The 4 trillion dollar theft…

Well….a good bit of outrage has built up of the past few days reading the budget proposals that are coming out of the repubs, and Paul Ryan in particular…and I find it breathtaking that they think they can just steal 4 trillion more dollars from the country in the guise of “deficit reduction”. To put this whole idea in perspective, we only need to remember that without the Bush tax cuts for the rich, there would be no budget crisis…remember that, there would be no budget crisis if the Bush tax cuts were allowed to expire. That is one of the things that these thieves don’t want you to know…one of the others is what they want to do to Medicare…they are back to their old scam of privatizing all of the safety nets that have kept older Americans out of poverty for 80 years and turning it into a private insurance con that would transfer more wealth into the hands of the rich and business. But this is not the only place these idiots want to attack while giving more to the rich…they want across the board cuts to every program that has any benefit to the middle class; saying it’s a needed sacrifice that the middle class needs to make…my question is: “where is the sacrifice from the rich?” Don’t waste your time looking….you won’t find it. What would have happened if Social Security and Medicare were privatized when the financial meltdown happened; perpetrated by the rich for the rich? All of us in the middle class would have lost everything while the bankers walked away with their millions and millions in bonuses.

Please, people, start paying attention and don’t let these liars take what is left of the country….geez….

April 4th

Well….another Sunday with not much to say for it…the Wings did win and clinched the Central division so that was pretty neat….but the rest of the day was just to be endured and I endured it…slept okay but up and down a lot and still no dreams to speak of. It is still quite gloomy outside and it looks like that is going to last all day….so a day of resumes and cooking is in order. I made salmon with a honey mustard sauce yesterday and it came out pretty good…I think I may need to add one more spice like thyme to really get it over the top…not much to do today…hope to get out on the bike if the rain stops later this morning….but that is about it…maybe out with G for a couple later but I have a feeling that she is going to cancel….I am going to get back in the groove writing today and get a couple more out…..more later….

Happy Birthday…

Well….just a short one to get started today….it’s the first birthday of this site and I really don’t know what to say about that yet….I do have coffee going and the paper waiting so I’m going to go take care of that right now….there will be additions to this one in a little while so come on back…

Okay, I’m back for a minute and I’ve been thinking a bit about the things that have happened in the last year that I’ve been writing this….and the only conclusion I can come to is “not much”….still not working, still driving the same car, still alone, still going out to Kava every morning, still worrying about my weight, still wondering if this is all there is to life, still trying to find a coherent plot for the new novel, still trying to sell the last one, still watching more of my hair fall out, still watching as an old guy replaces the one in the mirror that I’m used to, still writing this thing every day, still wondering how I got here, still disappointed in our country’s direction, still, still, still……….back in a while….need to read the times….

Well…read the Times…I’m still weaning myself from it since they went to a pay to read site….I wonder if I should be a little proud that I’ve written something here every day for a full year or has it been just a huge waste of time? Yep, you can see the conflict that I’m having about almost everything right now and it is not fun…..maybe I’ll just go over to the couch and watch the rest of a documentary I started with this morning….

Okay…finished the documentary and am in the process of making lunch….thought I’d do one last addition to this one before I move on to other things…..not much to do today….going to have lunch, of course, and then probably just veg the rest of the day since it is just so gloomy that I don’t want to do anything else….I’ll be back later to get to another topic but I know you won’t be surprised if I don’t get to it….

Here we go….

Well…have been doing a total veg day but it’s coming up on decision time whether or not to go out today…have not heard from K yet and I’ll have to take off by 4:30 to get downtown by 5…no it’s not that far but I have no fuel in the wreck…I have decided that if I can’t park within a couple of blocks, I’m just going to turn around and come home….just can’t justify paying 7 bucks to park for an hour…yeah, I know, this one is not what you were expecting but there just have been no topics that have me outraged…or even mildly upset and I just didn’t want to fake it….I will have a topic for tomorrow since I do have a few things that I am thinking about….

April 2nd

Well….a kind of fun night last night but just vegged and had a couple of cocktails…slept okay but I am getting frustrated that there haven’t been any dreams that I can remember lately…..didn’t get up until almost 7…..so, I feel okay today and it was nice to not have to run the car to get the ice off before going out to get the papers. Got some salmon for only 4 bucks a pound this morning so I’ll have to look for recipes so I can have some of that tomorrow. Not much to do today…probably drinks with K this aft and maybe out to Peppino’s downtown to hang out for a friends birthday and watch part of the final four. That’s about it…the coffee just stopped sputtering so I’m going to go read the papers and take a break…more later…

Maybe not….

Well….I have been thinking about my idea of proposing solutions to Michigan’s problems and it’s much harder than just bitching…so I’m not sure how long it’s going to take to get something that makes sense….one thing I would like to see is a progressive income tax here…one thing that the repubs don’t want you to know is the fact that even with tax rates that were twice what they are now, we had huge periods of growth and job creation…along with balanced budgets. During that time, the interstate road system was built, good schools were everywhere, and there were possibilities that we could be better. Where are we now? Tax rates are lower than they have been in 50 years and there is still no job creation…so when the repubs say they want more of the same, my jaw drops with the stupidity of that stance.

