs and Holy Kisses,
the Rt. Rev. Crankypants. Esquire



p.s. Happy birthday, John
       There are still some of us...




                                  
                                              
                                           
                                    

Sunday Rituals

It started around 1968. And for many years thereafter, my Sunday rites consisted of purchasing the paper(s), getting comfy, lots of coffee, Ella on the component sound system, and reading the NY Times and whatever paper had the best funnies. In my New York days, that was the Daily News.

During my years in Boston, it was the Boston Globe. And here? Well, the practice fell away. I always seemed to be working on Sundays, and I just can't bring myself to part with something like $10.00 for the Times. Now, when I get a Sunday off, I read news and etc. on the Internet. It's not the same. Considering the Internet's popularity, I have to wonder why the Entertainment reporting is so bad. There's hardly a look at what's coming up in the next week, month, or season. There is no real  news at all from the worlds of Philharmonias, live Theatres, concerts, opera houses, danse, cabaret, photography, museum shows & etc.  Even the advertising is too narrowed to be of any interest. I want to see fashions, what is being worn in Paris, Madrid, Rome, London, Buenos Aires. I want to know what the new electronic toys are. I want photos or headlines and well written articles that draw me into stories I would otherwise pass by. I miss turning on the tv in time to catch Charles Kuralt's On the Road segments. I want to read material written by authors who happen to know something of what they write.

This morning's gleanings include a story about an outfit making commericals for dogs: included are high pitched whistles and other sounds which would get a dog's attention. It worked for Pavlov. If your best beast came running to watch a commerical, might that get you to buy that product? It worked for Pavlov. This new feature is brought to you by those fine folks at Nestles Purina. Ah, yes the friendly Swiss company that brought us milk chocolate candies, canned milk, and Infant Formula has grown a bit. Here's a few of the company's current better known holdings (they have over 6,000 brands) : Nescafe, Perrier, Nesquik, Carnation, Haagen Dazs, Skinny Cow, Cheerios, Gerber, Power Bar, Buitoni, etc. Nestle also holds significant shares of General Mills, and Coca-Cola.

This reminds me, another story in the news detailed a study of how global warming will affect coca production. An average 2 degree change will end the crop in West Africa, which supplies half of the world's coca beans. Chocolate would became a mouth tingle of the wealthy. I was getting extremely concerned until I read that the soonest this would be a real problem is 2050. Whew! That was close.

Just now I'm having one of those warm glowing moments when nostalgia suddenly beats one over the head. Charles Kuralt! God I loved those "On the Road" segments. They were often stories. Stories about us. The Oregon Trail, or maybe it'd be snow geese. He'd let the camera focus on the geese, we'd hear only the sounds of nature. His stories of people who succeeded, or failed miserably, were told without agenda. Small town festivals. Making sugar cane into molasses. He celebrated America. Its people, its deeds. Its a kind of view we don't get anymore.

That reminds me, tonight on 60 minutes, Andy Rooney takes exit from a long career. And, on PBS the new (3 part?) documentary by Ken Burns begins. Its focus : the Depression.  Hopefully he's gotten tired of using that civil war soundtrack and uses song of the period. We'll see.

Well don't that beat all

Found on the web this morning : a story about Hallmark Greeting Cards.
It seems that the company has started a new line, perfect for those moments when you just don't know what to say. It consists of eight cards so far.
The subject?

Inside: "Think of it as a time-out between stupid bosses".

Also seen on the web this morning, a news headline from the Associated Press:
"Vt. to reopen temporary bridges by end of Oct."
How, exactly, does one reopen a newly constructed temporary bridge?

And, a few days back, I found this which I had intended to give my "Pic of the Day" award, but forgot:

 

Earlier this week, I found a series of pics from fashion week - I think it was in Spain, but I can't swear to that.

These are all very nice and everything, but I miss the old glamour shots like these:

Ah, well. Sic transit gloria mundi.

When the surreal get going...

