It's a Day Angling to Tame a Tempestuous Summer Thing

Dear America,

dear dear america...

the summer recess, the tempest
...who knew?

Over the last few months -- beginning at the barbecue and ending with the first day of school (today! YAY!)  -- we've had a ruckus, riotous republican debate, a tenacious Trump Takeover of the conversation (all of them), a thoroughly corrupted, and catastrophically crumbling,  of the Clinton campaign -- complete with viable contenders just waiting for the nod (Biden/Warren), and now a stock market -- in free fall.

good times, eh?

Personally, my summer was all over the place.

My days were a lost cause and perpetually one glass of one from telling everyone what I really think ----- given up to a heavier work schedule, my girl home and never home all at the same time (ugh yeah, you figure it out...so tired), with no time to write, no time to myself, no space to percolate and opine on the thoughts of the day, all I could do was listen to my mind rattle, non-stop.  And boy, it was noisy.

Having said that, little old gthang was lucky enough to get a mini-vacation in Disneyland.  Truth be told, it was awfully hard to return.   I wanted to stay.  Perhaps forever.   Perhaps hiding out on Tom Sawyer's island, or better still, the Swiss Family Robinson tree house!  Frontier land take me away!  

Which reminds me --

One of my favorite childhood memories was an evening in the Going Family station-wagon (circa 1972), overflowing with popcorn and giggles at the drive-in, and falling in love with the big screen while cultivating the itty bitty imagination just under the surface, and just beginning to settle in under the blankets and starlight, leaving imprints large and small for a lifetime of inspiration and budding ambitions.   Easily, my dream of living in a tree house was doable --  and upon my own private island even better; the family Swiss told me so and in no uncertain terms. 

Wait a minute...

perhaps we need a refresher of some thoughts long, long ago.

THE GIVING TREE day, one of my best days, if I don't say so myself.  (And I did.)

America, the ever evocative Giving Tree -- inspires dreams far and wide.

And speaking of immigration --   Constitution, be damned; is that our final answer?  No.

How ironic -- this thing called a border -- but otherwise fully recognized, in a slimy, suspect, politically correct, raising baby-leftists kind of way, a sordid port of entry, come one, come all.   This border -- unnaturally becoming world renowned as a porous, lawless, senseless 2000 miles of imaginary lines, thereby allowing for unconscionable acts against the sovereignty of a nation that once prided itself upon the Rule of Law in which it supposedly stands.

Hold UP
Here's some BREAKING NEWS FROM THE BORDER (and considering my homestead being only a cool 45 minute coastal drive south to Mexico -- the San Ysidro border town is local news to me):

Courtesy of NPR, just August 20, 2015:

As of Wednesday, foreign pedestrians crossing into Mexico between San Diego and Tijuana are required to present a passport, fill out paperwork and, if they are staying for longer than one week, pay a 330-peso fee (about $20).

Oh really?

Hilarious, isn't it?

Carlos de la Fuente is quoted as saying:

"The way that people enter Mexico has been growing very disorganized, and now we are making it organized, that's the big difference."

Are we laughing, or what?

And yet, here's some fine print for you --    although this new law is great and is designed to coincide with the Mexican Law, it has it's limitations; it only applies to pedestrians; if you drive across the border, no questions, no paperwork, no fuss.

But let's not get lost in the details, shall we...

The thing is, how difficult would it be just to duplicate Mexican Law at this point?   What difference at this point does it make?  Whether following our own Immigration law, our Constitution, or Mexican Law --- let's just ask for all people crossing the border into America to physically stand in line and show a passport like everybody else.  The wait alone should curb many from even trying.

Oh wait.  Right.  We have a line.

Lines, spines, America has keines...none, zilch, nada, nil... (Und das ist alles nicht gut.   Exactly;  and what else would you expect from just a girl, her name is Gretchen?)


"[G]rowing very disorganized" he says.

Would just love to hear how would he characterize the free style border crossing going the other way? A Godsend?  perhaps...

Perhaps this is the money tree for which they come?   (Thank you Judicial Watch, data circa 2011)


Now, realizing I am swinging from branch to branch without the full capacity or energy to detail all that needs to be said (after all it is my first day back...), allow me to tie in just one more thing before I go;  let me just add this -- The Donald is growing on me.

So for your final read today,  here's a great article that might come close to explaining the phenomenon that is the tempest-in-campaign-mode who might just be the next American president...From WND, Kent G. Bailey Ph.D.:

Donald Trump is the prototypical, archetypal and testosterone-driven alpha male who rules by the sheer force of his personality, imposing physique, quick wit, mastery of repartee and almost hypnotic control over his gathering masses of adoring followers. He is Attila to the Huns, Henry V to the outnumbered English army, Winston Churchill to desperate allied forces, and now our fearless leader against the pagan forces of progressivism and political correctness. He is the unapologetic, quintessential warrior male of yore capable of vanquishing any and all opposition in his way.

