Author Archives: Editor (Retired)

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About Editor (Retired)

Newsman, blogger, editor, writer (and no longer young).

Behavior modification: for the birds (via The Clueless Farmer)

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The Clueless Farmer(s) have been busy since they started “Glean Acres” and ordered 500 baby chicks. Their adventures are amusing and uplifting. Lots of great pictures. I wouldn’t miss following their story on the road less traveled.

In an insane world of war and economic calamity, it’s a relief to find something that’s good and real and simple. I think they’re living in approximately the way human beings were intended to live. I’m cheering for them to be successful enough to continue to farm for a long time.

Behavior modification: for the birds Two of our roosters spent the night locked outside the coop. They had been behaving badly. Running around grabbing other chickens by the back of their necks with their very sharp, strong beaks. I know how sharp and strong those beaks are because they frequently mistake my toe or a mosquito bite on the back of my leg for a choice tidbit when it’s feeding time. It leaves a bruise! After nursing several beak bruises, a wise woman would learn her les … Read More

via The Clueless Farmer

And They Call Themselves ‘Patriots’

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The western front of the United States Capitol...

Image via Wikipedia

No. 4 in a series on the Debt Crisis of 2011.

Here’s an American paradox, or maybe it’s a morality story. You work to pay your bills. I work to pay my bills, thereby maintaining the fiction that I’m solvent and creditworthy.

While you and I are working to pay our bills, right-wing zealots are conspiring to prevent the government of the United States of America from paying its bills. They even pretend that it would be right and good for the U.S. to ignore its debts.

The premeditated intent of these patriot-politicians is to subvert Congress and sabotage the U.S. Treasury, force financial default, and destroy America’s credit rating. With malice aforethought, they plan to run the U.S. government straight into bankruptcy and shut it down.

By bankrupting the Treasury, these people — the Tea Party, the Libertarians, the Anarchists, the tax protestors — hope to smash and destroy the government, and kill its hated programs and taxes. Then they will wave the American flag and celebrate.

Isn’t it sedition and treason to destroy from within the government of your own country?

Believers in this Tea Party and Libertarian conspiracy call themselves “Patriots.”  But aren’t they really traitors and turncoats?

— John Hayden

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American Debt Crisis: Rich and Powerful Demand Total Victory over Middle Class and Poor

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No. 3 in a series on the Debt Crisis of 2011.

President Barack Obama floated a trial balloon on the front page of the Washington Post on Thursday, in a long story that said the President is prepared to discuss cuts to both Medicare and Social Security. As the headline put it, Medicare and Social Security are “on the table,” otherwise known as the chopping block. No one quoted in the story was willing to have their name attached to the information.

In the whole, long newspaper story, the words “defense” and “defense cuts” were never mentioned. Not once. What? You mean Medicare and Social Security are on the table, but the elephantine defense budget is not? It’s not credible, not believable.

As Obama was supposedly preparing to sacrifice Medicare and Social Security, Republicans repeated their long-stated position: Tax increases for the rich are NOT “on the table.” Republicans allowed as how they might be willing to wheel and deal on tax breaks and loopholes, so long as the net effect is no increase in taxes on the rich.

Also yesterday, AARP, the largest organization representing senior citizens, made its position clear: The AARP opposes any cuts in Medicare and Social Security.

So, the lines are clearly drawn in the class war to divide up what’s left of the American Dream. The rich and powerful have made clear they will accept nothing less than total victory over the middle class and poor. President Obama hints he might be a willing accomplice in the cashing out of Medicare and Social Security. If so, it would be a presidential betrayal of the American people on a historic scale.

(If you cringe at the words class war, don’t forget that class warfare will probably be followed by generational warfare, pitting mother against daughter and grandfather against grandson. See “Divide And Conquer: The New Plan To End Social Security by Dividing America at 55.”)

Could President Obama possibly be serious about caving in to the rich and powerful on both Medicare and Social Security? Plus a player to be named later, Medicaid?

I hope the President is not serious. To balance the budget by cutting Medicare and Social Security for the middle class and the poor, while at the same time refusing to raise taxes on the rich by a single penny, would be a craven injustice. Remember, the rich are paying tiny taxes, compared to what they have paid historically, and their wealth continues to expand, in a continuing social transfer of assets from bottom to top.

In my opinion, there is nothing wrong with the American budget that could not be remedied by modest tax increases on the wealthy, accompanied by modest spending cuts in the defense budget. That’s what should be “on the table.”

