Social Security is strong

Social Security is still strong. The recent Trustee's report that came out this week says there is now $2.7 trillion in the Social Security trust fund, which is $69 billion more than last year, and continues to grow.

To keep Social Security strong it is important to look at where wage growth in the nation goes. Those making above the Social Security cap($110,000) need to be included because that is where the growth is expanding most. A very simple inclusion of those making the most money is all that is needed to continue its historic ability to keep the elderly off the streets. Everyone, not just the poor and middle class should be contributing. Social Security is strong and is the most successful program the government runs. Now you won't read the above in your local media because the powerful want to dismantle the program and privatize it so they can make more money.

i've stated this before but it needs repeating. The philosopher Decartes claimed Cogito ergo sum...I think therefore I am. Descartes made the assumption that he was an individual first and lots of people all over the world buy into this today whole heartedly. It took years but finally other philosophers questioned this idea and asked if so where exactly did you learn the language that you needed to come up with this idea? 

If you spend some time thinking about the above there is only one place where the skills we acquire to help us think could come from. Decartes learned the ability to speak and think from others, without them he would never have been able to articulate I think therefore I am.

This is something that i try to work on constantly. We are in this world with others, we are not alone, we have never been alone. We all work together to improve lives whether we recognize this ability or not. Being in the world with others is fundamental to life on this earth. Martin Buber, another philosopher, observed that we can either be in the world seeing others as people or we can be in the world seeing others as objects. Those who see people as objects want to dismantle Social Security, those that see others as people want to keep it intact. Who are you?

Here's a good one...tax payer money, i'll say that again, tax payer money that directly funds USAID has been used to train disadvantaged workers English in the Philippines so they can man call centers. What this does is use our tax money to train other people in foreign countries to take our jobs. Outsourcing is another word for it but i'll bet you never thought you were paying for it with your tax dollars.

On the hill representatives of both parties Tim Bishop D(NY) and Walter Jones R(NC) wrote a letter to USAID on April 19 expressing dismay and urging its immediate dismantling. You can read the letter here http://timbishop.house.gov/uploads/Letter%20to%20USAID-%20Call%20Centers%20FINAL.pdf

i'm reupholstering the living room furniture and need to get back to my project so this one today is a shorty. i especially like this photo below that i took of the guy and his wares on the corner over by the Barron Spot Mall and if you aren't a swimmer you might not know what the one above is. We swam at Haypenny last week and the pattern on the sea floor was so amazing i had to stop and take a pic. Double click on any of the pics here to get a better look. See ya next week.

Personal Responsibility Wars

Personal responsibility rears its ugly head in almost every conversation i have with conservatives. They seem to think that liberals abhor personal responsibility and strive to have the entire population become dependent upon government. NOT TRUE

The propaganda their party has fed them has been extremely successful in focusing their entire attention upon a very small percentage of poor people that are permanently dependent upon government. Most of the rest are ASSISTED and not completely dependent. The assistance goes to poor, middle class, rich, old and corporations alike. But only the poor get all the negative attention.

DENIAL plays a huge role in the failure to include the powerful, the wealthy and corporations in the demands for personal responsibility. So far the poor are the only ones regarded as not personally responsible. Even though they have no power, they don't make any rules, they live hand to mouth they get all the focus in the bulk e-mails or discussions. It is easier to shift all blame to the poor to keep your eyes off the powerful. The poor are used so you don't witness the looting of the Treasury and the nation by those that can.

DENIAL allows large segments of our population to ignore the mechanisms corporations and the wealthy use to avoid responsibility for crimes against all of us. DENIAL encourages conservatives to continue to close their eyes to their abuses and vote against their best interests. 

A few facts...Social Security belongs to all of us, Medicare belongs to all of us, WE PAY FOR THEM, public schools belong to all of us, the prisons belong to all of us, the beaches, the parks, the airports, roads, railroads, hospitals, and bridges everything this nation has invested in belongs to all of us. WE HAVE ALREADY PAID FOR THEM, Don't give it away. Don't let big money in politics convince you to give away your assets.

ASSISTANCE is what made this country great. The taking away of that assistance is what is contributing to the downward economic spiral in our living standards and our place in the world. The continual demolition of government services is contributing to the stratification of haves and have nots. We are giving away our future to vultures whose only focus is profit and expansion over the entire globe. They could care less what happens to this nation or its citizens but they will use every available government law or subsidy or tax break to expand their power.

Liberals believe in personal responsibility and want conservatives to wake up and start demanding changes in the laws. We need laws that will deny corporations and unions the ability to control our elections through the use of unlimited contributions. We want conservatives to wake up and deny corporations and unions the right to buy politicians to do their bidding in congress. Corporations are artificial, unions are artificial they can't have personal responsibility so it lets them off the hook. The only way to control our democracy is to take it back. Lets return to control of, by and for the people and not by corporations. The Citizens United Case is a Pandora's box, conservatives and liberals need to close it down again.