Okay, so the thing is this: sometimes, real reality is weirder than surreality. Press conferences where people cheer for letting the uninsured die. Where the southern debate crowd boo a soldier just back from service in the mideast as he announced that he was gay. Where stocks plunge and rise like a yoyo in the hands of a spastic. Where the US house of representatives defeats a temporary budget because there are no offset social program reductions to pay for disaster aid (that's allright, we don't need to fix those roads and bridges after the hurricane). Also this week, unnoticed by most people, there was an interesting tidbit in the news about a guy named Marc Anthony Donais, 47, formerly known as '90s gay porn star Ryan Idol, who was convicted on Tuesday of attempting to kill his girlfriend with a porcelain toilet tank lid.

Wait.
Gay porn star.
Girlfriend.
Toilet tank lid.

uh...okay...

In the ensuing press coverage, a drag queen was quoted as saying, "I lived next door to Ryan when I first moved to LA in 1996 and, CHRIST ON A CRACKER, that bitch was NUTS."

uh, huh...

Today happens to be the birthday of Ian Tyson. Most people have probably forgotten him by now, and well over half of the people who get that crazy smiled wistful eyed look at the mention of his name have probably never heard of him either. He's about 78 now, a singer, songwriter, and rancher. Back in the late 60's or so, he and his then wife performed as a folk duo by the name of Ian and Sylvia. Around that time I knew this folksinger name of Hank Sable. He performed often at the Purple Dragon, a coffeehouse in Ocean City, NJ. that I helped run. He was the first person I knew to play "Alice's Restaurant". He'd been to that year's Newport Folk Festival and told us about Woody's son, played the song part, and made us memorize it so that when it came around again...  As the end of summer drew near, Hank would perform this one song that would get me every time. It was written by Ian Tyson, and I started thinking of it again when the leaves outside my window began to turn. And it still gets me, as I mentally see and sense the world slowly packing up and going away for the season. And after all these years, I may not be sure, but I think I've settled down.

 

 

Miss Otis Regrets

So. As I write, it's the first day of the autumnal season. The equinox, when day and night were of equal length, arrived this morning around 5:05am. That's the only time anything or anyone has been equal all week.  Where to begin?

How about the guy killed by the State of Georgia on Wednesday? His name was Troy Davis. He was executed for a crime he did or didn't commit in 1989. Over the years, a different man confessed to the killing. 9 of the original 11 witnesses recanted their testimony, citing everything from police bullying to murder threats from the confessed killer. 1989. 2011.  
22 years is a hell of a long time for speedy justice. I guess that's supposed to remind the poor folk that they'll still pay for their crimes, real or imagined, in time if nothing else. (a little court ordered fine scarecrow?)

Around the same time, the US President, Mr. Obama, called yet again for a heavier tax assessment on the rich, who haven't paid their fair share since, well, eternity, I guess.  Within seconds, Republicans and Tea Partiers were noted flailing their arms about while screaming "Class Warfare!!!". Same as it ever was. Except the richer folks used to own the poorer folk.

It was really nice of the President to call for taxing the rich at the same rate the middle class and poor are taxed. But, he stopped there. The Corporations were not mentioned, even though the US legally defines them as having all the rights of people.

 
In Texas, home of the previous president, and home to Gov. Perry, the current top vote getter of the conservative right, another man was killed by the state on the same day as the guy in Georgia. He was one of several men who had used a logging chain to drag their victim over roadways for more than three miles while body parts littered the highway. Now that's class warfare.

The state of Texas has killed a hell of a lot of people alleged to be criminals. Their governor, the one running for president, has had more killing retributions during his tenure than any other governor of any other state. Ever. He does have a slight problem in that his predecessor, Mr. Bush, was able to get his killing machine working at a faster rate than his. Oh, well. What can you expect from a guy who was "chief yeller" at Texas A&M University? If you've never heard of the school, know that it had a student famous for finishing a jigsaw puzzle in 6 months. The front of the box had stated "2 - 4 years".

By the by, the state of Texas has murdered four people in the name of justice in the last 10 days alone. It would have been 6, but the courts stopped those. For now.

