The Bi-partisan Policy Center Debt Reduction Task Force

Watching " American Perspectives" last weekend, I was thoroughly disgusted with the message that the Bi-partisan Policy Center Debt Reduction Task Force “ is propagating. Remember that name in red because it will be this committee that starts the next round of propaganda to fleece the average American of whatever they have left. The task force is preparing to make recommendations that Congress will swear they have to abide by because, " The debt belongs to everybody" (one of their lines) , or "Everybody has to make sacrifices" (another), and if you buy that bullshit , ( most people won’t be paying attention,) then you’ll be happy to know that they intend to make everybody pay! Everybody but the rich, of course. Concurrently, while they taunt the need for US all to step up and pay for the crimes of the last decade, out of the other sides of their mouths they're saying the Bush era tax cuts should not be allowed to expire because that would hamper job recovery . What a crock of shit! So while they recommend that the rich get richer ( it will be good for all of US), they also are recommending that Social security benefits be cut, the retirement age be lifted another two or three years, medicare be cut, and a 6.5 % consumption tax be enacted. A sales tax, the way I understand it, nationwide. (FYI -If enacted that would make California’s sales tax roughly 16%.) All measures that put the debt squarely on the backs of the people whom can least afford it, the decimated middle class and the poor. Proportionately, the task force recommendations would basically give the rich a free ride; Whom spends more, proportionately, of their income for the necessities of life? You can see why it was important to pick task force members at the end of their political career. Further screwing the average man is not going to be popular. It should be pretty obvious that with American business setting record quarterly profits, the idea that the average man should be responsible for the crimes of the last decade, and pay for them, is maddening! As our leaders attempt to saddle us with the debt of their crimes , before we let them steal the benefits we have paid for our entire working lives, I think we should heed George W. H. Bush’s words and “string them up“. (George was commenting , privately, on what the American people would do if they knew the truth. His words were "string us up", referring to himself and co-conspirators) None of their crimes were by accident. They should hang for them! The war on terror is the biggest deception in history! Our bankruptcy as a nation was no accident. As a people our restitution should not be either. Tell your leader, whichever liar is elected to represent you, that you want the banks and the industrial war machine to pay the debt America owes. The banks and the industrial war machine! . The business of America is business, according to George W., so let the cost of doing business (our debt) be paid by business. It’s the Rich that have profited over the last decade, it’s the rich that should now pay the bill. Make it clear America, that while the profits have been privatized, the losses need to be paid by the profiteers , Not Socialized among the people! . How many politicians will need to be strung up to make the point? Not many. We can start with the Bush’s , Cheney, the board of Haliburton etc.

Happy Thanksgiving

I've been in Oregon four days now. Sunday I traveled. Monday I spent back in Cave Junction looking at property. Tuesday I looked at property here in Grants Pass. My heart aches. I miss the mountain cabin tremendously. I miss the garden and it's profits. I miss all the things I left and, of course, now forget why I left them. It breaks my heart but I know that one can never go back in time, and efforts to return are futile. I don't have nightmares about not being in Oregon. I do have an occasional bad dream of not being with my wife. And if I could return and spend two weeks back in the cabin, I'd remember that life is too short to watch it pass by in seclusion. I wonder how many more five year episodes I will live before I find the path for the rest of my life, if at all. There is no path that appeals to me at the present, yet the desire to find the future is all consuming. What to do with another 51 years? or more. The next adventure is close, I just haven't found it. Tomorrow I go to Klamath Falls for Thanksgiving and to remind myself , Be grateful, you never would want to be anybody else. This last year has taken several people from my world and so I must remember, " life is wonderful, every miserable moment". Here's hoping that all of YOU find much to be grateful for, and have a wonderful holiday. Remember, if you're reading this, you still have time, so don't be afraid to adventure. And never feel sorry for the Bradman, I could be happy living in a refridgerator box on the American river as long as I was warm, dry and fed.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Plutocracy

Inequality is the result of specific policies, including tax policies, championed by Washington Democrats and Republicans alike as they conduct a bidding war for high-rolling donors in election after election. They're all bought and sold. It’s not complicated. It was supposed to be change we can believe in, but I don’t see any changes that I believe in. I don’t see legal prosecution of the bankers whom arranged to steal our money. I don’t see government officials whom were supposed to monitor stocks and securities being pursued for negligence of duty. They seem to be the president’s friends. As matter of fact , it’s hard to tell the criminals from the government officials. Maybe because they’re the same. That’s not change, it’s the same as the last set of criminals in the oval office. There is a lot of talk about extending the Bush tax cuts and that’s not change. The new President refused to investigate the crimes of the previous administration (9/11), refused to give the American people the truth about his predecessor and the evil designs that guided the Bush administration. That makes him an accomplice and as guilty as the previous administration, but that’s not change. Bush refused to give us the truth repeatedly. The puppet has a new head but the same hands are pulling the strings. Oh, and the prelude to the next rip-off is coming; How our impending financial ruin as a nation will make it necessary to cut our Social Security and health benefits. What a crock of shit! Tax cuts, Two never ending wars, the robbing of our banks, our jobs, and our monetary security has led to our impending financial ruin. But get ready because the attack on the lower and middle class is far from over and the changes you can believe in are not the ones you were expecting. Isn’t watching our leaders rob us blind while we get less starting to make you angry? It’s maddening! How much longer can America go before a real revolution is upon us? One of anarchy and violence. What will it take for “Change we can believe in?” A purple President? As a people we are not far from uprising. Every day more people are sick of watching the waste, the bullshit, the bought and sold mainstream media feeding us what they want us to think. ( The shame of journalism that they suppressed the truth of 9/11). It’s all so complicated, and then; ………………It’s really simple……

There was a story in China recently about the son of a local police chief running down a college student. As the man sped away he shouted “I’m Li Gang’s son” and fled. It was just the kind of story of elite privilege and string pulling the Chinese Government wanted to suppress. Unfortunately, for the government, the story and the government’s attempts to suppress it went viral on the internet. The end result was that “I’m Li Gang’s son” is now a catch-phrase for shirking responsibility, being above the law, being privileged, not doing the dishes. We have a Government that is now the son of Li Gang. They do what they want, have their own agenda, rob us blind, then rob US again by committing our tax money to their robberies, and are above the law for all intents and purposes . We Vote them in and they refuse to investigate the past because they don't want anybody looking back when they leave office. Pure treachery. When the Obama administration refused to "look back" at the crimes of the Bush adminstration, and we as a people allowed it, then we also invited the next round of thievery. It will be an attempt on the very securities we have paid for our entire lives; Social Security and Medicare. Don’t let the Government put the losses on US. Make them all pay with their Jobs, too. Bradman

