It's Saturday again. Bob and I got in about 6:30 last night from Branson. We had a very good time. We were sitting in Panera Bread eating a cinnamon roll and having coffee when the John Denver Memorial star came in. He talked to Bob and discovered I had not seen his show. Bob had seen to twice with Phylis. He gave us four free passes to the show (Bobby and Karan were going with us) and we all attended it. It was very good and we really appreciated the free passes. We also saw the Andy Variety Show but even though it was quite expensive, we enjoyed the music of the second show best.
After I unpacked I took a bath and put my PJs on. I watched PBS about musicals and then went to bed. I was very tired and since Bob drove all the way back, I imagine he was too. We had breakfast at Eggberts this morning and he went on out to the market. I went over to the dollar store and bought enough "girl goodies" to pack another shoebox for the Samaritan Child project for Sunday.
I also went over to the post office and mailed off a package to Scott containing his mail. He needs to make out a change of address when he finally gets settled so his mail will come to him. This is the second package of mail I have mailed on to him.
I am going to bake the second small meatloaf and make some more fried potatoes for lunch today. We will have veggies and applesauce too. Then we will have some fruit for dessert.
I should mow today since it is supposed to rain tomorrow. Unfortunately, it's too windy.
About the election results:
There were three primary anti-Romney themes among the incessant Iowa ads, neither, in my view, particularly inaccurate:
1. Bain-style capitalism was a "different" form of business, a charge that even Newt Gingrich used frequently in his bid. And this is correct. Private equity is primarily aimed, not at "creating jobs," but at doing "tax arbitrage," to extract quick cash, and to try to make the company "efficient," usually by downsizing and/or outsourcing. Again, accurate. About half of the companies survive in this environment, while another half either fail or are unrecognizable in terms of where the employees are within five years.
2. That Romney had flipped on every major position, at least once: immigration, abortion, taxes, blind trusts (he earlier said they were all fake), health care, moderate-vs- conservative self-portrayal. Again, all accurate.
3. That Romney and Ryan were proposing a voucher-based Medicare system. Factually accurate.
One only had to replay his opponent's primary ads.
The anti-Obama ads basically said he was "un-American." Factually incorrect, unless I am also "un-American," and that he was looting Medicare, factually inaccurate.
Saturday, November 10, 2012
Thursday, November 8, 2012
Different Thursday
This will be a different Thursday. Bob will take me to work this morning and I will work this morning and then Bob will pick me up at noon for our trip to Branson. We are supposed to meet friends there. We will come back home tomorrow afternoon. We will go to Silver Dollar City if the weather permits and tonight we will attend a variety show at the Andy Williams theater. They are to meet us there. We were going to go together but they want to leave this morning and stay an extra day until Saturday.
I packed last night and put the last minute stuff in this morning. I am ready. So I will not be posting again until tomorrow evening.
I packed last night and put the last minute stuff in this morning. I am ready. So I will not be posting again until tomorrow evening.
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
What Went Wrong
I think Mitt Romney now knows his policies did not resound with Latinos, blacks, gays and women.
The modern world now realizes that gays are just one more orientation of sexuality that exists across all animal species lines.
And Mormons just in recent years have begun ordaining blacks after decades of explaining to their members that blacks made the wrong decisions in the forelife and were inferior.
His recorded fund raising event saying he was not concerned about the 47% of Americans that were going to vote for Obama because they were dependent upon government also went against him.
And the remark he made that the poor could always get free health care in the emergency room. Because I work at the district court house, even I know that hospitals and doctors sue the poor for payment of their emergency room fees and the only recourse the poor have after being turned over to a collection agency is to take medical bankruptcy.
His negative remarks about immigration and women's rights also helped defeat him. More women then men vote. He won the white men vote but lost the vote of many women, gays, blacks and Hispanics. And in another four years, the nation will be even less white.
The man was just too rich to even have a clue about the poor or the middle class. And let's admit it...most of us are either poor or middle class.
A president needs to represent all the people.
The modern world now realizes that gays are just one more orientation of sexuality that exists across all animal species lines.
And Mormons just in recent years have begun ordaining blacks after decades of explaining to their members that blacks made the wrong decisions in the forelife and were inferior.
His recorded fund raising event saying he was not concerned about the 47% of Americans that were going to vote for Obama because they were dependent upon government also went against him.
And the remark he made that the poor could always get free health care in the emergency room. Because I work at the district court house, even I know that hospitals and doctors sue the poor for payment of their emergency room fees and the only recourse the poor have after being turned over to a collection agency is to take medical bankruptcy.
His negative remarks about immigration and women's rights also helped defeat him. More women then men vote. He won the white men vote but lost the vote of many women, gays, blacks and Hispanics. And in another four years, the nation will be even less white.
The man was just too rich to even have a clue about the poor or the middle class. And let's admit it...most of us are either poor or middle class.
A president needs to represent all the people.