And underneath it all,  just a boy with big dreams and a wild imagination and the ambition to climb the tree all the way to the top.  He must have seen the movie, Swiss Family Robinson, too.

Make it a Good Day, G

It's a Tale of Two Very Different People Thing

Dear America,

"That’s why I’ve called on Congress 

to take the money we’re no longer spending 

at war, 

use half of it to pay down our debt, 

and use the other half to rebuild America."  

President Obama

weekly address, Saturday

that is fresh, isn't it?

yeah, remember when he said ...before the end of my first term, I will pay down the debt by half?

yeah, and remember when he said, during his first campaign...if I am elected, I will go line by line eliminating wasteful spending?

Now, my last few entries here in G land have been preoccupied on the business of being a mom, the thankless job that it is, you know --  including the unending pressure to raise decent human beings under the umbrella that is simply recognized as "mom" --  having had the conversation kicked off and forced upon us by the ridiculous commentary coming from Hilary Rosen, attacking the 'wealthy mom' as personified by Ann Romney.

Now, eventually we got down to brass tacks, contrasting the family budget with that of the federal government's.

But all in all -- much like today's anti-male "hidden agenda" in advertising -- we left 'the other half' pretty much out of it.

And, as you can well imagine, this little oversight got me thinking...no, stop, go back G, stop thinking....

so Welcome. 

Mi Casa es Su Casa

 ...oooh, wipe your feet now...

oh never mind, 

it doesn't seem to matter

anymore

Let's pick apart the family scrapbook with something I like to call:  Tradition Is as Tradition Does.

Let's begin with a popular belief.  They say that when marriages don't make it -- one of two things is usually at the bottom of it:  Money or Infidelity.

Given the track record, it seems quite plausible America is heading for quite an ugly divorce; and it's gonna get messy.  Not only did the shmuck lie to us about "going line by line" and "cutting the debt by half"  -- we can't trust him farther than we can throw him.

And believe me, we've talked about it -- over and over and over again.  It's all we argue about.

And now listen to him -- "[I asked Congress]  to take the money we are no longer spending on war, use half of it to pay down the debt, and the other half to rebuild America."

That's like saying, "honey, take the money you were gonna spend on the Citibank Card (at 40% interest) and pay down some of the debt we've accrued on the Capital One Card --  and then, let's take the Bank of America card and pay for some repairs around the house."

And just how do you think it goes down?

Picture this:  the little wife turning to him, saying, "I'm done.  I just can't do this anymore."

yeah, Mr. President, that is ripe.  When running, on average, over a TRILLION dollars in debt each year -- you really think the American people are gonna keep buying this garbage? 

Hello.
America is no longer bringing in enough bacon to cover the expenses -- across the board -- whether it is in love or war.  It all works out the same way.   But feel free -- go ahead -- add up all the wealth of the top 1% -- forcing them to turn over even their designer blouses and dresses -- IT STILL WOULDN'T BE ENOUGH!  

Mr. President:  YOU SPEND the people's MONEY as if it grows on trees. [See also, the old bag blog on  The Giving Tree day.]  now talk about rehashing the same old thing, time and time again...

People really don't change.

We elected an American president -- with every page of family history confirming it along the way -- who came from a Socialist mom and a Marxist dad and a Muslim stepfather and Socialist grandparents in Hawaii and mentored by Socialist/Communist community organizers far and wide.  He studied the Law -- specifically Constitutional Law -- in order to change it.

Redistribution is the way his garden grows.  Government corruption and control comes naturally.  Energy production and distribution, managed by the State, seems downright feasible.  Recreating the tax structure to penalize wealth -- discouraging self-reliance and taking away any and all motivation to risk, invest, and higher educate, to create jobs, opportunities, and expansion in every stretch of the imagination -- comes easily and without any regrets.

Spending money he does not have doesn't even remotely sound foreign.  It's as if he says to himself, 'well I said it, so it must be true...'

Just look at us now.

It's as if he doesn't even realize we are saying two different things, speaking two different languages, living in two entirely different homes and dreams.  Just another tale of two people, in two cities, in two widely different America's.  Who knew?  Changing our traditions and holidays was just the beginning...

He's absolutely nothing like I thought he would be. [actually, that's a lie -- ]

Make it a Good Day, G

Thank you, Michelle, you're right.  We ARE "gonna have to make sacrifices, and change the conversation..."

Dear America,

It's like the book from Shel Silverstein, The Giving Tree. 

