Rebane Would Like to TAX Everyone's Pensions?

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Keachie, Release 4.0 wrote:

Just got a mailing from my retiree's Union.

I guess Rebane is just one more Richie out to kill off the middle class any way he can. Apparently there is an initiative circulating that would create an annual tax on retiree "pension income" (pensions, health benefits, and social security) ranging from 20% on $40,000 to 60% on $150,000 or more. It would apply to EVERYONE with a pension, not just public service employees. So far no additional initiatives attacking our pensions have been registered with the Secretary of State, but that could change tomorrow.

Remember:

Don't sign ANY petition that has ANYTHING to do with anyone's pension.

I'm guessing the Richies have enough dough stored up so that this would cost them very little, and would refill the coffers of the state at the expense of the middle class.

Well George, isn't that what would happen?

I double post everything permanently to farstars.blogspot.com, with good tags.

Where's the Flaw, George Rebane?

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Keachie, Release 4.0 wrote:

If conservatives wanted to do away with paying for aliens, they could pass laws jailing any employer who hired one.

Oh horrors! National ID cards!

I'm sorry, but the private sector has beat the government to this sort of thing. In resetting my password with Chase Mortgage, in addition to my social and Mortgage #, they verified who I was by asking me which age range my daughter was in, and gave me several choices. They knew her name, and apparently her actual birthdate. I had NEVER given them any information about her. So how did they know? They have access to public records they said. I guess that means they scanned DMV for others living at our address.

As Bill Joy said some years back, "Privacy, forget it! You don't have any."

National biometric ID's won't be any worse than where we are now. And it would, with jail terms for employers, wipe out the money the illegals come here for. Where's the flaw, George?

Town Hall Rt Wingnuts Have No Evidence of "Rationing, etc."

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The truth is, anyone smart enough to have an opinion that should be respected is also smart enough to dig up the health care bill, and do a search for "euthanasia," "rationing," and "death panel" so as to make cogent arguments with references.

Likewise, anyone smart enough to reference implied items above, should be capable of searching the documents for the words they claim lead to such implications. If you can't Google well enough to do these kinds of searches, and the radio hosts and their researchers can't Google well enough to find the passages that reference such implied activities (and then post the notes on their pages for easy use by their toadies) then such passages most likely DO NOT EXIST, and those HOLDING OPINIONS about NON-EXISTENT PASSAGES can be completely ignored, and town hall meeting can be held on-line, and the ranters comments can be moved around like demonstrators at a Bush appearance.

Elders Running for Jails for Medical Care

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So let's house these two awful threats to society in jail for a couple of years at a cost of what? Just the thing we need to help our economy. More jails to build, more guards, and apparently a lot of medical care, which is what, 40% of the cost housing a prisoner? It does keep a lot of people employed, taking care of them, but you know, I don't see any net gain here, just more taxes, from the few remaining citizens who actually produce stuff that can be sold and used to reduce our trade deficit.

Pretty soon, given the medical needs of our aging population, and the insistence by Repubbys on keeping the insurance companies at the hog trough, elders will get themselves busted to take care of their medical needs and to avoid being homeless and sick. Put those 80 million numbers in your economic pipes and smoke it, conservy Republicans!

Rich Owe Society Taxes, You Betcha!

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They get the most out of society, so paying back in is only fair.

Very few rich people get that way without making use of the people society supports as employees, yet very few rich people seem to appreciate the fact that those employees have more costs involved than salaries and benefits, and they are resentful about paying their fair share of maintaining the resources they use (their employees) that society provides.

Rich folks love well educated and talented people, and hate paying for the schools that produce them. They're rather short sighted in that regard.

Use of the term "rich people" in this little broadside only refers to some of the rich people, not all. Easy to tell which ones, by listening for their distinct warning call:

"Taxes, too many Taxes, taxes, too many taxes, Taxes, too many Taxes, taxes, too many taxes, Taxes, too many Taxes, taxes, too many taxes, Taxes, too many Taxes, taxes, too many taxes, Taxes, too many Taxes, taxes, too many taxes,"

Memorial for Darrell "Shifty" Powers

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This came to me via my daughter from another relative, ex Marine:

Subject: Memorial Service:

you're invited

We're hearing a lot today about big splashy memorial services. I want a nationwide memorial service for Darrell "Shifty" Powers. Shifty volunteered for the airrborne in WWII and served with Easy Company of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, part of the 101st Airborne Infantry. If you've seen Band of Brothers on HBO or the History Channel, you know Shifty. His character appears in all 10 episodes, and Shifty himself is interviewed in several of them.