Tuesday, November 6, 2012
Election Evening
At 10:15 this evening Barack Obama won re-election as president. Now we'll see if he can continue the upward trend out of this economic mess.
Election Day
Today is the election day. I will go vote in twenty minutes. But will any of our votes make any difference?
I doubt it.
This German commentator seems to have a handle on the basic problem.
"Germans see the US election as a battle between the good Obama and the evil Romney. But this is a mistake. Regardless of who wins the election on Tuesday, total capitalism is America's true ruler, and it has the power to destroy the country. Info
The United States Army is developing a weapon that can reach -- and destroy -- any location on Earth within an hour. At the same time, power lines held up by wooden poles dangle over the streets of Brooklyn, Queens and New Jersey. Hurricane Sandy ripped them apart there and in communities across the East Coast last week, and many places remain without electricity. That's America, where high-tech options are available only to the elite, and the rest live under conditions comparable to a those of a developing nation. No country has produced more Nobel Prize winners, yet in New York City hospitals had to be evacuated during the storm because their emergency generators didn't work properly.
Anyone who sees this as a contradiction has failed to grasp the fact that America is a country of total capitalism. Its functionaries have no need of public hospitals or of a reliable power supply to private homes. The elite have their own infrastructure. Total capitalism, however, has left American society in ruins and crippled the government. America's fate is not just an accident produced by the system. It is a consequence of that system.
Obama couldn't change this, and Romney wouldn't be able to either. Europe is mistaken if it views the election as a choice between the forces of good and evil. And it certainly doesn't amount to a potential change in political direction as some newspapers on the Continent would have us believe.
A Powerless President
Romney, the exceedingly wealthy business man, and Obama, the cultivated civil rights lawyer, are two faces of a political system that no longer has much to do with democracy as we understand it. Democracy is about choice, but Americans don't really have much of a choice. Obama proved this. Nearly four years ago, it seemed like a new beginning for America when he took office. But this was a misunderstanding. Obama didn't close the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, nor did he lift immunity for alleged war criminals from the Bush-era, or regulate the financial markets, and climate change was hardly discussed during the current election campaign. The military, the banks, industry -- the people are helpless in the face of their power, as is the president.
Not even credit default swaps, the kind of investment that brought down Lehman Brothers and took Western economies to the brink, has been banned or even better regulated. It is likely the case that Obama wanted to do more, but couldn't. But what role does that play in the bigger picture?
We want to believe that Obama failed because of the conservatives inside his own country. Indeed, the fanatics that Mitt Romney depends on have jettisoned everything that distinguishes the West: science and logic, reason and moderation, even simple decency. They hate homosexuals, the weak and the state. They oppress women and persecute immigrants. Their moralizing about abortion doesn't even spare the victims of rape. They are the Taliban of the West."
Read the entire article here.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/commentary-total-capitalism-and-the-downfall-of-america-a-865437.html
I doubt it.
This German commentator seems to have a handle on the basic problem.
"Germans see the US election as a battle between the good Obama and the evil Romney. But this is a mistake. Regardless of who wins the election on Tuesday, total capitalism is America's true ruler, and it has the power to destroy the country. Info
The United States Army is developing a weapon that can reach -- and destroy -- any location on Earth within an hour. At the same time, power lines held up by wooden poles dangle over the streets of Brooklyn, Queens and New Jersey. Hurricane Sandy ripped them apart there and in communities across the East Coast last week, and many places remain without electricity. That's America, where high-tech options are available only to the elite, and the rest live under conditions comparable to a those of a developing nation. No country has produced more Nobel Prize winners, yet in New York City hospitals had to be evacuated during the storm because their emergency generators didn't work properly.
Anyone who sees this as a contradiction has failed to grasp the fact that America is a country of total capitalism. Its functionaries have no need of public hospitals or of a reliable power supply to private homes. The elite have their own infrastructure. Total capitalism, however, has left American society in ruins and crippled the government. America's fate is not just an accident produced by the system. It is a consequence of that system.
Obama couldn't change this, and Romney wouldn't be able to either. Europe is mistaken if it views the election as a choice between the forces of good and evil. And it certainly doesn't amount to a potential change in political direction as some newspapers on the Continent would have us believe.
A Powerless President
Romney, the exceedingly wealthy business man, and Obama, the cultivated civil rights lawyer, are two faces of a political system that no longer has much to do with democracy as we understand it. Democracy is about choice, but Americans don't really have much of a choice. Obama proved this. Nearly four years ago, it seemed like a new beginning for America when he took office. But this was a misunderstanding. Obama didn't close the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, nor did he lift immunity for alleged war criminals from the Bush-era, or regulate the financial markets, and climate change was hardly discussed during the current election campaign. The military, the banks, industry -- the people are helpless in the face of their power, as is the president.