It doesn't seem that anyone remembers when the United States, via the US Supreme Court, outlawed all attempts at capital punishment back in 1972.  That one, by the way, was a finding attached to a case in the state of Georgia.  In another case in Georgia, the all clear was given in 1977, but the State of Utah stole Georgia's thunder by executing a guy name Gary Gilmore first. Gilmore seemed to be a serial murderer in training, who, when caught, insisted on his own execution. His final words were: "Let's do it".

So there were a few years there, where life imprisonment was the top punishment. In other words, the United States stopped reacting in the mode of its criminal killers. For a brief few years, we were better than that.

Have you ever noticed that most of the people the states have killed in the name of capital punishment were poor? And overwhelmingly black? If you're a rich bastard and destroy the financial lives of thousands of people forcing them into bankruptcy and/or homelessness, you get life imprisonment in a fairly fancy facility with tons of perks. If you're really good, and murder thousands by your decisions, you get to pay less taxes.

The US census bureau released new statistics showing that "nearly one in six" Americans lives in poverty. 46.2 million people.  That's a record. (I wonder if Guinness is interested?) That's 15.1 % of the population, the most of any industrialized nation.  It's the highest figure since they started keeping track 52 years ago.  And many of those folks will tell you that taxing the rich is class warfare. What was that about repeating a lie often enough?

Wanna have some fun? Let's tell the President that Troy Davis was really a white banker.

Let's do it !!!

911 Musings

Okay. Most of that morning is a kind of blur. There are pieces, spots that I remember. I was working as an inside sales rep at a wholesale organic food co-operative. That morning there was a meeting, nothing new to co-ops. I remember the meeting room being packed. I can't quite recall the discussion at the moment. The CEO was there. There was something going on and tempers were flaring. I remember one young woman and the CEO really got into it. She wanted her voice heard, and as a member owner of the co-op, she thought she had that right. But the CEO whipped his head around, his chin jutted out, his eyes narrowed, and through clenched teeth he raised his voice to say "Ownership is not management".

It was one of those trump everything moves that shuts down discussion, sort of like calling someone a Nazi or a racist. The meeting had gone unconscionably overtime and those of us on the sales force were rushing to do an hour's work in 20 minutes. As we filed back  into the large open area where our prairie dogging cubicles were, we noted that the woman at the sales switchboard/receptionist area had a radio turned on. She told us a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. There was fire. And another plane just rammed into it, too.  At some point, management turned off and secured the radio. I went over to the new buyer's desk. He had a computer attached to the Internet. We could see the towers on fire. But we had to get back to work. Another crash - at the Pentagon! And another plane headed towards Washington might have crashed in Pennsylvania. It was just after 10am. The receptionist/switchboard operator gasped at what someone told her over the phone. The look on her face hushed us all - one of the towers had collapsed. Someone near me said, "What"? Without thinking I said, "Well, yeah," like it was the most logical thing in the world, "We're at war." A few minutes later, the second tower crashed. The CEO came in and told us that we needed to get back to work. We had to get these orders done. We had to go on as though nothing had happened. Because if we didn't, "they" would "win". The woman who had recently been put in charge of the inside sales staff (a plant from a corporate competitor, I was sure) started to weep. The CEO put his arm around her and walked her into her office. The offices for regular management ran alongside one whole (and very long) wall. A few minutes later, the CEO left for the day. Before he did, it was announced that only those having a hard time dealing with the situation could go home. The rest of us were to stay. Where I sat, I could see the wall of offices. And one by one, the lights in each office went out. The wall opposite had a big glass enclosed area with an entryway into the bookkeeping offices. The lights there started going out too. It took less than 20 minutes, and they were all gone for the day.

I remember getting home later than usual. I was hardly inside the door before I had the tv on. Try to find CNN on the dial - oh, it wasn't necessary. I should have known. There was only one story anyone was talking or thinking about. I had begun to stare at the unimaginable pictures and action replays. I can remember two phone calls, both with the same message: The community radio station I was involved with was broadcasting a taped program about a musical attack from Swizzlestick outerspace or some such thing  - it was just one too many discordant notes in the night. Where was I, wouldn't I go in and put something more spiritual on? Not having Mozart's Requiem on tape, I declined - I wanted to see this footage, I wanted to get beyond my wasp detachment. I had to believe it really happened, I guess.  A little while later, I noticed that the station was playing a program with zen sutras, Koranic chanting raga-ish music in the background, like some new age tape you might've heard once in Bar Harbour. I can't remember much else of that day or night.

So many columns, blogs, new stories, magazine stories, etc. are commenting on how that day changed America and the World. The ideals of my country were called into play by those who wanted to exploit the situation for their own ends. We watched, helpless screaming, even as the news was telling us that the news was being evasive, incomplete, and distorted. We all knew what was happening. But we didn't know how to stop it. And we let it happen.

The generation just arriving at military service/voting age probably doesn't have memories of a time when we weren't at war. They don't know of a world without cell phone miracle machines. They don't remember when we didn't torture. They don't remember the racial divide that collapsed in the wake of that day. They don't remember a time when we had jobs. Or before the internet and then before the corporations took it over so they could charge you while implanting their shopworn dreams.  When airplane travel was unrestricted. When you had to go out of your way to find good clean and/or organic foods without chemical growth residue. They don't remember a world before email or a world where you go could go the to library to borrow or reference material without the government having access to those records. Hell, the way it's going, they soon won't remember libraries at all. The answer is right there for the asking, as long as you can afford to go online. Where every keystroke can be monitored. They don't remember that the CIA isn't supposed to be operating in our own country. They are  too young to have noticed the phony yearly cycles in gas prices. They don't remember when "liberal" wasn't a dirty tax and spend commie word. Actually, they're not old enough to remember Communist Russia.  Or remember when we were a good, mostly honest, people decently living our beliefs, and admired and respected for that throughout the world.

So much has changed, and yet so little. There are still pharaohs ruling the world. They simply build no public works, no pyramids, engender no higher ideals in mankind. They own and/or run corporations now. It's been that way for quite awhile. Where you used to replenish the country's coffers by war against another king, now you war against your own people. Normans and Saxons alike. It's like time somehow shifted along with the weather patterns. The image being sold at home is late 50's early 60's Consumer time.  And the poor kids today don't know to look for the man behind the curtain, or to follow the money.

In the 1960's, we really did change the world - before you laugh, look at the way you are dressed. Look at the number of women in the workforce - even if they aren't being paid as much as men. People suffer no disgrace now from divorce, or unwed pregnancy. I might as well say that people now suffer no disgrace. I look at gay teenagers and beam with joy at the world they are creating. But I also see young women coming along who don't seem like they will continue the fight over fair wages. They have to be taught, they need knowledge. I'm not just speaking about women here, the men too. We can't let them forget or go without knowing a world in which you don't have to register for military service. The clock is being turned back. In a few weeks, daylight savings time will be here. It's not just that we gain an hour, you know - it's getting back to the real time that's becoming important.

Somewhere in those memories now 10 years old, are the memories in the background - how quickly the barricades went up, even in a little town like this. How quickly people got used to having and having to show their IDs  to get into government buildings. The government buildings that are fortresses against the rabble. They know one day we will come for them. They're getting ready.  How quickly it became useless to try to stop the government from privately accessing every day actions, what books we've read, what we purchase, our medical problems, our financial status - and then there's the targeted advertising and credit ratings industry paid for by whom exactly? When the kings of business get together, they trade amongst themselves. After the kings of business get together, they circle like vultures. There will be nothing left to feed the dragon. Except for everlasting war.

I can no longer see an option here - we will have to fight the corporation/government again. Use the same tools you just know our guys taught rebels in the Arab Spring oil east. They did, after all, get those ideas from us. We - the decent ones, who still uphold the message - we - have got to get to the kids and the young adults. They need to know there is a better world and that once, one great once upon a time, we were getting near it. Camelot, da da dah da dah, Camelot! Lost Horizon of Shangri-la. Cities of gold. Xanadu. They need to know there are ideas and ideals worth living for. And the only way to fully express that is to live it. Every day.

Race relations will soon be stirred up again - crime is already on the upswing, and a goat will be needed to blame it on. The nonstop wars have started - over there. So far. The wars of money and subjugation have started over here. The merger of government and business is spreading. It could take years, or it could be tomorrow, but make no mistake, they will be coming.  Except for the ones who get to leave after 20 minutes.

Happy Birthday Bernie!

Today is Bernard (Bernie) Sanders 70th birthday.
He is currently a United States senator representing Vermont.

For those unfamiliar with him, he self defines himself politically as a democratic socialist.

He is the only person I can think of who speaks up for, and defends, the poor, tthe poor working class, and working Americans.

He is also a truth teller.

He's the guy who called the Republican deficit reduction program "morally grotesque".

He does that kind of thing.

Here's a quick video to give you the idea:





... and if you like what you heard in that short clip, try this:







So Happy Birthday, Bernie.
Many thanks.

Murmurs

It's raining. Through my windows on the world, there is a verdant scense of calm and quiet. The leaves of trees hang heavy in the rain, the oddly peaceful rain. A few leaves on the large old maple tree in front of the ivy covered (naturally) brick church are beginning to turn a half hearted orange. Here and there the green in a few birch leafs is draining away into an as yet pale yellow. The way I see it, there is no painted asphalt road, no ugly bright yellow crossing sign, no sound of tires or cars. Those are the calm moments. It's where I try to live.

Sadly, and to my everlasting regret, the fuckin Republicans and Tea Parties aren't leaving much in the way of calm moments. I try to ignore them. But they're there, an incessantly babbling background of bulimic regurgitation and all, all of it, cancerous bile. The frigging House actually refused a request for a special meeting and address by the President of the United States. Take the next day. It's worse than playing politics. They may hate and despise Obama, but they should still respect the Office. They told us so years ago. Today that crowd has started declaring that they won't attend the joint session of the House and Congress. They have no respect.

Off and on over the last few months, the stories appeared and took hold. They grew. They multiplied. The hour of the 10th anniversary of the coming of the Great Tragedy is at hand, hallelujah. News stand magazines. Time Life Specials. TV spectacles and repeats, Praise the Lord Who WIII Deliver US!
And I am sick of it. It's disgusting. We just don't need to relive that in enmasse spiritual masturbation right now. It's not Nostalgia, dammit. And for many web portals, where do you think they have their 10th anniversary slide shows, opinions, and time charts? As the first listed item under the header "Entertainment", that's where.  That's not just disgusting, that's contemptible. In my world in New York City there would be mass protests at the media castles and obelisks, thousands in an undulating line of pointing fingers and cries of Shame! Shame! Shame! They are making money off of this. Shame! Shame! Shame! (I wonder if I can get one of the souvenir books...).



So here's this intense wave of America betrayed, America Destroyed, America...    Roll out the barrels by jingo jam-ohhhh - to what purpose now? What new war this way cometh? Unending war. unending upon unending

in wisescreen hi-def stereophonic surround sound.
I lean over and turn it off.
  
  

Just found this:

https://occupywallst.org/

Notes and tidbits.

There is one thing I meant to mention in my last post which I forgot in my mental sputtering over the machinations of the Republicans and their Tea Party allies.

As I watched videos of hurricane/tropical storm Irene and its effects on Vermont, I saw something which I did find a little disturbing. The waters of several flooding rivers were running red. There was a river which turned red a week or so ago in the west or Midwest. There was a river that turned red in China the other day. There were others. But now, when I do a search for this topic, the news stories seem to have disappeared. Rivers running red is, of course, a sign of the Biblical apocalypse.

Last year, while I was writing about British Petroleum and the oil "spill" in the Gulf of Mexico, Austanspace noted the odd increase in earthquakes. This morning, as I was reading online news, stories started appearing about a category 6.8 earthquake off the Alaskan coast. Was it last week, or two weeks ago, there was the earthquake from Virginia which rocked much of the east coast of the United States. Last evening, there was a 4.2 in the greater Los Angeles area. Yesterday, there was a 5.9 quake in the Santa Cruz Islands. Also yesterday was a 4.6er off the coast of Sumatra. There was a 4.9 off the coast of Ecuador. And a 4.3 in western Iran. And a 4.5 near San Juan, Argentina. And that's just the reporting this morning.

