Happy, Happy

Merry Christmas and Happy New Years. Be safe and happy.

rojo

Two Versions of a Song heard on Treme

enjoy,

rojo

Water, Water Everywhere 

Sacramento averages 280 gallons per person per day. I went to my bill and found I average almost 200 gallons per person per day during vegetable season. I need to install efficient vegetable garden irrigation.

If anyone has not read "Cadillac Desert", you need to. Keep in mind large banks like JP Morgan are now buying water rights. May come inot play some year soon with global warming.

rojo

Toones That Impressed Me

Eric Clapton, Jerry Douglas and Doctor John

a new version of blues standard

and one more from Seattle

newer toone saturday!

rojo

Driving today from Bakersfield to Sacramento to meet my old boss (same as the old boss...) I was a little worried and this wonderful song came up on my cell phone/mp3 player. Right when the lyric "Thank the Lord" came up, a huge (I mean HUGE) rainbow filled the sky centered over 99N. I was not worried after that. 

All I can say about that meeting now is that I am tired of being referred to as an intellectual asset. Something always follows this inevitably.

rojo

Antibiotic Resistance Racing Downriver

Antibiotic Resistance Racing Downriver

interesting little article.

rojo

Saturday morning news thoughts--

I saw in the paper today that Sheldon Adelson gave away free money to right wing newspapers so that they could be published and distributed for free. Guess what that has done to the liberal newspapers in the country? If you think that might put them out of business because of a competitive disadvantage, you might be correct. Nail on the head, Alfredo!

Just think of that in terms of what is happening in America right now. Faux News ran at a loss for many years  under the largesse of the billionaire Rupert Murdoch. They stayed open and basically gave away their very conservative message-filled news as real news until they forced others to move to the right. This automatically legitimized their view point. Forty years ago, many of their editorial opinionsthat  would have been to the right of the then-discredited John Birch Society, who were still looking for the Knights Templar and their children, the Illuminati, are now espoused as main stream America beliefs.

Then we had the Citizen's United decision at the Supreme Court. Any amount of untraceable money can be given as free speech to political candidates (yes, it is more complicated than that, but it basically means if you curry favor, aka kiss ass and spread a particular gospel, you get money). If you oppose the free money (excuse me, free speech) you go home broke.

Let's see--who has more money, extremely successful capitalists or me (or you). So who gets to provide unlimited money (BUY) candidates and their opinions. Yes, that is how free speech is defined by the Supreme Court, the guys who are supposed to be all about the legal interpretation of justice in America. This kind of skews what is the paradigm of success in America. If you are to voice an opinion (free speech) and   be heard, you need to have money and buy mouthpieces, either a propaganda (news) network or a political candidate.

Sad. The marginal beliefs of a few loons can be mainstreamed over time if you have money.

Second thought--

Since the embargo by the US and EU on Chinese solar panels, their industry is starting to have issues. If you read up on this, it depends on who you believe. The Wall Street Journal states that loans from equity firms allows the Chinese solar panel industry to stay open and keep from folding under financial pressure. Another source states that there is a tremendous strain on the Chinese manufacturers and the state-funded loans they have received that may cause a large bubble to pop inn the Chinese economy. Maybe 50 Chinese manufacturers have already gone bankrupt. Dozens in the US. What this means is that prices are lower than ever to go solar. However, when you buy panels and get a warranty, are the panels you bought going to have  a manufacturer to warranty them? Will they be older technology? Will they be 19% efficient newer technology? It does mean research will slow as there is less profit to be had. Sadly. The same is happening to wind turbines. Basically, the price has been fixed by China, they overproduced and there is a glut on the market and many good people lose their jobs. This is supply side economics and trickle down at its worst. Those with deep pockets win as "the market stabilizes". Then, they set the rules and prices. If you don't believe me, see what happened to the sons and daughters of the Standard Oil dismemberment. How many oil companies are there now? When was the last time you saw a Sunoco station? Sohio? Standard?

Currently there are congressional investigations into unfair labor and financing packages against the Chinese in regards to the renewable energy industry. China knew they needed energy NOW. They funded factories for their energy needs. But, once they did this, their goods could be sold worldwide at a price that is cheaper than local industries can produce. This is what unbridled capitalism does. Makes bubbles and then they fold. This also makes the case for growth that is controlled by government tariffs, protecting local industry, JOBS, and the local (or national) economy.

There are limits to free trade. Just think about how many jobs Apple would have saved  in the US if they had not taken the manufacturing of iPhone 5s to China. That saves a whole 6 cents a units. Would you have purchased an iPhone5 for 50 cents more per unit? Would that have made a difference? Oh yes, Apple received a tax credit for dismantling a factory here in the US. Huh?

Maybe we need a government that is concerned about the good of its citizens instead of power and how much they can trade that power for.

rojo

It's Friday!!!

Loosen up with a little funk

 rojo

New Music

rojo

It's Alive!!!!!!

I know I write on my own blog, write on Facebook and other things, but today is a plug for an artisan jewelry shop on Etsy run by my wife. Good stuff. Please buy it so I can find half of my house again. I swear it grows and grows and grows. Beads, wire, vices (mechanical, not fun ones) and tools ending up everywhere and in larger and larger piles. I swear IT BREEDS. 

Check it out--
http://www.etsy.com/shop/twotreesstudio
nice stuff at a reasonable price.

rojo

Here Come the Debates!