I met Shifty in the Philadelphia airport several years ago. I didn't know who he was at the time. I just saw an elderly gentleman having trouble reading his ticket. I offered to help, assured him that he was at the right gate, and noticed the "Screaming Eagle," the symbol of the 101st Airborne, on his hat. Making conversation, I asked him if he'd been in the 101st Airborne or if his son was serving. He said quietly that he had been in the 101st. I thanked him for his service, then asked him when he served, and how many jumps he made. Quietly and humbly, he said "Well, I guess I signed up in 1941 or so, and was in until sometime in 1945 ... "
at which point my heart

skipped.

At that point, again, very humbly, he said "I made the 5 training jumps at Toccoa, and then jumped into Normandy . . . . do you know where Normandy is?" At this point my heart stopped. I told him "yes, I know exactly where Normandy is, and I know what D-Day was." At that point he said "I also made a second jump into Holland, into Arnhem."


I was standing with a genuine war hero . . . . and then I realized that it was June, just after the anniversary of D-Day..

I asked Shifty if he was on his way back from France, and he said "Yes. And it's real sad because, these days, so few of the guys are left, and those that are, lots of them can't make the trip." My heart was in my throat and I didn't know what to say. I helped Shifty get onto the plane and then realized he was back in
coach while I was in First Class. I sent the flight attendant back to get him and said that I wanted to switch seats. When Shifty came forward, I got up out of the seat and told him I wanted him to have it, that I'd take his in coach. He said "No, son, you enjoy that seat. Just knowing that there are still some who remember what we did and who still care is enough to make an old man very happy." His eyes were filling up as he said it.

And mine are brimming up now as I write this.

Shifty died on June 17 after fighting cancer.


There was no parade. No big event in Staples Center. No wall to wall back to back 24x7 news coverage. No weeping fans on television. And that's not right.

Let's give Shifty his own Memorial Service, online, in our own quiet way. Please forward this email to everyone you know. Especially to the veterans.

Rest in peace, Shifty.

Chuck Yeager, MajGen. [ret.]

Tyranny and Buying Legislation

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Tyranny is being able to buy the laws you want.

Global MegaCorps, many USA based, have been doing just that for a century and a half. "Too Big to Fail" is this generation's version of a vertical monopoly. Corporations are NOT people, and should not have ANY access to members of Congress. Access to members of Congress should be lotto-ed off to random voters, who can then sell their hours to the highest bidder, on an open exchange. That way we would know who paying to get what laws passed, and there would be a real incentive to vote. I would guess that 1 hour of a Congressperson's time would bring in at least $5,000 to $25,000 to some lucky voting citizen.

Promoting Nevada County

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Have a TV crew explore the Empire, IM, and other mines with scuba, looking for gold. Let them foot the cost, and recover same from a Discovery like channel. Make it a series, and explore the lives of panners and dredgers as well. Work in local events.

Suggested title:

"Gold is Where You Find It"

Easy to include the general lifestyle up here and the hi tech companies.

Another Keachie Koncept.

Save Your House From Embers, Shields Up!

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After watching a multi-million dollar palace in Santa Barbara with a Spanish tile roof burn, I realized a weakness in modern structures which does not seem to be addressed anywhere. This home was not grazed by nearby flames. Apparently, based on the video of the burn, sparks/embers/whatever, got inside the attic area, where it is totally dry and probably at 130 degrees to begin with.

I seems to me that metal shutters should be at the ready for every entrance into the roof areas. There are of course big vents, usually 2 feet square or bigger, but there are also all those little vents under the eves. All need to be metal shuttered and secured. The differences in air pressure can be quite strong during a forest fire, even just from one side of a house to the other, and this can literally suck in the tiny burning particles that doom a house.

Sadly, this house had a giant pool, but no auto pumping devices, which would also have helped douse the tiny embers of doom.

Comment Killers Loose at The Union

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Your use of the bully pulpit of the delete comment (at those speeds of deletion, not much doubt about who is doing it) is no different than a Ryghty Radio Queen using the slider to douse the volume of a caller with cogent arguments, making such a caller sound like they have no response, or that they agree with the host.

