Why American is broken.

Walmart sells crap from China instead of American made goods because it's cheaper and they can pressure their suppliers to keep the cost low. Remember all those Hong Kong suicides a few years ago?

Most of those Walmart employees are kept at less than 40 hours a week at minimum wage so that Walmart doesn't have to pay benefits or provide sick days etc. Do we really want an entire nation working but still living at poverty level?

No, I certainly do not want the cold, heartless, greedy people running Walmart in charge of the country. I think we've had enough of that and look where it's gotten us.

Our retired seniors get both Social Security and Medicare, such as it is. If Walmart were in charge, they'd get nothing. And neither is "broken". What's broken is a Congress that is more concerned with preventing our current president from getting anything done to prevent his re-election, than to do anything to help the citizens of this country.





The owners of Walmart have paid fewer taxes every year for decades and they have NOT passed their profits on to their employees. They are no job creators. They are the 1% and I will not protect or make excuses for their greed.
They have gotten away with this because they own the 1%ers making the laws, laws that only benefit the 1%.

I say throw the 1%ers OUT of Congress and start abiding by our Constitution instead of doing end runs around it, ignoring it and rewriting it.

Money is not speech and corporations are not people. Government should serve the people, not corporations.

I am not a moron because I do not shop at Walmart. EVER.

I'm one of the 99% that wants the 1% to pay their fair share.

Gud Yule

Oh, Heaven!

Merry Christmas to us.

My Mom wanted authentic German pretzels like she grew up with. She actually worked in a German bakery as a girl and remembers the baker making pretzels.

So I bought some food grade lye and we read the recipe and directions very carefully. It was a full day process as there are at least two times they must rise or rest for an hour and other steps of resting in between. I started the dough at 11 am and we had hot pretzels at 4 pm.

And they were delicious. Worth the goggles, gloves and covering up. Worth every step. We made a dozen. I got four and left the rest for her and my Dad. My Dad doesn't see what all the fuss is about, but does think they're good. My Mom is in heaven.

We're making them again on Christmas Eve day so she can have fresh pretzels that night and the next day. I'm busy eating mine for breakfast. I have two more that will last me until Thursday. So I'll have to wait until Saturday for more. I can see this becoming a Christmas tradition.

It is a shame that U.S. bakeries are not allowed to use lye when making pretzels. That is the ONLY way to get that authentic taste.

The recipe and directions I used were for Laugenbretzeln and I bought food grade lye on Amazon.

for 'baggers and theocrats

If you want education reform....

Sign this petition, pass it on and get everyone you know to sign it too.

If you want true school reform, we need to put a teacher librarian in every school library and a library in every school.

Sign it, or shut up about public schools. You're either part of the solution or you're the problem.

Christmas is coming.

I have decided to sell two of my three copies of Christemas in Anglia, Frederick Renz and the Ensemble for Early Music, on amazon.com. One vinyl album and one cassette tape. Very rare, hard to find and will never be released on CD.

You can find the listing for the vinyl HERE and for the cassette HERE.

The wait is over.

I've waited the majority of my lifetime for this.

My Lightning Weaver has arrived.

It's probably older than I am. It originally sold for $1.50. I paid over $100 and was glad to do so.

My Mother has a Junior Lightning Weaver. They brought it with them from Connecticut.

I've used it since I was a child. I always wanted one of my own. When I found out there was a standard version that was adjustable, I've been on the lookout for one.

I found one on eBay after doing searches for years.

It arrived today.

I'm ecstatic.

I can't wait to start weaving 12 different size squares, then seeing what combinations I can use to make different patterns.

I plan on weaving a light summer blanket.

If I won millions in the lottery, I think I would buy the patents and start manufacturing these little weaving machines again. I think they are the best design I've ever seen.

Sign this.

Everyone needs to sign this petition.

Pass it on to everyone you know.

https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions#!/petition/ensure-all-school-libraries-are-properly-staffed-open-and-available-children-every-day/yBwvp96v

Put a certificated teacher librarian in every school library.

Now there's some school reform to get behind.

People and Power - The obscenity of Citizens United

People and Power - The Koch Brothers shows why Citizens United is an abomination to the U.S. Contitution. The Koch Brothers are behind everything undermining this country and turning it into a Fascist State.

Election 2012 - ohpleaseohpleaseohplease

Oh, yeah. Get out the popcorn. I'm gonna love the debates.

Here's my plan.

8-8-8

8 hours of work

8 hours of leisure

8 hours of sleep

Healthcare when we're sick.

Being able to retire in comfort when we're old.

Take that Herman Cain.

Oh, and I *love* this 99% response to the 'baggers calling themselves the 53%. (Are all Republicans math-challenged?)

The thing I hate about Home Improvement shows.

The thing I hate about home improvement shows, especially those "crasher" shows, is the utter waste.

Okay, so you're going to gut the bathroom. While it makes great television to take a sledgehammer to a toilet or a pedestal sink, someone can use those fixtures. Take them out intact and recycle them to a salvage place. There is no need to demolish them and add them to our already full landfills.

Why break the windows and mirrors? It might take a bit longer, but they can be removed without breaking them. You an recut a mirror and you can send the windows to salvage.

