Thursday, February 20, 2014

Why do we make it so hard? Life is easy

During snowbird season, I seem to find these guys, I have many discussions with what our Moms would call "strangers"
I am coming to like strangers

During a conversation near Q the TED talks were discussed ... I like this one



Jon is a farmer from northeastern Thailand.

 He founded the Pun Pun Center for Self-reliance, an organic farm outside Chiang Mai, with his wife Peggy Reents in 2003.
Pun Pun doubles as a center for sustainable living and seed production, aiming to bring indigenous and rare seeds back into use.
 It regularly hosts training on simple techniques to live more sustainably.
 Outside of Pun Pun, Jon is a leader in bringing the natural building movement to Thailand, appearing as a spokesperson on dozens of publications and TV programs for the past 10 years.
He continually strives to find easier ways for people to fulfill their basic needs. For more information visit http://www.punpunthailand.org

Monday, February 17, 2014

Are Bloggers supporting Assassinations / Amazon = CIA ?

 If Obama Orders the CIA to Kill a U.S. Citizen, Amazon Will Be a Partner in Assassination

The online mega-retailer has a little-known $600-million contract with the CIA.
 

 
 
President Obama is now considering whether to order the Central Intelligence Agency to kill a U.S. citizen in Pakistan. That’s big news this week. But hidden in plain sight is the fact that Amazon would be an accessory to the assassination.

Amazon has a $600 million contract with the CIA to provide the agency with “cloud” computing services. After final confirmation of the deal several months ago, Amazon declared: “We look forward to a successful relationship with the CIA.”

The relationship means that Amazon -- logoed with a smiley-face arrow from A to Z, selling products to millions of people every week -- is responsible for keeping the CIA’s secrets and aggregating data to help the agency do its work. Including drone strikes. 

Drone attacks in Pakistan are “an entirely CIA operation,” New York Times reporter Mark Mazzetti said Tuesday night in an  interview on the PBS NewsHour. He added that “the Pakistani government will not allow the [U.S.] military to take over the mission because they want to still have the sort of veneer of secrecy that the CIA provides.”
The sinister implications of Amazon’s new CIA role have received scant public attention so far.

As the largest Web retailer in the world, Amazon has built its business model on the secure accumulation and analysis of massive personal data. The firm’s Amazon Web Services division gained the CIA contract amid fervent hopes that the collaboration will open up vast new vistas for the further melding of surveillance and warfare. 

Any presidential decision to take the life of an American citizen is a subset of a much larger grave problem. Whatever the nationality of those who hear the menacing buzz of a drone overhead, the hijacking of skies to threaten and kill those below is unconscionable. And, as presently implemented, unconstitutional.
On Feb. 11 the Times  reported that the Obama administration “is debating whether to authorize a lethal strike against an American citizen living in Pakistan who some believe is actively plotting terrorist attacks.” In effect, at issue is whether the president should order a summary execution -- an assassination -- on his say-so.

The American way isn’t supposed to be that way. The “due process of law” required by the Fifth Amendment of the United States Constitution is not supposed to be whatever the president decides to do.
A free and independent press is crucial for confronting such dire trends. But structural factors of corporate power continue to undermine the potential of journalism. The Washington Post is a grim case in point.
Six months ago, Jeff Bezos -- the CEO and main stakeholder of Amazon -- bought the Post. But the newspaper’s ongoing CIA-related coverage does not inform readers that the CIA’s big contract with Amazon is adding to the personal wealth of the Post’s sole owner.

This refusal to make such conflict-of-interest disclosures is much more than journalistic evasion for the sake of appearances. It’s a marker for more consolidation of corporate mega-media power with government power. The leverage from such convergence is becoming ever-less acknowledged or conspicuous as it becomes ever-more routine and dominant.
After e-mail correspondence with me about the non-disclosure issue in early January, the executive editor of the Washington Post, Martin Baron, declined to answer questions from media outlets on the subject. On Jan. 15 -- when I delivered a RootsAction.org  petition under the heading “Washington Post: Readers Deserve Full Disclosure in Coverage of CIA,” signed by 30,000 people, to the newspaper’s headquarters -- Baron declined to meet with me or designate any employee to receive the petition. Clearly the Post management wants this issue to go away.

