Gearing up

Most people who read this blog know that everything is going to be on the table-and nearly everyone is going to be on the menu in the next presidential administration. We know that Paul Ryan wants to kill Medicare in its current form. But in this NY Times piece, Gene Sperling warns us not to take our eyes off Medicaid. We can expect a major push to block grant the program and cut it hugely over several years. It would also threaten CHIP, the popular Children's' Health Insurance Program.

Who would this hurt? Very low income parents receiving temporary assistance. Kids in families earning up to 300 percent of the federal poverty level. The millions of working Americans earning less than 138 percent of the federal poverty level who gained coverage under the Medicaid Expansion provision of the Affordable Care Act. People with disabilities. And elderly people who worked hard all their lives but burned through assets when they needed long term care. Not to mention the millions of people who work in the field of health and long term care.

If you care about things like this, it's probably time to do the whole loins/girding up thing. Like now.

Flotsam and jetsam

Here's a good website to keep up with developments in the response to the massive flooding in West Virginia.

Meanwhile, here's a cool rant linking WV's rainy days with the state budget and rainy day fund, which took a heavy hit during the legislative special session. It underscores the state's need for new revenue, which will likely face opposition from anti-tax zealots unless the composition of the statehouse changes.

Speaking of taxes, the Paul Ryan "Better Way" plan isn't. It's mostly a rehash of the failed policies of the past.

Meanwhile, it will be interesting to watch developments between the United Mine Workers union and Murray Energy. Union members recently voted to reject the deal. CEO Robert Murray seems to be gunning for the king of coal throne vacated by former Massey CEO Don Blankenship.

Finally, in the spirit of "it's not all bad," there are some exciting things happening in WV around youth leadership development and civic participation.

Feeding the trolls

This op-ed of mine probably should have been two. It's kind of schizoid. First, I teed off on Paul Ryan and my nemesis Ayn Rand, then went on a jag about the Affordable Care Act and how repealing might not be the most popular thing to do in WV if it came right down to it. But it's kind of hard to stop when you're on a roll. Besides, feeding the web trolls is an act of Christian charity.

Oh good

Congressman and former vice presidential candidate Paul "Ayn Rand" Ryan was in West Virginia recently campaigning for Shelley Moore Capito in her bid for the seat of the retiring Senator Joe Rockefeller.


According to Ryan, Capito will help get rid of the Affordable Care Act, which  has brought Medicaid coverage to around 134,000 working West Virginians since Jan. 1, not counting another 40,000 or so who got coverage under the ACA in other ways. In fact, the law that Capito will presumably get rid of has made WV one of the state's with the lowest rate of uninsured residents, as noted in yesterday's post and resulted in huge savings for the state's largest hospital system..


Nice. Let them eat Atlas Shrugged.


FIGS, ANYONE? Here are the latest musings of my friend the  Rev. Jim Lewis at Notes from Under the Fig Tree.

In lieu of a serious post...

...how about another gratuitous animal picture? This photo, taken this weekend shows Arpad, our Great Pyreness and official People's Commissar of Public Safety at Goat Rope Farm, with his latest treasure find, to wit a decomposing deer hide.

I don't presume to channel what he's thinking, but if I had to hazard a guess, it might be something like:  "Deer season--the gift that keeps on giving." For him, it's yet another proof of the generosity and benevolence of the universe.

And, while I love him dearly, at times like these I'm glad he's mostly an outside dog.

SPEAKING OF DOGS, Paul Krugman wonders here whether Ayn Rand devotee Paul Ryan's recent musings on "inner city" folks might be a "racial dog whistle." My only reservation about this conclusion is that I thought dog whistles were supposed to be so subtle that humans couldn't detect them.

SO WHERE WERE DOGS in the infinitesimally short explosion that gave birth to the universe? I'm guessing they were very tiny. And well insulated.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Annals of arrogance

This is rich. Paul Ryan, an Ayn Rand Kool-Aid imbiber who claims to be a Catholic and pretends to care about the poor, decides to lecture Pope Francis about the folly of the pontiff's economic views. I guess maybe next he should also try to teach Jesus, the Hebrew prophets, and possibly God Almighty about the folly of their ways...