Dirk Steele and Charly Wigglesworth turn out to be the Wizard and the Man Behind the Curtain, one and the same. As soon as number one computer is up with Photoshop, I'll post the proof. I had a comment that revealed the workings of the report abuse button disappear in less than two minutes. I had other comments, totally harmless, not violating any rules, disappear. I am screen capturing to jpegs images as evidence, but need to receive the parts I've ordered for my main machine, in order to do neat posts.

Rush, Savage, Hannity, Known by Their Advertisers

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As for all the Ryghty Radio Queens, to me they and their listeners are known by their advertisers.

“Having trouble with the IRS?”

“Get out of credit card debt!

“Are you so worn out from working you can’t sleep?”

Yup, this certainly tells of a clientele that drives Lexus and vacations on the Riviera. In reality those folks do cheer on Rush and the like, for keeping the working poor in the place and unaware of the daily built-in the system, ripoffs, engineered by the Lexus class.

Tax Lawyers for Using Court System to pay for Court System

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You can pay for the Superior Court system the same way we pay for highways. A tax on those who get the most benefits from them, i.e., the lawyers.

It works like this.

If, you act as an agent for anyone, and make use of the court system, and gain cash from such usage, you will pay 10% off the gross income from that transaction. It does not matter that the issue was settled in or out of court. The fact that any filing was made will indicate a willingness to use the bully pulpit of the court system for personal gain. For that usage, you shall pay. No if's, and's, but's, or whatever. The money collected goes to the court for their expenses.

Currently lawyers have passed laws that give them the exclusive rights to act as agents and to make use of the court system for personal gain. For this they shall pay. This is completely separate from any "filing fees" etc., and cannot be offset by them.

The current system has the general public footing the bill for the personal gains of the few that go into law. It's as if the taxi drivers got exclusive rights to drive the city streets and highways, and then got total exemption from paying any gasoline taxes.

UNFAIR!

Will such laws ever come into being? FAT CHANCE! The legis's are loaded with lawyers, who have carefully tailored the process so that only lawyers can afford to take the break in their careers to go into the legis's. Were other occupations offered guaranteed rights of return, you'd see a far more equitable distribution of occupations in the legis's.

This is a country of lawyers, by lawyers, and for lawyers, when it comes to looking at favored professions. Lawyers decided that corporations should be able to bully lobby, regardless of how massive they are. What a symbiotic relationship!

Oh, they'll pass it on to their clients? Well, they already are in a supposedly competitive market, so I think they will eat most of it.

Who's Responsible for Hard-to-Teach Kids?

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"Hold them accountable to the same standards we all have to live by. And when you get cut, complain to within where the waste is, not us who are already giving you billions."

Fine, and if you'll stop giving us kids from overstressed homes and 50% divorce rate homes caused by overstressed underpaid workers, maybe we educators can give you back better educated kids to compete in the global economy for fewer dollars. Every screwed up, time wasting, chewing up the clock kid that shows up on the doorsteps of our schools is the responsibility of the public and the employers who pay too little, and religions that say baby, baby, baby, because the bigger the congregation, the more lavish the lifestyle of the church leaders.

Teachers do not produce hard to teach kids. The American public does. Quit scapegoating, and look in the mirror. Boy am I in a good mood this morning!

Dividing a Cat Between 2 Households

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In Yuba, California, two people are fighting over who gets custody of a cat. My comment in The Union newspaper follows:

User Image
Keachie, Release 4.0 wrote:
In a world where making a good income and raising a family (the middle class lifestyle of the 1950's) has become impossible for many, a dog or cat offers companionship. In the absence of family humans, the bonds with family felines and canines can become very strong. I would recommend that this particular cat be put in foster care for 90 days, and each "parent" be put in charge of a kitten of intelligence, each one from the same litter, and picked out by the human who gets it. During the ninety days, have the cat checkers (these folks who check out homes before adoption) drop in from time to time.

At the end of ninety days, she or he who scores highest, gets the older cat as well. The loser now has a consolation kitten, and the pain of loss is eased.

Solomon couldn't have done it better, if I may say so for myself. (doubt many posts this thread, we shall see)

Douglas Keachie

Build a Better Ghetto School

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You need to build a school that is equipped like a mini country club, has holding cells with full av links back to the classroom the kid just got thrown out of, a couple of burley guards to hustle the misbehaving to the holding cells, and a teacher with FINAL and unquestionable authority to send the offending kids out. No amount of keveching by the parents accomplishes anything. Teachers are reviewed by peers from other school districts, so no favoritism can be involved.

