Baby Humpback 2.0
Greetings and salutations from the sand, sun and surf of Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard and the foggy island of Nantucket! Great to be with you on this spectacular summer morning, the thirtieth day of July, 2011, coming to you LIVE from the southern shores of Cape Cod proper, Osterville to be specific, a morning featuring abundant sunshine, cool temperatures and little to no wind or humidity–a post card if you will, making it all that much clearer why we live, love and laugh on Cape Cod to begin with. Grateful people are happy people, those who aren’t, aren’t. The Humpback whale calf, as seen in the image above you, was captured by a Nikon D-200 camera, ancient technology now, in the Stellwagen Bank, a rich feeding ground for the Humpback whales, whales that grow to over 55 feet in length, who migrate to this protected area every summer, traveling thousands of miles from the south, the Caribbean, where they mate, to gain that essential weight they will need for the coming winter months. The best Whale Watch on Cape Cod was started by Patricia Marsan, of Osterville, and is a must for any visitor to the area, for when one is out on Cape Cod Bay, traveling on the powerful ship that departs from Barnstable harbor and continues on into that Cape Cod Bay, traveling north past Provinctown (the tip of the Cape) and then several more miles into the Stellwagen, one is transported back in “time”, hearkening back to the days when Nantucket reigned supreme in the horrible industry of destroying these great creatures. Whaling made Nantucket famous around the world, as the new landlords of this land mass called North America, namely the British and, to a lesser degree, the French, joined with the natives on that ‘far away island’ to hunt the great mammals. The whales that were affected the most were the Northern Right Whale and the Sperm Whale, hunted for their oil, and hunting them but good, as the Right whales are still on the endangered species list, along with the Blue whale, that was also almost taken away from our “children and grandchildren”, but, because of some of those tree huggin’ liberal bastards, are still kicking on this little blue rock we all call home for the moment–the planet earth. Speaking of planet earth, I would like to know, as would anyone who has half a brain, what the teavangelical right wing nut jobs in the current 112th congress are thinking, as the nation edges ever closer to falling off a 2200 foot cliff, into a territory where NO ONE knows what will really happen at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday morning, August 3, 2011. For this country has never, in it’s 238 year history, failed to pay it’s debts, hence the reason why we have a triple A rating on our U.S. Treasury bonds. Having a AAA rating, by Moody’s or Standard and Poor’s, makes it easier for the country to borrow money to pay for the exorbitant spending spree our former ‘leader’, President George W. Bush, gave US in the form of two unpaid for wars, with a tab coming in at 4.1 trillion, along with an unpaid for sweetheart deal for big pharma, costing close to another trillion, and the kicker, the two Bush tax cuts of 2001 and 2003, tax cuts that began this Miltonean Shock doctrine to destroy America as it once was. This is not a joke and not a test of the emergency broadcasting system. The Boehner bill, that simply pushed the can down the road by extending the debt ceiling until Christmas time, and then, when it comes up for hostage negotiations again, will require a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America, something that will not happen under the current administration. It’s funny that the republican party is taking this highly hypocritical stand, however, for to look at it at face value, one would come to the conclusion that either the republican party has lost it’s collective mind, or is truly a sociopathic entity now, hell bent on taking from the poorest of the poor, and extending more to those who have more money than GOD. “Is this Russia Danny? no, no, this isn’t Russia”, (credit Chevy Chase and the classic film, Caddyshack, circa 1978), where are we really? The end game for what is now accurately known as Republicorp of America, is clear. Grover Norquist, the man with the “no tax pledge” plan, put it best, “I want the kind of government that you could drown in a bathtub…” Issues! But, I think you get my drift. The mind set of the sixty five or so House republicans that are holding a Glock to this country’s head, are employees of the special interests that own Washington D.C., and hence, it’s representatives, representatives, I would remind US all, that are answerable to the PEOPLE, not to corporate profit, the modus operandi that drives the ship now. This began in earnest thirty years ago under the trickle down theory of pure, free market capitalism handed down from Milton Friedman of the “Chicago School”, in the 1950’s, where that economics professor at the University of Chicago, made history by remaking a socially peaceful nation in South America, Chile, into a brutal capitalist dictatorship, killing thousands of peaceful Chilean citizens, along with it’s President at the time, and sending that country backwards for the next two decades or so. Ronald Reagan, our fortieth President of the United States, was introduced to this “thinking” in 1981, by Donald Regan, former Chairman and CEO of Merrill Lynch, who became Reagan’s Treasury Secretary. As the concept of “trickle down”, or “a rising tide raises all boats”, became the norm, as opposed to the exception, the nation began changing in subtle ways, as tax breaks began falling the way of the wealthy, and welfare moms became a dirty word. This mentality continued under George H. Bush, Reagan’s successor, who vowed to never raise taxes, as he stated so clearly in his 1988 campaign speech, “read my lips, no new taxes”, a Grover Norquist pledge, and failed to live up to that madness, and paid the price by losing his bid to become a second term President to Bill Clinton, who did raise taxes, with the result being very positive for the nation as a WHOLE. But, as 2000 rolled around, the turn of the century, the toddler, who is now an angry old man, Republicorp, came into it’s own, bringing that merging of corporate welfare with blind power, wielding a mighty sword of FEAR over it’s people, just to make a buck. Turns out quite a few bucks, for Halliburton, former Vice President Dick Cheney’s company, of which he was it’s CEO, made out quite well in the Iraq fiasco that left over 4400 of our soldiers dead, along with over 70,000 Iraqi’s, and cost this country upwards, combined with the war in Afghanistan, over 4.1 trillion dollars. Not bad for a days work Dick! Thanks for the memories! This shock of war, combined with the shock of economic collapse, is what gives these tea party nut jobs power over 308 million American citizens, as they use extortion to get their way. Compromising nothing (stating that simply raising the debt ceiling is compromise enough), in the way of offering new revenues, as social programs, environmental programs, financial safeguard programs, etcetera, get slashed and burned. For why would they? Their goal is to ’shrink the government down to the size where they could drown it in a bathtub…’ “Carmine, I don’t think it’s right that you should extort money from the American people like this…” “If you mention the word extortion again, I’ll have your legs broken.”, (credit the classic film Animal House, circa 1978). These next few days will be highly entertaining and deadly serious, as we all brace for what could be fiscal Armageddon, as fictionally depicted in Naomi’s Kline’s fantastic novel, “The Shock Doctrine”, fiction, but, not really, as her work explains all of this in much more detail, educating US as to the historical origins of where this country IS, in reality, right NOW, and why it, “is what it IS.” Moreover, it gives hope that it does not, and will not, be this way forever, as more and more people WAKE UP to what is really going on, waking up to the corruption that is rampant and out of control in our nation’s Capitol, Washington D.C., a nation, lest WE forget, that was founded on the simple principal of WE THE PEOPLE, as opposed to the oligarchical cry of profit OVER people. Stay tuned… same bat time, same bat channel. Have a wonderful Saturday and Sunday folks, and a big shout out to all of the members of the cast and crew to the new Adam Sandler film “I Hate You Dad” (Happy Madison Productions/Columbia Pictures), that is being shot right here in the little, tiny, tiny town of Osterville, I pray ya’ll have a great week end and look forward to seeing you next week! Oh, and p.s., a personal thank you to Adam for bringing those laughs and LIGHT into OUR life here on this little old sand bar created 11,500 years ago by the Last Great Ice Age…simply by showing up and choosing to create your movie magic right here on beautiful Cape Cod! We all love you! PRESERVE THE WILDERNESS! Peace~M
