Monday, January 28, 2013

They are eliminating State Income Tax and raising sales tax.

New Hampshire (click here) does not have a general sales tax or an income tax on an individual's reported W-2 wages. There are taxes on an individual's interest and dividends income, inheritance, business taxes, consumer excise taxes and other taxes as listed below. Fuel taxes are administered by the NH Dept. of Safety Road Toll office at 603-271-2311.
New Hampshire has been doing this a long time. But, New Hampshire does have taxes.
The new movement is compliments of ALEC. But, the application of removing an income tax has to gradual.
...Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin is starting to feel surrounded. (click here) On her state’s southern border, Texas has no income tax. Now two of its other neighbors, Missouri and Kansas, are considering plans to cut and eventually abolish their income taxes. “Oklahoma doesn’t want to end up an income-tax sandwich,” she quips.
On Monday she announced her new tax plan, which calls for lowering the state income-tax rate to 3.5% next year from 5.25%, and an ambition to phase out the income tax over 10 years. “We’re going to have the most pro-growth tax system in the region,” she says.
She’s going to have competition. In Kansas, Republican Governor Sam Brownback is also proposing to cut income taxes this year to 4.9% from 6.45%, offset by a slight increase in the sales tax rate and a broadening of the tax base. He also wants a 10-year phase out. In Missouri, a voter initiative that is expected to qualify for the November ballot would abolish the income tax and shift toward greater reliance on sales taxes...

The 'idea' is that residents would be better off with a higher sales tax so others can pay their way. Basically, that is what the real sales point is. 

Every state will not do well. In Kansas, it will probably be disastrous. Kansas is a state largely agricultural and not a tourist attraction, so the bulk of the state's taxes will be paid by the residents and not visitors. If a state wants to add a sales tax on non-residents they should add a 'tourism tax.' If they don't have one already. It isn't the USA, but, in Nova Scotia a fairly small province in Canada has double digit sales tax for precisely the fact tourism is a great industry there.

For Kansas I am having a difficult time believing farmers are NOT going to be up in arms at any increase in their operating expenses when they are already owned by Monsanto.

South Carolina will probably have an uptick with their tourism industry. There is a very big disincentive to have a Sales Tax Only income for the state. People don't have to purchase items within the state and pay 10% sales tax when they can go elsewhere and pay 7% while not paying income tax. Large purchases, especially.

The states pulling this stunt will be able to assist their poor IF THEY WANT TO. In Kansas, there is a subsidy for telephone bills. Yes, telephone bills. 

Don't ask me???? $17.02 in subsidies must be a real whopper in Kansas. But, that isn't the point. The Lifeline Program recognizes a poverty guidelines based on numbers in the family.

*2012 Kansas Proverty Level Guidelines

So, Kansas, if they actually want to govern, can provide a tax reporting form annually, no different than state income tax, and provide a refund on increases in their tax liability due to the new sales tax only policies.

Problem solved.

There may be another disincentives to state sales tax only, namely credits to those paying itemized deductions to the federal government. But, if all the Red States are New Hampshire Wannabees, they will ultimately find out no matter what they try it isn't going to improve their circumstances UNTIL their citizens are earning a living wage from ONE INCOME and a forty hour work week. 

The more quality of life citizens have within a state, the better the economy will become. Local economies will improve and the overall 'fiscal fitness' will improve. But, hey, the cronies like the Koch Brothers just won't have it, so what does anyone expect. These antics will go on until the states where a living wage is deprived of their citizens finally learn. Their ideology is the problem and for some unknown reason the Democrats can't seem to get folks to see it. Cultural permanence is a difficult paradigm.

Per capita money income in the past 12 months of 2007 to 2011 in 2011 dollars

New Hampshire -  $32,357

Kansas -  $26,545

USA -  $27,915

South Carolina -  $23, 854

New Hampshire "on average" has a larger share of the customer wealth than the rest of the USA and other Red States. New Hampshire knows their populous has a greater investment income than most other states, so the lack of income tax and sales tax isn't where they would find a base for the state's income. New Hampshire taxes other income than income tax within the state, mostly from investment.

