Makes me wonder

  Today I've taken excerpts from two news sources, and of course, some of my own comments.  I decided the subject matter was good for people to know, and it fits right in with some of the stuff I've put in in the past couple of days.

Huffington Post Aug 5 2011

New tax data from the Internal Revenue service shows that in 2009, incomes fell, unemployment claims rose, and the U.S. economy shed nearly two million taxpayers.
 And of the 235,413 taxpayers who earned $1 million or more in 2009, 1,470 of them paid no taxes.
 According to the data, the average income for American taxpayers fell to $54,283 -- a drop of $3,516, or about 6.1 percent, between
 2008 and 2009. Not only that, but the overall number of taxpayers -- that is, individuals or married couples filing with the IRS -- fell by almost two million. (unemployment

Now let's take a look see at what those millionaires are spending:

What Recession: Rich People Buying Lots Of $860 Shoes, $9000 Coats


The NY Times is continuing its ascent into "what rich people do with all their stinking money besides $50,000 playhouses, chartering private planes for their kids to go to camp, home bartenders, and clubs for multimillionaires" with this important information: "Nordstrom has a waiting list for a Chanel sequined tweed coat with a $9,010 price. Neiman Marcus has sold out in almost every size of Christian Louboutin “Bianca” platform pumps, at $775 a pair [pictured]. Mercedes-Benz said it sold more cars last month in the United States than it had in any July in five years." Yes, the rich are spending more, because as a retail consultant says, "If a designer shoe goes up from $800 to $860, who notices?"


Gilt Groupe general manager Jyothi Rao says, "You just can’t buy a pair of shoes for less than $1,000 in some of the luxury brands, and some of the price points have gone to $2,000. There’s absolutely a customer for it." And one facial cream has raised its price $300 since 2008—16 ounces of Crème de la Mer is now $1,650.

There's some bizarre timing, because the article says, "The rich do not spend quite as they did in the free-wheeling period before the recession, but they are closer to that level... What changed? Mostly, the stock market, retailers and analysts said, as well as a good bit of shopping psychology. Even with the sharp drop in stocks over the last week, the Dow Jones is up about 80 percent from its low in March 2009. And with the overall economy nowhere near its recession lows, buying nice, expensive things is back in vogue for people who can afford it." Maybe the global stock markets wanted to give a nice eff-you to the rich by taking a big dump today?
http://gothamist.com/2011/08/04/what_recession_rich_people_buying_l.php


Now, do you think Congress should have raised the taxes of people with very high incomes?  It seems to me they could afford it, if this is how the "Job Creators" do things!

But, tax cuts are good for the country, or are they?

Scary!

It's not often...

A sign on the congressional parking lot, really!

....that I find something funny (ha ha) about what the government has just done.  In the case of the Debt Reduction, I found some things that are laughable.  Here's one.


Payback is hell.

As you see the people don't think much of what happened.  Actually the people just plain don't like the way it was done; the Democrats were dim witted and the Republicans were repugnant.  This is not what we expect of Congress, we expect, at the very least, for them not to wait until the last possible moment to make a decision that could have been made six months, or more, before.


This is an appropriate sign of our times.

  When we were waiting for the President and Congress to make a decision, we either took a break from the action, or we had to wear a diaper, that's what this sign, above, points out.  Some people may think whoever printed the silly thing made a mistake, and that's not it at all.

Yes!  Even people in public buildings were watching.



