Social Security Has Nothing To Do With The Deficit

That's right. It's true.

Social Security is basically a pension plan combined with old-age insurance. Each person contributes money while working and gets back money in retirement. The government just does the accounting. To balance the Social Security budget, we only have to decide if we want more insurance (higher payments, same benefits) or less insurance (same payments, lower benefits). That's a decision we should make on its own, based on how much risk we want to pool.

Medicare is guaranteed health insurance that you pay for in advance. Eliminating Medicare wouldn't suddenly free us from a burdensome tax: seniors would still want health insurance, and since Medicare is better at cost control than the private sector, they would have to pay more for it. The real question is how much insurance we want and whether we want a guarantee today that we will be insured in old age. The amount we should pay for that insurance has nothing to do with the rest of the government. Instead, it depends on how much we would have to pay for health insurance otherwise--a lot and growing each year.

With both programs, there's no magical budget constraint that limits how much Social Security or how much Medicare we can have. We can have a generous program funded by high contributions or a meager program funded by low contributions or no program at all.

The crucial thing is that with Social Security and Medicare, we're not just hoping the government does something useful with our tax money. We are pooling our money to share specific risks across a large population, and that money comes right back out as pensions and health care payments. The size of these programs should depend on how much risk we want to pool, and nothing else.

Given that most Americans don't save enough for retirement and most working Americans with health insurance will lose it when they retire, I think most people will want more insurance, not less. We shouldn't be forced into less insurance by the delusion that government does one thing and has one size, let alone that it has to be smaller. Extending Medicare to all Americans would eliminate the plight of the under insured and uninsured, and it would be good for the economy. 

Let There Be Funky Gyrations

Nancy just received her new stereo, which plays MP3s, CDs, and most importantly to her, cassettes! Here we celebrate...

Bernie Sanders Knows What Needs to be Done in 2012

We Need This Now

2012: Where do we go from here?

By Sen. Bernie Sanders

December 29, 2011

I want to take this opportunity to wish all Vermonters a very happy holiday season and a wonderful new year.

The year 2011 has been a tough one for Vermont and our country.  The recession caused by the greed, recklessness and illegal behavior of Wall Street continues.  While Vermont is doing better economically than much of the country, too many of our friends and neighbors are unemployed or underemployed or are earning less than they need to adequately support their families. 

Further, in Vermont we have had to deal with the devastation of Hurricane Irene, which caused so much hardship for individuals and businesses.  We should all be grateful for the efforts of state and local officials, first responders, the many hundreds of volunteers, and members of the National Guard who all did such an extraordinary job in the cleanup and recovery effort.

It is no secret that the people of our country are angry and frustrated with Washington and their government.  They correctly perceive that we face enormous problems: a collapsing middle class, increased poverty and a growing gap between the very rich and everyone else; sky-high unemployment; 50 million Americans without health insurance; a deteriorating infrastructure;  the continued loss of our manufacturing capabilities; the ongoing mortgage and student loan crises, and the planetary challenge of global warming.  And on top of all of that, we have a $15 trillion dollar national debt.

The American people want action.  They want their government to start representing the 99 percent, not just the top 1 percent.  With that goal in mind, let me say a few words about some of the issues that I will be working on when Congress reconvenes in January.

With more than 24 million Americans unemployed or underemployed, 15 percent of our workforce, we must be aggressive about creating the millions of new jobs we desperately need.  It is simply not acceptable that high school or college graduates are not able to find work as they try to begin their careers.  It is horrific that millions of older workers, who were looking forward to secure retirements, find themselves unemployed and facing the possibility that they may never again have a job. 

One of the fastest ways to create jobs is to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure - roads, bridges, railroads, airports, water systems, wastewater plants and aging schools.  While we spend 2 percent of our GDP on infrastructure, China spends 9 percent and Europe spends 5 percent.  We also need to make sure that Vermont and all of rural America gets the quality broadband and cell phone service that we deserve in order to be able to compete in the 21^stcentury.  When we rebuild and improve our infrastructure we not only create a significant number of jobs, we make our country more efficient and productive.  I will continue to fight for a substantial federal investment in infrastructure.

Another important way to create jobs - while we protect our environment, address global warming and prevent new wars - is to transform our energy system away from foreign oil and fossil fuels and into energy efficiency and sustainable energy.  In Vermont, we already lead the country in energy efficiency, but much, much more can be done.  We can create many new jobs weatherizing homes and buildings while, at the same time, we cut greenhouse gas emissions and save consumers money on their fuel bills.  This is a win, win, win proposition.  We must also be more aggressive in moving toward such job creating sustainable energy technologies as wind, solar, geothermal and biomass.   

