9/04/18
I drove past this between Salida and Cotopaxi on State Highway 50 in Colorado. I had to turn around and tell whoever that I stood with them totally assuming I was correct. I was and got the biggest hug of appreciation for doing so.

From my understanding, there are close to 3000 children being held around this country after being seized from their parents at the border.

Many will never see their Mom and Dad again because Republicans are totally evil.

You bastards!

12/30/13

For The Optimists On The Left

It's important to have optimists around and their message of better things ahead is one that must be heard. Fact of the matter is when you have numbers like this it becomes very difficult if not impossible to advance as a country and a society.

A poll out Monday shows that less than half – 43 percent – of those who identify with the Republican Party say they believe humans have evolved over time, plunging from 54 percent four years ago.


12/3/13

What To Do What To Do

Many communities in Colorado fear the evil pot sooo much they just have a difficult time making good decisions. At least Denver did the right thing here.

The Denver City Council made a surprise move Monday, reversing an earlier decision that would have banned smoking marijuana on private property if it was in public view.


12/1/13

Business Is Booming

Drove through Denver on the way to Cheneyland to eat turkey and saw this. I was a bit surprised but shouldn't be probably. Click on the picture to read the writing.
Then today in the Boulder Camera there was this.

Gun deaths have outpaced motor vehicle fatalities in Colorado since 2009, but data from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment indicate the state has passed yet another milestone in death statistics.
For the first time in 2012, suicides by firearm alone surpassed motor vehicle fatalities, with 457 Coloradans dying in fatal car crashes and 532 taking their own lives using guns.

Exceptional numbers in a country with huge societal issues that like most other things will not be discussed in any intelligent way to possibly try to do better.

Gets to be old shit - just saying.

11/24/13

Someone Somewhere Is Eating Good

Locally this recently happened.

County scrambling to try and recover funds

Other than that it's been pretty nice but the last couple have been like this. From a picture this morning with a bit more in the forecast.
The almost 11 month run of sandals,shorts and t-shirt have been over for three weeks or so. Damn!!

11/6/13

And You Think You Have Rights When It Comes To Those Who Have A License To Kill At Will

I stay so far away from these bastards as to not give them them a reason. This happened on 1/2/13 and why it has not been given any attention before I don't know. An incidence such as this is beyond disgusting and certainly criminal on the part of these badges in Deming,NM. This has to be some of the worst outside of killing you these fuckers can do to people.

What's important to understand these hoods equipped with uniforms/guns and that license to kill at will can do shit like this all over the country if they choose. And many on the left think there is progress being made and changes for the better will happen. We are so screwed and few see it.

Routine traffic stop results in nightmare 14-hour anal cavity search for man driver who 'failed to halt at stop sign'

Here is some of what this innocent man was subjected to. Yes there's a lawsuit but damage done and the fact that "We the People" literally have no power if you are unfortunate to enter this world of depravity/uncaringness plus (how sick this is) lawlessness. JESUS H. CHRIST anyway WTF! You dirty bastards. This is a local link below.

1. Eckert's abdominal area was x-rayed; no narcotics were found.  
2. Doctors then performed an exam of Eckert's anus with their fingers; no narcotics were found.
3. Doctors performed a second exam of Eckert's anus with their fingers; no narcotics were found.  
4. Doctors penetrated Eckert's anus to insert an enema.  Eckert was forced to defecate in front of doctors and police officers.  Eckert watched as doctors searched his stool.  No narcotics were found.
5. Doctors penetrated Eckert's anus to insert an enema a second time.  Eckert was forced to defecate in front of doctors and police officers.  Eckert watched as doctors searched his stool.  No narcotics were found.
6. Doctors penetrated Eckert's anus to insert an enema a third time.  Eckert was forced to defecate in front of doctors and police officers.  Eckert watched as doctors searched his stool.  No narcotics were found.
7. Doctors then x-rayed Eckert again; no narcotics were found.  
8. Doctors prepared Eckert for surgery, sedated him, and then performed a colonoscopy where a scope with a camera was inserted into Eckert's anus, rectum, colon, and large intestines.  No narcotics were found. 

11/5/13

Not To Worry

Oh the drama -

Budget uncertainty could derail expansion of special ops forces

Don't mean shit! When over half of our tax dollars are spent on the military and they/we are active all over the world who in the hell do you think is actually calling the shots in DC. 

11/4/13

Another New One

Weather happening that is in Costa Rica.

A glacial freeze on IrazĂș? An official said the national park has never seen anything like it before.

Irazu Volcano iced

A biologist there told me that she thought Climate Change was affecting the rainy season more than anything else. The length and when it starts and ends.  

10/21/13

Well Shitfire

Thanks for the visit first off!

Not sure what if anything needs to be said but gonna throw a few things out there as it's been a long time. I am very tired of "news and politics" right now. Just not participating much. Totally disgusting and in the end can be depressing to hear or to even learn  more bad shit on a daily basis. Just not doing it much and concentrate on other things I guess.