The American Dream

My friend Brett is spending a lot of time stressing this week over a research paper he's obligated to write for his English 300 class. His topic, "The American Dream". Brett says he wants to write a positive paper on the American dream but, unfortunately, right now it's hard to find articles expressing a positive point of view. Hard to believe. When I google "The American Dream" I get about 104,000,000 results in a quarter second. I don't understand the stress. In a research paper you could spend at least three pages on just the definition of the dream, three more on whom is defining it, and countless pages on according to which definition, whether the dream is alive or dead. Of course "The American Dream" is alive. Ask any Naturalized American why they came to America and, realized or not, there was a dream involved. How esassy does it get? (Like that spelling) As for research, it ain't like the 70's, that's for sure. Mom used to have to walk five miles to get to school. Through the snow. My generation, living in the Sacramento Valley, had to go to the library and actually look up material in books, copy the material, copy the relevant "research facts", and write papers from our work. Nowadays research is as easy as Google, Wikipedia, cut, paste, download and print. Throw a few letters from Bradland in between the facts and you have a research paper. Back to the dream; I see that cities are beginning to levy fines on bank owned property that is not maintained. Stories like that make me wonder why the banks don't re-sell the property, cheap and quick and write the loan themselves to whomever can come up with a down payment and move in. Isn't something better than nothing? Banks don't seem to want to re-loan on their own property. Rather than let houses deteriorate, become liability traps, or be torn down, the banks should write new mortgages on them, and sell them. The houses will be sold short and cheaply anyway, Why don't the banks want to write new mortgages on their own foreclosed properties (including the shadow inventory) to generate cash, reduce liability, and start the housing recovery? I have asked Realtors to go back to the "Bank", the owners of property, and ask them if they would be willing to write the mortgage on a piece of their own property if I bought it. No. That's just not the way it works. But it seems the simplest way. Do they have to "sell'" it outright to a new bank or mortgage company? That's my question for the day. But if I owned a million empty houses that were for sale, and I was in the business of loaning money, I'd start selling houses and making loans, kill two birds with one stone. (so simple it rhymes) ( Like Sesame street) OK, and the dream ain't dead, just ask any one of four generations of Vietnamese, living in a two bedroom duplex, all working under the table and drawing immigrant Social Security. They're getting RICH. I know because I used to deliver the damn checks. They're not worried about pride, or doing the right thing either. It's a dog eat dog world out there, they understand, and the American born average Joe better start...... Being American is no longer a guarantee for a better life. Future generations will have to be smarter, work harder, be hungrier and understand, " you can no longer be lazy". Unions, the weekend, guranteed wages, air conditioned work places, why should American workers have those things if the rest of the world doesn't? I used to feel really lucky to be American. I always felt that born anywhere else in my socio-economic class, I really would have had it tough. Maybe I had it too easy and that's why I'm lazy, like so many other Americans. It is no longer easy, but the same key factors are at play, Hard work, Luck, and Determination. I 'm having trouble remembering lately, so let me say it again, "Life is wonderful, every miserable moment, remember that and life is wonderful".

Erratic, Ranting, naaahhhhhhhh. Bradman

More on Paradise

There aren't enough words in my vocabulary to adequately portray the beauty of Hawaii. Oahu, the island I was on, was everything you see in magazines and more. The sea was a shimmering clear blue. The sandy white beaches were clean, picturesque. Bordered on the shore side by emerald green grass parks with palm trees, waterfalls, brightly colored tropical flowers and bronze statues of Hawaii's historic figures , or the manicured gardens, restaurants and pools of Waikiki's finest hotels, it was pretty as a picture. Hawaii is the real deal; All those fantastic images you see of the place aren't taken on special days or in special places. Visually, Hawaii is as it photographs. I can only imagine the beauty of the outlying areas. This was Waikiki in downtown Honolulu; I never left the strip.

It rained every day. Rain in Hawaii is different . Normally I can see the rain and it makes me feel wet. The week I was in Hawaii the rain was more like a warm mist on a very humid day. Highs were in the mid 80's but lows were in the 70's. A little sticky, but definitely not what one thinks of as a normal "rainy" day, unless you're in Paradise. The sun was shining every day too, even when it rained. Hallelujah for a little cloud cover because when the sun wasn't blocked it was bright, hot, and topical. Bright, hot, and tropical make it easy to understand the dress code; Wear whatever you're comfortable in. Modesty is subordinate to comfortable and practical. Every day fashion is so skimpy that the girls put more on to be sexier. Flesh is everywhere, so commonplace that the end effect is nobody notices except the tourist right off the plane; If every one went naked, nobody would notice.

Saturday, the night before Halloween, the streets ran rampant with farmer's daughters, nurses, beer maids, etc., so many costumes with high heels, skirts a half inch from Vallejo, and low cut tops revealing just a little less than what you would see on the beach (or the street for that matter). Those bare legs tanned in the sun all day, now had White thigh high nylons covering them , and the three inch bare strip of skin exposed between skirt and nylon was as erotic as intended. The same legs, completely bare, would go unnoticed under normal circumstances. In Hawaii, more was less, and covered was sexy, while uncovered was hardly noticed. It was a wonderful place to walk around with all the grey hair on my chest, shoulders, back, and ears showing. I'm sure the visual depiction of Bradman in Hawaii paints a delightful picture, like a werewolf in London.

Since I'm on the subject of fashion, I do want to mention something that was pointed out by my realtor whom had visited Honolulu two weeks prior to my visit. Upon mention of the irony I found in the Halloween costumes, she made the statement, " and how about all the glass high heels"? I also had noticed many young women wearing shorts, mostly levi jeans cut off where their legs began, and glass three inch high heels with platform soles. High, high heels. I just thought that most of the young women were Asian and looking to add height. Glass high heels was the realtor's point though. It seemed to be the style. At least at the mall. That's where the heels and shorts were predominantly seen by me. And since I mention the mall, let me mention that the shopping in Hawaii is paradise!

Prada, Rolex, Gucci, Chanel, Louis Vitton, Dooney & Bourke, Nordstrom, they were all there. Two blocks from the condo was the Muanaloa Mall, all four stories and two city blocks worth of it. Full of tourists, locals, a food court downstairs with a different meal for every visit, and foreigners from all corners of the world, the mall was impressive. I found native Chinese there everyday to strike up conversations with. And I noticed lots of things that people in Hawaii would never buy or wear in many of the shops. Gloves, jackets, cold weather fashions that Hawaiians would never need to wear. Things that were never intended to be sold to the natives. Stores full of things to be bought and taken all over the world by tourists. Honolulu is a fantastic tourist trap, with enough stores, name brands, department stores, jewelers, vendors, etc., that even the most insatiable of shopaholics should be satisfied shopping there. What a great place to spur the economy on with a little consumerism. And what's bought in Hawaii, leaves Hawaii. If America ever wants to send things all over the world, ship to Hawaii and let the world take it home from there. (The dark side)

I drank at the Waikiki Hilton. In two nights of drinking I met an engineer from Pennsylvania working on the air-conditioning units in submarines. A young reservist from Okalahoma on practice maneuvers. A native Chinese cocktail waitress whom spoke Mandarin and was married to a round eye from Rhode Island ( I didn't discuss her husband further). An Australian spy that spoke with such an accent that I couldn't understand him ( he had to be a spy, he didn't have a business card). An aspiring actress doing small parts on the new Hawaii Five-O series, whom became the object of maneuvers, A rather drunk, over-weight, lonely hearted man looking for love with the aspiring actress (who was halfway off her seat trying to edge away from him) whom became disgruntled and verbally abusive when she announced her departure ( whatever bitch! ), a couple from San Diego attending a conference about information passing that the Australian spy was interested in, Whom pointed out the frustration of the lonely heart ( they took the picture for me )and good-hearted-ly laughed about it (we're not mean and we've all been frustrated at times), and a bad hangover trying to drink with them. We had fun. Maybe it was Paradise, or maybe being whomever you want where nobody knows you, but It was my impression that everybody liked themselves in Hawaii and wanted to share some of that joy with others. Go to Hawaii, Meet the world.