When we talk about the economy and jobs, we cannot forget about the need for real Wall Street reform.  After all, it was the outrageous behavior of Wall Street which caused this recession in the first place. Incredibly, after we bailed out the behemoth banks that were "too big to fail," three out of the four are now even bigger than before the financial crisis. Within the next several months I will be introducing legislation which would bring fundamental change to the Federal Reserve as well as the way that largest financial institutions in this country are run.    

While we focus on job creation and the economy, we cannot forget about some of the most vulnerable people in our country - the elderly, the children, the sick and the poor. As chairman of the Defending Social Security Caucus, I intend to do all that I can to protect Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and the needs of our veterans. 

Last but not least, this country faces a major deficit as a result of two wars that were not paid for, tax breaks for the rich, and reduced revenue because of the recession. The deficit crisis must be resolved but in a way that is fair to the middle class.  As part of any deficit-reduction package, the wealthiest people in this country, many of whom are doing phenomenally well, must be asked to pay their fair share of taxes.  We must also do away with the hundreds of billions in corporate loopholes that currently exist, which enable many large and profitable corporations to pay little or nothing in federal taxes.

Bad Haircut

Climbing The Walls

This past year with Nancy in my life has been marvelous. In the Autumn of 2010, she moved into my flat just outside of Boston, and the unsettling loneliness and languor of single life was replaced with the excitement and terror of cohabiting with another human being. We knew a lot about each other, but naturally a lot of lessons had to be learned. We turned one of the bedrooms into an office for her to use, and it is packed with papers, folders, books and pill bottles. Shortly after she moved in, I made the mistake of cleaning her office and organizing her papers. Her reaction to this cemented one of our new rules into my mind forever; never, ever try to clean up Nancy's office. I'm not bright, but I learn lessons like this quickly. Training comes easy to me.

The year before Nancy arrived I had settled into the nadir of my life, and the end seemed to be in sight. Hope had gone out the window. The walls of my bedroom had thoughts and poems penciled upon them, perhaps because it helped me fill the empty space, like Edmund in the Chateau D'If. An ill-fated relationship with an older woman had just ended (a very poor match), and racing thoughts (a bipolar thing) which had previously been somewhat tempered with expensive but efficacious medicines, returned with a vengeance. For the first time in years I found myself banging my head on the wall for relief, the firewall, no less. A wooden wall is recommended for that sort of thing. Epileptic seizures, minor ones except for one grand mal, made me lethargic and cranky. Depression pulled me into the Sarlacc pit, despite the use of positive thinking that I learned about in therapy. It made me want to leave a flaming bag of dog-shit on the steps of my former therapist's office.

The Summer of 2010 really sucked.

As I type this, I'm sitting in the same room that had Longfellow's The Psalm of Life written on one of its  walls, along with a Punnet's square, D'arcy's Face Upon the Floor (a wonderful parlor poem), a taxonomy chart of apes, a recipe for popovers, and some random thoughts about love, illness, nature, cats, sex, and courtship. Nancy's phone number was on the wall near the bedroom door. Before she moved here, we must have spent 1,000 hours on the phone. Sometimes we spoke all night, for 6 or 8 hours, night after night after night. I had to switch my listening ear every few minutes due to the sweat pouring down my cheek.

Now that Nancy and I are here together, with a Nor'easter raging outside (rain, not snow), both of us in matching Forever Lazy pajamas (a Christmas thing...we're not proud, but they are just wicked comfortable), and an adoring bevvy of pets (four cats, of course, and a dog), this room may as well be in another flat, in a different building, on an exotic island far, far away. Nancy has made this flat a home. She is my wife now, and while we have some spectacular fights, I can't imagine ever going back to that room in the Summer of 2010. That hot room, with me going bat-shit in the middle of it. It took a slap in the face to get me out of there, and Nancy slapped me vigorously, as a comrade in the battle against ones' own mind. Then I happened to fall in love with her, and her with me. How convenient!

Some nights I awaken with a start, usually after a nightmare, to find my beloved sleeping next to me. She is often surrounded by pets, usually Annie, Impy and sometimes Ghost and Panther. It's a good thing, even if it has her sneezing and hacking like a TB victim every morning due to pet allergies. It used to piss her off, the way the cats and Annie insist on cuddling up to her tender nasal passages, but now she complains while cooing over the adorable furry little fuckers. Poor girl.