One thing that happened on 8/10 is that I got myself hurt or more correctly I guess I hurt myself pretty damn bad. The worst being a finger on each hand. The right thumb is about back but the left pinky has a long way to go. This was a tough one and I just hope by next spring I can swing a golf club. I'm not sure of that at all because right now I can't even come close to doing so. This may have given me more intense hurt for a longer time than anything that came before.

There was what turned out to be a lifestyle change that is almost as dramatic as when I stopped work two years ago. The hand thing is the second time I got bit for choosing to go without health insurance. This change and how it was arrived at once again as so many times through my life come together through coincidental happenings. I feel almost totally at peace. The only other time I have ever felt quite like this but much more so was on the Volta River in Senchi Ferry, Ghana.

There has been quite a bit of windshield time of late. I am sitting here
at Ute Lake SP outside of Logan NM. Drug this back from north of the cornfield first part of this month. It was 1100 back to home. Last night was the virgin night on the road. It went well and tweeking will be ongoing for a while. Bought the annual camping pass (has to be the best deal in the states for camping) and they will not make money on this arrangement. 22 days and you have recouped. Will stay here for another day or so. This place has the internets so that's nice. To pull in off the road to camp for a night in a CO state part it would cost me $27. Here the same would be 10.

Last week did a 750 miler with a friend from Misery that took us deep into the big mountains. Colorado is such a cool place to live. And it was like it was all ours and the fact of the matter much of is ours and yours too.

Two other things-
Feel sooooo fortunate that I have even a chance at this. There was a saying in Ghana used plenty with variations of it. Simply that "Life was sweet". Life is pretty sweet just now. May yours be tooo sweet!

Does anyone have contacts on the Baja from La Paz down to Cabo? I have yet to make a decent contact and thinking seriously about going there for awhile anyway. The run of 10.5 months of shorts,sandals and tshirt is over. Time to start it up again if possible.

Have a good one-
One Fly  

9/24/13

A Conversation On This Subject Needed Here

But that won't happen when guns get the job done better than just good.

One in thirty deaths in Holland are from euthanasia with most choosing to end their lives due to cancer 

Around 3 per cent of all deaths in the Netherlands are now by euthanasiaThe country last year introduced mobile euthanasia unitsIn 2002 it became the first country since Nazi Germany to legalise it

9/23/13

A Worthwhile Yuk Yuk From A Politician

I did laugh because it's funny. It's in reference to this idiot who surfs and eats lobster,drives nice cars and hangs with beautiful women day in day out on his $200 of food stamps a month.

'I don't give a damn about surfer dude,' Democratic Congressman Jim McGovern said. 'As far as I'm concerned, he can walk off the nearest pier. To suggest that he's the face of SNAP is offensive.' 

That may be worth a chuckle but not the fact so many actually believe this nonsense plus the whores in DC use this bullshit story as good reason not to allow children who are hungry a chance to be fed.

I'm so sick of this shit I tell you.

9/22/13

Someone Else's But Sure As Hell Not Mine

These things are all over the damn place with  nonsensical drivel similar to this. It's tempting to put one of my own up but then you become a problem ya see.

   

9/13/13

Screwing The Little Guy As Usual

I'll help do the math here and I understand but do not agree with this rate structure. Everyone here in town pays the first 20 KWH at 31.5 cents a KWH and the next 130 @ 18.7 cents a KWH. After that the rest is billed at 12.4 cents a KWH.

That first 150 KWH costs 20 cents a KWH and this bill for 187 KWH averages before taxes at 18.9 cents a KWH.

I will now have some of the highest electric bills of my life and these rates per KWH have got to be some of the highest in the nation in counties that are the poorest in Colorado full of people who live below the poverty line.

Here you are like myself trying to live frugally but are penalized because you do not use massive amount of electricity. It appears for this month my usage will be around 230 KWH's and the average for that amount before taxes will be around 15.6 cents a KWH.

I don't give a shit what anyone says this is what you called getting screwed.

 This bill is for 187 KWH's and was for three weeks.

KWH CHARGE  $35.19
    20.0 KWH x 0.315384 = $6.31  
    130.0 KWH x 0.186668 = $24.27  
    37.0 KWH x 0.124652 = $4.61  
COUNTY TAX  $0.73
CITY TAX  $1.09
FRANCHISE TAX  $1.09
TOTAL CURRENT BILL $38.10


Where I moved from the town owned it's own electric company and we bought on the open markets just like the big boys do and just like this company in this case. Bought electricity around 4.2 to 4.5 cents a KWH and the rates being charged to customers has remained fairly constant and are at 9.5 in the summer and 8.4 in the winter months.

San Isabel Electric is a co-op and supposedly a nonprofit. I just have an issue with ripping people off who have little to begin with and this little burg is full of people just like that.

9/8/13

That Oughtta Teach Ya You Old Punk

I don't give a shit. Normal people do not kill with guns 107 year old people. Border line imbeciles could have come up with a way to subdue this man. I don't give a shit about this either. If an order was given to all those who carry a license to kill to start shooting make no mistake they will do just that!   

A 107-year-old man was killed during a shootout with members of an Arkansas SWAT team Saturday evening. 

This event illustrates how far downhill our society has gone. 

107 and they had to fucking kill him. WTF anyway!

This is sick shit.