New Hampshire State Tax


What is it?
A 5% tax is assessed on interest and dividend income. The State of New Hampshire does not have an income tax on an individual's reported W-2 wages.

Who pays it?
Resident individuals, fiduciaries, and trusts with non-transferable shares earning interest and dividend taxable income of more than $2,400 annually ($4,800 for joint filers). In addition, the following exemptions may also apply: 1) a $1,200 exemption is available for residents who are 65 years of age or older; 2) a $1,200 exemption is available for residents who are blind regardless of their age; and 3) a $1,200 exemption is available to disabled individuals who are unable to work, provided they have not reached their 65 th birthday.

When is the return due?
The return is due on the 15th day of the 4th month following the end of the taxable period. There is no filing requirement for an individual whose total interest and dividend income, after deducting all interest from U.S. obligations or other non-taxable income, is less than $2,400 ($4,800 for joint filers) for a taxable period.



ALEC does not solve every state's problems. ALEC just simplifies the legislation to failure. Every state is different. The entire country has its own paradigm. So, the idea there is one blanket policy provided by ALEC that actually applies to fifty states and the USA is nonsense. ALEC is about treating government as a business as if every state can have the same bottom line. ALEC is a failure as a problem solver, but, it does provide those that can't govern a way to look like they know what they are doing and political continuity in the party of ideologies. The states are not CLONED. 

ALEC, in it's mission and purpose, is fraudulent and highly unethical. It removes the authority of government to a private sector dictate.

To dispel the rumors that Murdoch pushed Hillary, there are interviews for major networks.

By DYLAN BYERS
1/28/13 10:33 AM EST

Outgoing Sec. of State Hillary Clinton (click here) will sit for interviews with the five major news networks this week, POLITICO has confirmed.
Clinton spokesperson Phillipe Reines told POLITICO that Sec. Clinton was "sitting with all five US networks before leaving office on Friday."
Those five networks are Fox News, CNN, NBC, ABC and CBS, which aired its joint interview with Sec. Clinton and President Obama Sunday night on 60 Minutes.

updated 5/12/2006 7:09:38 PM ET
Media mogul Rupert Murdoch, (click here) whose Fox News Channel and other conservative news outlets have been skewering Hillary Rodham Clinton for years, will host a summer fund-raiser for the senator, mystifying some observers and enraging others....

They are always available when no one else is.

I believe in pets. They have their own agenda. They need care. They draw a person into their world and demand function from their caregivers.

They provide an agenda of happiness where there is a void of same. They are gregarious and joyful. Even their bad habits and bad behavior adds to the challenges of life. They have to be taught and monitored to be sure they are safe and they are behaving like a good child.

A pet is a focus point for parents and children to come together. When they don't have words, they have a life of an animal to talk about and all the shenanigans that goes along with that.

Pets become life long members of a family. They provide recreation where there was none before. Running, jumping, chasing. Play. All those qualities are provided by pets where no other exists. They fill a void and they do it well without prejudice to outcomes.

Just a thought.

They are effected. PTSD. Has to be.

Every one of those people were traumatized that day. There is no easy recovery from this. Every time there is a hearing about yet another gun slaughter in the USA victims of previous crimes turn out for gun control. The loss. The pain. The void. Never goes away. The request of the USA to stop this violence and stop the gun lobby is always there. No one just springs back without emotional trauma as a lingering reality.

People lose their sense of well being. I hate the idea of what those children are going through or how it is effecting their lives and achievement. It was at Christmas. Could it have been worse?

Do they understand they are good children? Do they understand this is not punishment? Do they accept the sincere loss of friends that won't be coming back, but, were good children, too?