A Week in Paradise

Aloha! Two days back from Hawaii, I realize my week in paradise passed far too quickly. Especially when I consider that I didn’t hike Diamond Head, see Pearl Harbor, go snorkeling off Maui, attend a Luau, surf, swim, or screw any little brown girls. I didn’t sail behind a boat on a giant kite, I didn’t ride the glass bottomed submarine or swim with the dolphins. I couldn’t talk my way onto a sailboat for the ride home either. All things I intended to do. Neither did I lay out in the sun to get a tan. My sun bathing was restricted to walking up and down Waikiki beach with my shirt off for an hour a day, admiring the bikini clad bathers, and burning a nice reddish-brown. Honestly, I can’t fathom how anybody could lay in the tropical sun of the islands and not burn to a crisp. But everyday, there they were, oiled up and wearing the tiniest of swimming suits, turning their skin a deep brown and into leather. The Scotch-Irish in me knew it would be suicide to join the throngs of people whom were fearless, so I was perfectly happy to walk on the edge of the ocean, admire the young and beautiful, and long for the day when I would have been reckless, badly sunburned and 1/3 my age. I did eat out every meal. I did go to the mall every day to shop , buy nothing, and search for native Chinese to practice my Mandarin. I did get drunk on MaiTai’s in the Tapa bar at the Waikiki Hilton a couple of times, where I met some very nice people that I’ll probably never see again. I did feel guilty that I didn’t do more. I did relax and shake the depression that was chasing me. I did quit smoking pot (maybe for good) for ten days, and counting. I did return home happier, healthier, and determined to find a life for my next fifty years of living, even if they will be spent bald, grey, and ever older. I did read a book. I did spend a week with my youngest son in Honolulu, where we watched the Giants win the World Series and will always be reminded of the time spent together upon mention of the champs of 2010. That was all that mattered to me, the time spent with my son. At this point of life, what else is there but my immortality in the form of my boys? Paradise was wonderful. Hawaii was wonderful . I didn’t need to do a thing. Being there was enough, but next letter I’ll tell you the story of eleven dollar Mai Tai’s, drinking with the rich and famous, drinking with the desperate for love, drinking with foreigners, and drinking with Becky Sue and Ken, all my friends for a day.

A Hard Month to Write

Six months out of the mountains of Southern Oregon now, I'd like to say I'm Happy. I'm not. I miss the mountains,the forest, the serenity, my cabin (no longer), the rain, and the friends I made in my three and a half years in Cave Junction . I'm homeless in Sacramento. (renting). I own land, but it's bare land, and you can't do the things in Sacramento county, California, that you could in Josephine county,Oregon. My property taxes are four times the amount they were in Oregon. There is no sales tax in Oregon, California is almost 10%...... My wife is in Sacramento. And there is the essence of this paragraph: Despite all the reasons why I want to be in Oregon (not to mention my 82 year old mother in Grants Pass) , when my wife says she wants to spend the rest of her life with me, I cannot leave. I cannot take the heartbreak in returning to Oregon and living without her. Again. ( She can take the Heartbreak of not going though??????? ) It is heartbreaking to live in the city when I know of the peace and beauty of the Illinois valley. I love the Land of the Outlaw. Heartache.

My youngest son, now a Berkeley graduate, was hired by a company called "Test Masters" to teach private classes, twice a week, on preparing for and taking the LSAT (Law School Aptitude Test). Justin studied six months for the LSAT and did very well. Test Masters flies him to different cities, Pays for lodging, food, transportation, and a handsome salary for the class hours he's teaching. The next two months he will be in Honolulu. On Wednesday I'm going to Honolulu.

I'm hoping that a week in Hawaii will give me a brighter, cheerier outlook on life. I need a boost. I know the real problem in my life is I can never be fourteen again; I'll never look nineteen again; Men in my family don't age gracefully, and after seven years of being retired, I need a job; a purpose. I need a life so bad that I'm about to return to Oregon and build another cabin to have a purpose, (warm and dry). Of course, then I have to ask myself, " why did I ever leave"? Oh, because I needed a life. And of course, for love. Seems like I've been running this circle for years now. Maybe a mid-Pacific perspective will help. Anyway, if the plane goes down, everybody pray that I'm having the time of my life adventuring as a "Castaway", and I'll get back to you when I figure out my escape from the doldrums of "purposelessness" and Brad-island.

London is next. My oldest son, Bradley Garrett has one more year at University College London, and I want to visit in the rain this winter before he returns to America. Wear my Sacramento Kings jacket, maybe bait some terrorists looking for Americans. Maybe try and convince my son to return. Aloha.

PS I am still interested in that five acres in O'brien and will be up to discuss the piece when I return, and before the end of the year.

The Answer

I remember touring Hearst castle when I was in the army. Afterwards, more than any other impression I took away from the tour, my overriding feeling was "how could anybody be so wealthy.?" ......................................So where's the limit? How rich do you think one man should be, Needs to be, before it's excessive?

How much money can our politicians in Washington squander before Americans, whom get poorer everyday, revolt and demand to keep their money? Whom decides who gets what? I don't get to pull those strings.

I already suggested closing the borders and internalizing American money for Americans. I think that's a better plan than reducing America to a borderless, third world country. Over time desperation will set in . Then, historically the answer will be revolution. 

I am selfish. I had the least growing up of all my friends, not only in family assets, but in homelife, upbringing, structure, guidance. I lived unrestrained and reckless until I was fifty (selfish). I've made lots of mistakes, paid and still pay for them, and only bothered with worrying about money in the last few years. I'm not satisfied. I need more money to develop my land. If it wasn't for "codes" I'd spend 15 k, drill a well , and live in a box there now. Warm, dry and fed is what a man needs. Not much more than a cave and a hunting field. The point;.................... Everyman must decide his own greed, but when the Greedy are insatiable and the masses are not warm dry and fed,..............the masses are still being fed. When hunger sets in control will be lost.It is the Middle Class whom are being decimated by the policies of our leaders now. Losses are being socialized while profits are privatized. I say go back to the 2% whom made the profits and let them pay for the losses. The poor are poor, you can't get blood from a turnup. It is those in the middle, people like you who are getting screwed by the top 2%. Capiche' ?The poor, those whom have given up, the third generation welfare babies, the bums on Social Security who never paid in a dime, the bums who did pay and then were retired for "issues", the scum of the earth whom won't support themselves as long as they can get a free ride, THEY won't take your money or reduce the price of your goods or services. No, it is those whom profit from your demise that you should be angry at. Those whom send work overseas and force the American standard of living down. The poor are already poor. I say take every dime going to Pakistan, or Afghanistan, Iraq etc. and give it to them, me , the american infrastucture, or for jobs for one of the three. Fuck the 2% and their wars for profit.!I imagine you have a wonderful life. From what I can discern, there is only you and your wife, and the two of you are successful. Why be angry.? I can only imagine why, and then I could be totally wrong. Let me say, " life is wonderful, every miserable moment, if you remember that, life is wonderful". I hope things are good. If I can help out, I would be glad to offer my time and labor for free. You realize I don't live in the real world, don't you? I have no schedule. I receive two pension checks. ( not enough money for anything but being warm, dry, fed and a little adventure) I have NO debt. Don't live with my wife. (but see her almost every day) (if I like ) I do whatever I desire and have no demands on my time or person. Both my sons are through University, successful, independant. I drift like the feather in Forrest Gump. What can I do for you ?