Just because you don't like it or don't want it doesn't mean it's trash. Someone else might be crying to have it.

Wasteful. Utterly wasteful.

And so "American".

We need to stop this mentality. Making TV ratings from it is the wrong direction and the wrong message.

Time for a lottery ticket.

I'm getting desperate enough that I'm thinking of forgetting the jackpot alerts and just buying a ticket each week regardless.

The local news is reporting on the district's fiscal solvency and the state's ability to pay as promised or possibly cut the budgets mid-year.

It is really depressing.

Not to mention the attacks on our promised raises in 2012 and 2013. I depend on those to be able to retire. If they take those away, I'll have to work until I'm 67. Or maybe 72. *IF* I'm not RIFd to make room for those cheap, new teachers straight out of college. (Like there are going to be many of them in the future. I think in a few years there will be very few teachers coming out of universities.) It will be much better *IF* I could be in a library full time but there is no guarantee of that either. It's possible the district could demand the prep time program be dismantled as a cost cutting measure as well. Without prep time I'm back in a classroom. No music. No libraries. I don't want to spend my last few years teaching math to sixth grades hour after hour, day after day, year after year.

It's getting so the lottery is my only chance.

Me and the other 99%.

Ya gotta love the logic.

Just in time for Christmas!

Finally, after many years I can enjoy my all time favorite album of all time.

Christemas in Anglia with the Ensemble for Early Music, Frederick Renz conducting on the Nonesuch label library of congress 79-750390.

I bought this new when it came out in 1978 and loved it. I bought a lot of Nonesuch at the time. I babied the album and made a back-up cassette copy to listen to in the car so I wouldn't wear it out. Later I came across the album on a commercially released cassette and bought that too. I bought a second album used a few years ago as a back-up in case my original vinyl got scratched or heaven forbid, broken or warped.

I've looked for years for this album on CD but to no avail. Apparently there is some sort of issue over copyright and the consensus seems to be it will never be released on CD. That is a pity.

But...due to the miracles of modern technology I have converted my analog album to digital form and will be storing it and enjoying it in iTunes. Can I do this? Yes. I can. It is called archiving, is part of fair use and as long as I own my original, (well, originals really) I can have Christemas in Anglia in iTunes. I may even burn a CD backup just in case my laptop goes and my back-up harddrive fries at the exact same time.

Yep, belt, suspenders and length of rope.

Man, I just love this album. It's September and I'm listening to it now as I back it up.

Now I have to dig up my Golden Dance Hits of the 1500s.

Taxing the poor

No, I'm not talking about Boeher and the Republibaggers. (yet)

I'm talking about the lottery. The wealthy don't play the lottery. They don't need to. It is only the poor that play. It is an act of desperation. It is an additional few dollars a week wasted in the desperation that they might get lucky. No, chronic gamblers don't play the lottery because they know what a scam it is. But for the working poor, the lottery is a dream that only costs a few dollars a week. Someone wins. Why not me? The odds may be a billion to one, but that only means I have just as much chance as anyone else of winning. And if I do, I'm set for life; all of my worries are pretty much gone. Yes. Money can buy happiness.

And speaking of scams, in California they passed the lottery law promising that any money raised would supplement schools. That lasted exactly one year. Then the legislature passed a law and the lottery money went into the general fund as part of school funding. So for every dollar the lottery raises, a dollar is withheld by the state. So SCHOOL FUNDING STAYS THE SAME! Nope, school just can't win.

So beware what crap the G NO P feeds you about making taxes fair for everyone. It's all a lie. A lie designed to get the rich out of paying their fair share and balancing their budgets on the poor, their budgets that benefit the rich and not the poor (because they are eliminating all of the programs that are designed to benefit the poor). Oh, and you middle class people? You think you're middle class? Look again. You're sinking farther and farther down into poor territory.

Most of all, take a close look at the income and taxes of the people that are telling you, you should pay more, or you should GET less. There's a good chance they have MILLIONs of dollars.

And you don't.

Unless you win the lottery.

Happy Women's Equality Day.

East coasters are such wussies.

A 5.8? Really? And you evacuated in D.C.?

That's like San Diego evacuating if L.A. has a quake.

I find that Target commercial offensive.

Target is running a commercial about back to school. It has fake teachers extolling what they'll learn and then listing a lot of stuff the parents will need to buy for back to school.

It's totally unrealistic.

First of all, they won't need glue, tape "that sticks" or glitter because they're not going to have any art projects unless they're in kindergarten. And you don't let kinders use glue and glitter. Not if you're a "good" teacher and know ANYTHING.

You don't study dinosaurs, planets and fractions in the same grade.

No one has mammals at classroom pets. If you're lucky, you've got fish. Certainly not hamsters. Lewis and Clark would be U.S. History. Maybe 4th grade, certainly 8th grade. Neither are going to have live hamsters in class.

So you can forget your Ms. Bubbly Teacher. No teacher is going to send home a list of supplies teachers must buy that will bankrupt the average urban family.

Unless you're in private school.

What do they need? In Elementary, nothing except a backbpack. Uppers (4th, 5th) maybe a binder and a real Ticonderoga pencil (not mechanical).