But, as I wrote to Baron last month, it’s all too convenient -- and implausible -- for the Washington Post to claim that there would be “no direct relevance of the [Amazon-CIA] cloud services contract to coverage of such matters as CIA involvement in rendition of prisoners to regimes for torture; or in targeting for drone strikes; or in data aggregation for counterinsurgency.”
The surveillance state and the warfare state continue to converge. The Washington Post does not want us to insist on journalistic disclosure. Amazon does not want us to insist on moral accountability. President Obama does not want us to insist on basic constitutionality. It would be a shame to oblige any of them.

Sunday, February 9, 2014

Our Short Snowbird season has begun

After enduring snow, ice and zero temps we made it to warmth 

After conversing with friend Bob (Cheap RV living) he informed me that the wind has not blown much at all this season, But I decided since I had not used the wind charger this year I decided to put it up.

The wind blew a strong 15mph all day so it actually did some good


The first night in the Arizona Desert since last year that I had time to take another sunset picture

Made a trip into Quartzsite looking for a car wash, asked local residents if there was one ?
Nope, I noticed this old abandoned gas station that still has the old gas pumps, a statement of days gone by.
The cactus was probably there before the building was constructed  and looks like it will be there after it is gone. I also wonder how deep the well is that the windmill is attached to.

The Tiki Bar is a hit once again, it was sports bar night Thursday night for the Opening Ceremonies of the Olympics


Since we were delayed from leaving Denver a day I quickly whipped together an Idea of taking a turkey fryer and miniaturizing it to make a deep fat fryer the can be taken down and stored in a small space, as space it always a premium when traveling in RV's
 
So, here it is ready to do some appetizers for the Tiki Bar night on Saturday night. Worked great..
 
 Here it is without the pot

Cody decided the there just had to be something under this bush worth digging to China for, the holes are about 18 inches deep.  He has been sleeping very well at night

Planning on moving to Yuma soon,for a visitation with my favorite Canadian Snowbirds
But, tonight (another low key) Tiki night, all of the neighbors want to take pictures tonight.

Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Snowbird Action .. Delayed

Mother Nature has decided that Cody the co-pilot and I are not to leave the frozen north today after all.

it seems a small snow storm has the roads a bit iced up today delaying our escape from the dog days of winter...
Well, guess we will tidy up the last minute details that seem to be missed when trying to meet self imposed deadlines..


Mother Nature Says: Deadline ? we don't do deadlines ..

Saturday, February 1, 2014

Speaking of Bullshit .. ‘pissed off’ covers it…

Alan Simpson, the Senator from Wyoming calls senior citizens the Greediest Generation
 as he compared “Social Security ” to a Milk Cow with 310 million teats.

Here’s a response in a letter from PATTY MYERS in Montana …
 I think she is a little ticked off! ,,,
 She also tells it like it is!


 

 

“Hey Alan, let’s get a few things straight!!!


1. As a career politician, you have been on the public dole (tit) for FIFTY YEARS.

2. I have been paying Social Security taxes for 48 YEARS (since I was 15 years old. I am now 63).

3. My Social Security payments, and those of millions of other Americans, were safely tucked away in an interest bearing account for decades until you political pukes decided to raid the account and give OUR money to a bunch of zero losers in return for votes, thus bankrupting the system and turning Social Security into a Ponzi scheme that would make Bernie Madoff proud.

4. Recently, just like Lucy & Charlie Brown, you and “your ilk” pulled the proverbial football away from millions of American seniors nearing retirement and moved the goalposts for full retirement from age 65 to age, 67. NOW, you and your “shill commission” are proposing to move the goalposts YET AGAIN.

5. I, and millions of other Americans, have been paying into Medicare from Day One, and now “you morons” propose to change the rules of the game. Why? Because “you idiots” mismanaged other parts of the economy to such an extent that you need to steal our money from Medicare to pay the bills.