9/7/13

Payback Time

From way back in March there was revenge last night.

Costa Rica slowed the USA's march toward the 2014 World Cup with a 3-1 win Friday, while Mexico were on even shakier ground after a 2-1 loss to Honduras. Costa Rica moved to the top of the six-nation final qualifying group in North and Central America and the Caribbean (CONCACAF) with the victory in San José that ended the USA's 12-match winning streak.

 I thought playing the first game was wrong and a mistake but we all know about home field advantage. At the time I was giving my Tico friends a ration about how altitude was going to affect them along with the cold throwing in a line about it will probably dump as well.

And it did all that.

Recall Recall - We Go Make You Pay

UPDATE: And they did just that as both were recalled.

You may be aware of the recall against two Democrats here in Colorado based on the pissed offedness of "my feelings and fear of loosin ma guns" people who got this on the ballot. Voting ends the 10th I believe. The petitioner's also fought and won not to have mail in ballots. This is not in my district but just up the road.

What the hell do I know but just saw this and was surprised.
Anti-recall groups have raised $3.1 million while pro-recall groups have raised $266,231. These numbers do not include non-profits that have raised and spent money in the recalls but do not have to disclose their contributions.
There is a pretty cool interactive map that shows all the contributions and who made them. The problem with contributions is found here blatantly showing how these bastards in DC screwed us as always. The "non-profits" don't have to disclose ya see. I'd pay 10 smacks to see that number in this case and would bet a 20 that number exceeds the 3.1 mil raised by the anti-recall effort and and is much more than "non-profits" raised for the anti-recall effort as well.

Not sure what can be concluded if anything from this. A paltry 266K is all? There was strong support from around the country for these two people under recall. I hope they are not but all summer long recall efforts were seen all over the place. 


9/5/13

Day Tripping

Needed to have an adjustment and blasted up to Denver to see Doc. This morning there is a difference as there were issues plus complications from the bike crash a month ago tomorrow. Still several weeks away before it gets back close to normal. Chiropractics have helped me soooo much.

It was all pretty easy. Left early and drove the couple miles to the interstate. Get on it drive about 160 north - take a right turn go about a dozen blocks or so and another right turn and you're there.

I have always liked the architecture along the south part of Denver. Many of these buildings are getting some years on them but still look quite modern.

After getting worked on stopped at a place close by that I came across last time and had me some Pad Thai. Pretty good.

Headed south after that and stopped and saw my neighbor friends from Costa Rica. Ken has this very cool small still.

They live in this funky kinda neighbor just off of downtown Colorado Springs in a old house with some pretty old fixtures still being used. 

Blasted outta there as stops needed to be made in Pueblo. Stopped at a hitch place to inquire about getting one installed on my Element. After doing a bit of checking theirs must be made out of silver.

Stopped and saw my brother who now lives close by in that area. Visited a bit and headed to my one of my meat markets of choice as I have been very disappointed with what I've bought here in Walsenburg. I don't care what anyone says the meat we buy in the States is not very good and as a general rule neither are the fruits and vegetables.

This is a busy place and has not been open that long. A Mexican Meat Market. You betcha.

You can buy meat here that actually has flavor and there is quite a selection. I stock up.

My other meat market of choice in Blende. They cut me very thin pork blade steak with bone in. Thick cut pork is not very good at all at least to me. I bought a pork shoulder steak the other day here and it may have been one of the worst pieces of pig I've ever had. Not the case here though. I did not stop here today. 

I continued out east of Blende to Vic Morrow's place and picked up some of the best sweet corn that can be had in these parts plus other things as well. Most of what you see is grown here.
Got done here and drove the 50 or so miles home. Eleven and a half hours or so and 345 miles the work for the day was over.

It was a good day trip with a lot getting accomplished. I will be eating real good the next week or so. It's the best time of the year for that.

Cross posted at the other place.

9/3/13

From One To Another

 Nobel Peace Prize winning former President Oscar Arias said that a military response to a suspected chemical attack last week would cost hundreds of thousands of "innocent" lives.
“After careful consideration, I have decided the United States should take action against Syrian regime targets,” Obama said in Rose Garden address Saturday.


The hypocrisy meter is off scale. It was off the scale when he was given the Peace Prize. This man is so bush like it's hard to take.

9/2/13

Labor Day - The Reason For It And The Innocent Men Who Went To Their Death

9/2/13 - Same as it ever was. While Americans are out chasing their freedoms the last day of this holiday weekend few know this story and few would probably care. And tomorrow when the freedom chase is over and they return to work each year getting less and less as the 1%continues to take more of the less that they have most have nary a clue.  

9/3/12 - Attacks on unions and labor continue and with success. Next year will be the 100th anniversary of the Ludlow Massacre. They were fighting for the eight hour work day in 1896. Killing these men and others worked as it took 51 more years before that happened. Few in this country have a clue about this and many other things as well. 

9/5/11 - Another year has flown by and this country continues to welcome misinformation and lies about unions and socialism and other things that originate from huge corporations including media. The mood of this country has many of the same traits as it had at the time of these murders at the hands of the powers that were in Chicago at that time. 