Good point

We hear a whole lot in this political season about President Obama's "War on Coal," which is basically a cynical way to assign the blame for the industry's woes, many of which are due to basic market forces, on a person who just happens not to be white. The specific political subtext in all this is the assumption that if the president's opponent wins, everything will be all good here all the time.

Meanwhile, nobody around here seems to have noticed that programs like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, which Romeny/Ryan have targeted for gutting, have an even bigger impact on the state's economy than the coal industry.

The folks at the WV Center on Budget and Policy point out here that

...in 2011 approximately $12.7 billion or 20.5 percent of the state’s $62 billion in personal income came from Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. The U.S. average was 12.8 percent...

For comparison, only 5.5 percent or $3.4 billion of personal income in 2011 was derived from coal mining and natural gas extraction – two of the largest industries in the state.

I don't mean to belittle the economic hardships in the coalfields. These need to be faced in a proactive way rather than used to score dubious political points. But imagine how bad things would look in places like southern West Virginia if drastic cuts to the bedrock safety net--Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid--went hand in hand with market-driven declines in mining.

MORE ON THAT here.

A TALE OF TWO STORMS. Krugman does a heckuva job contrasting Katrina and Sandy.

IT'S ALREADY WORKING. Here's a cheer for the Affordable Care Act.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

The universal thump

"For my part, I abominate all honorable respectable toils, trials and tribulations of every kind whatsoever."--Ishmael in Moby-Dick.

Here's yet another reason why everyone should read this greatest American novel: most of us are grunts one way or another and the book basically sings the greatness of gruntdom. And even if you have a good gig, you gotta serve somebody, as Dylan sang. Ishmael takes great pride in taking to sea as a simple sailor, even though it means getting ordered about and yelled at.

In his view, the human condition is such that we are all in one way or another a grunt at the disposal of some arbitrary power, even if it is simply that of an indifferent universe:

What of it, if some old hunks of a sea-captain orders me to get a broom and sweep down the decks? What does that indignity amount to weighed, I mean, in the scales of the New Testament? Do you think the archangel Gabriel thinks anything the less of me, because I promptly and respectfully obey that old hunks in that particular instance? Who ain't a slave? Tell me that. Well, then, however the old sea-captains may order me about-however they may thump and punch me about, I have the satisfaction of knowing that it is all right; that everybody else is one way or other served in much the same way-either in a physical or metaphysical point of view, that is; and so the universal thump is passed round, and all hands should rub each other's shoulder blades, and be content.

I don't think I have Ishmael's confidence that things equal out over time, but I appreciate the generosity of his sentiment.

WHAT HE SAID. WV's senior senator goes off on the Ryan budget here.

GRANDMOTHERS made us what we are today. Maybe even literally.

THE DONALD HATCHES A DUD. Not much of a Trump card. (Full disclosure: the Spousal Unit and I used to dream of a 2012 Trump/Palin ticket purely for the entertainment value. You betcha.)

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Point taken

This blog is dedicated to the cutting edge of positive social change...and like other stuff too. One example of the "other stuff" category was a link featured in yesterday's post about a scientific study of longevity records of Korean eunuchs from the 14th to early 20th century which suggested that castration might lead to a longer life.

(Which makes me think that longevity is sometimes overrated.)

I received an email yesterday from a Goat Rope reader who pointed out that such surgical measures did little to promote longevity for members of a certain religious outer space cult back in the 1990s. Duly noted.

One can only hope that anyone today who adopts such a drastic measure in search of a few more years of life is selective in his choice of religious affiliation.

REDISTRIBUTING WEALTH seems to be OK with some folks when the direction is upward.

BAD LIT, REVISITED. Here's an item dealing with the true love a certain vice presidential candidate has for a really bad writer.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

What it's all about

I can think of no better way it lead into Labor Day weekend than by sharing this great op-ed about the labor movement yesterday and today by my friend Larry Matheney, secretary-treasurer of the WV AFLCIO. Larry also gives a shout out to one of my heroes, WV native, UAW, labor, civil rights, and human rights leader Walter Reuther.