Not even credit default swaps, the kind of investment that brought down Lehman Brothers and took Western economies to the brink, has been banned or even better regulated. It is likely the case that Obama wanted to do more, but couldn't. But what role does that play in the bigger picture?
We want to believe that Obama failed because of the conservatives inside his own country. Indeed, the fanatics that Mitt Romney depends on have jettisoned everything that distinguishes the West: science and logic, reason and moderation, even simple decency. They hate homosexuals, the weak and the state. They oppress women and persecute immigrants. Their moralizing about abortion doesn't even spare the victims of rape. They are the Taliban of the West."
Read the entire article here.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/commentary-total-capitalism-and-the-downfall-of-america-a-865437.html
Monday, November 5, 2012
Another Monday
It's another Monday. Bob came over last night and watched TV with me for a couple of hours. We drank tea and had a couple of cookies. I offered to make him a sandwich but he declined..saying he had had a large lunch.
We ate lunch with Bobby and Karan at El Pueblito yesterday after church. We made arrangements to meet them at Branson. They are celebrating their fourth anniversary on Thursday. We had offered to pick them up and go together but they are going to stay an extra day (if they can find housing) and leave Thursday morning instead of Thursday noon. We will go together to the Moon River Theater on Thursday evening. Bob got tickets for all of us. They are taking their own car. They had to get a motel five blocks away from ours because there were no openings at our motel. We will call them when we get there and see if they want to go out to Silver Dollar City Thursday afternoon too. I will see if I can work Thursday morning and Bob and I can leave at noon.
I will renew my thyroid medicine this morning. I also need to go to the bank and get money for Thursday's trip.
I will make a meatloaf for lunch today and I think I will boil some potatoes to fry in Canola oil. It's been awhile since we've had fried potatoes. We will also have a salad (which Bob is bringing) and veggies. I will open some fruit for dessert.Then afterward, I will go to work.
I left a lot of work undone on Thursday. I ran out of time that day.
We ate lunch with Bobby and Karan at El Pueblito yesterday after church. We made arrangements to meet them at Branson. They are celebrating their fourth anniversary on Thursday. We had offered to pick them up and go together but they are going to stay an extra day (if they can find housing) and leave Thursday morning instead of Thursday noon. We will go together to the Moon River Theater on Thursday evening. Bob got tickets for all of us. They are taking their own car. They had to get a motel five blocks away from ours because there were no openings at our motel. We will call them when we get there and see if they want to go out to Silver Dollar City Thursday afternoon too. I will see if I can work Thursday morning and Bob and I can leave at noon.
I will renew my thyroid medicine this morning. I also need to go to the bank and get money for Thursday's trip.
I will make a meatloaf for lunch today and I think I will boil some potatoes to fry in Canola oil. It's been awhile since we've had fried potatoes. We will also have a salad (which Bob is bringing) and veggies. I will open some fruit for dessert.Then afterward, I will go to work.
I left a lot of work undone on Thursday. I ran out of time that day.
Sunday, November 4, 2012
Busy Sunday
Today will be busy. I am presiding at our communion service. I did find another person to bring the sermon. We will have three missing today. Our pianist had an emergency, Bill has to work, as does Johnna. So we will be a smaller congregation. When you are as small as we are to begin with, every person counts. But that can't be helped.
I will work afternoons until Thursday and then I will ask my supervisor if she minds me working in the morning on Thursday. Bob and I want to go to Branson on Thursday. We had intended to take in a special show we wanted to see but his only Thursday show is in the morning at 10:00. So I'm not sure what we will do Thursday afternoon when we get there but there are lots of good shows and we will pick one. If the weather is nice enough, we may go out to Silver Dollar City. It should be decorated for Christmas now.
We will come back Friday afternoon late. We will probably go out to Branson Landing and get some more Christmas shopping done. I bought one more gift at Joplin yesterday It was for my eldest grandson. I have his family covered now. I have my son-in-law yet to find a gift for.
When I put up my little tree on the first of December, I will wrap everything and put the gifts under the tree.
But first Thanksgiving: I will take two pies and a Waldorf salad to the dinner. Leslie will take care of the rest.
More later...
I will work afternoons until Thursday and then I will ask my supervisor if she minds me working in the morning on Thursday. Bob and I want to go to Branson on Thursday. We had intended to take in a special show we wanted to see but his only Thursday show is in the morning at 10:00. So I'm not sure what we will do Thursday afternoon when we get there but there are lots of good shows and we will pick one. If the weather is nice enough, we may go out to Silver Dollar City. It should be decorated for Christmas now.
We will come back Friday afternoon late. We will probably go out to Branson Landing and get some more Christmas shopping done. I bought one more gift at Joplin yesterday It was for my eldest grandson. I have his family covered now. I have my son-in-law yet to find a gift for.
When I put up my little tree on the first of December, I will wrap everything and put the gifts under the tree.
But first Thanksgiving: I will take two pies and a Waldorf salad to the dinner. Leslie will take care of the rest.
More later...
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