2010  - The  same post from last year in it's entirety (and the year before that). A  piece that tells a very important story and why I get the day off to go  explore because men like these died so I could do just that.

In  this country there are not many who know why we celebrate this holiday  but the story told below explains and we should all take pause now and  then and remember those who came before us whether it's this or any  number of other stories of people who sacrificed so our country could be  a better place to live in.



Remembering the Haymarket Martyrs

By Charles SullivanInformation Clearing House' -- --  Every now and then events transpire that cut through the rhetoric, the  carefully contrived images purveyed in the press and historical texts,  and reveal a nation’s dark soul in ghastly detail. Such an event  occurred in the streets of Chicago on May 4, 1886, and continued through  November 11 of 1887. They were set in motion years before.

05/16/06 "

At  noon on that day four of labor’s most courageous warriors: Albert  Parsons, August Spies, Adolph Fischer and George Engel were hanged for a  crime they did not commit. A fifth man, Louis Lingg, was slated to  share the fate of his comrades but he cheated the hangman and the state  of his innocent blood when he exploded a dynamite cap in his mouth from  his jail cell just hours before the execution. The explosive had been  smuggled in to him by an anarchist comrade. Another anarchist, Oscar  Neebe, has sentenced to fifteen years of prison and hard labor. Three  others had their death sentences commuted to life sentences.

In  the U.S. only a relative few working class people know that Labor Day,  originally May Day (May 1) originated with the hanging of these men. The  rest of the world celebrates their heroism on May 1; however, the U.S.  does not officially recognize their sacrifice by honoring them with a  national holiday. Virtually every worker worldwide owes a tremendous  debt to the Haymarket Martyrs, who provided the impetus and paid the  ultimate price for many of the benefits that all workers, including the  rank and file and upper management, now enjoy.

Those  were tumultuous times not only in Chicago but all across America, when  revolution was in the air and nationwide strikes crippled the burgeoning  economy. In Chicago alone 400,000 were out on strike protesting not  only reductions in wages but also demonstrating for the eight hour work  day—one of the central organizing principles of the anarchist’s  political philosophy. The Chicago anarchist movement that took root in  1884 was both strong and effective. Its leaders were skilled organizers  and eloquent orators.

The Chicago police of the day  were corrupt and routinely moved on the strikers at the behest of the  business community, prodded by the daily newspapers. In those days  companies had their own militias which were used to put down worker  insurrections with coercion and violence. They also hired Pinkertons to  intimidate and kill workers in order to prevent strikes and to maximize  profits. But when the strikers began organizing militias for their own  protection the state legislature outlawed them. The business militias,  however, were allowed to continue their grim work, leaving the workers  without protection and vulnerable. Strikers were routinely beaten,  imprisoned and killed by their employers and the police.

On  May 4, 1886, several unarmed strikers were shot dead by the Chicago  police and hundreds were brutally beaten, including innocent bystanders  at the McCormick Reapers Works. August Spies witnessed the affair with  horror and righteous indignation. His comrades were being murdered in  the streets and the killers did so with impunity. It seemed that all the  forces of Chicago were arrayed against the working people.

An  outraged August Spies organized a peaceful rally the following evening  at the Haymarket Square. After beginning in clear moonlight, the weather  suddenly turned cool and threatened rain, after a crowd of 3,000  gathered to hear the orators in the gathering gloom of the chilled night  air. Standing upon a hay wagon near a lone street lamp the speakers  berated the Chicago police for their indiscriminate killing of unarmed  workers. Chicago Mayor Carter Harrison, a just and honest man, was in  attendance. Satisfied that the gathering was peaceful and nearing  conclusion, Mayor Harrison informed the chief of police, John Bonfield,  who had sanctioned the shootings and mass beatings of the previous day,  not to march on the group or disrupt their meeting.

It  was getting late and the cold was penetrating when Albert Parsons and  most of the speakers left the rally to warm themselves at Zephf’s Hall.  Acting without legal authority, John Bonfield gathered a troop of 180  armed policemen and ordered them to disperse the dwindling crowd. After a  mild verbal confrontation, Samuel Fieldon, who was speaking to the  crowd when the police arrived, agreed to peacefully disperse. As Fieldon  leaped down from the hay wagon, an unknown assailant hurled a stick of  sizzling dynamite into the crowd of policemen. One officer was killed  and six others died in the ensuing mayhem as the result of the panic  stricken police firing indiscriminately into the fleeing crowd.

A  reign of terror soon swept over Chicago in the aftermath of the  Haymarket bombing. The press and the city’s business men, always hostile  to the strikers, blamed the anarchists and the socialists and cried for  their blood. The principal anarchists were quickly rounded up and put  into jail, except for Parsons who, though far from the site of the  incident, knew that Chicago’s business men demanded his head and skipped  town.

Demonized in the press and the business  community, the anarchists were immediately tried, convicted and executed  in the Chicago Tribune and other daily newspapers even before any  evidence was gathered. The judge presiding over the trial did nothing to  conceal his prejudice and hostility toward the accused. Twelve  impartial jurors could not be found, so those who openly proclaimed the  guilt of the accused were paid to judge the case. During the early  stages of the trial Albert Parsons dramatically walked into the  courtroom and took his place at the side of his comrades to face his  fate with them.

