Wednesday, August 15, 2012

The riots in Europe are based in profoundly sad realities.

This is a demonstration in Spain. (click here)

The austerity cuts were to people in the margins. Austerity is an atrocity and grotesque when it costs the lives of innocent people. 

That isn't where cuts should occur, they should occur in places where these citizens are not an issue, like the military and the next new method to kill each other.

By Ariana Eunjung Cha

The next morning, (click title to entry - thank you) Perris took the hand of his ailing 90-year-old mother. They climbed to the roof of their apartment building and leapt to their death.

The double suicide, in a working-class neighborhood in the Greek capital in late May, is just one incident among thousands of suicides this year that have shaken European societies as mounting job losses, cutbacks in public services and shrinking government pensions due to the continent’s financial upheaval take a toll on mental health....

The Farm Bill needs to be passed!



Blue Mount Dairy in Minnesota is an example of the state of the art farming in the USA that relies on consistent policy from the government to sustain its operation.

Blue Mont Dairy in Wisconsin produces artisan cheeses. These are local businesses. They are family businesses. Imagine being a family taking care of a large dairy business and having a bunch of clowns in DC playing with their futures. It is Un-American to hold vital legislation for political fodder. The farmers of the USA are under stress. The dairy industry is dependent on grains and hay operations to carry out their missions. It is time to put people in DC that actually care about people rather than money.

The fuel costs to these local, family businesses are hideous. Every farmer needs to belong to a local Farm Cooperative where biodiesel to power their operations produce their supply for an entire year at cost to member farmers. Due to Wall Street profits and a warming planet the cost of grains and hay are going to impact on the agricultural operations across this country and the Do Nothing Congress, led by those like Congressman Paul Ryan have left them out on a limb without support to continue their operations to feed our nation.

These are the people relying on clean water in their aquifers to water their livestock and irrigate their crops. The food for our nation are produced by people as dedicated as those here. They understand their operations to a microscopic level. Imagine the veterinary costs to a dairy operation and realize that is only one cost to the enterprise. We do need Canadian Oil Sludge destroying a healthy food supply to the nation. We don't need another pipeline through the USA. We need biodiesel production and clean energy such as wind farms to power our nation. Clean energy to match a healthy nation.

Why would anyone want it differently? 

Blue Mont Diary (click here)

Willi Lehner, a Swiss-American cheesemaker and owner of Bleu Mont, brings his experience of authentic Alpine cheesemaking to a collection of Wisconsin original cheeses. Made in small batches, these complex, full-bodied cheeses reflect the mountain tradition of using raw, organic milk from pastured cows. They are aged in a special cave, built into the landscape. Varieties include Bandaged Cheddar (English-style), Gouda, Farmstead Käse, Driftless Select "Earth Schmier," Irish Gems, and Lil' Will's Big Cheese. Cheesemaker Lehner is always experimenting with new cheeses as well.
Bleu Mont Dairy
3480 Cty F
Blue Mounds, WI 53517
Phone: 608-767-2875
Contact:
Willi Lehner
608-767-2875

Ryan as the Vice Presidential by Romney is a solid endorsement for Wall Street over Main Street.

The Ryan Plan for Medicare would destroy the program accepting all the elderly and providing care.

The elderly with health problems would be left adrift when the Medicare Program failed after all the cream was skimmed off the top by the insurance industry.

...—and replace it with a scheme in which beneficiaries would be given “premium support” to help them buy coverage on the private market. Yes, the traditional Medicare program would continue to be a choice under the 2012 version of Ryan’s plan, but it would have to compete with private insurance companies. And because, under Ryan's plan, insurers would be able to cherry-pick the healthiest seniors, the traditional Medicare program would likely be unable to survive over the long haul. Perhaps it should come as no surprise that Ryan's wife is a former lobbyist for the health insurance industry....

One has to wonder what drew Romney to Ryan and why a sour pick to win the election was so important. The Romneys have to feel a gratitude to some extent to Mrs. Ryan, a former health insurance industry lobbyist.

The Paul Ryan attack on Medicare was fostered by his wife. Ryan is not the boy genius everyone wants to believe. The GOP threw in with Ryan's wife, not Ryan. Tell me they didn't know.

...The Affordable Care Act outlaws many of the most egregious practices of the insurance, such as refusing to sell coverage to people with preexisting conditions and charging older people many times more than what they charge younger people for the same coverage. Ryan proposes not only to privatize Medicare but also to scrap those consumer protections, by repealing the reform law....

Romney's choice of Ryan is about raising campaign funds too, but, they sincerely want to scrap the Affordable Care Act and throw everyone back to the old paradigm of being UNINSURABLE and without health care. The focus on Ryan's Medicare plans has to include the fact the Affordable Care Act will be eliminated from the American landscape. It isn't just Medicare Reform it is a return to the lack of substantial change to insure the nation while funneling government monies to Wall Street. It is the worst of all worlds. 

The answer for Medicare exists, but, it isn't with the idea that it can be privatized with premium support. It is ridiculous. The Ryan Plan for Medicare is the plan that destroys equity for the nation against the profits of Wall Street. The profits of Wall Street are exorbitant, can the American citizen say they are better off because of it?

...Mitt Romney is trying to muddy the issue. On the day he announced Ryan as his running mate, Romney accused President Obama of using the reform law to cut $700 billion from the Medicare program. That’s not true. In reality, that figure is what the Congressional Budget Office estimates will be saved over the next several years as a result of changes in the way Medicare pays doctors, hospitals and drug companies—changes that doctors, hospitals and drug companies endorsed....