I think I'll saunter across the floor and give her a squeeze. 

Happy Festivus!

As you celebrate the birth of the Messiah by trampling children on the way to buy a pair of retro Michael Jordan sneakers, and gain 10 pounds snarfing down snickerdoodles and turducken, consider that perhaps Christmas isn't the holiday that it used to be. Mainly because you're not six anymore, but also because a holiday that is all about giving gifts, combined with feral capitalism, has led to an orgasm of consumerism and gluttony that would make Caligula blush. And let's not forget the forced mirth.

Enter Festivus, the story of which is told here:

Merry Christmas, everyone. And for my Jewish friends, may your General Gao's chicken be delicious, and not too spicy. A donation has been made on behalf of everyone to The Human Fund: Money for People. And Happy New Year!

Obama Is My Man, Warts And All. Why?

I support Obama with a vengeance. He's far from perfect, and part of my enthusiasm for him does come from fear of his potential opponent (Gingrich, Romney, et al). There is nothing wrong with supporting the "lesser evil," and my progressive friends need to understand that. Simply put, if a Republican gets into the White House it will be devastating for tens of millions of Americans, and for America herself. It would worsen economic injustice and the most unfair tax system we've ever had in this country. America will be turned into a banana republic, with no middle class to speak of and a chasm between the small amount of very, very wealthy and the vast majority of people who will live in poverty. This issue alone compels me to support Obama, with vigor.

An analysis of Gingrich's plan (similar to every other Republican presidential candidate) by the Tax Policy Center says households making more than $1 million a year would see their taxes drop by an average of 62%. Federal revenue would drop by an estimated $850 billion by 2014, a figure that would dramatically worsen the budget deficit unless it is offset by unprecedented cuts in virtually every program designed to help the poor, disabled, seniors, and fix our crumbling infrastructure. Why? Just so 0.5% of the population can get away with not paying taxes. A bunch of bums with a spine of spit and sawdust, for whom no amount of money is ever enough.

Republicans would greatly reduce or even eliminate taxes on capital gains, dividends and interest, and reduce the corporate income tax rate from 35 percent to 0 - 12.5 percent. This "trickle down" economic policy has been shown, again and again, to be a fraud. It's a grift. There are no data to support Supply Side economics, what even George Bush the First once called, "Voodoo economics." Large corporations, those with the most lobbying power, are making more profit than ever before, but they are not hiring in this country. The "trickle down" theory is total, absolute and complete bullshit. For the Republican clowns, however, it's canon. The laissez-faire approach to economics, with an invisible hand of the marketplace maintaining a modicum of fairness, has been shown to be unworkable, undesirable and pure bunk. An unregulated marketplace self-destructs faster than Amy Winehouse with a full liquor cabinet.

Republicans would make it even more difficult for Congress to reduce the federal budget deficit, which was $1.3 trillion in the budget year that ended in September, according to the study. The deficit is not the real target for these greedy, spineless people, social programs are...they are social Darwinists, pure and simple.

Slashing the top tax rate and eliminating taxes on investments would provide a huge windfall to the top 1%, according to the study. To quote the study, which analyzes Ginghrich's plan specifically (again, all the Republican plans are similar):

A household making between $40,000 and $50,000 would get an average tax cut of 12.1 percent, while a family making between $200,000 and $500,000 would get a tax cut of 27.3 percent. Households making more than $1 million would see their federal income taxes reduced by an average of $607,000 the study said.

The Republican approach is stupid, irresponsible, and amounts to class warfare. President Obama, despite his many flaws, has the moral scruples and intellect to understand that this money grab by the very wealthy can't be allowed to happen, and that the debt needs to be paid down by everyone with as little an impact on needed social programs as possible.

Also consider that chicken-hawk Republicans are enthusiastic about a possible war with Iran, but are too cowardly to openly consider a draft or raise taxes to actually pay for the costs of it (including keeping up funding of TRI-Care for veterans). They would be happy to see a small number of professional soldiers and their families carry the burden yet again. A profile in courage may be difficult to find in the Democratic Party, but they are non-existent in the GOP. These yellow war-profiteers make me wretch.