As a final punishment, for kid, if you get sent out, you get standard school cafeteria food, instead of the dynamite custom prepared yummy lunches.

Full after school supervision and rides home to the doorstep, so that homework can be accomplished free of environmental hassles.

School would be shaped as a three story plus building with a large central protected courtyard with swimming pool/basketball courts. Track on roof of building. Underground protected parking for teachers, full shower facilities for all teachers, par course.

Pullup enclosed docking areas for 18 wheeler based special unit labs in many subject areas, rotated in from other schools. This would accommodate special labs for the sciences, and a full sweep of voc ed.

Many field trips.

The cycle of poverty could be broken. Yes, by all means, build these using local labor and contractors.

Modifying Affirmative Action for 21st Century

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Affirmative Action can be changed two ways, one very,very simple, one rather complicated, to make the process more just.

Simple, simple,

If the first candidate selected turns down the position for any reason, the second candidate becomes the most qualified, regardless of socio/economic/racial background.

More complicated:

All jobs, scholarships, contracts, whatever, that fall under the heading affirmative action, are referred to a state commission which in secret spins a wheel. The results remain secret, until the final five for the slot are selected, in both affirmative action and non affirmative action mode. Then the commission is contacted for the results. If affirmative action, they go with that list. If not, they go with the no bias list. The odds of being one or the other on the wheel are set every gubernatorial election, by the voters. When Hispanics outnumber whites, they are no longer minorities.

Keachie, building new boxes from pieces of old ones.

Am I a Prophet or What?

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I wrote this as a letter to the editor in The Union newspaper back on July 7th, 2006. Somewhere out there poor people are kicking themselves for not accepting low wages as security guards and saving the global economy.

I read another crybaby story about not being able to find help for cheap in "Security Guards in Demand."

When it comes to CEOs and the like, it is a given that we must pay more to get quality. This same logic is never applied to teachers, police officers, farm workers, and well, yes, security guards.

It's almost as if the rich feel the poor are obligated to work for the lowest possible wages, or else the economy will fail, and everyone will suffer. Why is it that the "invisible hand of the market" works just fine for hiring Rush Limbaugh, but is considered "inappropriate" for hiring the common man? Ganders and Gooses, what's happening here?

Learn English, Double Your Lottery Winnings

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We want Mexicans living here to learn English. Many of them love the lotto. Set up bio-identificated on-line English courses and tests. Anyone who passes level 1, wins 1.1 time the face amount, and so on, all the way up to level 100. Tests are open to everybody, and this of course builds up a very complete ID database based on biometrics, a deterrent to crime. If not, good for one way passage on slow tramp steamer to Southern Mexico, little, then no, air-conditioning.

Who's Making a Monkey of Whom?

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Scientific American discusses the not so very scientific Americans, as Don Pelton has noted in his blog. I chimed in with:

Among other things, we do not come from monkeys, but rather, monkeys and us have a far distant common ancestor, neither human nor monkey.


I find it fascinating that a number of daytime talk shows have adopted DNA paternity tests (valid and very reliable) and lie detector tests (nowhere near as valid and reliable) has the key elements of tragic/comic "whose baby is this anyway?" shows.

Which Mr. Monkey and Ms Monkey are so crazy as to go on air to untangle situations that are really odd to begin with? Of course there are no shows featuring the offspring of such unions five years and ten down the pike, and showing those consequences.

Unfortunately, a sizable portion of the population gets themselves in these situations, they never seem to run out of applicants to be on air. This fact alone tells us the quantity of mentalities out there that can go around proudly proclaiming, "they didn't come from no monkey." Their behavior and awareness of science seems to suggest de-evolution is taking place too.

Growing a Financial Genius Crop of School Children

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We need a strong grass roots movement to pass a Constitutional amendment for a national usury rate of 18% max. I've been calling for this for years.

Financial math should be taught hard starting just after the big four of addition/subtraction/multiplication/division.

In 5th grade, every kid should get $50 to invest in any of 50 different areas. They should have the right to move the current value of their holdings to any other area, once a month. With computers, this is very doable. They get to cash out 50% of their holdings at 10th grade. If they graduate HS, the government has a lottery at every high school, and the winner gets a bonus of 1 dollar for each graduating senior in the school + $1 for each dollar invested successfully, with a $500 minimum.