Okay…I promised, so I’ll change tack here….I heard a news show on MSNBC today and I just about lost my lunch…these people were bitching that ceo’s are being hurt by the recession, too…with the admonition that we shouldn’t pick on them since they were taking a hit along with the rest of us….yep, I couldn’t believe it either….these poor guys are only making 800 times what their workers make…down from 900 times….I’m going to cry a tear for them and their hard times…geez…

One last thing….there may be a budding revolt going on in the repub ranks here in Michigan over the draconian cuts in school funding while giving all that money to business in the form of tax cuts….yay…

April 1st

Well…another night, more boredom and it is starting to become numbing….but I’ll live through it I guess. I did get a bike ride in yesterday and no geese attacks so that was a plus…the swans seem to be nesting in the pond by the e-way since they were there again yesterday….and the redtailed hawk that was along the trail is back again…that made me smile a little when it took off and crossed in front of me. I’ve decided that getting back into riding slowly and building up my fitness is no fun so it’s back to going as hard as I can as far as I can….and that means I hurt like crazy this morning but it also feels good in a weird sort of way. Not much to do today…have to go grocery shopping this morning so I’ll have some food to cook but that is about it….I do need to try to find some different things to do…..and I think I may try to propose solutions to Michigan’s problems rather than just bitch about the repubs….that may be refreshing for both you and me…..and it might help use other parts of the brain that are getting really rusty…more later….

Why do the repubs love taking away rights?

Well….it has struck me, thinking over the last couple of weeks, that the only thing the repubs are good at is taking away peoples rights or preventing classes they don’t like in gaining the rights that the rest of us enjoy. I know I’ve talked about this before, but this same old silliness has taken over the repubs like never before….let’s take away the rights of people to bargain, let’s take away the rights of people to be let alone (i.e. the Patriot Act), and let’s prevent gays from having the rights they deserve. My larger question here is what does this nonsense have to do with creating jobs and helping repair the middle class that has been destroyed over the past 30 years? The quick answer is nothing…but that’s what the repubs do, talk, promise, and lie, then give more to the rich. Their latest trick to silence their critics? They are now using the Freedom of Information Act to go on fishing expeditions to try to find innocuous e-mails that can be twisted in their latest smear campaign…and are they asking for those of the right-leaners…of course not…I’ve told you before these folks are just a bunch of thugs and this is just another example that they will stop at nothing to destroy anyone that does not agree with them.

Okay…are you getting tired of me bitching about this? Yeah, I am too…but you can see how difficult this is to keep fresh….I am going to keep trying, and trying, and trying….

March 31st

Well….yeah, I know, I didn’t come back to finish up the last one….just didn’t have anything come to me that would add to it, and I went for a ride on the bike instead. It was pretty cold but I did see lots of wildlife….a red tailed hawk and a pair of huge swans that were in the retention pond by the e-way. Other than the ride…didn’t do much yesterday but kind of veg and cook. Just been really worn out lately…hope today will be better but who knows? Not much to do today….can’t even get motivated to get ready to go out for coffee…but I’m going to try in a few minutes so I’ll end here…more later…

Okay, I’m back for a minute after coffee and working out and I feel a lot better…but that’s only physically, I’m still having trouble getting the cobwebs out of my head and that is making it tough to come up with meaningful topics…oh, well….the car is still running great so I think I can now stop thinking about parking it on hills and the dreaded silence when I turn the key…that is such a sinking feeling when that happens….did I share with you the latest adventure with geese on the bike? I don’t remember and I don’t feel like going back through these posts to see…so I’ll share again. When I was taking the bike to pick up the car after it was fixed, I cut through the church parking lot behind my place and another damn goose attacked me…I’m not kidding…this thing was almost 30 feet away and just came at me like a heat seeking missile….whacked me on the head and shoulder and almost knocked me off the bike….almost think I should carry a weapon of some sort….just more weirdness to add to the rest of it in my life…

Here’s the real problem…

Well….if you were here yesterday, you read my post on the fact that G.E. didn’t pay any income taxes on the over 5 billion dollars of profit they made in the US, or on the 15.1 billion dollars they made worldwide last year. But, that’s not the real problem here…well, it is but what happened after that news was announced shows the isidiousness of corporate control of almost everything in our country. Did you see any of this news on NBC? Nope, not a peep, and guess why…NBC is owned by G.E. Their excuse was that it was just not newsworthy enough to put on the nightly news; while we had their newsreader going on about the new words that were being added to the Oxford dictionary? This type of behavior really points to the fact that corporations are out of control here in the US and that needs to be changed. I’ll be back to add to this one later but lunch is ready and I don’t want to overcook the chicken…

What you never want to be….