This is what the people wanted

 


Let's go on vacation

Air Control Tower - construction suspended

  70,000 construction workers are now unemployed because Congress failed to get their act together AGAIN.  Add to that that the Government is losing the 1.2 billion dollar taxes that would have been collected on airline ticket sales.  Congress couldn't care less; it's vacation time.  Just one more case of "I've got mine, to hell with you"!
   Nationwide there are 21 million people unemployed, people who would work if there were a job available, some of those would be workers are so discouraged that they've quit looking for work, if those people were added to the "official" figure the unemployment rate would be over fourteen percent.  Congress doesn't care about them either; it's vacation time.
   Our bridges and roads are in terrible shape, gasoline consumption is down so less fuel taxes are being collected (Federal and State).  Those taxes are primarily what supplies funding for highway and bridge work.  The tax structure could be changed, could have been, but of course, Congress is on vacation - they don't care if several hundred construction workers that are unemployed could be working; it's vacation time.
   Do congressional workers and leaders get paid while on vacation?  You bet your sweet bippy they do, how else could they afford to be on vacation.  Should members of Congress care about the rest of us?  The answer, of course, is yes; but it's vacation time!

Rural highway that needs a whole lot of work - too bad, it's vacation time in Congress.

Memorial Bridge.  Crosses the Piscataqua River between Portsmouth, NH and Kittery, Maine.
Build in 1920-1923 in memory of World War One vets, it was permanently closed in July of 2011;
no funding for a replacement for a bridge on US 1!  The bridge originally was on New England
Highway One - that was before the federal numbering system.  There are hundreds of bridges
of this age still being used - it's not safe.
Congress is on vacation.

Funny? Check yes or no.

Asking for trouble, or, smart business?

  Most of you know that I'm an alcoholic, so I don't see a lot of humor in some "jokes"; probably because I used to be one of the jokes.  But, there are some things about alcohol that are funny; usually signs.  For starters the sign at the top:  Who, in his/her right mind, would run a business like this, and why is it legal? 
  Some of the "signs" on here today aren't about alcohol at all; to me they were funny, or odd.  Just because I no longer drink doesn't prevent me from having a sense of humor, too much or too little for some people.  If you think about it there are funny things that happen all around us every day.  One of my friends used to like things that robbers said or did, like rob a bank and use your own deposit slip for the note, that's funny!
  Some humor isn't intentional, but it's funny, I'll show you an example:

I don't know who Chris is, but he has a lot of followers

  That's funny.  It's just a regular sign on a church, but one letter was taken off, or, it fell off, so the original meaning (although we know what it said) could be interpreted as lost.

Wouldn't we all like to just spend, without recourse?

  There are a couple of things here, first Senator Alexander is a politician, most of what a politician says is funny, or causes rage - there is no in-between.  This is funny because "Washington" never takes responsibility for much of anything, and since when did they care about spending (waste) money?

Yes, if drink alcohol, you'll get looped.

  We don't know who named this street, or road, but it's funny!  It may be intentional humor.  I recently have seen "Gowa Way" on a street sign, and "No Freakin' Way", shown as a street sign on a T-shirt.  Keep an eye out for what I call streets, or road, were imagination was used.

An "AA" member, would see the humor in this name

  Here's the kicker, thanks to Darlene my daughter in law, to me this is a funny sign, or name of/for a business.  AA and liquor usually aren't found in the same place.

It got me thinking....

Proposed Casino in Oxford Maine

  They are starting the groundwork on that casino, but two more casinos may get permission to build.  The lead person on the Oxford project has a name that just jumped out at me: Clyde Barrows.  Does that remind you of anyone?  It might, of the couple Bonnie and Clyde, that Clyde was Clyde Barrows.  So now we may have him in charge of a whole bunch of money!  No, I realize it's not the same guy!
  The "original" Bonnie and Clyde were born in 1909 and 1910, of course they both died on the same day May 23, 1934.
  Bonnie Elizabeth Parker never dated until her third year of high school, and she married early, was separated but never divorced.
  Clyde Chestnut Barrow grew up in an incredably poor family, they lived under a wagon after losing their farm, he considered himself a lucky guy when he met Bonnie, sometime after his first few holdups.
  Clyde and Bonnie got together in 1931, and did not primarily rob banks; instead they robbed stores and gas stations (there were more of them).  They shot nine law officers, for no real reason, and gun down a lot of their victims.
  While in high school Bonnin wrote poetry (she wrote quite a few); as an adult she penned a poem  titled "The Trails End" the words of which, slightly altered, became the song "The Ledgend of Bonnie and Clyde"

        Prophacy right there, am I right?