I hope Obama floated this balloon simply to highlight how outrageous it would be to force the middle class and the poor to pay for the financial crisis created by the rich and powerful. In any event, the trial balloon provided an easy target for Democrats in Congress to shoot down.

Do you suppose that anyone is negotiating in good faith as the clock ticks down to financial default by the U.S. government?  If U.S. leaders fail to behave responsibly, the hard times ahead could test the fabric of American society like never before.

— John Hayden

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Living simply..it’s a little complex (via Melbourne Mumma)

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The New York City fireworks over the East Vill...

Image via Wikipedia

I’m still wrestling with “Starve The Beast.” The more I think about “Starve The Beast,” the more I see a political conspiracy to bring down the United States of America, to reduce the government to a helpless, broken heap of bureaucracy, so that corporations can be free to profit without limit, and the wealthy of the world can be free to exploit the poor without opposition.

And right this minute, I’m working my way through the Fourth of July weekend in beach town, USA, where half a million people will watch 15 minutes of fireworks tonight — a dazzling display of noise and light, to be sure —  and then sit in absolute gridlock for three hours, waiting to get over the bridge and go to work Tuesday morning. Will anyone think about “Independence?”

 “Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose.”

. . . . Meanwhile, a simple post about simplicity, from Australia . . .

Living simply..it's a little complex I’m a big believer in simple living.  If it were realistic to live without a mobile phone and just rely on the post and a single home phone, like the 1980’s model above, I’d be quite happy.  I have an iPhone completely void of any apps and am often asked ”why no apps, why no apps?” but for me, the less buttons, the better (I am scared of apps like ‘angry birds’.) In fact ironically, despite being a blogger, I find myself less and less inclined t … Read More

via Melbourne Mumma

America’s Can’t-Do Attitude

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Here’s a glimpse of government in America, as reported in my hometown newspaper.

The City Council is concerned about the large crowds waiting at bus stops, often watching three or four buses pass without stopping because the buses are already jam-packed standing-room-only.

The transportation administrator (we’ll call him H.A.) assured the City Council that his department is “doing the best they can.” He explained:

“The problem is just like the  _____ Steakhouse, you can’t build it big enough, you can’t staff it enough to meet the people, you can’t do it and you can’t afford to do it.”

Four can’t-do-its in one miserable sentence by a high-ranking public bureaucrat! And he’s the boss! Can you imagine how demoralized his employees must feel? It’s enough to make you cry. But wait. H.A. is only getting started. As the newspaper reported:

H.A. added that it is also difficult to fill bus shifts because driving a bus in   _______ City isn’t a fit for everybody. He said currently the department does not have full staffing and there are 32 vacant eight-hour shifts.

“As of today, we are not fully staffed . . . you can’t walk in the door and get in the seat of that bus,” H.A. said.

H.A. explained that if a driver does not have a CDL license (commercial driver’s  license) it would take an additional 30 days to train and acquire a passenger license.

Let me see if I understand this. Unemployment is over 9 percent in America — and higher in our local area — and yet the administrator is unable to hire sufficient bus drivers? The required 30 days training is too high an obstacle to overcome?

A City Council member assured H.A., “There are no problems in us giving you the money you need to have to do the job.” H.A. proudly acknowledged that money is NOT the problem. Money is not going to change his can’t-do attitude.

“If you hand me a bazillion dollars, it doesn’t mean I have all the drivers and all the vehicles,” H.A. said. “It’s an octopus with a lot of tentacles, you make it work.”

(H.A. also affirmed that the supply of buses is not the problem. He has 14 brand new buses waiting to go into service.)

If anyone remained unconvinced that HA can’t do the job, he went on to confirm his determined futility with the following:

“I don’t want anybody in this room to think we will be in a position to deploy a sufficient number of buses every time you’re waiting at the bus stop during a peak hour, on a peak night, on a beautiful hot, sunny evening in June, July and August and that we will be able to pick you up every 10 minutes.” H.A. said. “It’s utopia and it just can’t be done.”

Case closed. Ladies and gentlemen, when any bureaucrat, government agency, corporation, or business becomes so thoroughly demoralized and convinced that it can’t do its job, don’t you think it’s past time for a change?

American workers, businesses, and government used to proudly flaunt a CAN-DO attitude. No More. H.A.’s defeatist can’t-do attitude has become the new standard in America. Can’t-do permeates American government, politics, and business.

America seems immobilized by a deadly epidemic of passive-aggressive sickness. We can’t do it. Even if we could do it, we won’t do it, and nobody can make us do it. You can’t complain about it, because we won’t even answer the phone.