How these folks internalize this event is important. How are the Columbine children doing? Achievement? Substance abuse? College? Interpersonal relationships? Continued relationships with family? Did they get pets to give them unconditional love and did that make a difference to their outcome?

www.NewtownPatch.com (click here)

Posted by Valerie Strauss on January 27, 2013 at 1:51 pm
...Teachers, administrators, (click here) students and staff at Sandy Hook will now have a full week off in mid-February instead of a two-day vacation that had already been scheduled for the entire Newtown Public School District, thanks to a vote by the Newtown Board of Education last week. Connecticut education officials have agreed to allow Sandy Hook to have a school schedule shorter than the state-mandated 180 days, according to NewTown Patch.com.  Six days of school were lost at Sandy Hook after the shootings.

The board also voted to keep intact a week-long vacation in April for district public schools, and it approved a measure to give all district staff two additional days off, though they cannot be taken near already scheduled vacations.

“This is a very compassionate move by the board,” Superintendent Janet Robinson said. “I agree with it.”

Members of the Newtown Board of Education also are going to ask the state legislature to award workers’ compensation benefits for teachers and staff who were traumatized by the killings, a move made in the past for police, according to the Stamford Advocate....

Is there some reason to believe the USA military is not effective to prevent violence?

RPG - Rocket Propelled Granade


By Barbara Starr and Greg Botelho, CNN
updated 7:12 PM EST, Mon January 28, 2013


...Yemeni authorities (click here) working with the U.S. Navy intercepted a ship carrying a "substantial" cache of "illegal arms" such as surface-to-air missiles, potent explosives and rocket-propelled grenades, a U.S. official and Yemen's government said Monday.

The incident took place in Yemeni territorial waters in the Arabian Sea last Wednesday, according to a statement issued five days later from Yemen's embassy in Washington.

The crew of the USS Farragut, a Naval destroyer, was working with Yemeni authorities when they spotted the vessel in question, said an official in the Obama administration. The ship had several flags onboard, but no reliable documentation showing where it came from, the official added Monday.

After the ship was intercepted, Yemeni coast guard officers boarded it and "found a large cache of illegal arms," according to the Yemeni embassy's statement, which was also posted on the website of the Arabian country's state-run SABA news agency....

USS Farragut

Have they tried Ambien?

These attempts of using non-traditional drugs for increasing awareness in coma patients has a methodolgy.

These medications alter the brain chemistry in separate pathways then what would be considered normal brain chemistry. So, it seems to me if they have found some responsiveness with Prime Minister Sharon, the doctors are required to take this one step further. There is not necessarily immediate results, but, there are gradual results that can being to BUILD awareness. The conscious state is another question, but, the idea is that if there is stimulation of the brain that makes sense it will respond.


...Convinced (click here) that the son they know and love is still “in there,” Chris’s parents have spent the past three years searching for a way to bring him back out. So far, their best hope has come from an unlikely source: Ambien. A growing body of case reports suggests that the popular sleep aid can have a profound — and paradoxical — effect on patients like Chris. Rather than put them to sleep, both Ambien and its generic twin, zolpidem, appear to awaken at least some of them. The early reports were so pronounced that until recently, doctors had a hard time believing them. Only now, more than a decade after the initial discovery, are they taking a closer look....

Four Basic Pillars of Immigration Reform. One more pillar and it would be the Quran.

These folks are crossing the Rio Grande River. It is happening as I write this. Fairly confident of that. Okay? Is the USA going to survey the river, put up a wall and hope erosion doesn't change the river's path? It does that, you know. The Rio Grande shifts within it's banks. So, what is USA territory today is not USA territory tomorrow and vice versa.

First Pillar

- Create a tough but fair path to citizenship for unauthorized immigrants currently living in the USA....

That means every stays, right? Everyone in the country now has a path to citizenship. That is what that tells me. No one is being deported or harassed or the victim of any law that will send them to a detention facility as if a criminal.

...that is contingent upon...

Nope, that is not what that says.

...securing our borders and tracking whether legal immigrants have left the country when required:

Right.

So, the only way everyone gets to stay is if the borders are secure and I am confident that is all tied up in very definitive terms so the USA knows when they have reached THE THRESHOLD. 

Additionally, all legal immigrants would have to have left when they were required to. Hm. I am sure that is all defined clearly in order to know when we have reached the THRESHOLD. 