HONESTLY? Here's a reality-based look at Paul Ryan's speech. And here are a bunch more.

RAISING THE MINIMUM WAGE. Just do it.

WASTEFUL MILITARY SPENDING. Some days are better than others with WV's junior senator Joe Manchin, but he's right on target this time.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

The injured list

I am sad to report that Arpad, security chief at Goat Rope Farm, had a losing argument with a motor vehicle (he didn't start it) and will be taking a couple of months off from active duty. It really pains me to see the Big Boy in such pain. He had a broken tibia which required surgery to repair. As you might imagine, persuading him to get up and go outside to answer the call of nature is an ongoing challenge.

Fortunately, the vet said he should make a full recovery.

MAKING IT PLAIN. Here's Robert Reich on the Ryan budget and why it is the Mother of all Bad Ideas.

Movie time

Here's a little video that various AFSC staff worked on to explain why West Virginia needs to create a Future Fund, also known as a permanent mineral trust fund.

NATURAL GAS AND CLIMATE CHANGE. Here's a look at how one might affect the other.

SERIOUSLY? Krugman takes on Ryan here.

WOULD YOU LIKE TO HAVE EYES IN YOUR NETHER REGIONS? This butterfly does.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

SOS

 There are lots of things worse than getting an irritating song stuck in your head. One such thing, I have discovered, is getting a little league cheer stuck in your head.

Allow me to explain. My grandson recently starting playing little league football. I've been to two games so far. The cheerleaders seem fiercer than the players on his team, so far anyway. And one of the cheers has wormed its way into my brain like some kind of tropical parasite.

Here's how it goes:

Big fat apples, skinny bananas
We're the girls from Alabama
That's a lie, here's the truth
We're the might Panthers
Aren't we cute?

Both my daughter (a former raging cheerleader) and the Spousal Unit think this is the Best Cheer Ever. I'm ashamed to say we even make up various Spanish versions of it. The saddest part is, I know the hand moves that go with it.

Help me...quickly.

FROM CURSE TO BLESSING. Here's my latest rant in the Gazette. This one is about how WV needs to change the mineral extraction game and create a Future Fund.

THE SCARE IN MEDICARE. E.J. Dionne's got this one.

WHAT THE WORLD NEEDS NOW is a better toilet?

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Tiger mom, revisited

Once upon a time, there was an orphan baby chick. It tried to seek solace from other hens, but only got pecked. As for the father, roosters aren't big on parental responsibility.



This baby obviously needed a mother. We found one, a badly mauled stuffed tiger toy, in our dog's abundant toy box.



The baby thrived. Here's a look at the happy family today.

FOR MASOCHISTS ONLY. Here's a whole slew of recent articles on the BS of Ayn Rand.

IF YOU WANT TO READ ABOUT MORE BAD IDEAS, here's a slew of info on Paul Ryan's budget.

PRIVATIZATION. Here's a look at its dark side.

TROGLORAPTERS, ANYONE? If you need  a cave spider fix, click here.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Stand back, y'all. I feel the need to rant about an urgent social justice issue, one that came up in a conversation with the Spousal Unit. To wit, tee shirts for endurance events. I'm not talking about 5Ks or 10ks. I'm talking about going a bit farther, say from 15ks to marathons.

Take a look at the shirt pictured above from a trail run this summer and you will understand this gross injustice. First, let me say that the race was great, well organized and all that. I'd do it again. But did you notice the middle of the shirt? The whole 10/4 thing?!

What the hell?!

Sorry, but there is a huge qualitative difference between capering through 4 miles of trails versus slogging through 10, including some evil hills the other guys never saw. The 4 milers should get their own shirt so that those of us dedicated or dumb enough to run 2.5 times farther will not be confused with them.

Just saying.