  • “Hello. We value your business.
  • Please press One for Lies.
  • Press Two for Dysfunction.
  • Press Three for Disrespect.
  • Press Four for Excuses.
  • Press Five to be Disconnected.
  • Have a nice day.”

Add up all the can’t-do attitudes like H.A.’s from every corner of this once-great nation, and you get the following:

American workers can’t compete with other workers around the world.

American businesses can’t stop moving factories and jobs overseas.

America can’t maintain its bridges and highways and water and sewer systems.

America can’t afford Medicare and Social Security. (Although every other advanced Western nation can.)

American business is sitting on billions in idle capital, but American business can’t put the money to work because of uncertainty. (Life is uncertain. Starting a business or investing capital is always fraught with uncertainty, by definition. Uncertainty is the nature of capitalism. Profits and stock prices routinely climb a wall of fear.)

The U.S. Senate can’t pass a budget because it can’t get 60 votes. On anything. You name it, the U.S. Senate can’t do it.

Congress can’t follow and the President can’t lead. Democrats and Republicans can’t work together. What did you expect?

We, the voters, can’t be serious. We’re surrounded by momentous problems, begging to be solved; but we can’t pay attention to anything, except sex scandals.

Ladies and gentlemen, our can’t-do attitude is killing whatever is left of the American Dream.

— John Hayden

Hot, Noisy, Crowded.

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“Starve the Beast.” I’ve been meaning to write that post for about two months. I think “Starve the Beast” is central to understanding America’s present “debt crisis.”

But just this minute, we have a Summer Weekend.  The town is infested with Junebugs, stuck in a heat wave (on the way to a drought). And we have THE AIR SHOW, the car show, a couple of youth sports tournaments. A steaming, noisy, crowded, drunken melting pot, plus cars, bicycles, motorcycles, scooters. What more could you want?

Think before you speak. Wag more, bark less.  — John

Real Life Interferes With Blogging

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Friends, I apologize for being away from ConsterNation for so long. Hard to believe I’ve not posted since the end of April.

What happened? Long story short, I got a job. I continue to make time for reading.  Later in this post, I’ll talk briefly about “My Antonia,” by Willa Cather, and “Babbit,” by Sinclair Lewis.   Continue reading →

Another Black Swan Lands — Super Storm In The South — How Much We Depend On Each Other

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Farmer and sons walking in the face of a dust ...

FATHER AND SONS WALKING IN A DUST STORM IN OKLAHOMA IN 1930s. Image via Wikipedia

The Black Swan has landed again, this time in the American South, a Super Storm that roared through Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina. The tornadoes that ran with this storm wrecked communities all along its path. The worst devastation appears to have been in Alabama.

When has America seen an inland storm of such magnitude? Our worst storms usually develop over water. In the East, the most powerful weather events are hurricanes. Other natural disasters in my memory are earthquakes, tsunamis, blizzards. Major flooding happens along inland rivers. But an inland storm like this? How often, if ever, has a storm system like this been seen in the history of North America?

The only comparison I can conjure is the Dust Bowl — famously “The Worst Hard Times” — of the 1930s. The worst coincidence of natural and manmade disasters in at least a  century, I would have to say, was the Dust Bowl, which coincided with the worst economic disaster, the Great Depression, which was immediately followed by World War II, the worst military-criminal disaster. I suppose it should be stipulated that the conditions for the Dust Bowl were created by human means.

To many people, it feels like disasters, both natural and manmade, are striking with increasing frequency and ferocity. In the past few years: Hurricane Katrina, earthquake in Haiti, the Gulf Coast oil spill, earthquake and nuclear crisis in Japan, multiple wars in the oil region of the Middle East, and now multiple uprisings and civil wars.

We Need Civilization and Cooperation

The first thing people do in natural disasters of such proportion is look around to see what remnants of organized civilization remain standing. Assistance is called for, and expected, from local police and fire agencies, National Guard, Red Cross, and FEMA. Disasters remind us not only how fragile is human life, but also how fragile are human institutions, and civilization itself.

It is more than troubling to realize that millions of American citizens, and their elected representatives, are at this very moment hoping and planning — you might say, “plotting” — to bring down the government of the United States of America, and with it, possibly, the worldwide economy. That would indeed create the worst catastrophe, and the greatest suffering, since the combination of Depression, Dust Bowl, and World War.

It’s almost beyond comprehension, but it’s true. Many Americans now hate government so much that they would prefer anarchy. As police and shocked bystanders say after an especially heinous crime: “This must be the work of insanity or Evil.”

