ARRIVED HOME SAFELY.

We left Lake Minden north of Sacramento yesterday and arrived in Murphys at about 1:30. I walked the lake the night before without my camera and missed some great shots of two big catfish surfacing, mouths open, holding above water long enough for a photo. Dang. I should always carry my camera, I know that. So, I told Jim, we had to walk the lake again before we left in the early morning-with camera. Reflections on a “glass” surface.

Clear and beautiful.

The fish were feeding, and jumping and biting, but just try to get a photo.

A fish would surface, grab an insect and be under before you could snap the photo. I have multiple pictures of gray shadows in the water.

It is a pretty place, and peaceful here. Jim gets exhausted driving with one eye impaired. He has to concentrate so hard that we move very slowly. So, it was a lovely last night on the road.

I got home to my usual pounds of mail and then made the mistake of looking at the news.  What mediocrity we call news. Everyone is incriminating Obama because he saluted the flag with a cup of coffee in his hand. There are life and death issues to deal with and the news focuses on a cup of coffee?

Did the “newspapers” ever make a fuss about Bush saluting with his dog?  What crap passes for news. I used to give Jim a bad time about getting rid of his news feeds. I don’t any more. It is mostly garbage and good luck trying to tell the truth from the lies. Lies have become standard and accepted. Money to both parties is like a river, while very little work gets done by the people we elect TO SERVE US. What shame that we have entrusted our fate to legislators that  govern from where their largest donations come from. Corporate interests.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

STREET WISDOM

It doesn’t look like Congress is going to do anything, anytime soon. We are broke, in trouble and struggling. The food banks are overwhelmed. Cities are going broke. Higher education is unaffordable. People on the street are weathering this mess.  They will survive as the song says. And all around me I hear wisdom, wit and a bit of sarcasm that at least brings a bit of levity to the mess.

From the New York Times:   “It’s been such a stunning year,” said Cecile Richards, the organization’s perpetually embattled president. “More than a million new activists joined Planned Parenthood, and our approval rating is at 68 percent. Congress is I think at 9.” (It may be time to stop pointing out that you have a higher approval rating than Congress. Really, everything has a higher approval rating than Congress. Termites. Zombies. Donald Trump.)

“The idea that we have to destroy the environment and kill workers to have a healthy economy must be put to rest. …regulations are actually catalysts of technical innovations and economic development.”  Negah Mouszoon.

“A nuclear disaster is too big a price to pay for our electric bill.”  Ralph Nader

From the Los Angeles Times:  ” The health care law is likely to put the brakes on the profit bonanza from biotech drugs.”

“Don’t blame medicare. Fix it.”  Barry Rand, CEO AARP.

“more tax breaks for the rich is only one of the symptoms of an econimic and political system that is grotesquely failing the average American.”‘ Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)

“Instead of throwing children out of Head Start or cutting back on Community Health Centers, maybe we want to ask Exxon Mobil to actually pay taxes rather than get a refund.” Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)   (GE, Exxon,Citigroup, Boeing and others have paid little or no tax.)

“You need to understand, it isn’t gridlock in Congress, it is roadblock. Gridlock  happens, roadblock is deliberate.”  Congressional candidate Will Moore.

When students at Flagler College in Florida were asked to balance the budget, they had the same options that paralyze Washington. The human consequences of their decisions were very much on their minds as in: “… we don’t want to throw grandma out on the street and deny health care services.”  Hey, these kids are smart. They took the long view, sacrifices should be a shared responsibility. They didn’t cut education, protected the environment and didn’t touch Social Security.  They froze wages for congress; used carbon tax to clean up the environment. They made sizable defense cuts, closed tax loopholes and added or raised taxes including higher gasoline taxes and a new 5% sales tax that will make their Big Macs sky-high.  Across the board, they were evenhanded and sensible.

Don’t you just love it?