The only thing worse than that is a a marathon shirt with small print. I mean, jeez, the whole point of a marathon is to be able to brag about it once you've done it. The whole point of a marathon shirt is to brag to every literate person you run across whether you know them or speak to them or not. If the print is so small that you can't even make out the word "marathon," you might as well have stayed on the couch eating potato chips and drinking beer instead of doing the same thing after running really far.

I have spoken.

MORE BAD STUFF about the Ryan budget from Paul Krugman here.

EVEN MORE BAD STUFF about the same from Dean Baker here.

ODE TO (GORILLA) JOY here.

Droning on

Back in the heyday of the Industrial Workers of the World, footloose organizers rode the rails into skid rows, lumber camps and hobo jungles to sign up workers for the One Big Union. Often, they used song as an organizing tool, taking familiar tunes and changing the words around "so they made more sense," as the late great Utah Phillips used to say.

The spirit of the Wobblies lives on these days in a friend and co-worker of mine known here as New Hampshire Slim. At least one of his songs has even made its way into the latest version of the IWW Little Red Songbook.

I can picture Slim right now hopping freight trains and spreading the rebel gospel to the downpressed wage slaves of that New England state, whilst regaling one and all with song. Here's his latest effort, which is sung to the tune of a popular Bob Dylan song. It is reproduced with permission. From Slim, not from Bob, that is. Nothing personal, Bob...but these days

Everybody must get droned

They’ll drone you when you’re leaving from the bar,They’ll drone you when you’re driving in your car,They’ll drone you when you’re trying to be discrete,They’ll drone you when you’re marching in the street.

Well I would not feel so all alone,Everybody must get droned.

They’ll drone you when you’re maintaining law and order,They’ll drone you when you’re getting near the border,They’ll drone you when you’re sitting in the park,They’ll drone you when it’s light and when it’s dark.  

Well I would not feel so all alone,Everybody must get droned.

They’ll drone you when your minding your own business,They’ll drone you when you’re improving your physical fitness,They’ll drone you when you’re at a private luncheon,They’ll drone you while performing a bodily function,

Well I would not feel so all alone,Everybody must get droned.

They’ll drone you when you’re at a wedding party,They’ll drone you if you’re early or you’re tardy,They’ll drone you when you’re riding in the bus,They’ll drone you if you’re them or if you’re us,

Well I would not feel so all alone,Everybody must get droned.

Slim has a blog worthy of a look that he updates whenever he is not riding the rods or working the wheat harvest. You can find it here.

BAD MEDICINE. Here's a look at what Paul Ryan's budget would do to El Cabrero's beloved state of West Virginia.

MORE OF THE SAME. Here's a look at the Long March of Ayn Rand's BS into the mainstream of American political thought.

IT EVEN RHYMES. Here's a fun and quick look at what's wrong with trickle (tinkle?) down economics.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Happy anniversary, Social Security

“We can never insure one-hundred percent of the population against one-hundred percent of the hazards and vicissitudes of life. But we have tried to frame a law which will give some measure of protection to the average citizen and to his family against the loss of a job and against poverty-ridden old age. This law, too, represents a cornerstone in a structure which is being built but is by no means complete. It is a structure intended to lessen the force of possible future depressions. It will act as a protection to future Administrations against the necessity of going deeply into debt to furnish relief to the needy. The law will flatten out the peaks and valleys of deflation and of inflation. It is, in short, a law that will take care of human needs and at the same time provide for the united States an economic structure of vastly greater soundness.”
—Franklin D. Roosevelt, August 14, 1935

Today I hosted an event celebrating the 77th anniversary of the signing of the Social Security Act at a crowded Carpenter's local union hall in Huntington. Medicare and Medicaid hit their 47th anniversary a couple weeks back on July 30.

Congressman Nick Joe Rahall attended the event. A strong supporter of all three programs, Rahall said

 "... Social Security is a fortress of reliability. It has never missed a payment. Every dollar and benefit has been paid out on time and in full - how many 401-ks can tout that same record? Social security and Medicare are not the cause of our current budgetary woes and they should not be used as a piggy bank for unrelated spending, especially paying for more tax cuts for millionaires."