Fall in the Mountains

Fall. Here in the valley, One could hardly discern the changing of the seasons last week. This week the temperature will be 10 degrees warmer , and that exemplifies how the cooler weather has taken hold so far. In the mountains of southern Oregon it is cool now at night. The deciduous trees are beginning to change color. In Oregon it will rain once a week from now until it rains three times a week. Nice, cool, Fall weather. Like it should be. This time of year, "tis the season" in those mountains. A long Summer of gardening will culminate soon in the exhilarating sigh of the harvest. There is nothing like having a plan come together and bringing in the herd. Nothing. Those in the "know" smile a lot and slyly pat each other on the back. Locals wave each other down for a quick visit , a little show and tell, and a sample swap. Octoberfest. I miss the camaraderie of being an outlaw, especially in the mountains of southern Oregon where a man can be respectable and an Outlaw; One does not necessarily preclude the other.

On another note;

“The distinguishing characteristic of the Third World country is you have the people at the top and the rest—you don’t have a thriving middle class,”

When I think of a "Third World country", " the rest" are always poor, and with that poverty comes desperation. Desperate times call for desperate measures, thus the world, at least for "the rest", becomes a desperate place. The scary part is America lost a big percentage of it's middle class the last few years, and despite that we're being told the recession is over, the GDP is growing, or corporate earnings are up and the rich are getting richer, the middle class is still disappearing like a vanishing species . 30% were wiped out with their equity when the bubble burst.

The air is far from being gone from the bubble and " the rest" , or soon to be, are getting more desperate by the hour. Increasingly, this desperation affects our lives and cannot be ignored. Tried selling land or a home lately? After the elections in November, grab a parachute because the next dip will take us back to pre-balloon levels. California property can already be bought at 1990 prices. In some places price's are at 1980's levels. With the banks rat-holing 4 of five properties in shadow inventory, the worst is yet to come for homeowners/middle class/ "the rest" of us. Every day I kick myself for investing in land back in May. I feel your pain and don't like being one of 'the rest', America.

On a final note;

Revolutionary thoughts.

One world will be a Third World country. If you're not on top now, it will only get harder to climb the pile. Americans need to recognize if we weren't making war, or One world, or making our leaders and those who bribe them rich, there would be plenty of money. The "redistribution" of wealth we so often hear about, is not to Americans, it is to the world, and the rest of the world thinks we are fools for giving our money away. America is a rich country. We should close our borders and divide the money. 80% of us live on 2% of the money. 80% of us could live three times as well on 6% of the money. When the difference in quality of life between the vast majority, ( "the rest" ), and the 2% whom control our country's wealth becomes ridiculous (as it is quickly becoming) the seeds of revolution are born.

A Hurricane Story for the West Coast

Watching tropical depressions forming off the African coast turn into hurricanes , hurricanes that often curl north towards the Gulf and East coasts of America has me thinking,...... What happens when one of those tropical depressions forms on the Gulf side of Panama, turns into a hurricane and jumps over to the Pacific, only to curl up and smack Southern California? It could happen in a warmer wetter world. The hurricanes form now, they jump the peninsula and curl north slamming Baja California on occasion, now. Is all a Southern California storm has to be is a bigger storm, with a bigger curl,.... isn't that what a warmer wetter world is all about; more violent weather ? So, here's a prediction, In the WWW of the future , we can look forward to the weather channel following those monster "eye"s of swirling clouds curling off the equator in southern Mexico, a little farther north and into S. California. Maybe washing the Lakers away. Wikipedia cites several storms that have come close, and these days one is led to believe anything is possible. Here in the Central Valley the rivers won't drain and the place will be an inland sea someday, too. I don't feel left out now, what with all the hurricanes in the Atlantic.

Two large comets passed within the orbit of the moon around the Earth last week . All the detection we have didn't spot them until the last minute,....at least that's the story we're being told. ( I'm not making this up ) Would you announce to the world it was about to be lit up by a meteorite? Think what would happen if a big rock wiped out Modesto for instance. The rest of the World would swear it was Nostradamus and 2012 as scripted. The Mid-East would claim it was God's war on America, The Great Satan, and California, the leader of the pack. Property prices might go up in Merced.....nahhh. Control would be lost. There are just too many people whom would see a meteorite shower as an excuse for slipping into anarchy. Of course, how many burning chunks of rock have to hit the place before you think it might not be the same? Let's hope they were lone riders, and may your side of the Earth be turned the other way. A little cheer for Tuesday afternoon. California deserves a hurricane story too.

Time for a Well

Michael Burry, the former hedge-fund manager who predicted the housing market’s plunge, said he is investing in farmable land, small technology companies and gold as he hunts original ideas and braces for a weaker dollar.

“I believe that agriculture land -- productive agricultural land with water on site -- will be very valuable in the future,” Burry, 39, said in a Bloomberg Television interview scheduled for broadcast this morning in New York. “I’ve put a good amount of money into that.”

An Ocean of Money

There was an ocean of money. It touched all the lands of the world, and the world's money was it's tributaries. The people of the world all relied on the ocean of money for stability, credit, investment, and necessary planning for the future. One day some greedy men realized that if they could dive to the bottom of the ocean of money and fart, then keep the gas hidden in a sea of investment, the tide of money would rise and appear to have grown, when really the growth was just a bubble. It was in this fashion that the greedy men fooled people into thinking the sea of money was growing, and the greedy men were earning a share of the ocean of cash honestly. People, seeing the wave of opportunity and an ocean of money, took advantage and started farting in the ocean, too. People were quick to digest the enterprise of gaseous cash and Brrrrrruuuuuppppp......the McMansion was born. Brrrrruuuupppp............... a new SUV. As long as the ocean of money was rising nobody was worried about sea levels. Then came a day when the bubble burst and the stench of the greedy men's work filled the air. The ocean of Money, long depleted by greedy siphoning, yet disguised in it's tides, sucked reservoirs dry as it fell back into it's original banks . In some places old banks were left dry. Rivers quit flowing. Springs disappeared. Cash flow stopped. The tide dropped trillions. And people everywhere wondered how they could have farted away all that money, that never existed, and they would never be able to pay back. I used to ask myself all the time ( about the worlds money), Where did that ocean of money go? Now we know, It never existed, it was a just a bubble that drowned a lot of people and gassed the future when it popped.

