Republicans to the poor:

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Eat Shit.  Because we’re going to cut food stamps by 11 percent.  Never mind that you can’t afford to buy food for an entire month on what you’re given right now–you’ll have to resort to eating shit to survive….

One of the commenters mentions the Titanic.  I watched it over the weekend on the anniversary of the ship’s sinking.  I couldn’t help but picture Mitt Romney as Billy Zane’s despicable character, a wealthy sociopath…

…and how much today’s economic times reflect those of that period.  And people talk as if those times were permanently relegated to history….ignoring what is happening all around them.

And I don’t believe for a second all the glowing reports of a recovery.  I don’t see it where I sit.  And I find it a little too convenient now that we are in an election year–that suddenly we’re in an upswing of jobs?  And jobs alone aren’t the total answer–GOOD PAYING jobs are the answer.  Martin Luther King was promoting the idea of a guaranteed income before he was murdered…everyone would have a minimum income.  Of course, he preferred that everyone have a decent-paying job.

I found this living wage calculator from Pennsylvania State.  I went to Allen County, Indiana, and found their low allowance for food: $236 per month for a single adult appalling.  Only if you eat unhealthy food: processed meat like bologna, hot dogs, etc., and if you stay away from organic and fresh vegetables can you afford that piddly amount.  Indiana only allows $200 per month in food stamps as it is…if the republicans get their way, it will be $178.

People just wanna be free…

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John Brennan is apparently mad as hell and isn’t going to take it anymore….

…so he obliged the TSA and removed all doubt that he had any bombs on him…along with his clothes. 

The local radio station morning team had announced the news.  After commercials, the radio jock came back on and chided the newswoman for failing to note the music that was playing in the background as John Brennan removed his clothes.   The next thing you hear are the beginning notes of Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On”…only someone has made  it say “Let’s Check for Bombs…” with the lyrics changed to TSA screenings.  I tried to find it on youtube, but alas…

I find the charge of indecent exposure hilarious….apparently, he should have waited until being *asked* by TSA personnel before disrobing.  See, it’s all in the viewpoint.  They can visually rape you and expose your body to who-knows-what radiation levels.

More here.

…but they have to ask you first…

 

 

Promoting food exports

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I was listening to the radio over the weekend, with agriculture reports,  and an employee of the USDA was enthusiastic about the increase of sales of food overseas.

They’re pouring $$$ into it-  $234 million in 2007.   Two hundred thirty-four million to promote it.

Link here:  http://westernfarmpress.com/usda-grants-234-million-promote-us-food-and-agriculture-products-overseas

Another link here: http://www.agri-pulse.com/uploaded/Jan2610H2.pdf

The same amount–$234 million was allocated in 2010.

This bothers me because of Tom Vilsack’s connections to Monsanto.  It also bothers me because of the tone of the radio program–

They were saying that exports of U.S. food were expected to continue to rise through 2020.  The biggest reason cited was the growth of the middle class in China, India, and Russia.

It popped into my head that their middle classes were swelling while ours was shrinking into oblivion.  This left me with a feeling of dread of empty pantries here in the U.S. because our folks are no longer able to afford food, while ships sail across the ocean to folks who could pay $$.  Not a pretty thought…

 

News Flash

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…Secret Service Agents are having sex!  OMG!  ::clutches pearls:: ::swoons::

It would appear that they were doing this on their own time, since this story puts it in the evening….so unless they had disclosed information to these women that compromised the President or security, I don’t see where this is anyone’s business but the wives’ and their husbands.   To lose their jobs over it? No.

…just like Elliot Spitzer.  And just like Elliot Spitzer, I wonder about the circumstances behind the firings…

Good Grief.  They would have fired John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, etc., etc.   If you’re doing your job correctly, then it’s no one’s business what goes on when you leave the office at night.  I mean, listening to the right wing radio host here in FW last night–he was livid about this–saying that these guys were not going to be hired by ANY police force or security company, blah, blah, blah…his female co-host, to her credit, was making the same point that I have–what you do on your own time is your own business.  The host couldn’t be swayed, and by his tone, he made it seem that sex itself was the problem…how dare they…?

There’s more here, folks, than is being told, as usual…

The smiley face of Monsanto

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I was listening to our local radio station over the weekend, and heard this radio ad of “America’s Farmers”.  My ears immediately perked up and I listened for the reason behind the ad…political? PR? Raising awareness?

I found it at the end of the ad, when they quietly disclosed it was brought to you by….Monsanto.  Um-hmmm…

Here’s the website:  http://www. americasfarmers .com/  I’m not linking to it for obvious reasons.  I’ve made spaces in the addy, so you’ll have to close them up to look it up in your browser.

The website is just *this close* to equating farming with patriotism…

I clicked on the “Hear their stories’ link, and to the right is a paragraph with the sentence “They get up everyday just to ensure we have food on the table and clothes on our backs. and they do it without being asked.”  They do it because they get PAID for their work.  They do it so they can put food on the table and clothes on their own families’ backs.  They do it without being asked?  WTH does that mean, really?

I clicked on the “Meet the Families” link.  The first family are the Boyds:  Will and Wendy, and their children Wilson, Weston, Waylon, and Wenslie….(I already don’t like them because of being cutesy while naming their kids.)  Let’s see…they’ve had the farm for five generations…that would put them back in the times of slavery… and the farm is in Georgia….hmmmm….and they are politicians with being a County Commissioner, along with being deep in the Farm Bureau, which is no longer representative of the farmers, but a part of the political machinery….kind of like the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA–or Bossy Indian Around).  So…yeah, don’t see a lot of free thinking here who would question Monsanto or their motives.

The rest of the families basically all say the same thing–Farming is not a job, but a way of life.  Yep.  Anyone around here (Indiana being a big corn producing state) knows somebody who’s a farmer and how farming IS a way of life. What they don’t understand is how they are destroying that very life by supporting an organization that couldn’t care less about messing with nature.

Four years ago, I worked on an organic farm for one summer, and if my adrenals didn’t start crashing, I would have loved to have gone back and worked on another farm the next summer.  It’s great being outdoors tending to the plants.  No one is around–just you and the quiet….and the birds perched nearby singing or the occasional grasshopper or flutterby’s that happen in your path.  Watching clouds form and wondering how long you can push it until you need to run for cover…being caught in a rainstorm… or at lunch time, sitting by the “wild” pond (i.e., it’s not been made “pretty” by landscapers…nature “scaped” it).

Farm families know their survival depends on the family working together.  I fail to see how Monsanto ties into that.  If anything it’s the opposite—  Ask Percy Schmeiser, or any farm family that has been sued by Monsanto. What Monsanto means to say…is that they support chemical farmers, but sue organic farmers…

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organicconsumers.org has this up–more legal tactics by Monsanto.  Their legislators need backbone transplants….

More here on the changes in tadpoles after exposure to RoundUp.

Here’s another link from organic consumers about an organic farmer and their trials.  It sounds like a good book.  From the little tidbits mentioned in the article, she “gets it”–that all things are connected–the earth, the animals, etc.

 

Oops

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Okay, I wasn’t trying to be cute with the last post…I had a funny story from a clipping I had found this morning, but each time I re-typed it, wordpress “ate” it…so, yeah, I figure today wasn’t my day.  It made me laugh, but  I’m not about to re-type it a fourth time.

I did want to put this up, however.  Even the mighty Lion cannot mess with porcupines. Ha ha.

And  I think porcupines are evidence of a Higher Power’s sense of humor. 🙂