Middle and High: Backpack, Binder, notebook paper, dividers for different subjects, pocket for holding supplies; two ballpoint pens, preferably black, two pencils sharpened. Don't buy mechanical pencils. The lead is too soft and breaks. The broken pieces end up on the floor to be stomped on making the floor dirty. We don't have the custodial hours to wash the floors except for twice a YEAR. The mechanical pencils don't write dark enough to be read easily. DO NOT SEND: markers, scissors, glue, hole punchers, etc. The school will supply those if needed. Any child caught with a marker will have it taken from them as they are used for graffiti. If they have notebook paper in their binders they don't need a hole punch. They just empty the "holes" on the floor. The floor is only swept 2-3 times a WEEK because of reduced custodial hours. Likewise they do not need scissors, glue or tape.

Yeah, we all know that Target is just trying to get you to buy as much as possible. And we know that schools can no longer supply what they used to. But the reality is, that with the focus on standards and standardized testing, schools just don't do the fun projects in class they used to.

So there will be no Lewis or Clark for you to hamster-sit over the holidays.

Aren't you relieved?

The intelligence of dogs.

We dog owners know the truth. Dogs are intelligent. They're sneaky. They're manipulative. If you're stupid you're not likely to feel guilty over doing something you know you shouldn't have done. Dogs wear their guilt on their sleeves. Any dog owner who has come home from work has just to take one look at their dog's face before they *know* and go looking for the damage.

I was unloading the car today and set some things inside the gate, going back for another load.

When I was bringing things in I noticed the plastic bread bag my Mother had given me was torn and lying in the back yard. It had contained beef rib bones for my dog. The little sneak had stolen it. He had two bones out already. I took the rest back, rebagged them and put them in the freezer. I told him he could have the two dirty ones he had left in the dirt.

He spent the afternoon working on them. Not just any old chewing. No sir. My dog has learned to use "tools". He picked the bone up and laid it on the rim of the fountain. (Dry because the pump needs replacing. ) He then held it with a paw and with the bone hanging over the edge, proceeded to gnaw on it. This was not by chance but by design. He held it with his left paw, gnawing on the right. He then switched to his right paw and gnawed on the left. He even slid it over and held it to the sides with the bone sticking up to chew on like a lollipop.

Now he may not have built the fountain, but he recognized a use for it for a specific purpose. It was just the right height so he could chew while standing up.

I used to think my dog was pretty stupid, being part Afghan Hound and they score pretty far down the dog intelligence scale.

But now I'm not so sure. I think he's a lot smarter than I give him credit for. He's certainly got me trained.

Obama sells us out again.

He could have shown some courage and leadership and make Elizabeth Warren a recess appointment.

Instead he stabs her in the back and nominates Richard Cordray, an underling.

The Republicans won't approve of him either so what was gained?

Now all I'm waiting for is for him to sell us out on the debt ceiling.

Then I'll be registering GREEN PARTY.

Buy American

The easiest way to determine country of manufacturing origin is by the barcode.

000 – 019 United States
020 – 029 Restricted distribution
030 – 039 United States
040 – 049 Restricted distribution
050 – 059 Coupons
060 – 139 United States
200 – 299 Restricted distribution
300 – 379 France
380 Bulgaria
383 Slovenia
385 Croatia
387 Bosnia-Herzegovina
400 – 440 Germany
450 – 459 & 490 – 499 Japan
460 – 469 Russia
470 Kurdistan
471 Taiwan
474 Estonia
475 Latvia
476 Azerbaijan
477 Lithuania
478 Uzbekistan
479 Sri Lanka
480 Philippines
481 Belarus
482 Ukraine
484 Moldova
485 Armenia
486 Georgia
487 Kazakhstan
489 Hong Kong
500 – 509 UK
520 Greece
528 Lebanon
529 Cyprus
530 Albania
531 Macedonia
535 Malta
539 Ireland
540 – 549 Belgium & Luxembourg
560 Portugal
569 Iceland
570 – 579 Denmark
590 Poland
594 Romania
599 Hungary
600 – 601 South Africa
603 Ghana
608 Bahrain
609 Mauritius
611 Morocco
613 Algeria
616 Kenya
618 Ivory Coast
619 Tunisia
621 Syria
622 Egypt
624 Libya
625 Jordan
626 Iran
627 Kuwait
628 Saudi Arabia
629 Emirates
640 – 649 Finland
690 – 695 China
700 – 709 Norway
729 Israel
730 – 739 Sweden
740 Guatemala
741 El Salvador
742 Honduras
743 Nicaragua
744 Costa Rica
745 Panama
746 Dominican Republic
750 Mexico
754 – 755 Canada
759 Venezuela
760 – 769 Switzerland
770 Colombia
773 Uruguay
775 Peru
777 Bolivia
779 Argentina
780 Chile
784 Paraguay
786 Ecuador
789 – 790 Brazil
800 – 839 Italy
840 – 849 Spain
850 Cuba
858 Slovakia
859 Czech
860 Serbia & Montenegro
865 Mongolia
867 North Korea
868 – 869 Turkey
870 – 879 Netherlands
880 South Korea
884 Cambodia
885 Thailand
888 Singapore
890 India
893 Vietnam
899 Indonesia
900 – 919 Austria
930 – 939 Australia
940 – 949 New Zealand
950 Global Office
955 Malaysia
958 Macau
977 Serial publications
978 – 979 Bookland
980 Refund receipts
981 – 982 Common Currency Coupons
990 – 999 Coupons

Stupid is as stupid does.