Interesting Times

I think about how the world has changed in the last five years, then I think how the changes have been spoon fed to us through the media with catch phrases and glimpses of what the truth means. It's the "race to the bottom", and the two times I heard that phrase being used by our lawmakers I was surprised. I wasn't surprised that it was quickly hushed up and not used again to describe America's current situatiuon, although it best describes that very situation in my mind. In recent years we heard a lot about the concept of "one world" . What does one world mean to Americans though? World competition, the refusal to close and protect American borders, maybe the erasure of borders, allowing common currency, and huge deficits in trade. One world means Americans must compete on a world level; ie with 86 cent an hour wages in China and 26 cent per hour wages in Cambodia. Obviously the standard of living is better in China than Cambodia, but not quite what Americans are used to earning. We sure like buying those products produced at slave/world wages, even if we don't want to slave for them. However that's whom we're competing with, so better understand the plan for Social Equalization. A society of ultra rich (Money) and the poor. Crazy? How could it be achieved? Right before our eyes! The first step was creating a ten year bubble. America thought it was thriving when all we were doing was running up debt and allowing the "plan" to be put in place. Then? Take our money away, bursting the bubble and taking those on the edge, over. And how that's happening! Money was devalued when we doubled our currency, the result of allowing so much credit the place went bust. Then with only half the "real money" we had before ( our creditors have the rest), credit had to tighten forcing property values to plummet and s l o w g r o w t h. Aren't most Americans deeply vested in their homes? Isn't that their biggest investment in life and for retirement? 20% of all mortgage holders are upside down right now. That's not to mention those whom have already lost their homes. Wiping out the middle class has been achieved to a certain extent already. Remember all those stories about the elimination of the middle class? The job is probably 30% done now and growing. Over the next ten years I expect the value of land/housing to drop at least 50%. Why? So the continuation of reducing the American standard of living can proceed. That $500,000 dollar house will only be worth $250,000 in the future; that $100,000 house only worth $50,000 etc., Inevitably stripping the vast majority of Americans of their wealth and eliminating the middle class. This isn't happening by accident, or because of economic hard times, it is the design of those with power and money. The American standard of living is too far above the world norm. Reducing our wealth works better in the plan for " The New World Order". Finally, bankrupt Social Security, then force Americans to accept much smaller benefits. That should do it. Without Social security, a bankroll in our property, and the value of everything from labor to property falling, it shouldn't take more than a generation or two for us to "drop" more in Line with "One World" and "Social Equalization". Alas, I've been reading to much Patrick-net. Doom and Gloom. I also passed on the deal of a lifetime in Oregon this week which is depressing. I'm thinking I need to go to London, get a change of scenery and some perspective. Soon.

The Deal of a Lifetime

Six months ago I left Oregon. I wanted to be closer to my youngest son. My oldest son is in Europe. When he finishes university this year, I want him to return to the US so I can be closer to him. My wife is also in the same city as I am now. I wanted to be closer to her, too. Returning to California will financially be my ruin, no doubt, but one realization I came to on the side of Hope Mountain was that although safe, secure and prospering, I was growing older without sharing my life with the woman and the sons I love. After forty months of soul searching and hard work in southern Oregon, I sold what I loved to return to what I love. I tested that love this week. On Friday a six acre parcel in Kerby Oregon appeared on realtor.com selling for 40,000 dollars. 

It was a duress sale and I had the inside track. When I called the agent and found out it had a Mobile home, Kerby city water, a well also, and Power, ... I decided it was probably too good to be true, but it was worth a look. On Sunday a friend and I drove to Oregon to take a look. The agent explained the owner was sick and the court was liquidating assets. There had been an offer already. On Monday the court would look at offers and select the best one. The parcel was a steal. 20 to 30 thousand dollars under market value (today). I put an offer in at $42,000. When the realtor met with the court representative on Monday, there were only two offers and mine was the high one. The court accepted it . The property had been on the market three days. It was todays deal of a lifetime. How lucky could I get? Is all I had to do was buy it . I could return to be an Outlaw and Oregonian. Once again have money, security, a home,......... or Love? I pulled out of the deal today. Just call me a fool for love. There was a helluva deal on a two bedroom , two bath house, on three acres with a nice barn for only $28,000............in Minnesota this week, too.

PS Thanks for all the help Tracy. You were a joy to work with for a day.

Fighting depression, Back taxes and Where do I go from here?

Life is Wonderful, Every miserable moment. I have to tell myself that too often recently. Nothing is wrong, really,.. I just worry about being old and poor and ugly,.... and old and ugly doesn't bother me but poor does. I bought property in the State of California and they immediately let me know I owe back income taxes by placing a lien on the property. Naturally the lien is for twice as much as I owe, forcing me to do my taxes ! Damn California. Reason one I should have never left Oregon. Depressing. Regardless, I had my taxes done for 2004,2005,2006. I can handle the state,.. but the fed's,............ Those three years alone will eat up my cash reserves. In a matter of hours I have gone from being solvent to broke. If the damn government wanted taxes from my money, they should have taken it before they gave me the money in the first place! I must admit, the state never had a chance to collect, and so their lien on my property pisses me off that I gave them a chance. That's the bad thing about property, no place to hide. So, a hop skip and a jump away from the mountains and I'm already hating the Government. Again. I guess that's one reason that my friend Guy and I are heading back to southern Oregon this weekend to look for property. There are some "deals" along the Redwood highway in the Illinois Valley, and Guy is ready for an adventure. Myself, after five months in the city, after five months of being without my own home, and now saddled with what will surely be future financial obligations, I'm feeling like maybe I should go back to the mountains and lick my wounds for another couple of years. Damn taxes. Damn government. Damn real estate market. If I could sell the parcel here in the Sacramento valley that I just bought , I could clear these taxes up, but between the taxes, the commission for the realtor, and the damn market, I stand to lose twenty thousand dollars. No way! I think it's time to return to the hills and cling to my guns and and my garden. That's the idea as we head up to Kerby this weekend to look at five acres . Here's hoping we come across the deal of a lifetime and recognize it.

A Long Month

The joy of living. The dog days of Summer. Knowing you loved something when you miss it. Remembering why, despite love, love is now loved. I miss my life in the mountains. I loved it much.

And the beat goes on. At A.T.& T. Park we watched the Giants lose to the Marlins yesterday. The view is spectacular there. It must be one of the premier stadiums in all of baseball. Made so, of course, by the surrounding Bay Area.

Doesn't one get the desire to be at the top of the heap when they visit the city? The Penthouse Life. The hustle. The bustle. All the things that come with metropolis. It would take a lot of money to insulate you from the anthill. I can dream of enough. I just can't dream of a way. Gotta go and buy my Lotto ticket ...and dream another dream finds Me.

The Faltering Middle Class/ Trivia for Cocktails

Source: The Business Insider ( I know nothing)

• 83 percent of all U.S. stocks are in the hands of 1 percent of the people.

• 61 percent of Americans "always or usually" live paycheck to paycheck, which was up from 49 percent in 2008 and 43 percent in 2007.

• 66 percent of the income growth between 2001 and 2007 went to the top 1% of all Americans.

• 36 percent of Americans say that they don't contribute anything to retirement savings.

• A staggering 43 percent of Americans have less than $10,000 saved up for retirement.

• 24 percent of American workers say that they have postponed their planned retirement age in the past year.

• Over 1.4 million Americans filed for personal bankruptcy in 2009, which represented a 32 percent increase over 2008.