But, you know something, if the legal immigrants are still here and haven't left they are illegal immigrants, so does that mean they are a part of the group of illegals that don't have to leave anymore?

Second Pillar

Reform our immigration system to better recognize the importance of characteristics that will help build the American economy and American families;

Character issue, huh? Gee that is a shame. Don't get to stay after all, huh? So, this is not a Pledge of Allegiance said in English problem, this is a character problem. So, basically, all the folks in the USA aren't here to stay either and the country is to set up a huge bureaucratic nightmare that will add grossly ridiculous amounts to the National Debt.

I don't think so. People that are criminals stay and are prosecuted throughout the USA courts without deporting them to terrible governments where they will never know humane treatment. That is how I see it. The character issue of non-Americans is the same as with Americans and if we are to allow illegal immigrants to have citizenship it is all of them regardless of their character flaws.

I am sure I have that wrong and the humane treatment of all currently in the USA will be made clear later in the document.

Third Pillar

Create an effective employment verification system that will prevent identity theft and end the hiring of future unauthorized workers; and,

More money to spend on a system that won't work. The only way illegal immigrants are going to stop coming to the USA (I have said it over and over) is for their country of national origin to actually have a quality of life so they don't want to leave. There is never going to be a water tight verification system whereby illegal immigrants will be stopped. Their immigration can be defrayed through border security and ID requirements for employment using things like E Verify, but it will never be water tight. 

There is already E Verify, I don't see why anything other spending has to exist.

Fourth Pillar

Establish an improved process for admitting future workers to serve our nation's work force needs, while simultaneously protecting all workers.

The only thing this could possibly be referring to is the VISA process and the number of VISAs allowed in the USA per year. This is already tracked by the State and Labor Departments. We don't have to re-invent the wheel on any of this. All we need to do is realize where American citizens are out of work because there are too many VISAs issued every year. That does not take rocket science.

What needs to be done is an independent review of this process to be sure it is honest and not used as a tool for political upticks. You know, destroy unions and wage scales.

Oh, hey, there ya go. Under the First Pillar:

...our legislation will increase the number of unmanned aerial vehicles and surveillance equipment, improve radio interoperability (that is a word),...

What does that mean? Does that mean the drones are going to talk to each other so they can work together to annihilate people?


I need a definition on that word. Seriously. If that word goes to a judge without a through definition the skies will become like The Terminator.

SKYNET!

...and increase the number of agents at and between ports of entry.... (At least they are human. They are human aren't they? Okay, good.)

According to lawyers dot calm:

I tried Googling (click here) it but I could not obtain a direct defininition for a "human" as defined by the United States government, either by Supreme Court ruling or as stated in the Constitution. Do they have to be alive? Do they have to have been concieved by sexual reproduction, or would human clones be humans as well?

...The purpose (of this statute) is to substantially lower the number of successful illegal border crossings while continuing to facilitate (LEGAL) commerce.

We will strengthen prohibitions against racial profiling and appropriate use of force, enhancing the training of border patrol agents, increase oversight, and create a mechanism to ensure a meaningful opportunity for border communities to share input, including critiques.

Okay, but, what is the definition of border communities. Is this a unilateral effort of USA border communities or a collaborative effort with Canada and Mexico? Do we involve the State Department in the SHAREHOLDERS to facilitate ongoing communication between citizens on both sides of the border or not? Is this strictly a Homeland Security Function and what effectiveness will be met if there are no active SHAREHOLDER meetings with Mexican citizens and authorities as well? How does the USA effectively know if border communities are actually improving their security if there is no verification from both sides of the border? Does the USA have the right to have this be a unilateral condition of the legislation realizing in reacting to the Shareholder input there might have to be increased drone activities and/or agents and/or National Guard troops in order to satisfy the conditions of the border communities? Basically, can unilateral focus in this way start a war with border countries?

This legislation will exist far beyond the years the authors are alive, so it has to be complete. Otherwise there has to be a sundown provision to end it.

Our legislation will require the completion of an entry-exit system that tracks whether all persons entering the USA on temporary visas at airports and seaports have left the country as required by law.