‎"The far-left magazine Mother Jones (possibly one of Fidel Castro's favorite publications) has put out another old video of Mitt Romney, in which he says Bain Capital 'was formed to invest in start-up companies and ongoing companies ... then harvest them at a significant profit.' Even though Mother Jones is appalled, that's what capitalism is! You grow companies, you make them more profitable, then if you're lucky you sell them for lots of money. Sometimes the free market is brutal, but it does provide vast opportunity for those willing to work hard and take chances." Bill O'Reilly

Is this true? Is all capitalism has to offer is profit to the highest manipulator? I hate to say, but without social controls, that is what capitalism on steroids is. Just like communism is at its worst a demotivating society where you get equally what is produced, whether you helped in that production or just slacked off. In fact, that is what makes this election cy

cle so interesting. and nerve wracking. Will it be capitalism on steroids where everyone wants and wishes to be at the top of the bubble? The system will never self-sustain without the system eating human lives, the bottom of the social economic structure provides the lives or fuel for this dystopian process. (Hey, sue me for bleak thoughts on a warm sunny, football Sunday.) A system where economic mobility is seriously limited to those who are members of the lucky sperm and egg club, except for a few innovators who have the guile for business as it is.

Or will it be a different environment where regulations for banks and criminal prosecutions for gambling with others money and environmental consciousness are part of the agenda. Where second-tier manufacturing has as much importance as banking? Where workers take pride in what they produce, not that they just produce profits?

rojo

Music for a Date Night

An overlooked collaboration with Flaco and Ry Cooder.

Polka!

enjoy,

rojo

Not Enough Credit

a great album from Fillmore Records in 1969! Elvin Bishop's first solo album. and Rock My Soul featuring Jo Baker and Mickey Thomas.

Great Little Book

from Confessions of a Pagan Nun:

"I do not understand a man who does not want to know all that he can know. Why would anyone choose ignorance? If he chooses ignorance because he is lazy, then he is a fool, for the ignorant are put to hard labor digging and hauling stones for masters who tell they need no knowledge. If a man must labor from dawn to dusk to avoid a blow on the head to earn a cup of grain, he has no time to gain knowledge and remains a slave to his masters. I think, therefore, that it is a worthy vocation to free a man enough that he can learn who he is and what he is capable of...Teaching is a sacred art...The teacher the bard, the singer of tales is a freer of a man's minds and bodies...But he is also a danger to the masters if he insists on telling the truth. The truth will inevitably cause tremors in those who cling to power without honoring justice. (pp. 104-5)

I learned regret in the ruins...I regretted that ambition had ruled my heart instead of affection for my kin. And with the lessons of regret came the gratitude for having life still to move my lips and limbs, and to speak kind words to embrace those I might not see again on this sweet-smelling earth. I learned I cannot wait to love what is in my presence, for it or I may be well gone tomorrow. (p. 145)"                    Kate Hornsley, author

I had never heard of this book or author before, but this spring by chance I found myself in one of the best independent bookstores I know, The Tattered Cover, in Denver. Killing time while my wife searched for something, I remembered reading somewhere that Charles de Lint had a column if Fantasy and Science Fiction magazine, so since they have a great magazine section, I found F&SF and his column. He mentioned this book and another by Kate Hornsley as very good reads. So, I was off on a mission looking for her books there. Sadly, no luck. I went to the Gender Studies studies and in the Used section there I found nothing by John Stoltenberg (anyone who looks at men's studies should read his On Becoming a Man), but found Kate Hornsley's fiction there, used at a great price. Must have been fate. they are good!

Find them yourselves and read them. yahoo!

rojo

A Friday Morning Toe Tapper

Oh, but is only Thursday. damn. Well, have a good day anyway!

rojo

Just wow

rojo

rojo

Good House Cleaning Toones

and

Because the Bible tells me so

An 18-year-old gay man from Texas allegedly slain by a high-school classmate who believed his friend was making advances toward him; a 31-year-old transgender woman from Pennsylvania found dead with a pillowcase around her head; and a 24-year-old lesbian from Florida purportedly killed by her girlfriend’s father, who disapproved of the relationship. Murders, maybe, but--

FRC leader Perkins says, there is another factor that leads kids to kill themselves.
"These young people who identify as gay or lesbian, we know from the social science that they have a higher propensity to depression or suicide because of that internal conflict."

Homosexuality is "abnormal," he says, and kids know it, which leads them to despair. That's why he wants to confront gay activism in public schools. For example, his group supports the Day of Truth, when Christian high schoolers make their case that homosexuality is a sin.

"The Islamists and the homosexuals work out of the same playbook. They knew that if what they do and what they subscribe to is scrutinized, people will turn away from it, so what they want to do is they want to marginalize and eventually silence anyone who challenges their ideology and their agenda."

So FRC is not a hate group because they are church-oriented and believe in the words of Christ. Somehow the translation of the Bible I read left all this crap off the Sermon on the Mount and the Beatitudes.

I wonder if judgment of a chosen lifestyle (after all, they choose to do that) adds to the pressure, social uncertainty and the depression. I mean who would feel pressure when fellow homosexuals are KILLED as they try to live their lives?

rojo

My Head is Getting Wet, It Must Finally Be Trickling Down! Uh, Why is it Yellow?

Aside from the fact that the tax regulations are rigged because people richer than me can afford their own lobbyists to write their own loopholes, what is surprising to me is:

"Actually, the world's wealthiest people have now stashed $21 trillion to $32 trillion in offshore tax havens, according to a recent estimate by the London-based Tax Justice Network in a report written by a former chief economist for McKinsey & Co."

Hard for that money to trickle down when it is stuck offshore and in order to spend it here, there would have to be taxes paid. Keep in mind that if they higher estimate is correct, that is almost twice the National Debt we are struggling as country to understand how to pay.

Hmm, the country's debt keeps getting bigger, and the upper 0.1% have taken more than that out of the country. and they get tax breaks to keep taking more money out of the country and the country needs revenue to pay the debts. I wonder how that works? Gee, I wonder when that money will come home?

Move along now, nothing to see here.

 

rojo