I'd love to see the banks try to scam the resulting population.

One Million Pennies for Your Thoughts

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Most old timers and youngsters with old timer mindsets live for a day when you can pack your wagon, go someplace new, and have at least a 50-50 chance of doing better and a real possibility of doing a whole lot better.

Corporate America and MegaCorporate World have had enough time to scope the whole planet out, and those odds cited above are fantasy, when you think of physical moves. You can mentally move yourself with education, and think up stuff that hasn't been done before, and still strike it rich. This concept too, is moving very slowly into the General American Consciousness, GAC.

Basic through advanced ed is where the riches of the future are found.

Try this quick test:

Which would you rather have deposited electronically into your bank account?

seven thousand, seven hundred and seventy seven dollars and seventy seven cents?

OR

one million pennies?

If you or your kids can't do this in under ten seconds, invest in books and tutoring.

Too Big, Too Wierd, Too Scary.

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"I want to remove from office judges who approve "sexting" for minors as young as 13."

I responded in The Union newspaper in Grass valley as follows:

Geez, I just learned of sexting from the sheriff's letter this week. Where is there such a judge?

I fear MegaCorps the way you fear centralized government, for much the same reasons,

Too Big, too weird, too scary. And too powerful. But, look abroad, and see the same thing, in China, and it is pointed at us. If we can't figure out how to hold our own on the world stage, we are screwed, and MegaCorps don't care. Re-read Catch 22 by Joesph Heller, paying especial attention to Milo MinderBinder. Shipping all our jobs overseas, shortchanging our education systems, letting the rich rot in gated communities, is not going to work, no matter how much you pray.

Night Truck on 20 at 49 turnoff to North San Juan

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Monsanto, Shell, Think Americans STUPID!

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Monsanto tries to kill home gardens:

I’ve been noticing an increasing uproar in the blogosphere and the agricultural news community about H.R. 875, the Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009. Introduced by Democratic Representative Rosa DeLauro, a Congresswoman with indirect family ties to agricultural giant Monsanto, the bill drastically revamps and overhauls the food safety mechanisms by which the Federal government attempts to guarantee the purity and safety of the food Americans consume.

Although my default position is to be somewhat skeptical of these mass semi-panics, in this case there seems to be some meat to the complaints. Many of the elements of the bill as it stands seem to put the Federal government in a position of tremendous power over even the smallest of agricultural producers – literally, the gentleman next door growing a row of organic tomatoes – and requiring them to do business pretty much the way that the giant agricultural companies do business.

Shell oil is claiming their fuel has, tada, "Nitrogen!" Whoopido. In fourth grade you supposedly learn that 80% of the atmosphere is nitrogen. How about an explanation of just how an inert gas is used to improve performance? What compound are they adding to gasoline that wasn't already there in the first place, and exactly what is is doing, and does Shell have a patent? Or is just more marketing hype, like "our vacumn cleaner comes with a new invention, a "HOSE!" tada...

If "El Rushbo" Has a Heart Attack, the Repubbys will be

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rudderless. There's no "there" there.

Commentary by Margaret Carlson

March 5 (Bloomberg) -- Rush is wrong.

There, I said it. It wasn’t so hard.

Not for me, anyway. If I were Katie Couric I wouldn’t be so foolish. Rush Limbaugh could feast for a week on a big network anchor like her. And if I were a Republican officeholder, forget it. Anyone who dares to quibble with Rush’s wish that President Barack Obama should fail has to publicly grovel, as did the new chairman of the Republican National Committee, Michael Steele.

After remarking on CNN last weekend that Rush can be “ugly” and “incendiary,” Steele contritely said he didn’t mean to question the “leadership” of Rush, for whom he has “enormous respect.” He had just been a “bit inarticulate.”

Inarticulate is one thing El Rushbo isn’t. He fills the air for three hours a day, attracts more than 20 million listeners a week, by his count, and was a headliner at a convention of conservatives in Washington last weekend.

Dressed like Johnny Cash and bouncing up and down as he gave his “first ever address to the nation,” he generated excitement bordering on adoration. He certainly got more juice than Mitt Romney, who has tried hard to woo Rush’s audience and won the convention’s straw vote with 20 percent.

That doesn’t make Limbaugh king of his party, but it does make him a kingmaker, as former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and President George W. Bush, who celebrated Rush’s birthday at the White House with a chocolate cake decorated with a microphone, would attest.