Stop focusing on the poor, look at the real culprits.

There isn't a family alive that will not at some point in their journey through life help their members. If we as a nation don't start recognizing that we are part of a big American family that needs attention we will loose our democracy and all our assets.

See ya next week.

Unelected Corporate Government

There are few things in this world that we feel we can give away for free unless it is done willingly. Most of us pay taxes because we are members of a nation we want to support. We pay the taxes because we recognize that not everything can be done by the private sector or done as cheaply as the government can do it. We recognize the need to shine in the world and we understand that paying for that privilege involves taxes.

Our history details how we fought for and gained fair wages for labor expended. How we fought hard for the 40 hour week, employee based health insurance, and regulations that scaled back dangerous working conditions. We fought hard for a large middle class. But today, all those things we fought so hard for are being chipped away by Unelected Corporate Government.

Unelected Corporate Government is that entity that lobbies legislators and pays for their campaigns. Unelected Corporate Government is what makes legislators expend all their time in office raising money instead of the hard work necessary to govern this land. Unelected Corporate Government is that entity that expects returns on their monetary investments. Unelected Corporate Government wants to lower wages, eliminate employer health insurance and privatize government services so they can suck every tax payer dollar out of the economy and not be regulated.

Unelected Corporate Government loves wars. Wars let them churn out all the hardware they can imagine and make bundles off it in the process.

Over the past 30 years Unelected Corporate Government has established a bulkhead in Washington DC and it is eroding the middle class we fought so hard to establish. No longer can the man of the family support his tribe on one income. Today it takes two just to make ends meet.

Unelected Corporate Government is responsible for lobbing to eliminate regulations on banks that sent our economy into a tailspin and had taxpayers bail them out. Unelected Corporate Government still argues for relaxed regulations so they can do it again. Any time they can suck the tax payer dollar into their coffers is a win. Anytime they can privatize another part of government is a win and a loss to the middle class.

Our national assets, all those things like beaches, parks, roads, bridges, airports and much much more that are to be enjoyed and used by everyone are being robbed from right under our noses. We have already paid for them but Unelected Corporate Government lobbies to give it to them. In fact some on the conservative side are applauding and supporting the robbery without recognizing they are working against themselves and furthering the evisceration of the middle class.

In order for this nation to retain the balance of income levels there has to be a fair share of the investment needed in this nation to keep us strong. No one group should control the assets. Unelected Corporate Government will build a nation of haves and have nots and we need to wake up and stop them.

Here are some questions to ask and ponder.

If Keystone XL Pipeline will reduce our reliance on oil why does it end at a port?

If trickle down is working why are corporate profits high while the living standards of most

middle class families are going down?

Why do more people die from prescribed opiates than heroin? Who is Big Pharma and why are taxpayers paying for the War on Drugs?

Why should the middle class pay more taxes than the 1%?

Why are 88 million people out of the job force? Is it Obama or is it those jobs that were shipped overseas by the trickle downers(corporations)?

Why does a group(ALEC) financed by Exxon, Wal Mart, the Kochs and other heavy players write laws benefiting their needs all over the country while destroying any power the middle class had to be treated fairly?

Why is the middle class shrinking?

Why are wars today paid for by borrowing but wars in the past were paid for by increased taxes or war bonds?

What are the economic costs of our failed wars?

If you don't question you are complicit in the destruction of the middle class as we know it.

St. Croix Above and Below

i had this whole piece i worked on that maybe i'll publish another day. These past few days have been so outstanding that i thought a photo journal would be more fun and maybe elicit good feelings. The black sea urchins are spawning but i didn't have my camera late yesterday. It is a real treat to watch them perching on top of coral with their spines in the most beautiful positions. Normally you never see them move but yesterday early evening they were beside themselves. They pile up on each other then release this fine white thread of reproductive material that turns into a milky cloud. Its a total orgy out there on the inner reef and then they topple off the coral and go back to their holes. This first picture is looking back at Cane Bay from the water. That smudge is a water spot.

                                      

These century plants all over the island are just so majestic when they bloom. This one at Off The Wall is finally getting its yellow flowers.

 

This is the same file fish trying to hide in the second pic and losing his spots. Isn't his yellow eyelid beautiful?

Black Durgon's are so hard to photograph but i got a few in among the Wrasse.

 Ghost fish, they are so hard to see against the sand even when the water is crystal clear. Actually i think the bigger ones are bone fish but i would like to be corrected if i'm wrong.

 Purple Sea Fan...this ones veins were very distinct yesterday.

More ghost fish...no they are permits.

 This little green was so cooperative yesterday...isn't his shell the most beautiful you have ever seen?
















This was a first for me. In all the years I've been swimming i have never seen two Peacock Flounders together. Double click on it so you can really see how close they are. Spring is here.

You hardly ever see Rust op Twist with no waves. The island has been drying out a bit.

Sunset two nights ago. Very sepia toned.

Sunset half an hour later, same day.

See ya next week.