Anyone that votes Republican is voting against their own best interests. That makes them stupid.

The economy simplified.

The jobs crisis simplified.

Monopsony. Just another word for evil.

Read this article carefully.

This is what they're planning to do with public education once they privatize it. There will be only 3-4 major EduCorps. They'll own most of the schools. They'll turn out product (students) on the cheap and their labor force (teachers) will be non-union so they can reduce their pay and eliminate benefits and pensions. They can't outsource them and they can't hire illegals. So they'll bypass some of the expense by using Teach for America to provide a steady stream of short term, turnaround employees. It won't matter if test scores sink or mandates aren't met. Because there will be NOTHING else in place. Public schools and qualified, experienced educators will be gone by then including the infrastructure that provided them; university education departments and master teachers to act as mentors.

Monopsony. Just another word for evil.

Both funny and depressing.

The Three Wings of the Republican Party.

Soft Whole Wheat Bread for the bread machine

WHOLE WHEAT SOFT SANDWICH BREAD

Spray the peg and the paddle hole with non-stick spray before assembly.

In bread machine pan combine:

1 1/2 cups water
1/4 cup orange juice
1.5 TBSP raw organic cane sugar (or you can substitute 2 TBSP honey)
2 TBSP melted butter

In a four cup measuring cup combine:

2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour (I use Bob’s Red Mill stone ground)
1 1/2 cups unbleached bread flour (I use Bob’s Red Mill stone ground)
1/4 cup wheat germ
1 TBSP vital wheat gluten
1/2 cup organic dry milk powder.
1 1/2 tsp salt

Dump on top of water. Make a well and add:

1 1/2 tsp bread machine yeast.

Start on light crust basic bread setting

Paul Revere's Ride

Apparently the ignorant, incompetent, lazy, greedy teachers that taught us the facts about Paul Revere's ride were just plain wrong.

Sarah Palin has set the record straight, also too.

"Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscienti­ous stupidity.­" --M. L. King

Democracy for sale? More like SOLD!

Since it's inception in 1973 and extreme right wing group called ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council has been influencing our government and laws more than any lobbyist or money can buy. 

They're responsible for Arizona's SB1070 driven by both racist and monetary goals. Hey, two birds, right? This is what you get when you privatize prisons. I suppose it's not surprise the KOCH brothers are heavily involved in this too. 

Almost 25% of the laws enacted by Arizona were written by ALEC and were passed almost word for word. Because we're electing representatives to STUPID or too LAZY to write their own and they are greedy enough to put money before the people of this country. Republicans have been funneling money to the for profit private sector for years. Hmmm. 1973?

So when you see collective bargaining gone, environmental regulations gone, minimum wage gone, child labor laws gone, public education gone, you'll know who is behind it.

"The centerpiece of Task Force projects is ALEC model legislation. ALEC is the only state legislative organization that adopts policies and creates model legislation for its members to use in their states. To date, ALEC has nearly 1,000 pieces of model legislation."

Go to ALEC and read some of their propaganda and you'll understand why so many states are echoing each other. It's all ALEC legislation designed to deregulate, privatize and then profitize EVERYTHING and all at the expense of the American taxpayer. That is, if you can find any page that isn't restricted. For all of their talk about transparency, ALEC hides everything they're doing. Until it's been passed by YOUR state legislation and you're screwed. These people are busy redrawing district lines right now. Don't be surprised if they've rigged they system for a permanent Republican majority in every state plus both houses of Congress. Because make no mistake, it's the Republicans that are owned by ALEC.

Who are our (Republican right wing) legislators getting cozy with? Or I should say who owns them and pulls their strings?

Private Enterprise Board Chairman

Mr. W. Preston Baldwin, Centerpoint360 (2011 Chairman)

Private Enterprise Board Members (as of December 1, 2010)

Ms. Sano Blocker, Energy Future Holdings
Mr. Don Bohn, Johnson & Johnson
Mr. Jeff Bond, PhRMA
Mr. Bill Carmichael, American Bail Coalition
Mr. Derek Crawford, Kraft Foods, Inc.
Mr. John Del Giorno, GlaxoSmithKline
Mr. Matt Echols, Coca-Cola Company
Mr. Jim Epperson, Jr., AT&T Services, Inc.
Mr. Michael Hubert, Pfizer Inc
Ms. Teresa Jennings, Reed Elsevier, Inc.
Mr. Ken Lane, DIAGEO
Mr. Kelly Mader, Peabody Energy
Mr. Bernie McKay, Intuit, Inc.
Mr. Mike Morgan, Koch Industries, Inc.
Mr. Kevin Murphy, ExxonMobil Corp.
Mrs. Sandra Oliver, Bayer Corporation
Mr. David Powers, Reynolds American Inc.
Ms. Maggie Sans, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
Mr. Russell Smoldon, Salt River Project
Mr. Toby Spangler, Altria Client Services, Inc.
Mr. Roland Spies, State Farm Insurance Co.
Mr. Pat Thomas, United Parcel Service
Mr. Jerry Watson, Chairman Emeritus

1973. Nixon. Ever wondered where the term "Moral Majority" came from? ALEC. Weyrich, Totten (friends with Reagan), Lukens, (Bribery, Conspiracy, sex with a 16 year old) , Jenkins (Iran Contra). The typical revisionist history has removed these names from the origins of ALEC. Moral Majority indeed. Who can we really thank for this obscene attack on democracy? Why, Ronald Reagan of course. ALEC goes fascist, or is corporatized in the 90s. Pay to play. Scientology contributes. Just in time for Karl Rove and Bush II.

And we were angry about K St. K St. has nothing on these Fascists.

Just wait until info on THE FAMILY goes viral.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Have you ever been so disgusted?

The lawyers of the Los Angeles School district are cross examining teacher librarians in an effort to fire all 87 of them. They actually said to the judge "We would like to prosecute them all."

 Treating teachers like criminals. 

And I'll bet the money they're spending on lawyers and renting the hall and furniture would pay the salaries of the librarians they're trying to fire.

Is this what we've come to? In an effort to get by on the cheap, all sorts of heinous legal loopholes are being dusted off and trotted out to try to bypass the authority of the state of California. The state of California issues teaching credentials and the state alone has the authority to say who does and does not qualify for that credential. When it's issued you can legally teach the subjects pertaining to that credential. It expires on 7 years unless it is renewed. 

Now the Governor just announced there is $6 BILLION more dollars in the budget than expected. It's going to schools. Some this year and some next. I'll bet LAUSD is getting something in the neighborhood of $50 MILLION DOLLARS. They could stop these hearings right now. 

But they won't. 

Probably because the politicians have taken over the schools and they have an agenda. 

Break the unions. 

Destroy just cause and make all teachers at will employees. 

Hand over education to charters and for profits.

Of course, using this business model will result in lower test scores and poor quality teachers because only the most incompetent will bother to apply to teach, probably because they've failed at everything else and think it's babysitting with a lot of time off. They'll quit in a year or two and the process will start over again. There *will* be a teacher shortage but salaries will not be raised to attract applicants. No pensions. No healthcare. (Because you're part time.) 

Your politicians won't care because their kids are in private schools. Likewise the über wealthy won't care because their kids are in private schools. The Republicans want a population that is illiterate and easy to manipulate and suppress. They want to replace illegals with U.S. citizens that will take any job for any pay. That is where this is all going.

After a decade of the for profit education failure. BILLIONS will be spent trying to restore and rebuild a public education system that was NOT failing to begin with. It will take 20-30 years to try to rebuild public education. Maybe this time the public, politicians and the media will respect teachers as a profession. Maybe this time the public and politicians will listen to the experts: TEACHERS!

But I doubt it.

Puppy Cam is back.

This is Kika's third and last litter. Watch them while you can.

Where's our solar subsidies?

What if solar power were subsidized like fossil fuels?

It's Hachiko Day.

Today is the day many dog owners make a pilgrimage to Tokyo's Shibuya station to honor Hachiko, the most loyal dog of Japan.




Like Greyfriar's Bobby and Shep, Hachiko waited faithfully for his master to return for over a decade. In honor of his loyalty a statue of him was erected outside the station. It is a popular meeting point.



Today is the day set aside to remember Hachiko, a most loyal dog.

Let this make it perfectly clear to those that can't read 1000 words.

If you can't beat them at their own game....

Social Security - The Big Lie

Don't believe the Republicans big lie about Social Security!






If the Republicans cared about the deficit they'd do two things:

Cut defense by 50% instead of increasing it.

Eliminate tax breaks for the wealthy, both income and inheritance. (Oh, and bonuses and capital gains are INCOME so tax them accordingly.)

Are they doing that? NO. They are robbing from the poor to pay the rich.

Roll back the income tax on the rich to pre-Reagan levels. Inheritance tax too.

Pay back the money that was embezzled from Social Security by Reagan and the Republicans.

And don't vote for any Republican every again. Ever. Remember that in 2012. 2014. 2016.


Here is more information from a commenter at Huffington Post.

You are absolutely correct! As an economist who has been researching and writing about Social Security for more than a decade, it is so refreshing to know that someone can tell the truth and not have the comment censored. What we are dealing with is THE GREAT SOCIAL SECURITY THEFT. The surplus revenue generated by the 1983 payroll tax hike was supposed to be saved and invested to build up a large reserve in the trust fund with which to pay benefits to the baby boomers. The surplus money was supposed to be used to purchase pre-existi­ng marketable Treasury bonds in the open market. If this had been done, the surplus money would have ended up in the pockets of the private investors from whom the government purchased the pre-existi­ng bonds and the trust fund would have $2.6 trillion in "good-as-g­old" default-pr­oof marketable Treasury bonds which could be resold in the open market to raise money with which to pay benefits to the baby boomers. When the first surplus revenue showed up in 1985, the government made a conscious decision to put the money in the general fund and use it for general government operations instead of saving and investing it. That is when the theft began.