With the impossibility of a fair trial,  and the irrational fear that Chicago’s ruling elite felt toward  immigrant social agitators, the men were convicted and sentenced to  death by hanging. Predictably, the trial was a farce, a media circus and  a travesty of justice. The jury consisted of businessmen, their clerks  and a relative of one of the dead policemen. Not a single working man or  woman was selected for the jury.

No evidence was  produced to link any of the accused with the bombing during the trial.  None of them were at or near the scene of the crime. No evidence was  brought forth to demonstrate that the anarchists had conspired to incite  violence that evening. But they were anarchists and socialists, a  threat to capital, and they were bound to hang for their political  views.

State attorney Julius Grinnell openly declared  that anarchism was on trial. By hanging the anarchists, Grinnell  reasoned, the sacred institutions of society would be saved. In essence,  free speech and the right of peaceful assembly were also on trial. Laws  to protect the rights of suspects were suspended and new precedents  established to hasten their conviction. The real agenda of Chicago’s  business community, however, was to put an end to the successful drive  for the eight hour work day and to permanently demonize organized labor.  It would require another fifty-one years for the eight hour work day to  become law as part of Roosevelt’s New Deal.

Just a few  hours prior to the execution Albert Parsons wrote a friend that “The  guard has just awakened me. I have washed my face and drank a cup of  coffee. The doctor asked me if I wanted stimulants. I said no. The dear  boys, Engel, Fischer and Spies, saluted me with firm voices. Well, my  dear old comrade, the hour draws near. Caesar kept me awake last night  with the noise, the music of the hammer and saw erecting his throne—my  scaffold.” Parsons remained awake most of the night singing one of his  favorite songs, “Annie Laurie” in a soft, melancholy voice filled with  emotion.

More than 200 reporters gathered to witness  the execution, as did the citizenry. None of the friends or relatives of  the anarchists were permitted to attend. Albert Parson’s wife, Lucy,  and their children were not permitted to bid their beloved husband and  father a final farewell. Lucy Parsons was arrested in the attempt and  taken to jail in another part of the city.

A few  minutes before noon the four men were paraded onto the gallows scaffold.  A reporter described the scene, “With a steady, unfaltering step a  white robed figure stepped out…and stood upon the drop. It was August  Spies. It was evident that his hands were firmly bound behind him  beneath his snowy shroud.” Another reporter wrote, “His face was very  pale, his looks solemn, his expression melancholy, yet at the same time  dignified.” Fischer, Engel and Parsons followed in orderly procession.  Another reporter noted that Parsons “Turned his big gray eyes upon the  crowd below with such a look of awful reproach and sadness as it would  not fail to strike the innermost chord of the hardest-heart there. It  was a look never to be forgotten.”

The nooses were  placed around the men’s necks and muslin shrouds placed over their  heads. The executioner took up the axe that would in a moment cut the  rope and spring the trap doors upon which the four men stood, sending  them into ancestry. There was apprehension in the air thick as soup.  Four innocent men were about to be executed by the state. Just then a  “mournful solemn voice sounded.” It was August Spies speaking his final  words, “The time will come when our silence will be more powerful than  the voices you strangle today.” Next, George Engel shouted in his native  German tongue, “Hurrah for anarchy!” Adolph Fischer chimed, “This is  the happiest day of my life.” Just as Albert Parsons began to utter his  final words that began, “Harken to the voice of the people,” the  executioner’s axe fell. The trap doors sprung open with a bang and the  four men jerked violently on the end of their ropes and then dangled in  the air.

None of them died quickly of broken necks, as  was supposed to happen; they violently twisted and strangled to death  over a period of several minutes, some of them kicking and writhing in  agony. The captains of industry celebrated the death of the anarchists  while the workers mourned for their fallen comrades. But the dream of  the eight hour work day, while strangled, did not die with the Chicago  anarchists. It lived on in the lives of Emma Goldman, Eugene Debs,  Mother Jones and Big Bill Haywood, who were inspired by the Haymarket  Martyrs and went on to organize.

Some 600,000 workers  turned out for the anarchist’s funeral. Lucy Parsons was inconsolable in  her grief and spent the remainder of her life continuing the work that  she and Albert had begun years before in Texas and later Chicago. This  was the event that precipitated the eight hour work day, the  internationally celebrated May Day, and Labor Day in the U.S. It is  tragic that so few working class people are aware of the tremendous  price that the Haymarket Martyrs paid for the freedoms that so many of  us take for granted today.

On June 26, 1893, newly  elected Illinois Governor John Altgeld set the remaining anarchists free  and cleared the names of the hanged. Altgeld, a fair minded man, after  examining transcripts of the trial and reams of related documents  declared that all of the anarchists were innocent of the crimes for  which they were convicted. Altgeld concluded that the hanged men had  been victims of “hysteria, packed juries and a biased judge.” Later,  evidence came to light that the dynamite may have been thrown by a  police agent working for police captain Bonfield, as part of a  conspiracy hatched by local business men to discredit the entire labor  movement.

The state sponsored murder of the Haymarket  anarchists, while particularly poignant, is by no means an isolated  incident in American labor history. In the spring of 1886 America was on  the verge of becoming something other than what she was. A new dawn in  which working class people were on a par with business elites was almost  within grasp and the eight hour work day virtually assured. Had justice  prevailed that year in a hot Chicago courtroom and the normal  procedures of the law followed, America would have been a very different  place; a more just and peaceful future than the one we have now would  have been possible and likely.

The entire Haymarket  affair betrays the violent nature of capital and reveals its modus  operandi. Aside from all the rhetoric about free speech and democracy,  it exposes who runs the country, who makes the laws and who enforces  them. It is capital, not we the people that are running things. Time and  again the ugly side of America has been revealed when the status quo  was threatened with real democracy. And it will happen again until the  class struggle is finally resolved with just outcomes. The judgment of  History has exonerated the fallen victims of predatory capital and  indicted the real perpetrators of crimes against humanity, but who go  unrepentant and unpunished.

Until millions of ordinary  working class people awaken to the kind of country America really is,  the death of Albert Parsons, August Spies, Adolph Fischer and George  Engel will have been in vain. Workers the world over owes a great debt  to these courageous men, whose lives, strangely, are celebrated abroad  but scarcely known here. Unless we remember these men and honor what  they did for us their sacrifice will have been in vain. We owe them  nothing less and much more.

Author’s note: I urge those  who wish to know more about these events to read labor historian James  Green’s recently published book “Death in the Haymarkett: A Story of Chicago, the First Labor Movement and the Bombing that Divided Gilded Age America.”

Charles  Sullivan is a photographer, social activist and free lance writer  residing in the hinterland of West Virgina. He welcomes your comments at  earthdog@highstream.net

8/31/13

Quick Lock The Doors

Always the over abundance of fear. It then justifies the existence of the ones who carry the license to shoot others. Yes you have to take precautions when there are punks like this in the neighborhood.


Lt. and detective Ted said  “No one was ever in any danger,”.  Well no shit Cisco.

What is more important is this line and link -

Punk boy was said to be armed with a .25 caliber automatic handgun and was considered a threat to law enforcement.

Threat my ass! Possibly to a real stupid one and there's plenty of those. Big guns,dogs,planes and helicopters,various types of armored vehicles, more guns and personnel and more. Drones too. Coppers are loving the drones these days too much. These badges show up like flies on shit more so than not.

Are reporters taught /told to continually elevate cops into something they are not and that includes the danger factor as well.

It gets to be old shit and perpetuates the myth that badges need more and more always to keep up with you and I and threats from .25 caliber guns.

Take these people off the pedestal they have been elevated too. The piece made no mention of whether punk boy was packing that terribly intimidating 25.

  

8/30/13

Before And After

This picture doesn't come close to how ugly this looked. It was so bad that even moi couldn't take it and used some of my "slush fund" funds from selling items during the recent move and had the front clip painted for $350. This vehicle isn't used much these days.


8/29/13

Stupidity Fodder

Why so many Merikans are what they are.

This is an example of what leads the "news" and sticks around and smells of a rotting carcass in the summer time with high humidity. There is no linky to zimmerman's wife not knowing whether they will stay married or not.

It makes shit bit of difference what I think. America thrives on bullshit like this.

8/28/13

Holy Yikes

SAME AS IT EVER WAS

It's General Barry on the TB.






Giving his paid corporate take on Syria. The go to boy when there's possible shooting and killing to be had.

The pile grows deeper.

8/24/13

The I-80 Gestapo Challenge

I don't know if many saw this as I did just one time. I find it dramatic as an example of what can be done by these people who carry the guns at a nation wide level at any time if it's decided to do so. Take a look at some of the numbers.

15,985 citations
-12,389 warnings
-162 impaired drivers arrested
-92 drug charges
-Nearly $2.5 million in drugs confiscated

These cops and you can bet a variety of other players and tactics as well swooped down and literally used the "show me your papers" tactic that works so well for those who want to see  my/our papers. If you do not there will be a price to pay for that.

Here is a bit of rhetoric from the ones who have dictatorial control over you and me -

The I-80 Challenge was designed to target traffic safety in an effort to save lives.  Through their efforts however, officers were also able to apprehend numerous subjects utilizing I-80 for criminal activities.

Don't shit yourself because it's about the drugs and also a test run for other crap coming down the tube. I wonder of the thousands who were detained used tactics shown on You Tube and refused to answer and were allowed to go.  

For one I'm tired of being perceived as a criminal and someone to fear from these fucking bully's with with badges and guns including a license to kill. 

8/23/13

What You Get When You Do Business With The US - In This Case Costa Rica

Nothing new really. US companies and of course other are all over this country. Several countries in the region want legalization and the US to stop funneling funds for a decades old private corporate war into Central America.

Not Costa Rica though as they support the war and continue to accept blood money to "fight it". And this is what you get then.

Drugs are the driving force behind Costa Rica’s highest homicide rates so far this year in the provinces of LimĂłn and San JosĂ©, according to sources when asked about a recent crime analysis published by the OIJ.