Bonnie Parker & Clyde Barrows

The site of the 1934 ambush

The car of Clyde Barrows after the ambush

Decide......no! Wait

Liberty Square Monument, Taipei Taiwan (Formosa)

  I thought a photo, or two, would be nice of Formosa (Taiwan) Republic of China; that's different than the Peoples Republic of China (that's mainland China, the big place, where everything is made).
  I found out the name "Formosa" came from Portugese explorers who named it Ilia Formosa, which translates to Beautiful Island, the word formosa being Portuguese for beautiful.  Not to mention they "found" a place that had been occupied by 30,000 years already, kind of like "discovering" America. 
  I'm still hung up on On The Sunny Side of the Street.  The song was written in 1930 and it's never been worn out; not even when Rod Stewart recorded it.  It has been recorded by almost everyone in music who has a name you'd recognize and some you wouldn't.  From Stewart to Willie Nelson, to Louis Armstrong, and it's been popular by all of them, even John Lithgow (3rd Rock from the Sun).
  I see that the President and Congressional Leaders has agreed on a package that will raise the debt limit, and cut spending - that will worsen the recession (my opinion) which in the case of us up here in Maine is still bad.  I guess we have to wait and see the final edition when Congress discusses, cusses and votes on the damn thing.
  It really would have been nice to see those people show up for "work on time" and had the whole messed settled when it should have been - at the beginning of June!  We'll see if they can finish us, I mean it, off on time.

Taipei Taiwan



Part of the words, not original, the word "Babe" in the first verse and "there" following pitter-pat
are not original



The newest rendition, I don't can't get a contract.

Dither, Dilly-Dally and Decide

Empty pockets, empty head

  There are times when I just can't decide what to write about, there are times I write that are a pain in the butt and there are times that are pure joy; the latter fits about 94 percent of the time.
  I'd like to write today, or more today, but choosing a topic has put me in a fix.  Should I continue to bash Congress, maybe.  But, Congress may have made some progress, late last night McConnell and Obama along with Biden and Reid seem to have invented a new chart of accounts.  That in itself is quite a task, especially when you don't know what you're doing.  I think it's a damned good idea that they have a staff that's at least educated, and at most able to pull things together in a way their bosses can vaguely understand - that's how things get done in Washington.
  I could write about my recent experience of Taiwan/Formosa; had a thing going on in my head while driving on a ride with my wife.  Distracted driving didn't quite happen; okay, well maybe half my brain was distracted; but, it was the other half driving.  We passed a souvenir stand someplace, Stockton Springs maybe, and Linda remarked that probably most of the stuff they had was from China - and she was right.  I, on the other hand, started this whole story about the things were from Taiwan.  Then I got into Taiwan used to be called Formosa; and how my Uncle Alice married a woman from Formosa, Uncle Alice wore skirts and his "real" name was Avery.  He didn't wear kilts because he didn't look good in plaid, it made him look fat.  Do I look fat? The answer is always no.  Then of course the name "Formosa" must have been be early explorers and they named it for Mosa.  What do you think?
    So, you see, I can get carried away by the slightest things, for example:  Two nights ago I woke up and someone on the radio was singing (the term used loosely) "On the Sunny Side of the Street" badly.  Now I've had this song in my head for two days!
                                                                              If I don't have a cent
                                                                              I'll be rich as Rockefeller,
                                                                              gold dust at my feet -
                                                                              on the sunny side of the street.....
and on and on and on.  Yes I've looked up the lyrics, yes I've tried to learn the words! 
  Some of the oddest things get my attention, must be that inquiring minds want to know, or some such thing.
  So that how I arrive at what to write, just get some random thought and follow it up, try it, it works.

Proof that not everything you read is true.