Oh, I should probably mention that in one small Vermont town, the flood unearthed 30 some caskets from the graveyard. Many were opened by the waters, and bones are strewn all about. Route 100 even had an open casket w/dead body in the center of the road.

I've got to stop now and go off to work.

September 2 is the 245^th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar.
There are 477 days remaining until the end of time.

Jesus H. Christ.

I'm watching the news. The funding of FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management Agency) is under attack. The Republicans are lining up in an effort to tie any money spent on emergency aid to budget cuts.

Wait. What? I have just seen a commercial in which we see a house that has been destroyed in some calamity. It looked like it was taken yesterday or today in Vermont or New Jersey. It turned out to be a commercial for Insurance! What gall.

Michele Bachmann, comedy relief among the Republican Presidential candidates, came up with this little bit of humor Sunday night :



US House Majority Leader Eric Cantor is out there doing his usual imitation of extremely well tailored slime, insisting that any aid approved be paid for by budget cuts. Funny, he was happy enough to take FEMA money in his own state - and without budget cuts beforehand.

Florida just passed a law that limits welfare, unemployment monies, etc to those who are drug free in tests paid for by the worker (later reimbursed if it comes back "clean").  If you fail the test, no reimbursement, no welfare, unemployment, food stamps for a year, and then subject to a new drug test etc.

Meanwhile, the President has caved to the Speaker of the House - they were fighting because the President requested a chance to talk to the nation about jobs with both Houses of Congress present - the two will only be in session at the same time for two days. The speaker denied the President his request (something that has never happened before) as the Republicans have a Candidate for President debate that night. He suggested the next night - the National Football Leagues season opener. Obama caved.

Google maps took Route 9 - a major US Highway east west route, off the map between Brattleboro and Wilmington. That's how little is left.

Where are these people coming from? Where did they get these attitudes? Maybe the question is where have these folks been?

News from Austanspace...

If anyone is checking here for news about my friend Laura over at Austanspace:

Laura is fine. A friend has been putting her up. She hasn't been able to return home yet. The area in which she lives suffered damage from the "tropical storm" flood. There is a new and very large trench (5 feet deep and 10 inches wide) which went right up to the foundation of her home. The engineers are still taking a look at it, but they've allowed the electricity to be turned on. She'll be going over there some time today. Typically, she is more concerned about her neighbors than herself. In this morning's email, she noted that she "can't even keep up with all the emails full of love, so please do put that on your blog. i'm ok. it's all gonna be fine.".

The area we live in has suffered a great deal of damage. Just about everyone is helping out, often to or for people they don't know. That's one thing about Brattleboro and the area in general - people come out in droves to help when an emergency occurs. The past few months have been very dispiriting around here, but the response to people in trouble has been great amid all the chaos. That's one of the reason's we live here.

After the hurricane

Town is a mess. An even bigger mess than my room. A still larger mess surrounds us. The hurricane faded away about 2:30pm or so yesterday afternoon. Here are a couple of pics I purloined off the web:

Here's a couple of clips 





Well, that was something, eh? The upcoming clip affects me quite a bit. This is not a Brattleboro clip. It comes from a smaller town further upstate, but it gives you an idea what the country side around here looks like:





This next is from our Community Television:



A lot of roads have damage. In this county alone, there are at least 13 towns or villages which are cut off from everything becasue bridges washed away, or the road washed out, etc:

The folks who were in low lying areas were evacuated before the storm to stay at the local High School. Here's the gym being readied:

A little panorama, please

As I mentioned, the news from the towns around Brattleboro is bad. Areas completely cut off. Still a lot of people without electricity. And they might not get it for a week. The stories vary. It is difficult to tell what is real, what is exageration, and what is made up. A couple of towns up the road there is one of those picture postcard villages (it was, ummm, 'helped along') named Grafton, well known for its cheese. Here's two of my own pics, one looking back towards the village, and the second of a visitor's stop at  the Grafton Cheese Company entrence. It's just the beginning of what we've lost.