I've got a problem with most of this stuff. From what I can tell three quarters of it is unnecessary and superfluous. If this is as far as I have gotten and there are all these issues, this is just not going to cut it in application. This provision is not realistic. It also proves there is no infrastructure to determine a THRESHOLD for the requirement that all current visa holders have left the country. There is no way of knowing if the current visa holders have left the country and if there is no infrastructure now, that means a database would have to be built and then the FBI and any other law enforcement would have to access the visas in their area to investigate if those folks are here or not. That is nearly an impossible task and it would take forever to fulfill that THRESHOLD to permit current illegals to obtain citizenship.

Look. We have many wonderful people considered illegal immigrants in the USA that consider this country their home. It would be far better to provide them a 'reasonable' path to citizenship, no different than legal immigrants, but with a delayed status. The Illegal Immigrants would have to register as being in the USA by a certain date, receive an ID and SSI number and after that date no others would be considered eligible. This is not rocket science. The delayed status would encourage legal immigration. And no deportations until after the expiration date to register. All Dreamers registered under President Obama's Executive Order would not need to re-register, they would need to begin their delayed status the day they registered under the Executive Order. Those illegals that have serviced the USA in the military and risked their lives for this country would be given IMMEDIATE and EMERGENT status for citizenship provided they have met all normal requirements.

AND NO DRONES. No exceptions.

Bush has lied endlessly about the carbon dioxide emissions.


North America far exceeds China in PER CAPITA emissions. It was only exceeded in 2008 by Australia. Compared to the global emissions, North America IS the problem. The First World has the technology, capital investment and the infrastructure to turn this around on a dime, but, political corruption won't allow it. Just that simple.


Global Mining and Tar Sands Oil Drive Canadian Foreign Policy (click here)


The Ugly Canadian - Stephen Harper's Foreign Policy [Kindle Edition] (click here)


The longer the negative feedback loops of greenhouse gases exist the more impossible is becoming to reverse the trends of biotic destruction.

January 28, 2013
BOSTON - Defying the cold weather, (click here) demonstrations, pickets at Massachusetts gas stations, and a march and rally in Portland, Maine, Saturday capped off a week of actions from Canada to Massachusetts aimed at heading off plans to pump corrosive Canadian tar sands oil across New England and into ships for export....


January 28, 2013
A tar sands pipeline (click here) that burst in 2010 contaminated Michigan's Kalamazoon River. Protests are being held around New England against using a 62-year-old pipeline to move Canadian tar sands to Portland for export. Photo courtesy NWF

BOSTON - Defying the cold weather, (click here) demonstrations, pickets at Massachusetts gas stations, and a march and rally in Portland, Maine, Saturday capped off a week of actions from Canada to Massachusetts aimed at heading off plans to pump corrosive Canadian tar sands oil across New England and into ships for export....

Now, I ask you, are the citizens of Canada and the USA that care about the greenhouse gas emissions and its effect on Earth while the petroleum industry  (tar sands included) destroys our land; lousy, stinking bastards that care nothing about their country? Is their case baseless? I think not.

Just because Republicans in the USA find political volleys with the issue of monies in the USA's budget and national debt, ask me what the hell I care! Grow a new economy, change the paradigm of disaster we all face and we will solve the national fiscal issues without even trying. When the political dialogue starts talking MY LANGUAGE then we'll get somewhere.





My sympathies to all the families and friends who lost loved ones in Brazil.

Three arrests made in Brazil fire that killed 233 people (click here)

Sheena Rossiter
9:47 am EST
January 28, 2013
SAO PAULO, Brazil — Police in Santa Maria said Monday they've made three arrests and are seeking a fourth person in connection with a nightclub fire that killed 233 people.
Inspector Ranolfo Vieira Junior said the arrests are for investigative purposes. He said the detentions have five-day limits. A preliminary investigation indicated that a band's pyrotechnics show ignited the blaze. One band member died in the blaze.
The Zero Hora newspaper quoted lawyer Jader Marques as saying his client Elissandro Spohr, a co-owner of the club, was arrested. The paper also said two band members were arrested....