• Only the top 5 percent of U.S. households have earned enough additional income to match the rise in housing costs since 1975.

• For the first time in U.S. history, banks own a greater share of residential housing net worth in the United States than all individual Americans put together.

• In 1950, the ratio of the average executive's paycheck to the average worker's paycheck was about 30 to 1. Since the year 2000, that ratio has exploded to between 300 to 500 to one.

• As of 2007, the bottom 80 percent of American households held about 7% of the liquid financial assets.

• The bottom 50 percent of income earners in the United States now collectively own less than 1 percent of the nation’s wealth.

• Average Wall Street bonuses for 2009 were up 17 percent when compared with 2008.

• In the United States, the average federal worker now earns 60% MORE than the average worker in the private sector.

• The top 1 percent of U.S. households own nearly twice as much of America's corporate wealth as they did just 15 years ago.

• In America today, the average time needed to find a job has risen to a record 35.2 weeks.

• More than 40 percent of Americans who actually are employed are now working in service jobs, which are often very low paying.

• or the first time in U.S. history, more than 40 million Americans are on food stamps, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture projects that number will go up to 43 million Americans in 2011.

• This is what American workers now must compete against: in China a garment worker makes approximately 86 cents an hour and in Cambodia a garment worker makes approximately 22 cents an hour.

• Approximately 21 percent of all children in the United States are living below the poverty line in 2010 - the highest rate in 20 years.

• Despite the financial crisis, the number of millionaires in the United States rose a whopping 16 percent to 7.8 million in 2009.

• The top 10 percent of Americans now earn around 50 percent of our national income.

Happy Birthday Dangerous Dan

I spent the day at the State Fair. Cal Expo (short for California Exposition) hasn't changed much since the last time I attended; Bad food for exorbitant prices, $8 dollar beers, Hawkers selling everything from SHAM-wow to Health bracelets, Carnie's wanting you to toss a ball and win a prize. At five dollars a toss you could buy the prize and have money left over. Obviously the state fair is not set up for people whom are money minded and penny conscious. That might explain why so many of the fair goer's are young people in their teens and early twenties. It is a chance, however, to observe some young artist's work in the fine arts and crafts, see the farm animals, watch the next generation have their turn at being young, and generally reminisce about my many trips to the fair, in the days of hair (as when I had some).

There was a 9/11 exhi

bit. An I beam from the towers was there for people to look at. I guess people should see the metal that supposedly failed, in the only collapse of a steel framed building due to fire .....EVER. Absolute horse-shit. Only concentrated heat could have cut those beams. As in thermite. It has almost been ten years since 9/11. The US has now spent a trillion dollars on the war on terror. Half of the American people realize that the planes didin't bring down those towers. When is there going to be a stop to this Sham? And a trillion dollars later ............... What do we have to show for our money?,....a busted economy. Thousands of veterans with needs now, and in the future, whom have no where to bring their problems but home. A war in Afghanistan we'll soon be retreating from. An occupation in Iraq we'll soon be leaving, and be hated for. And a nation about to disintegrate in racial tension and religious civil war. No? Well then why all the uproar about a mosque three blocks from "ground zero" . ? ( Ground Zero is just further bullshit. The former Towers should be called the "Bush Bomb" Site.) And how can the war on terror not be Religious war when the targets are all Muslim? It is very slippery for the American people to say they're not targeting all Muslims, but then balk at the idea of a mosque too close to the Bush bomb site. Speaking of "dividing factors"...

At a time when we have

a " post race president" , meaning after race mattered, we also have the "New Black Panther" party, The Tea Party, and Shirley Sherrod , agricultural employee whom uses words like " his own kind", (referring to whites)............ and they're not racist. Yeah. Let me just call a spade a spade. They're all racist. And as times get harder, money gets tighter, and people look to "take care of our own" , racial tensions are going to heighten and be exploited. Why not? It would appear in the speeches of Reverend Wright to his black congregation, and Shirley Sherrod's speech at the NAACP, that racial division is privately acceptable when speaking to one's "own kind". I would bet the "new" Black Panther party isn't an equal opportunity employer, either, despite anything they might say.

In other words, ...It's all a bunch of Hypocritical Hollywood (as in act) Hot air. I admire the Panthers for at least being honest enough to declare what they're all about up front......being Black. That's more than Shirley Sherrod has done. And I saw her speech, full context or not, it was a black woman bragging about having power over a white man, and using racist terms.

Pure racist...... and I validate that statement by this one.....Shirley would have never given that speech to an audience with white listeners in it. Period. Therefore it was racist. Designed for an audience of Blacks. Racist. On a final note, we will see if Sherrod was as fair as she says in her job....Fox will have all the dirt on her tommorrow. I say,........( that's enough time and thought on the matter) FIRE HER! (But who am I ) . (see photo)

Motorhomes and Motorcycles

I had a nice Honda Goldwing 1200 Interstate. It made me nervous driving it anymore. I've been to Skip-Frame. I 'd been looking at motorhomes. I sold the motorcycle. I decided I didn't need a motorhome. I put the money in the safe. I kept looking for a motorhome though. Then I found a good one. Winnebago, original owner, 25 ft long, Dodge 440, 37,000 miles, Onan generator, overhead air, never lived in, new tires, new batteries. Like new but 32 years old. I met the original owner, she was 90. Her Grandson negotiated the deal and it was his labor of love for Grandma, and a bother for him. It was a great deal on a good motorhome. I made it a better deal with some negotiation. I bought a motorhome. I drove the motorhome from Woodland to West Sacramento, parked it, and began checking it out closely. It was Thursday. The rig ran smooth and cool in the 95 degree heat. The closer I looked, the better the deal looked. I had my motorhome.

On Friday I got up and realized I didn't need a damn motorhome. I didn't want to pay registration fees or insurance for it. I didn't want to smog it. I damn sure didn't want to buy gas for it. I'm an Oregon resident in California with an Oregon drivers license, address, etc. BIG Hassle. I don't really have anywhere to go. I decided my motorhomin' days are over . I'm too cheap to have fun anymore. I added three hundred dollars to the price I paid, put it back on Craigslist, and started worrying. There was a flurry of calls . Promises but no lookers. On Saturday a serious buyer showed up. We spent two hours going over the details of the home, How I came to own it for three days, etc. I demonstrated everything. I repeated the answers the grandson had given. They were sold until... We took it for a test drive. The engine ran smooth and cool. The buyer raced it between stops. He hit the brakes hard. It was all good. We were making the last corner home when my phone rang and I told the caller that I thought the motorhome was sold. Like a comedy, I no sooner finished the sentence and hung up the phone when strange noises started coming from the engine compartment. A-ring-a ding-ding,..it sounded like something was coming apart . We pulled in the driveway, we popped off the engine cover, it sounded terrible but there was no apparent problem. I shut the engine off.

The buyers freaked. The male started talking about some main dampener being bad and the engine needing a major overhaul. I was sick. SICK. The buyers left. I wanted to hurt the male for driving my motorhome hard. I was there though and I couldn't blame him. What the hell could the noise be? I went back out and turned the key. The dash air was blowing . When I bought the motorhome the seller told me the dash air didn't work. When my buyer showed up I told him that too,.. but when he turned it on it was blowing cold air so we left it on. I turned it off. I started the engine. Smooth and Cool. It had not changed in performance or temperature at all. No noise. I drove the motorhome the same route again. No problems. I parked it and turned on the dash air. At first it was a small pinging, but it got louder and I recognized the sound. It was the compressor for the dash air that sounded like it was unraveling , not the engine. I called the buyer back and tried to explain. They thought I was nuts , trying to talk them into coming back to buy a motorhome with a bad engine.When they didn't come back, I wanted to hurt the guy again for scaring me into thinking my engine was bad and I had lost two G!

Saturday the first couple to come and look at the motorhome bought it. I was careful to make sure they understood what a good deal it was. Never count your chickens in the egg. The herd ain't in 'til it's in ! And a good deal is a good deal, even if the guy before you makes a profit ! I proudly owned this motorhome for four days.

Skip Frame

Humans, the organic computer, are about to be re-programmed. After much discussion with people whom don't know better, it is our decision that humans are organic computers. Computers left here on the planet Earth to multiply, evolve, and give the Higher Power a glimpse of their potential for original thought. Original thought, being outside the box, is very dangerous to the Status Quo, and should be studied for dangers to the powers that be. Higher Powers see it that way. That's about the only purpose I can see to the experiment of humanity, thus.... The Skip Frame Theory, .... LIFE is broken down into NANO-seconds, a time frame so small that it encapsulates every impulse in the brain, cumulative which is your life. But under extreme circumstances the brain can process impulses\NANO-seconds at a rate the puts existence on another time plane ,,, ie,....I was driving down the road on my motorcycle. A car pulled out in front of me. I knew I was going to hit the car, I hit the foot-brake, the motorcycle started to skid, and then it happened,......the world stopped around me. Literally stopped. LIFE was no longer a movie, passing by in NANO-seconds of smooth brain impulse. LIFE miraculously had become a slide show, instantaneously impulse process increased in speed until each NANO-second became a frame in it self. A frame of time expanded 100 times in relation to it's normal process time.. As each frame passed to the next, I was a little closer to hitting the car, skipping ahead slightly but slowing also, but I suddenly had plenty of "frames" to assess the situation, slightly turn the motorcycle, step off , spin around, and still standing, watch as the world went from SKIP-FRAME to NANO-seconds and the motorcycle crashed into the car. I had jumped time dimensions. In SKIP-FRAME I had become a Super computer. Able to process NANO's so fast that TIME DIMENSIONS and capabilities changed. SKIP FRAME is when your mental state jumps to a speed so in excess of NANO that fractions of a second become lengthy, and you exist in a different dimension of time then the world as you know it. Only on occasion of great danger has my own life jumped to SKIP-FRAME. It is not something that I can consciously do. It could be harmful to oneself, I don't know. I do know that the dimension exists. I've been there and it is to exist in the same world on a different plane.

The Skip-Frame theory is this: As man evolves and his brain is able to process impulses "naturally" at speeds that only seem possible now under abnormal conditions , Time will elongate, as well as life spans. Why? If one could live in SKIP-FRAME where NANO's are seconds, than seconds would be hours, hours weeks, a lifetime forever. One would age in reverse; live an hour, age a second. Not that I understand Einstein, but according to his theory of relativity, as speed increases doesn't time slow down? If the mind suddenly can process impulse 100 times quicker than a NANO -second earlier, doesn't a second become a hundred times longer? Stepping off a moving motorcycle 100 times easier? (yes) Living a hundred times longer the norm? Einstein's relativity was a time/space thing I think, but mine is the relation of impulse to existence. The end result the same, time slows down as we process quicker/ travel faster. When a second is plenty of time, than a lifetime can be enough. (Enough being forever)

I was kidding about the re-programing part. Without great fear involved, I have no idea how to naturally stimulate a body into a state of SKIP-FRAME. I do like the idea of being able to go there at will though. One can achieve so much when minutes become days. No doubt another dimension of time exists, I've been there. We just haven't evolved enough to get there for more than a moment. Not yet. Some re-programming may be in order.

It's Not All Bad

There is a story that Colonel Parker, Elvis Presley's controlling business partner, on the day of Elvis's death, called a meeting with the principals involved in the business end of the King, and at that meeting the first words out of the colonel's mouth were, "This doesn't change a thing". Elvis has been making money ever since. More than he was when he was alive. Of course what brings that story to mind is the news that one year after his death, Michael Jackson is making more money than ever before. He sold more albums/CD's last year than in the previous eight. The movie of his final tour, the one he was rehearsing for before his death, has pulled in 500 million too. Bottom line... Michael is making more money than ever, he's out of debt, and best yet for those doing the books; Michael is not running up any debt with his eccentricities.

Money. It seems harder all the time to acquire. I want to buy a motor home. I found a good one, low mileage, not "lived" in, and the price is right. I decided to sell my motorcycle to generate half the cash. The day I put the motorcycle on Craiglist, there were 500 other entries under motorcycle ! Yeah, good luck. It appears more toys are going up for sale than being bought by far right now. Hard times are causing toys from the boom to be sold off. Everybody selling, nobody buying. BUT,... I got a bite, when the buyer showed up and saw my bike he wanted it.

Then his story,... his pastor had just bought his motorcycle, and as soon as he could cash the check, he would buy my motorcycle. He said he knew the pastor's check was good and he showed it to me. He also stated he had sold the pastor a car and the check was "no problem". I want cash, of course, but speaking to the man I got the distinct impression that the pastor at the Calvary Church was doing quite well. Well enough to buy up my prospective buyer's old toys at least. He'll be back when the banks open with the cash, I have faith....... so what's the moral of the juxtaposition of these two thoughts in the wild ravings of a disgruntled ex- postal worker? Ironic that "you can't take it with you", but the Kings are generating their biggest profits from the grave.

The world seldom is as it appears. Amazing what a good "spin" can do for a legend, huh? Oh, and some places are doing just fine, the ever after and their salesmen.

May·hem (mhm, mm)‏

Chicago has fifty two gunshot victims over the weekend. Is that a war zone or what? News like that can send a paranoid soul to the closet for their shoulder holster before stepping out. Mayhem is coming? Sounds like mayhem is here. America will never survive another depression. She is too splintered, spoiled, divided, racial, and full of mayhem. Many live in uncertainty and anarchy now. Increasing duress like hunger, deepening wage cuts, rising unemployment, and fewer social services are certain to lead to national instability. And the guns! One thing for sure, what ever social issues the country needs to work out, it won't be done peacefully. I see an America that could become a very dangerous place in the future. We, as a people, don't want to believe that scenes like Chicago could happen in any Urban area. But they are! Lack of $ for Police will make the future even more dangerous. And look at the border area with Mexico,...border wars are fueled and funded with American drug money. Mayhem. Leave the border and move east to the Gulf,.. what the hell are they going to do when BP goes bankrupt? They say that the Gulf supplies 45% of American seafood,... What is that worth? What is Tourism valued at? Cleanup costs, wildlife costs, etc.. 20 billion might be far short of the real bill. It looks like Mayhem to me. They're predicting a major Hurricane season this year too, which means we could add natural disaster to man-made disaster and really come up with some mayhem. Remember it was New Orleans where gangs shot back at police in the aftermath of Katrina. Things haven't improved in New Orleans since the last opportunity to engage in mayhem, next time could be much bigger. Now, look around at the densely populated urban area you live in and ask yourself, " If masses start starving, or the police quit working, or the country started to split upon racial/religious/political lines, would it be safe? or mayhem?" In Chicago it isn't safe and it is mayhem. How long until the National Guard is required to keep US a country? or your city safe? Those of you in the mountains must feel good now. You should. 