Gingrich made a fool out of himself and stoked the fires already burning in the Middle East by stating that, "The Palestinians are not a people, they're just Arabs living inside an invented border." This is painfully ignorant talk by a self-described, "scholar and intellectual." John McCain, back in 2008, declared, "We are all [Soviet] Georgians now!" after violence broke out between the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and Georgia. Within a few months, Georgia did withdraw from the CIS. If John McCain had his way, we would have been involved in that skirmish against Russia, Ukraine, et al. Republicans love unfunded and undeclared wars, tax inequality, social injustice, class warfare, and bowing to their corporate masters. The Democrats are almost as bad, but if there are any politicians who understand the need for social programs, economic justice, health care for all, and less war, you can be sure that he or she is a Democrat. I'm thinking of Bernie Sanders of Vermont (who caucuses with the Democrats and has begun the fight for an amendment to eliminate "corporate personhood" and the terrible "Citizen's United" Supreme Court decision), Al Franken, Debbie Stabenow, Barney Frank, Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, Dennis Kucinich, and the late Robert Byrd, who passionately spoke against the pointless Iraq War in his final days:


Today I weep for my country. I have watched the events of recent months with a heavy, heavy heart. No more is the image of America one of strong, yet benevolent peacekeeper. The image of America has changed. Around the globe, our friends mistrust us, our word is disputed, our intentions are questioned. Instead of reasoning with those with whom we disagree, we demand obedience or threaten recrimination. (Senator Robert Byrd, March 19, 2003)


Republicans, to a one, stand in lock step behind the elephant and the hawk. They obey, and they are wrong on virtually every issue. Their only principles are about principal. They shape-shift to get elected in a way that at least some Democrats never have .

One last thing, about Ron Paul. He is supposedly a Libertarian, but he is opposed to a woman's right to choose. Many of my friends are Libertarians (and in the Libertarian Party) and find that absurd and ridiculous, as I do. The big defender of freedom, Ron Paul, just cares about lowering taxes and is full of shit on civil liberties. Yes, he is against the wars, and that wonderful. But he is, too, a spineless clown. His "supporters" need to spend a little more time reading about him. If you feel that taxation is theft and that the government has no right to establish a fire department with tax money, how the fuck can you argue that abortion should be illegal. It's nonsense.

These are just a few of the reasons that this Red is not going to pull the lever for a 3rd party candidate this year. Obama is my man, warts and all.

He was as tall as a 6′3″ tree.

Washington Post Analogies Contest Winners

Her eyes were like two brown circles with big black dots in the center.

He was as tall as a 6′3″ tree.

Her face was a perfect oval, like a circle that had its two sides gently compressed by a Thigh Master.

From the attic came an unearthly howl. The whole scene had an eerie, surreal quality, like when you’re on vacation in another city and Jeopardy comes on at 7:00 p.m. instead of 7:30.

John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met.

She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like that sound a dog makes just before it throws up.

The ballerina rose gracefully en pointe and extended one slender leg behind her, like a dog at a fire hydrant.

He was as lame as a duck. Not the metaphorical lame duck, either, but a real duck that was actually lame. Maybe from stepping on a land mine or something.

Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever.

She grew on him like she was a colony of E. coli and he was room-temperature Canadian beef.

The revelation that his marriage of 30 years had disintegrated because of his wife’s infidelity came as a rude shock, like a surcharge at a formerly surcharge-free ATM.

The lamp just sat there, like an inanimate object.

McBride fell 12 stories, hitting the pavement like a Hefty bag filled with vegetable soup.

His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances like underpants in a dryer without Cling Free.

He spoke with the wisdom that can only come from experience, like a guy who went blind because he looked at asolar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it and now goes around the country speaking at high schools about the dangers of looking at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it.

Long separated by cruel fate, the star-crossed lovers raced across the grassy field toward each other like two freight trains, one having left Cleveland at 6:36 p.m. traveling at 55 mph, the other from Topeka at 4:19 p.m. at a speed of 35 mph.
Shots rang out, as shots are wont to do.

The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn’t.

Her hair glistened in the rain like a nose hair after a sneeze.

The hailstones leaped from the pavement, just like maggots when you fry them in hot grease.

They lived in a typical suburban neighborhood with picket fences that resembled Nancy Kerrigan’s teeth.

He fell for her like his heart was a mob informant and she was the East River.

Even in his last years, Grand pappy had a mind like a steel trap, only one that had been left out so long, it hadrusted shut.
He felt like he was being hunted down like a dog, in a place that hunts dogs, I suppose.

She was as easy as the TV Guide crossword.

She walked into my office like a centipede with 98 missing legs.

The plan was simple, like my brother-in-law Phil. But unlike Phil, this plan just might work.

The young fighter had a hungry look, the kind you get from not eating for a while.

“Oh, Jason, take me!” she panted, her breasts heaving like a college freshman on $1-a-beer night.