WV's senior senator Jay Rockefeller was not able to attend but sent a specially made video for the event, saying,

"I am so glad West Virginians from across the state are joining together to celebrate this important day in history. Seventy-seven years ago, on August 14, 1935, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt passed a landmark piece of legislation creating our nation’s Social Security program. It is a program that protects so many West Virginians and has lifted millions of people out of poverty. Social Security was created during the Great Depression, a crucial time in our nation’s history. And, since then, it has provided life-saving benefits to widows, the children of deceased workers, people who are disabled, and the elderly. Social Security has proven to be one of our nation’s most successful programs, serving 451,000 West Virginians – including 41,000 children where one or both parents are deceased, disabled, or retired – and more than 50 million Americans each year. It is something we should all celebrate.”

Today's celebration took on a special significance in light of presidential candidate Mitt Romney's selection of congressman Paul Ryan as running mate. Ryan was an architect of President Bush's failed effort to privatize Social Security and has crafted similar or worse plans for Medicare and Medicaid.

Things are going to  get interesting, alas.

To paraphrase a line from Hamlet...

"...madness in great nuns must not unwatched go." In this case, however, the madness is really righteous indignation.

Here's the deal: a group of Roman Catholic sisters are traveling over 9 states to highlight the harm the House Republican federal budget would do to vulnerable families. I hope they metaphorically whack a few knuckles with a ruler like the nun did in the old Blues Brothers movie.

WV Congresswoman Shelley Moore Capito, alas, voted for the Ryan budget for the second year in a row, while her Republican counterpart in the state's northern district, Congressman David McKinley, to his credit voted against it for the second year in a row.

Of turkey love and random news

A romantic comedy has been playing itself out at Goat Rope Farm, where we now have two male and two female turkeys. The males are much too gentlemanly to fight but they spend a great deal of time displaying and following each other around to make sure their rival doesn't get a moment alone with the ladies. Still, somebody is getting somewhere since the females are jointly sitting on what appear to be 27 viable eggs. We're hoping at least a few make it.

Meanwhile, here are a few items.

 CONFUSING AYN RAND WITH JESUS seems to be a problem for granny whacker Paul Ryan. The Jesuits cleared things up a bit.

STRANGE BEDFELLOWS. Here's a look at left/right unity on prison reform.

BIG FOOD. Here's a look at how the corporate food system derailed the struggle against obesity.

WHEN RED WAS RED. A friend of mine just published a book on the history of the Socialist Party in West Virginia.

ANALYTICAL THINKING AND RELIGION may not go very well together.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Musing amidst the ruins-updated

El Cabrero recently passed a literary milestone. After several years of effort, I finally made it through an unabridged version of Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. My "secret" for getting through big books like that is to read a couple of pages from each volume daily, then take a break when a volume is finished, then repeat as necessary. I've found that you can get through almost anything that way...although I have yet to try my method on Joyce's Ulysses.

I was inspired to try Gibbon after three people I know did the same (one, however, told me that if he had to do it over again he'd do a one volume condensation). As the story goes, Gibbon was inspired to take up the task while visiting Rome on the "grand tour" of Italy made by so many upper class Europeans. As he put it,

It was at Rome, on the fifteenth of October, 1764, as I sat musing amidst the ruins of the Capitol, while the barefooted fryars were singing Vespers in the temple of Jupiter, that the idea of writing the decline and fall of the City first started to my mind.

I got a bit of a chance to muse amidst the ruins of the Roman capitol myself last summer, so I can relate.

Was it worth it? What with cognitive dissonance and all I'd have to say yes, especially since saying no would mean fessing up to wasting a bunch of time. Still, it was a grand tour of its own. Over the next few days I may share some impressions.

A FAVORITE TARGET OF MINE gets whacked by Paul Krugman here.

IN PRAISE OF HAVING A SPINE. Here's E.J. Dionne's latest while we're at it.

OLD SCHOOL BIRDS can be seen here.

PERSONAL NOTE. We're back in WV after a bit more than a week on the road. It's always nice to come back to the farm and find that approximately the same number of animals are still alive as were there when we left.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED