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.