In the USA such use is regulated due to the nation's experience with a very similar fire in a nightclub. 

Consumer Fireworks are legal under Federal law for consumer use, therefore we can legally ship fireworks anywhere in the United States.
We currently ship to all but the following states:

CA, DE, HI, MA, NJ, NY, OR, RI, and Washington D.C

US Fireworks sells only consumer fireworks (click here) that have been certified by the CPSC for consumer use. Because federal law applies to interstate commerce, we can legally ship fireworks anywhere in the United States. Unfortunately, State and local ordinances may ban certain fireworks if you do not posess a permit to own and store those fireworks. As a result, the responsibility for complying with State and local laws falls upon you (the buyer).

The statement about the buyer being the only source of responsibility is not entirely true, otherwise this company would be shipping to all the states in the USA. The suppliers carry a responsibility to some extent if they are found negligent in their warnings to consumers and there are deaths as a result of that liability.

If the fireworks in the Brazil nightclub were found to be faulty, the responsibility also belongs to the manufacturer. 

If fireworks are used without some instructions to their use, the responsibility also belongs to the manufacturer and the retailer.

The families in Rhode Island went through a great deal of pain following the tragedy.

Crystal Bell, (click here) of West Warwick, R.I. touches an image of her late brother Alfred Crisostomi after the unveiling of a memorial stone to recognize lives lost in the 2003 Station Nightclub Fire during a ceremony, in Warwick, Saturday, Oct. 20, 2012. The Warwick memorial places a special focus on the 10 Warwick residents who died in the Feb. 20, 2003, fire at The Station nightclub, which happened when pyrotechnics for the rock band Great White ignited flammable foam that lined the walls of the club. Nine of the Warwick residents' names are inscribed in a granite slab that sits at the top of a 28-foot-diameter brick circular plaza. Around the exterior of the circle are 100 8-by-8-inch bricks inscribed with the name of every person who died. (AP Photo/Gretchen Ertl)

The worst flooding along the Australian coast in 30 years due to storms.

Boy, 3, dies after being hit by falling tree (click here)

January 28, 2013 - 11:04PM



A three-year-old boy who was hit by a falling gum tree while watching floodwaters in Brisbane’s north on Monday has died in hospital.
The toddler’s death takes the number of people killed in Queensland’s unfolding flood disaster to four.
The young boy was standing with his father, brother and pregnant 34-year-old mother watching water rise from the Kedron Brook bikeway at Gordon Park when the large tree fell on them about 8.30am on Monday.
The toddler, who suffered severe head injuries, died on Monday night at the Royal Children's Hospital.*
His mother remains in a critical condition in the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital with severe head injuries and several broken bones....

There were two young boys swept away during Hurricane Sandy. That means nothing? That makes no impression? The politics is more important. I would think the USA would be walking in the foot steps of those parents along with the parents of Sandy Hook, too. Or is it just too politically dangerous to actually invoke paradigm changes that save lives, albeit by gun or storm? 

The USA has no moral compass that can bring it into alignment with other peoples and other governments. The only way the USA will change their greenhouse gas emissions is from sanctions placed on it. Even the media has no preference for moral content anymore.



WILD WEATHER HITS SOUTHEAST QUEENSLAND (click here)

A Swift Water Rescue officer saves a young boy in Rockhampton. Photo: Allan Reinikka

The United States of America is responsible for huge emissions of greenhouse gases and the country needs to do better than it is doing today. Far better. The only way those changes will happen given the entrenched political discourse is for the international community to demand changes in exchange for economic relationships. Economic relationships are densely important to the Right Political Wing of the USA and they will bend like a willow to them.


There is no reason why China, India, Brazil and Russia should not demand environmental improvements in the USA in the area of greenhouse gases. In the past it has been the USA demanding environmental improvements. Well, it is time the shoe fits.

The Climate Crisis is already destroying jobs in the USA while driving up food costs.