Bradman1. Law The offense of willfully maiming or crippling a person.2. Infliction of violent injury on a person or thing; wanton destruction: children committing mayhem in the flower beds.3. A state of violent disorder or riotous confusion; havoc.

The World

Recently, my life in turmoil, uncertain of what I want, or what to do, I became depressed. I began to worry. About the only time I feel good is when I watch the news. Watching the world around me sink faster than myself is consoling to some degree. Despite everything wrong in my world in my mind, it doesn't seem as bad as a volcano ash'ing the crops and disrupting air traffic. My daily worries don't compare to those of people living on the Gulf coast. How helpless they must feel as they watch their world destroyed. I worry about how far reaching economically the calamity will be; one more straw on the Camel's back. OIL; only now as crude ruins our own shores do we begin to look at OIL companies as evil. How ironic that many others suffer in OIL wars that we support elsewhere, and that is fine. OIL; bribes our politicians, invades foreign countries, pollutes our world. Are the riots over in Greece? I thought money problems in Greece would lead to more financial uncertainty, but the dollar got stronger. I guess the world isn't as small as they want US to believe. Watching Israel attack, Watching North Korea attack, Watching the water attack (Tennessee), I realize I can be happy in a hole, if it's dry and warm, and there's somebody to share my misery with, 'cause Life is wonderful, every Miserable moment, and Israel and North Korea must know it because they live in the misery of war endlessly. All the news is OIL. This time next year, after the oil spill, the coming hurricane season, and the overactive tornado season, everybody will be migrating west. I hope it drives property prices up, but whom knows? I was looking at property prices over the last forty years here in the Sacramento area, up and down, burst bubble and all, they still seem to double every twenty years. Future prices? 2009 fourth quarter commentary stated an increase in values,...but 2010 first quarter commentary is predicting -10%,.... better beat those prices down even further if you want to get in the door with equity! New Bradland hasn't sold yet,....... but I'm looking for a 33 and 1/3% profit. I'll let everybody know when the world improves that much. Bradman

The Price of Rock

I miss the mountains. I really miss being in the backwoods of Josephine county where in forty months of building I never saw a county official. Except the Sheriff. And he only stopped for coffee once, ignored my pot plants, and left on the best of terms. At least I thought so, though he never did come back. The Sacramento Valley is a whole different environment. Especially on a property without trees or a hill to hide behind. Depressing to think that my every decision will have to be approved by an inspector of some sort . I speculate on how they'd react if I was to put an outhouse on New Bradland. Inspectors have a hard time understanding those of us willing to live in alternative fashions; ie Moving a Sea-land container onto property and calling it home. Isn't America wonderful? Where else can a guy move into an area of millionaires, carve a road, bring in a box and a motorhome and homestead the place. I wish it was that easy. Having a road scraped is 70 bucks an hour. Rock is still being negotiated. Drillers want 10+ thousand for a well. What is so expensive about a damn hole in the ground? Septic contractors want 8k for a shitter, 10k more if it has to be an engineered shitter. Another hole in the ground as far as I'm concerned. When I get the money those people will have to be contracted, but until then, I may try some shovel work myself. You Know, some things are necessary in life, like water and potty. I'm not too keen on digging a well, that's a long way down for shovel work, but a potty hole isn't. Anyway this whole damn land development thing is already depressing me. When I bought the place here I was thinking five years to develop it. Now I'm thinking ten. Or maybe a quick profit. New Bradland is for sale for ......Sixty thousand dollars...USD. Isn't life wonderful? Isn't everything for sale?

Bradland

After a month of looking for property in the Sacramento area I began to think I couldn't afford what I want; acreage with privacy, and close to the city. In the city, in the bad neighborhoods, a quarter acre lot is still 25,000 dollars, and prices go up from there. Acreage outside the city can be 50,000+ an acre. 

Property I can afford is too far away; in the mountains with no power, bad roads, etc. Always a drawback. Elbow room is not a cheap commodity in the city. I want three flat acres of farmland within twenty five miles of the state capital, with power, on a paved road, with water... and no neighbors. I don't want a ranchette in a neighborhood of ranchettes. I want to be the only house within miles. I want a view. I want water. I want cattle. I want privacy and to be able to see the stars... I want a small, inexpensive parcel among big ranches just outside the city.

I found one. Cheap- only fifteen thousand dollars an acre. Flat. On the water (almost). With power, no neighbors, cattle, a paved road, less than twenty five miles from the city limits. The parcel is also bordered on two sides by the Sacramento Valley Conservacy, 

a tree hugging organization dedicated to equestrian trails and mountainbiking. Their property is locked up in a 99 year trust. Elbow room until next century. And the tree huggers won't bother me, there isn't a tree on my property! Yet.

One acre is bottom land, separated from Laguna creek by about 100 hundred yards of flood plain where you would never be able to build, but excellent farmland. The other two are up on the bluff where flooding shouldn't be a problem. Ione rd.( pronounced I OWN) at Laguna creek. Ione rd. at Laguna Creek. I do. Sloughhouse, Ca 95683 It's Sacramento county, 6/10ths of a mile from the Amador county line, so SMUD (Sacramento Municipal Utility District) will string a power line for FREE. I think good wine country, huh? I'm sending pictures to save a thousand words. The next adventure... It's on.

Comparing Views, What Have I Done... And (oh yeah!) Be Careful What You Wish For!

The view has changed a little, huh? The ranch in West Sacramento is an undeveloped island in a sea of funk. The neighborhoods around it are rising like the tide and soon it will disappear. The ranch, once in escrow for 1.75 million USD, is now on the market for a mere 499,000 USD. Quite the buy for someone who can afford a little extra elbow room. Unfortunately, the moment you drive off the property, you're back in the city: Six lanes of hurtling steel on the freeways, Someone always in a hurry behind you, Young people with the look of nothing to lose and hate under their tattoo'd necks. The pace of the race to the grave strikes me as blazing. Like comets burning through the atmosphere. Only after being in the "at my own pace" lifestyle of Southern Oregon for three years do I now see how urban living literally pushes people. Needless to say I have my doubts about what the hell I'm doing back in California.

Oregon was so much cheaper to live in. The problem isn't money though, it's people. Too many people and the place is falling apart. There are money problems throughout the states, but in California the shere number of people make the figures twenty times worse than in Oregon. I guess there's no place like home. Like marriage for better or for worse. On that note, it's wonderful to see my wife every day. It will be a shame when the next adventure begins and she elects to remain in Sactown and babysit her grandchildren. China is inviting me to come and teach, again. The dog gets older. Property in Corning continues to decline in price. The heat is coming.