Homicides are up in many cantons around the country, with San José reporting 97 killings from Jan. 1 to July 31, a 22.8 percent increase in killings over the 79 reported during the same period last year. The spike in slayings was the largest in the country.

8/21/13

Out Of The Gate Early - - - And

Wanted to go for a ride as the mornings are just beautiful to be out in. Not too far away ran across this.

Some real nice guy had two like new tires slashed.

Then just a bit later I had to hustle for home myself. Gonna fix this and still head out. Remains difficult to do things. I'm right handed and that thumb is useless and just hangs around like the left pinky to get caught on something so you get to feel excruciating pain for a minute or so.  Onward then.

8/19/13

I Guess It Must Be Me

Been looking around on the internets for places in Costa Rica. I know when the weather turns the other way for me it will be a unwelcome adjustment. Does not mean I'm going but you gotta look around just in case.

There's this site airbnb where I inquired about what looks like a decent place in my price range, Corresponded several times and wanted to take it further with some real conversation. Would never consider something like that without talking.

I find out you can't talk to the person renting what ever it may be without booking dates first. Not only that but you have to contact this airbnd place and then they call the renters and then they call you and then you can talk.

I find that all kinds of screwed up. We're talking private individuals. The two different people I stayed with in Costa Rica and I had several conversations before I went. Talking works real good.

I find having to pick dates without having a chance to discuss things which could very possibly have a bearing on the dates they want you to pick beforehand. I just assume you have to put some money on the table before you can talk. Hell I don't know but I'm not going to take it that far.

I guess people don't have a problem with this. Am I all screwed up or what. SHEEZ!  

8/15/13

Let's Worry

I'm not going to but many will.

Every commercial nuclear reactor in the United States is insufficiently protected against "credible" terrorist threats, according to a new report (PDF) from the Nuclear Proliferation Prevention Project at the University of Texas at Austin.

Then there's those hurricanes that really cause sleepless nights and now it's their turn again too. No worrying going to be done here - not even a little bit.

8/14/13

And The Real Killer Is

The cop six times over!

Four children and their mother and father were killed when the driver of a stolen pickup truck slammed intotheir SUV during a deadly high-speed police chase.

Not only do they have a license to kill in other ways this way produces grisly results on a regular basis.

Take these people off the pedestal they've been falsely elevated to! 

A 20 year old with a stolen vehicle is not worth six lives and all the rest. Why can't people get this. Decades of the same and other shit they pull and few say boo.

It ain't ok with this guy. Never was never will be. Just saying. 
I'd like to have that optimistic view and say that it's changing like people on the left like to say. It's not.  

8/11/13

On Changes

One thing has struck me in the last couple months and that is so many people I meet have/are or are going to have significant changes in their lives. It may be by choice or not. Might not be for the better either but it's happening. More boomers than not like myself. Needs to be said as well that not as many but there are a good number who just wanna keep on working.

I asked Fred how long he'd been selling insurance. "Right at 42 years". Ever think about hanging it up? Fred responded with "I'll probably do it to the end". If that's what gets people off good on you.

I sold the small RV I had to a young lady who was educated, hard traveled just returning from Thailand. She was excited about life and understood the simple things can bring pleasure and great quality of life. Disappointed too after seeing what's out there and where we are at here.

My changes in the last two years have been by choice. The place I was living was sold and I moved to town. I never imagined this was going to be the place. In came together in a coincidental way - the way things happen to me including a time many years ago with some of the same players.

I am excited in the changes I made for myself. It is the beginning of a completely new and different chapter in my life. It feels good and am soooo fortunate to have what I have. Knowing a move was inevitable (plus it was faster than anticipated) I find that the criteria I wanted in my life was here - almost every bit of it and just didn't see it.

I hope to post more now. The move is over and just about settled in. One of criteria I had was to walk or bike whenever possible. Have been doing both quite a bit. Friday I actually had a purpose for pedaling and it was to deliver some the best ever sweet corn I picked up for the second time in Pueblo to some long time friends here in Walsenburg.  I went down.

Point being - - - - - WEAR GLOVES. If I hadn't had them on it would have been the emergency room for sure. It's not the first time gloves saved my ass. My hands are hurt the worst and I'm thinking two weeks anyway but it's fine damn day and I have a smile on my face.

Thanks for stopping by!  
    

7/25/13

Changes And Eight Feet Of Red

Yes there are changes and I have had every intention of posting on that and I will very soon. Fly is alive along with a positive attitude. The "news" and people's priorities leave me in a huge funk and if I were posting the message would be the same and then I'd get this shit "oh you're so negative". Sooo take a look at what's below.

I'll be bok!  

There is nothing to fear here.  There's two obvious reasons these snakes are called Red Racers. The first one is obvious. Others I've seen are lightning fast. This one was not that. Pretty impressive animal.



It's these guys one needs to be aware of. This is the second rattlesnake I've come upon this year. The other was was six feet off my left shoulder when walking out back.

6/25/13

Choices

In this case it would be booklets over drones.

so we can enjoy what is ours such as this better.

6/16/13

To All Fathers

The same post for 013 as previous years. I miss my Dad.

The best to all Father's out there and I know most of you hold your children very close to your heart. Here is one of my favorite pictures of my Dad taken in France in 1945. Enjoy your day.