6. I, and millions of other Americans, have been paying income taxes our entire lives, and now you propose to increase our taxes yet again. Why? Because you “incompetent bastards” spent our money so profligately that you just kept on spending even after you ran out of money. Now, you come to the American taxpayers and say you need more to pay off YOUR debt.


To add insult to injury, you label us “greedy” for calling “bullshit” to your incompetence.
Well, Captain Bullshit, I have a few questions for YOU:

1. How much money have you earned from the American taxpayers during your pathetic 50-year political career?

2. At what age did you retire from your pathetic political career, and how much are you receiving in annual retirement benefits from the American taxpayers?

3. How much do you pay for YOUR government provided health insurance?

4. What cuts in YOUR retirement and healthcare benefits are you proposing in your disgusting deficit reduction proposal, or as usual, have you exempted yourself and your political cronies?
It is you, Captain Bullshit, and your political co-conspirators called Congress who are the “greedy” ones. It is you and your fellow nutcase thieves who have bankrupted America and stolen the American dream from millions of loyal, patriotic taxpayers.

And for what?
Votes and your job and retirement security at our expense, you lunk-headed, leech.

That’s right, sir. You and yours have bankrupted America for the sole purpose of advancing your pathetic, political careers. You know it, we know it, and you know that we know it.
And you can take that to the bank, you miserable son of a bitch.

P.S. And stop calling Social Security benefits “entitlements“. WHAT AN INSULT!!!!
I have been paying in to the SS system for 45 years “It’s my money”-give it back to me the way the system was designed and stop patting yourself on the back like you are being generous by doling out these monthly checks .


Link

Thursday, January 16, 2014

Sitting Bull Bison Project

Last week the dogs and I decided we had not been hunting enough....(we had a group meeting :)
So, it was decided that we needed to return to Nebraska and try it again .. since the super cold weather had moderated somewhat..

We packed up the camper and traveled out to our favorite hunting spots. ..

We tried to roust up some Pheasants with no luck, even hitting our favorite honey holes from the past ..

It seams the drought conditions have been extremely hard on the upland bird population, since the local ranchers have grazed their cattle on much of the bird habitat, or cut it for hay bales, not leaving much protective cover for the birds.

We hunted all day and never saw a single bird fly  ..  covering 2 counties

So, the next best thing to do in a small town is go to the " BAR "

Here we are hanging out in the only bar in town, having a good time catching up with the local stories.

Lots of BS'ing and laughing it was good to be back again

The following day we headed to the north cold lands of South Dakota


We traveled to McLaughlin which took us 10 hours 
The following day we met up with the local College folks, who had ordered an Off Grid Aeration System
to help with keeping the ice buildup at a minimum for their research heard of 30 Buffalo.

This is truly in the middle of nowhere, they plowed a road for us to get to the spot where they are.

 
Here it is installed on the other side of the fence so as not to get destroyed by the wild animals

We ran the hose over to the tank, I hope this will workout, it is an experimental system 

I found the cloud patterns interesting when I was leaving...

That afternoon the dogs and I started to travel back home, making it to Gillette Wy and stopping 

The following morning I discovered it had snowed 2 inches, leaving Interstate 90 packed with snow.

Traveling slowly west to Interstate 25 south we eventually made it out to the snow-pack.

Coming south of Buffalo there were many bald eagles along the road making a nice meal of road kill dear, quite a sight to see them so close.

The cross winds were quite severe (70 mph)  Drove by 2 overturned simi trucks, and 3 overturned campers.

Pretty much a white knuckle ride, then the suburban decided to start acting up .. losing power on the hills when the tank was lower than 1/2 tank of less .. I believe the fuel pump is getting weak again.

I made it back to Denver in time to watch the playoff game without it quitting. 

Now I am waiting for a new fuel pump to arrive .. I ordered one online because it is $400.00 cheaper than one from a dealer, and $200.00 from a parts house..

I really need to go somewhere warmer, winter sucks when it is so cold...