Can you think of another explanation?

— John Hayden

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American Debt Crisis: Whatever Happened to Jobs, Jobs, Jobs?

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No. 2 in a series of quick-takes on the Debt Crisis of 2011. 

Today’s question: Whatever happened to the first and foremost issue of the 2010 election, JOBS?

Remember when every politician was chanting in unison: “Jobs, jobs, jobs!” That’s what they said, because that’s what the voters cared about. Jobs. But “Jobs, jobs, jobs!” was more a prayer than a promise.

All politics is local, remember, but the job market is now global. It is not within the power of locally elected politicians to create jobs in a global job market.

It is, however, within the power of politicians to kill jobs. Soon as the class of 2010 took residence in the governor’s mansions and state legislatures, they set about writing austerity budgets focused on two goals: Reduce spending and cut taxes. The way to reduce spending is to eliminate as many state programs and state jobs as possible. Wisconsin got the lion’s share of publicity for austerity, but nearly every state has joined the movement.

Now the focus has turned to Washington, where they’re busy cutting jobs on a larger scale. The debate is not over whether to cut the federal budget, but how deeply to cut. And where to cut.

The Republican Party is determined to cut the budget by gutting the hated “Entitlement Programs.”  They use the words, “Entitlement Programs” because they fear to say, “Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security.”  The main budget target this year is Medicare for the elderly. Republicans hope, as soon as possible, to move on to cutting Medicaid and the most popular “Entitlement,” Social Security.

Keep your eye on the goal. Forget about Jobs, jobs, jobs! The attention span is short. Jobs, Jobs, Jobs! is over. That was last year’s goal.

The goal for 2011 is reducing the national debt. So they say. Spending cuts are the means to that end.

But the real goal is to reduce taxes for wealthy individuals and for corporations. Republicans plan to hand over to the wealthy and corporations, all the money saved by spending cuts. In a few years, presumably, Congress would begin to use some of the savings to actually reduce the debt. Possibly.

When pressed, Republicans say that the way to create Jobs, jobs, jobs! is by gifting large amounts of money to the wealthy and corporations, who would invest the money. Eventually, it might trickle down to the masses in the form of jobs.

Remember that wealthy people invest their money in corporations. As in,  “International Corporation” Or “Global Corporation.” So, even if you believe in trickle down, exactly where in the world do you suppose new jobs would be created?

In my opinion, any jobs resulting from U.S. spending and tax cuts would go to some developing  country offering cheap labor, far from the U.S.

America with no jobs and no Medicare will be a sad and dreary place.

The first post in this series on the American Debt Crisis is here. The next installment will be “Starve The Beast.”

— John Hayden

(Does a 525-word post qualify as a short-take?)

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Geography of Life After Sixty: You Do Have A Choice

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VANCOUVER, BEST CITY FOUR YEARS RUNNING. Wikimedia Commons photo

MELBOURNE SKYLINE. AUSTRALIA HAS FOUR OF THE WORLDS TOP CITIES. Wikimedia Commons photo

We haven’t talked about geography in a while. Have you ever thought about relocating to a better place?

Like, “If Congress is stupid enough to kill Medicare, I’m moving to Canada!”

If you’re retired and living on Social Security, you might actually have the freedom to make a considered decision about the best place for you, personally.

Her Majesty Elizabeth II, Queen of the Commonwealth, must be doing something right. Public domain photo

Turns out, Canada’s not a bad choice. In Time’s list of the 10 Happiest Countries in the World, Canada comes in third, behind only Denmark and Sweden. Australia is fourth and New Zealand is eighth. These Commonwealth countries must have a secret. Could it be their health care systems? Ireland, my favorite place to consider living, is 10th. Come to think of it, I guess all the countries in the top  10 have universal health care. The U.S. does pretty well, at 12th place, considering we have health care that’s more expensive and less effective than many countries.

In a ranking of the Most Livable Cities in the World, Australia has four(!) in the top 10 and Canada has three. Vancouver, Canada (most livable city in the world four years in a row!), and Melbourne, Australia took first and second place. If you’re gazing north across the border, Calgary and Toronto also make the top 10. Pittsburgh(!) is the top-ranked U.S. city, at 28th.

Gazing south across the border? Dunno. People used to retire to Mexico for the low cost-of-living. But I hear they’ve got an out-of-control drug war going just now.

As always, these rankings of places are subjective. You have to consider what factors were considered in the rankings. What’s important to you? Health care? Cost of living? Climate?

— John Hayden

(Quick-take rating for this post: 342 words)

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