FROM LAST YEAR

Happy Father's Day to all the dad's out there. I am not one and my dad is gone so the best to all of you guys out there. I bet my blogger friends who are fathers have some great kids. I miss my dad!

FROM '08

This is the first Father's Day I will not be making that call. I claim my Father's brother Rollie as a substitute Dad for this year. What I miss most is making those calls on a whim just to bs. The picture is a one shot deal. Up for a day only for the obvious reason. Taken next to the cornfield over two years ago the one I grew up in and my Dad farmed. Dad's name was Paul. NOTE The picture is back and will remain.




HAPPY FATHER'S DAY TO ALL THE GREAT FATHERS OUT THERE!


Dad is gone-Uncle Rollie's pooch gone-just found out another long time friend gone at 47-a first cousin soon to be gone-Tim Russert bang, gone at 58 my age-Mom's side of the family having a history of being gone just like that.

May not be related to Father's Day but very much value the close and few friendships I have and that includes relationships on the highway of the internets those that are the most informed of all.

Given the fragility of life every once in a while and the importance some put on theirs it's good to put things in perspective now and then. After all none of us are no more than piss ants in time. I love this video.

                  WHAT WE ARE


5/12/13

To Mothers Everywhere

Same as last year and the year before that. The post for this day will never change.

Pauline wrote
I saw 'Je dois tout a ma mĂšre' painted on a taxi bumper today. I owe my mother everything. Mothers are held in high esteem -- a woman who has never borne a child is a disgrace to womanhood. Street boys will say 'la vieille mĂšre' to impart their respect. It took some time getting used to that. Old Mother. What if they tried that in Europe?

That reminded me of the song Sweet Mother below that had the power to literally stop crowds in their tracks to dance if it was played. Mothers are very important in West Africa and Prince Nico hammered the essence of that in the middle 70's.

Oh Sweet Mother I no go forget you oh as I am missing mine just now.

Happy Mother's Day




By Prince Nico Mbarga
1976

Sweet mother I no go forget you
for the suffer wey you suffer for me.
Sweet mother I no go forget you
for the suffer wey you suffer for me.

When I dey cry, my mother go carry me--she go say,
my pikin [1] wetin you dey cry ye, ye,
stop stop, stop stop make you no cry again oh."

When I won sleep, my mother go pet me,
she go lie me well well for bed,
she cover me cloth, sing me to sleep,
"sleep sleep my pikin oh."

When I dey hungry, my mother go run up and down.
she go find me something when I go chop [2] oh.

Sweet mother I no go forget you for the suffer wey you suffer for me

When I dey sick, my mother go cry, cry, cry,
she go say instead when I go die make she die.

O, she go beg God,
"God help me, God help, my pikin oh."

If I no sleep, my mother no go sleep,
if I no chop, my mother no go chop, she no dey tire oh.

Sweet mother I no go forget you,
for the suffer wey you suffer for me.

You fit get another wife, you fit get another husband,
but you fit get another mother? No!

And if I forget you, therefore I forget my life and the air I breathe.

And then on to you men, forget, verily, forget your mother,
for if you forget your mother you've lost your life.

5/10/13

One Of The If's Of Packing

Yes I would if I lived in the area and had to be outside or was vulnerable in any way. You don't stand a chance even with a weapon when animals and in this case four are coming hard at you with the intention of hurting you bad and maybe killing you as in this case.

Female jogger 'mauled to death' by four pit bulls in Los Angeles

BTW - I will be in Silver City, NM sometime this morning and I did not bring a gun.

5/7/13

'Miracles Really Do Happen, god Is Good :)'

On one of the three kidnappers Facebook page. I can only imagine what he thinks is a miracle.

He was a "good guy". He was this - he was that. I could care less.

Please can we get this out of the limelight quickly instead of showing the rest of the world just how exceptional we are and how important it is to have a god involved to point us in the right direction.

Meanwhile we have a totally dysfunctional government with many who are in it who believe in miracle's from the same guy the kidnapper does.

This shit ain't right and it's plain to see the god thing doesn't cut it. I share in the happiness of these girls. It's ended and they survived. That looks huge right now from here anyway.

5/5/13

Wondering

How many of the gun people who are in fear of losing "something" are TBaggers.

How many attending the convention this weekend are from the right and how many are on the left. 

How many are there like myself who have guns but do not ponder "losing" them or something else for even a second. 

Whether it is this issue or any of the other biggies this country is so divided it in many ways is war like with rhetoric to match and actions that identify with it.

There is no changing of minds either. We are in it now for the duration along with a government that is just as incapable of any intelligent dialog.

Answers? Sure just like you have. So what. Who listens anyway. Oh - "you're so negative".  Give it a break it's called Reality and it sure sucks these days.

5/1/13

Just Another #

I wonder what the parents think about these deaths and if any express those thoughts to the rest of the public. Their own and the others that died the same month in Afghanistan. 
 
Then the recent plane crash that killed a bunch of contractors. Sure get to see their faces a bunch. Not much is said these days about contractors and how many there are and what they do.

Few give a shit and those that do are not listened to.
 
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