“The Black Dog”
Greetings and salutations from the sand, sun and surf of Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard and the cool, sunny island of Nantucket! Great to be with you and yours, this April fourth morning on Cape Cod, Cotuit to be precise, ‘where the ocean meets the wood’, another beautiful sunrise taking place as ‘I speak’… the stars fading slowly, soon to be out again, but not until WE all get to enjoy yet another day of pristine natural beauty that adorns this little sand bar created by the Last Great Ice Age over 11,500 years ago, looking up at the famous “Black Dog”, who stopped via schooner from ‘the Vineyard’ to say hello from yesteryear, my how ‘time’ flies… The weather was a little different in north Texas yesterday however, as the nation endured yet another round of tornadoes, 17 reported in and around the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex about 2 p.m., central time, as we all watched tractor trailers being thrown about like so many Tonka trucks, rattling cages from Dallas/Fort Worth to the region’s, and the nation’s, fourth largest airport, stranding passengers who were told to ‘duck and cover’–and this is only the beginning of April! Thankfully, the tornadoes left no fatalities in their wake, as this latest example of extreme weather acts as a warning to anyone in tornado alley to keep an ever mindful eye to the sky, with this month and the next being the most active for this type of weather phenomenon to occur… Debris was flying yesterday in the U.S. political climate as well, with our 44th President, Barack Obama, letting the REAL come out in a speech he gave yesterday regarding the republicans and their answer to the nation’s economic challenges– The”Ryan budget”, or, as many pundits are calling it today, “The Romney/Ryan budget”– “thinly veiled social Darwinism”, I believe Obama called it yesterday in that fire and brimstone speech, a speech that will act as the proverbial line in the sand drawn to distinguish the difference between the ’socialist’ Obama and the puppets for the plutocratic vision in this pivotal election between the exclusive throwback 1959 ‘not your grandpa’s GOP’ republican party and the progressive, REAL world inclusive party, the democratic choice just a few months from today…a choice that pits the .001 percent against the rest of US. Not too hard a choice to make I should think. Paul Ryan, a congressman from the great state of Wisconsin, has proposed (backed by the republican nominee, presumptive, “Mitt” Romney, calling the plan “Marvelous”) a plan Count Dracula would endorse in a heart beat, if you will excuse the metaphor, for it proposes to ELIMINATE medicare as we know it, ‘by saving it’, while it simultaneously destroys Medicaid (giving state grants to mostly republican governors who will ‘dole it out’ as they see fit to the poorest of the poor in this nation, ha!). Alas, this ‘plan’ of theirs, you know, ‘for the American People’ and all, gives yet another round of tax breaks to millionaires and more importantly, to them, BILLIONAIRES–equating to between a 250,000-350,000 dollar tax break estimated for those making over a million year, while the average worker will see perhaps a $700 break, which makes sense if you look at the historical math, you know, FACTS! Such as the ‘fun’ FACT that average earnings for the former, the .01 percent, have skyrocketed since 1979 by a whopping 242 percent, while the average wage for the rest of US in this nation, over the past thirty plus years has stagnated, ironically rising by that same .01 percent! This does not even begin to touch on the cuts republicans plan that WILL affect millions of real, live, breathing human beings in this country for years and years to come, e.g., an attempt to repeal the new health care law (by way of a highly suspect far to the right Supreme Court), while they simultaneously destroy the department of education, take a big step backwards regarding women’s reproductive rights, firebomb environmental regulations, turning our country into an open sewer, and gut financial regulations forever– regulations already decimated by the repeal of Glass-Steagall, legislation created after the Great Depression, in the 1930’s, to keep investment and commercial banks as far apart from one another as possible, thus allowing Wall Street to continue gambling with OUR MONEY, with no consequences on it’s end, leaving ‘the American People’ holding the bag, NO upside for them, only a dark, horrible nightmare of lack while those at the top eat in style, continuing their never ending chant of PROFIT OVER PEOPLE!!!… In short, the Ryan/Romney plan is designed to help out the richest among US, while it takes a giant dump on just about everybody else on the dock. Do not be fooled by this group of ‘Mad Men’, for they will pull out all of the stops via the wizards down on Madison Avenue, who will do their best to pull the wool over the American People’s eyes once again, just like old “W” did in 2001, talking smack like ‘trickle down’ economics, failing to explain what it really IS, ‘voodoo economics’. Think about it for just one moment, when was the last time you witnessed, besides Warren Buffet or Bill and Melinda Gates, a plutocrat, like one of my neighbors, David and Charles Koch (polluters extraordinaire!), of Koch Industries, whip out their checkbook and give to the overall good of this nation and it’s people? NEVER! Nor will they after November 6th, 2012, whichever way the election goes, hopefully not a repeat of the Gore v. Bush circa 2000, where the dangerously far to the right of center John Robert’s “Supreme Court” gave the victory to the latter, ushering in this new plutocratic vision of what the global multinationals truly want–a nation that has a small government by name only, for it will be “1984″ all over again, with ‘big brother’ watching your every move, keeping the masses down, without a voice (isn’t that right Governor Walker of Wisconsin?… hey! aren’t you being recalled man?), without health care of any kind, without clean water and air, and, what they really want, a mass of ignorant sheep, seemingly without a future, unless you consider slave wages and a rigged, hijacked democracy a future–I know David and Charles do! Thank you Mr. President for taking this honest stand–navigating this great country forward! For that IS the only way to achieve that goal, last time I checked…yes sir, FULL STEAM AHEAD! The very definition of NOT going backwards. The “Back to the Future” minority of tired old rich white guys must truly believe in their own LIES, the very definition of a sociopath. Put that in your pipe and smoke it “YOUNG GUNS”! PRESERVE THE WILDERNESS! Peace~M