Whoa, stop...remember to click on Dear America every day...G cannot continue until you do...its all part of the moment, a setting of the stage of what's to come, a trip down memory lane, whatever I start you with --it's a must see TV.  Got it?  Get it? Good.  Now where were we...

Remember how the story goes...first there was this tree -- and a boy.  As the boy grew, the tree let him play on the swing hung by a branch; a little older, the boy could climb her branches reaching new heights; as a young man, he returned to take her branches to build a house...back again to take the trunk to build a boat to escape from reality...then finally returning to her, this old tree now only a stump.  And even though the tree could only offer him a place to rest -- the boy, now an old man, plumped down tired and exhausted.  And the tree was happy to oblige each and every time.

America is the tree; she became this great and glorious evergreen, a life force for all of us -- and all we ever did was take.  But America was happy; as that's just what you do living life from a position of grace and beauty and generosity and compassion.

Similar to a parent and a child, a teacher to a student, a minister to a parishioner in need -- the unselfish gift of simply giving without expectation of return is a lesson that when we finally get it, sometimes its too late, while other times it's not a moment too soon; and yet still for some, it may never come at all.

I feel like we've been given this gift by the genuine article herself, showing her wayward sons and daughters back from the abyss; finding us patriots coming to our knees giving thanks and praise -- we recognize that there is still something left inside us to care -- realizing what we almost gave up -- and we are now sitting shaking in our own skin frightened by what it could have almost been.

What troubles me is the realization that many of us are still floating on the surface, totally oblivious to the undertow below.  Sure, it all looks the same, same old waves of ideas and spin and highlights and press.  It may even taste the same, the salty political machine that keeps rolling out the same old thing, just in reverse, or exact opposite to the one before.  Most people just go along thinking, just business as usual in Washington, huh, whatarewegonna do about it, ho hum.

All of us have bear witness recently to the volatility of the free market, which started fully loaded and available for all of us to partake and take of it whatever we wanted, whenever we needed it.  Some of us profited more than others -- but all of us had a job who wanted a job, thanks to whomever took the risk to build a business to make a widget to sell to you and me and provide something useful or eatable or desirable or worthy of spending our hard earned two cents.

There is risk to be the creator of business, the engine that makes a livelihood run for hundreds of thousands of us year after year.  There is risk from the beginning before opening the first door and ringing in the first buck, to the strain of keeping it all flowing, and growing and building amidst good times and bad, to ride it all out until the immediate risk is long gone -- having only morphed into a constant underlying worry always in the back of the mind.

We don't experience the constant burden of meeting payroll, regulatory demand, taxation, health care mandates and rise in costs -- everything from a pencil to the PPO.  No, as the lowly employee we see none of that.  We feel none of the turbulence and only expect smooth sailing and calm seas as we go about life centered on the thought 'it's all about me'(what I need, what my family needs, what my dog needs...how I need a new car, a new washer, a new pair of shoes to go with the new dress and the kids lessons and activities and making sure they get a phone or the new mac to keep up with their friends)

The burden is on the employer to make it all happen -- every day; as most of us don't have what it takes to be the next IBM, Apple, Walmart, or Cable company.  We wouldn't know the  next thing as to building a Kenmore, a Prius, an IPhone or Google Network -- we wouldn't have a clue; nor would we have the capital to even start, or the good credit back behind us to get it.  Most of us just don't have that kind of leverage.

Matter of fact, most people even in congress have never run a company themselves; what do they know about meeting the demands of payroll on the first of the month when you also have health insurance coverage and the rent to pay on the building you lease or own -- when all of a sudden your IT network goes down or the copier finally calls it quits?

No, what we have in Congress are mostly lifetime politicians or attorneys, neither of which know the first thing of producing something of value, they only know taking something of value and giving it to someone else.

But there is something going on now that is deeper than all of that, deeper than jobs and far more worrisome than simply getting food on the table and providing for our children. 

After all this time of using our dear girl, our one fine America who's only fault was in continuing to give without expectation of return, we can hardly find her anymore in the hearts and minds of our leaders; and while they bicker and moan and call each other names as if that would make any difference, the true nature of our lady in waiting is calling to her people to stand up, in the last hope of turning the tide.

For it is in this current undertow of a markedly different game changer that has us off our feet and gasping for our very life and breath.  We see the light of the surface through the effervescence spinning over our head but we just can't turn ourselves around and head up in the right direction -- somethings caught hold of us, keeping us from making our way up.

And we can't even call out to a friend; nobody can really hear us, but even if they could, the lesson cannot be learned unless we do it all yourself -- each and every one of us. It's not up to the ocean to save us or a log to just come along, its not up to anyone else but our self to right this wrong.