The revenue generated by the 1983 regressive payroll tax hike was used to replace the revenue lost as a result of the Reagan income tax cuts. The net effect was a transfer of income and wealth from low and middle-income taxpayers to the richest ten percent of taxpayers. Absolutely none of the revenue from the 1983 payroll tax hike went to Social Security. It all went into the general fund and was used to pay for tax cuts, wars, and other government programs. Since the missing Social Security money ended up in the pockets of the rich, I propose that a special tax be levied against this group of taxpayers with the revenue specifical­ly earmarked for repayment of the looted Social Security money

The government has violated both the public trust and federal law. The Budget Enforcement Act of 1990 included an amendment sponsored by Senator Ernest Hollings of SC. That law made it illegal for the government to continue spending Social Security money for other purposes. President George H.W. Bush signed the legislatio­n into law and then proceded to spend the money just like before.

Absolutely none of the money was "invested" in Treasury bonds or anything else. It was all spent, and once money is spent, there is nothing left to invest. What the government did is clearly illegal.
And we can't use the term "borrowed" unless the money is repaid. If it is not repaid, it was clearly STOLEN.

Allen W. Smith, Ph.D.
Professor of Economics, Emeritus
Eastern Illinois University
Website: www.thebig­lie.net

Buy blue

Unfortunately Buy Blue.org no longer exists. But you can still support progressive companies by buying blue. You need only look to see who the reds are boycotting.

buy blue:

Aloha Air Group, Inc. 100%
American Apparel, LLC 100%
Barnes & Noble, Inc. 100%
Diamond Resorts International 100%
Foot Locker, Inc 100%
Frederick's of Hollywood, Inc. 100%
Google Inc. 100%
Hawaiian Holdings, Inc. 100%
IAC/InterActiveCorp 100%
Loews Hotels Holding Corporation 100%
Myriad Restaurant Group, Inc. 100%
Polo Ralph Lauren Corporation 100%
Powell's Books, Inc. 100%
Progressive Corporation 100%
Recreational Equipment, Inc. 100%
Sonic Corp. 100%
SPS Studios, Inc. 100%
Starbucks Corporation 100%
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. 100%
Working Assets Funding Service, Inc. 100%
Apple Computer, Inc. 99%
Costco Wholesale Corporation 99% (but do not buy paper products, they are made by Georgia Pacific owned by Koch brothers)
Amerada Hess Corporation 98%
Bed, Bath & Beyond Inc 97%
L.L. Bean, Inc. 97%
Hyatt Hotels and Resorts 93%
Sharper Image Corporation 93%
Signet Group plc 93%
E. & J. Gallo Winery 92%
Hilton Hotels Corporation 84%
Crate and Barrel (Euromarket Designs Inc.) 83%
Estee Lauder Companies Inc., The 80%
Gap Inc. 77%
JetBlue Airways Corporation 75%
Netflix, Inc 72%
The Robert Mondavi Corporation 62%
Triarc Companies, Inc. 59%
Brown-Forman Corporation 57%
eBay Inc. 57%
Sun Microsystems, Inc. 57%
VF Corporation 57%
Foster's Group Limited 53%
CVS Corporation 51%
UAL Corporation 51%

Possibles needing more research:

General Electric
Johnson and Johnson

Quotes and boycotts.

It is essential that there should be organization of labor. This is an era of organization. Capital organizes and therefore labor must organize.
~Theodore Roosevelt

Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration.
~ Abraham Lincoln

The production of wealth is the result of agreement between labor and capital, between employer and employed. Its distribution, therefore, will follow the law of its creation, or great injustice will be done.
~ Leland Stanford

Organized labor, if they’re doing a responsible job, is going to organize the pooling of small amounts of money to protect the interests of the people who are not rich.
~ Warren Beatty

The employer class is less indispensable in the modern organization of industries because the laboring men themselves possess sufficient intelligence to organize into co-operative relation and enjoy the entire benefits of their own labor.
~ Leland Stanford

Poorly paid labor is inefficient labor, the world over.
~ Henry George

In a condition of society and under an industrial organization which places labor completely at the mercy of capital, the accumulations of capital will necessarily be rapid, and an unequal distribution of wealth is at once to be observed.
~ Leland Stanford

If I went to work in a factory the first thing I’d do is join a union.
~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

Make no mistake about it! There is an organized movement against organized labor – the Republicans are looking after the financial interests of the wealthiest individuals in this country ~ Edward Kennedy

Prepare for the unknown by studying how others in the past have coped with the unforeseeable and the unpredictable ~ George S. Patton

With all their faults, trade unions have done more for humanity than any other organization of men that ever existed. They have done more for decency, for honesty, for education, for the betterment of the race, for the developing of character in men, than any other association of men. ~ Clarence Darrow

"Negroes are almost entirely a working people…. Our needs are identical with labor's needs: decent wages, fair working conditions , livable housing, old-age security, health and welfare measures, conditions in which families can grow, have education for their children and respect in the community. That is why Negroes support labor's demands and fight laws which curb labor. That is why the labor-hater and labor-baiter is virtually always a twin-headed creature, spewing anti-Negro epithets from one mouth and anti-labor propaganda from the other mouth." ~ MLK JR: —Speaking to the AFL-CIO on Dec. 11, 1961---

Only a fool would try to deprive working men and working women of their right to join the union of their choice. ~ Dwight D. Eisenhower

Even if you don't live in Wisconsin, you can support them and yourself by boycotting any of the businesses listed at ScottWalkerWatch.com.

High on the list are Walmart (always supporting Republicans and anti-labor), AT&T, John Deere, Eli Lily, Northwestern Mutual Insurance, Briggs and Stratton, Hal Leonard Publishing, Johnsonville foods, Sargento, SC Johnson & sons, SIG financial, U.S. Oil company, Wausau, Zenith.

And don't forget to boycott any product of Koch Industries. Georgia-Pacific’s familiar consumer brands in North America include:
Quilted Northern®,
Angel Soft®, Brawny®,
Sparkle® ,
Soft ‘n Gentle®,
Mardi Gras®,
Vanity Fair®, and the
Dixie® brand of tabletop products.

The company’s leading European brands include:
Lotus®,
Colhogar®,
Delica®,
Tenderly® and the
Demak’Up® brand of facial cleansing products.

The company also markets paper towel, napkin and soap dispensing systems used in commerical settings.

Bad news for CostCo shoppers. Kirkland paper towels and toilet tissue is made by Georgia Pacific, owned by the Koch brothers.

Proctor and Gamble is not so it's Brawny and Charmin for me.

Hubris.

The GOP has admitted that anti-union bills, such as those that destroy collective bargaining are not about balancing budgets but all about politics. They're designed to destroy the unions and defund the Democratic Party so that Obama can be defeated in 2012.

Fascism: Only the elite have democracy, the rest live under an authoritarian dictatorship.

Exactly where do you think *you're* going to end up?

Don't vote against your own best interests. Remember to vote the Republicans OUT in 2012, 2014, 2016. Then wait 20 years to see how things stand before you ever consider voting them back in again.

Yes, it is class warfare.

And the REPUBLICANS are NOT on your side.

So STOP voting against your own best interest.

DON'T VOTE FOR REPUBLICANS.

EVER!

Call a spade a spade, then rip up the card.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Danger signs of fascism:
1. Powerful and continuing expressions of nationalism.
2. Disdain for the importance of human rights.
3. Identification of enemies/scapegoats as a unifying cause.
4. The supremacy of the military/avid militarism.
5. Rampant sexism.
6. A controlled mass media.
7. Obsession with national security.
8. Religion and ruling elite tied together.
9. Power of corporations protected.
10. Power of labor suppressed or eliminated.
11. Disdain and suppression of intellectuals and the arts.
12. Obsession with crime and punishment.
13. Rampant cronyism and corruption.
14. Fraudulent elections.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

1.Instability of capitalist relationships or markets

2.The existence of considerable declassed social elements

3.The stripping of rights and wealth focused upon a specific segment of the population, specifically the middle class and intellectuals within urban areas as this is the group with the means, intelligence and ability to stop fascism if given the opportunity.

4.Discontent among the rural lower middle class (clerks, secretaries, white collar labor). Consistent discontent among the general middle and lower middle classes against the oppressing upper-classes (haves vs have-nots).

5.Hate: Pronounced, perpetuated and accepted public disdain of a specific group defined by race, origin, theology or association.

6.Greed: The motivator of fascism, which is generally associated with land, space or scarce resources in the possession of those being oppressed.

7.Organized Propaganda:

a) The creation of social mythology that venerates (creates saints of) one element of society while concurrently vilifying (dehumanizing) another element of the population through misinformation, misdirection and the obscuring of factual matter through removal, destruction or social humiliation, (name-calling, false accusations, belittling and threats).

b) The squelching of public debate not agreeing with the popular agenda via slander, libel, threats, theft, destruction, historical revisionism and social humiliation. Journalists in particular are terrorized if they attempt to publish stories contrary to the agenda.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

********

Now watch the video and then read down through the list over and over until you GET it.

You need to vote. Whatever is required of you to register and vote, just do it. Then vote the fascist bastards OUT. Then we can go about putting the democracy back into the United States. But we have to get rid of the Republicans first and long enough to make a lasting change that even the ignorant and stupid will notice.

Why we should do something and what can be done.

What is wrong? Aside from Citizens United, here's a graphic example of the root of our problems.




Courtesy of Mother Jones. Kudos for the graphics that are worth a million words.



So can anything be done?



You betcha.

BTW this guy won a Nobel for economic so he should know.

Slavery alive and well, in Wisconsin.

"It's illegal in America now to buy or sell a human being, but a recorded telephone conversation between a Republican governor and a guy he thought was a billionaire benefactor shows that it's still possible to own a politician."