The Food Industry is at the very least 10% of the USA GDP.

No one is going to have to worry about snack food addition because the people of the USA won't be able to afford the cost.

These companies are also a threat to arable land in the USA. They practice high density farming on any enterprises they own and they destroy the land while forcing the American Family Farm off the map. But, that isn't the worst of it. If the USA thinks they are going to have expensive milk because the Farm Bill goes unattended, they haven't seen costs go up yet.

You know that Tourism Industry where so many Americans are employed with service industry wages.

GONE!

2012 Restaurant Industry Pocket Factbook (click here)

Money is what you want and Wall Street is what you value, then the Climate Crisis is you worst enemy! People really need to pay attention, don't you think? Now. About those investments in Wind and Solar, the electric car and smokestack regulation; how are they coming along?



This is arable land. It don't grow, you don't eat. 

The USA National Debt doesn't come close to the moral equivalent to the Climate Crisis.

Oh, my god, I've heard it all now.

Can the USA be a little, just a marginal amount, less superficial? Any chance?


Is this the best the American woman can do? All they can manage to get inside the bee hive are high heels and the budget? Are we really there?

Judy Keen, USA TODAY
9a.m. EST January 27, 2013

Hundreds of thousands of trees died (click here) in the historic drought of 2012, and many more will succumb in the next few years, scientists say.

"This is just beginning," says Janna Beckerman, a plant pathologist at Indiana's Purdue University. "I suspect we'll see trees still dying for the next two or three years.

Indiana's white cedar and Florida cypress trees began dying in late summer, she says, and Alberta and Colorado blue spruce are succumbing now....

Be sure and water your favorite Maple Tree with the tire swing your children inherited, okay? Is that the best the American people can do to understand the devastation of this planet? Is it? Try this one then, no apples on the apple tree. Doesn't that shake it up a bit?

The USA media is outside the realm as a reasonable source of reliable information. Everything politics and nothing worth the time of day to actually solve the country's problems. Unbelievable. The USA media is hopeless. There is NO validity in their priorities. No wonder we have problems we are unable to address. Wow. 

Water is the basis of life on Earth and it is disappearing from the surface of the planet; I would think that was important.

Jesus Christ !

The USA National Debt ain't nothin' compared to the cost of the Climate Crisis. I do mean nothing! Does anyone in the USA actually have a conscience? Does anyone in the sovereign USA ever stop to realize the deaths this climate is causing globally? That is nothing, huh? The Climate Crisis is claiming more lives than the national gun deaths per day. That means nothing? The USA gun deaths are more than the amount of car deaths per year, so try understanding the Climate Crisis on a global scale is causing more deaths due to HUNGER and biotic content. Been to Ethiopia lately? Self, self-centered and completely dismissive to anything other than money. Well. You can't eat money. 

...Many bracing for Sandy (click here) are still scared by Irene, which wreaked havoc when it ripped across the Eastern Seaboard last August, causing more than $15 billion in damages as it downed trees and flooded homes....

I suppose the Climate Crisis simply provides for another jobs bill, right?

I thought the USA Congress just passed a bill for New Jersey in double digit billions. I am not correct? If money is what you understand, then money is what you will get. Evidently.

So much for the USA National Debt and whom is complaining about the entitlements? Forget the entitlements, when the Climate Crisis gets done with the USA it won't have sovereignty anymore and it doesn't carry a gun. 

The Climate Crisis is going to make the entitlements look like child's play if it hasn't already.
Morning Papers - It's Origins (click here)

The Rooster 

"Okeydoke:"

The USA national debt is NOT the moral equivalent to the Climate Crisis. I mean for real? The national debt will be there long after drought has destroyed the biotic content in arable land.

Does the media understand what arable land is in a way that matters? Honestly.

"Good Night, Moon"

Full Moon

Waning Gibbous

99.1% lit

The January 2013 full moon (click here) presents the second full moon after the December 21 solstice. There was a full moon in late December, on December 28. In North America, we often call the second full moon after the winter solstice the Wolf Moon, Hunger Moon or Snow Moon.