America's done nothing wrong; there isn't a reason on this earth as to why she should apologize.  All she's ever done is provide for the base, the foundation, and the firmament to grow the wealthiest republic of people this world has ever known. 

We were blessed with magnificent minds coming together for the root cause of liberating and freeing all people, and creating a nation which reveled in self reliance, common sense and life created any way you want to make it.  For we formulated a rule of law that provided for our every indulgence and need, leaving government to a limited power in order to allow true growth, family prosperity, and freedom.

And just as the tree has nothing left to give but the resting spot of a stump, it is up to us to come to America's rescue in appreciation for all she is and forever will be; it is time for us to make her proud and to find a way to give something back to the one thing that gave everything up for us for our own pursuit of happiness.

Truth is, America has nothing left but a stump; her roots need replenished and all we seem to want to do is trample over her some more.  The tree needs a chance to grow back and prosper and branch out into the sun; her offshoots need to lift up to the light and soak up the rain to bring a sense of security that life continues on.  Even after storms ravage her and shake her to her core, the sense we are firmly grounded in history and perseverance and strength and liberty is what prevails.

This new administration doesn't seem to care about her past or what she gave to us all along the way.  They look at her in disgust and see just a stump -- something so old, worn down and used.  They figure its not even worthy of a trip to the greenhouse for tender loving care and an opportunity to grow back.  They would just assume dig her up entirely and throw her last bits into a chopper, using her for the final round of mulch for the sprinkling over the ever not so popular redistribution of wealth and common ground for all of us to plant ourselves into -- acres of neat little rows conforming to the new policy to share our property, our rights, our freedoms, our souls equally and squarely one to another, fearing the possibility of someone standing out and making a bean stock out of a pea shoot.

 Doesn't this new administration know that the ideas surrounding socialism or communism are ideal in the sense of creating the quintessential Utopian world -- of everyone getting what it needs equally and in proper share -- but it does not create anything but a nation of followers, and very poor one's at that;

• as the encouragement to build a business, risk the costs, leverage the benefits, and produce something, anything is not there;
• as the encouragement to go to school studying a field that takes a degree that takes a lot of time and certainly a lot of money that when you finally finish and are ready to earn the money to get back the investment of the hard earned education you find out the benefits of a top notch salary are simply no longer there -- hence, not even worth the effort;
• and if there is no real benefit anymore to being the entrepreneur, the innovator, the risk taker, where will the work come from?  The bureaucracy of writing checks and collecting taxes to take from the rich to give to the poor?  How long do you think that can last?  (see also wealthy New Yorkers leaving jobless New Yorkers)

My question today is just how does merely saving jobs equate to stimulating anything?  This kind of stimulation is short lived and futile in creating long term growth -- as there is NO GROWTH.  How is saving people from losing a job they already had considered a well thought out economic policy?  The GDP which grew 3.5% this last quarter is all done by smoke and mirrors -- elevated through artificial means with programs like Cash for Clunkers and First Time home-buyer credits -- and not from policy that rewards continued and substantial job growth. It is merely instant gratification...haven't we learned anything?

Programs like these do not create anything real.

Only the private sector can do that.  Only mom and pop have the right stuff.  Only a wall street can build a main street, as there has to be something in it for everybody.  Anyone catch SHARKS on TV, a bunch of entrepreneurs willing to stick it all out on the line for you if you have an innovative business plan?  This is America in a 60 minute capsule once a week; as the business of running America can only be saved by CREATING -- creating new jobs, new products, new opportunities.  Then and only then does everybody win.

The reality is, there are sharks in the water already -- and they are disguised as the current administration.  They want to eat America for breakfast -- and next they will be coming after people like you and me -- as there won't be anybody else for them to feed on.

I heard the funniest expression yesterday by some financial guy -- really sorry I can't remember who I can credit -- but he called yesterday's Uncle Sam as today's Uncle Sugar Daddy.  Don't you just love that. If it weren't so funny, I'd be crying.  Does that hit it on the head or what?

Glenn Beck imposed the question for all of us to just pick a side yesterday -- as remaining neutral the decision is merely made for us.

I'm saving a tree, what are you going to do today?

Make it a Good Day, G

 Thank you, Shel Silverstein, for giving us the gift of The Giving Tree.  It is a beautiful story and I just hope you can forgive me for using your tree.  Bless you for your work.

 Thank you, Barry Manilow, oh Mandy you came and you gave without taking...but I sent you away ...where would I be if weren't for your melodies playing in my ear at the age of 12...you write the songs, Barry, that make the whole world sing.  Bless you too.

 Thank you, G man Glenn, you are a gift to the life and times of our dear America.  Bless you and yours always.