In a Democracy, Freedom of Assembly Trumps "Free Enterprise"

"Corporations are accomplishing their goal of shriveling government to the point of ineffectiveness so "enterprise" is "free" to run rogue. Now with their purchased politicians, corporations are trying to do the same to unions -- the only organization other than government that has traditionally effectively defended working Americans.

In the recorded conversation between Walker and a liberal blogger posing as David Koch, Walker accepted an offer of a vacation trip from the "billionaire" if he "crushed" the public employee unions and said his effort was to get "our freedoms back."

That's exactly right. This is a contest between the excesses of "free" enterprise and the constitutionally-protected freedom of assembly. And getting "our freedoms back" means wresting them back from corporations."

Well, duh.

One word.

Wisconsin.

Do something. SIGN UP NOW.

Excesses of the rich.

Some of the talking points being handed to us by Walker and his cronies are that giving tax breaks to the wealthy provides jobs.

I caught an example tonight.

Some spoiled wife just spent $32,000 dollars on her spoiled brat's 6th birthday party. And her husband let her. He gave her a budget of $10,000 for this child's birthday party, then let his wife triple that. That party costs more than my car costs and I'm still paying that off. Oh, and the kid got a car for her birthday. A little electric mini-golf cart painted pink sort of thing.

Oh, yeah, that provided plenty of jobs.

The party planner. The baker. The owner of the spa. The owner of the dress shop. The guy who owned the horses and carriage. Costume rental.

And $100 to her son and his friend to dress up and deliver the hand written birthday invitation scrolls.

They spent more than most couples can afford for their wedding.

I'm sorry but there's something obscene about spending what amounts to a year's wages for many families on a birthday party for a six year old.

These are the people that Governor Walker gave tax breaks to, raised the deficit and now is expecting teachers to pay for.

These are the people that Republicans gave tax breaks to claiming they'll provide jobs and stimulate the economy.

I don't think there are enough six year olds, nor enough party planners to do that.

I also think this is an example of the excesses of the rich who only want to take more of our money, eliminate our rights so they can take even more of our money, until we are all poor and they have all of our money.

Are you paying attention to Wisconsin?

The first thing Castro did when he came into power was ban the unions. So did Hitler. So did Gadhafi in Libya.

Do we really want to go there?

Desperate times. Desperate measures.

I bought a lottery ticket today. Five in fact. With repeats for this week and next week. So it's good today, Friday, and next week on Tuesday and Friday. One ticket with my numbers, four quick picks. $20.

The pot tonight is around $91 million dollars. I don't usually play, but for a pot that big, I do. I had to fill out a slip twice because I did it wrong the first time. There is a special running this month with the local indian casino for a second chance at a $5,000 drawing. I registered and put in my four numbers. I'll have more since as long as the pot hasn't been won, I'll be playing this same slip until the end of the month.

My chance of getting all five numbers and the meganumber is one in 175 million. That's doable. Or I should say I have the same chances of winning as anyone else. So why not me?

If I won, I think I'd retire the minute I got the first check.

The shameful attack on Public Employees

The Shameful Attack on Public Employees
by
Robert Reich, Fmr. Secretary of Labor; Professor at Berkeley; Author, Aftershock: 'The Next Economy and America's Future'

In 1968, 1,300 sanitation workers in Memphis went on strike. The Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. came to support them. That was where he lost his life. Eventually Memphis heard the grievances of its sanitation workers. And in subsequent years millions of public employees across the nation have benefited from the job protections they've earned.

But now the right is going after public employees.

Public servants are convenient scapegoats. Republicans would rather deflect attention from corporate executive pay that continues to rise as corporate profits soar, even as corporations refuse to hire more workers. They don't want stories about Wall Street bonuses, now higher than before taxpayers bailed out the Street. And they'd like to avoid a spotlight on the billions raked in by hedge-fund and private-equity managers whose income is treated as capital gains and subject to only a 15 percent tax, due to a loophole in the tax laws designed specifically for them.

It's far more convenient to go after people who are doing the public's work -- sanitation workers, police officers, fire fighters, teachers, social workers, federal employees -- to call them "faceless bureaucrats" and portray them as hooligans who are making off with your money and crippling federal and state budgets. The story fits better with the Republican's Big Lie that our problems are due to a government that's too big.

Above all, Republicans don't want to have to justify continued tax cuts for the rich. As quietly as possible, they want to make them permanent.

But the right's argument is shot-through with bad data, twisted evidence, and unsupported assertions.

They say public employees earn far more than private-sector workers. That's untrue when you take account of level of education. Matched by education, public sector workers actually earn less than their private-sector counterparts.

The Republican trick is to compare apples with oranges -- the average wage of public employees with the average wage of all private-sector employees. But only 23 percent of private-sector employees have college degrees; 48 percent of government workers do. Teachers, social workers, public lawyers who bring companies to justice, government accountants who try to make sure money is spent as it should be -- all need at least four years of college.

Compare apples to apples and and you'd see that over the last fifteen years the pay of public sector workers has dropped relative to private-sector employees with the same level of education. Public sector workers now earn 11 percent less than comparable workers in the private sector, and local workers 12 percent less. (Even if you include health and retirement benefits, government employees still earn less than their private-sector counterparts with similar educations.)
Read the rest HERE.