It hurt the way your tongue hurts after you accidentally staple it to the wall.

It was an American tradition, like fathers chasing kids around with power tools.

He was deeply in love. When she spoke, he thought he heard bells, as if she were a garbage truck backing up.

The politician was gone but unnoticed, like the period after the Dr. on a Dr Pepper can.

Her eyes were like limpid pools, only they had forgotten to put in any pH cleanser.

Her date was pleasant enough, but she knew that if her life was a movie this guy would be buried in the credits as something like “Second Tall Man.”

The thunder was ominous-sounding, much like the sound of a thin sheet of metal being shaken backstage during the storm scene in a play.

The red brick wall was the color of a brick-red Crayola crayon.

She caught your eye like one of those pointy hook latches that used to dangle from screen doors and would fly up whenever you banged the door open again.

Her pants fit her like a glove, well, maybe more like a mitten, actually.

Fishing is like waiting for something that does not happen very often.

They were as good friends as the people on “Friends.”

Oooo, he smells bad, she thought, as bad as Calvin Klein’s Obsession would smell if it were called Enema and was made from spoiled Spamburgers instead of natural floral fragrances.

The knife was as sharp as the tone used by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Tex.) in her first several points of parliamentary procedure made to Rep. Henry Hyde (R-Ill.) in the House Judiciary Committee hearings on the impeachment of President William Jefferson Clinton.

He was as bald as one of the Three Stooges, either Curly or Larry, you know, the one who goes woo woo woo.

The sardines were packed as tight as the coach section of a 747.

Thanks to Bethany Amanda!

Cutting Programs for Homeless Veterans So Rich Slimeballs Can Avoid Taxes

In a state that is near the top of the national chart in food insecurity, Governor Rick Scott (Republican of Florida) took time this holiday to pass out Thanksgiving dinner to about 1,000 families at a shelter in East Naples. The shelter’s program fed about 7,000 families last week, with roughly 200 volunteers packing and distributing meals.

“I care completely about all [homeless relief] programs,” said Scott while handing out food. However, he displays an odd way of showing it, as his sweeping budget cuts this year ended funding to veteran and farm surplus programs that helped the homeless. To justify those cuts, Scott simply explained, “All the programs are very important, but nobody wants their taxes to go up."

Republicans sicken me, to my very soul.

One Jacksonville homeless shelter official noted that Scott “zeroed out all homeless funding” — $7 million worth — in his budget proposal. That funding supported programs dedicated to homelessness prevention, housing initiatives, and programs that “re-house” people once they’re on the street. “Not only that, he took out the line items so it can never be funded again,” said the official.

To show how much he cares about the homeless, Scott went further by vetoing $12 million in funding that the state legislature had passed to support homeless veterans. There are an estimated 17,000 homeless veterans in Florida — the most of any state.

Nationwide, according to the most recent statistics, 75,609 veterans are homeless on any given night and twice as many experience homelessness during a year. Right now, the number of homeless Vietnam era veterans is greater than the number of service persons who died during that war. Already, veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan are appearing in the homeless population, all across the US.

A few weeks ago, I read this article in the Boston Globe, about Occupy Boston bringing together veterans, students, and the homeless (some are all three). I'll post it below. Just remember, fellow citizens, that signing a "no tax pledge" is dangerous and stupid, and a lot of people are watching their lives get turned upside down because of the no tax gimmick. In America today, we are engaged in class-warfare unlike anything we've seen before. The very wealthy have done extremely well over the past two decades, while the poor and middle class have not. If this continues, the US will become a "Banana Republic," with no middle class, a small minority controlling the machinery of government, and wealth concentrated at the top among a very small number of people (less than one percent).

We won't even take care of our veterans just to avoid tax increases on the rich? What has become of us? This country has become a moon-cast shadow of what it once was, and it makes me sad and very angry.

The Boston Globe article:
Students, homeless, veterans find common ground at OCCUPY BOSTON By Martine Powers, Boston Globe Staff

Their identities are as diverse as their demands: born-and-bred Bostonians, students from elite universities, homeless people, veterans, owners of small businesses. They are people who, in other times, would seldom cross paths or purposes.

Now, they huddle under the same ideological umbrella: Occupy Boston.

Cheri King, 36, is one of them. Four months ago, she was caring for her dying mother at a hospital in Arizona. She quit her job to provide full-time care. Now, after moving to Boston to find a job, she is homeless, shuttling from shelter to shelter and, for the past week, living at the camp of Occupy Boston.

She has been living on the streets since August, she said, but in that time she has quickly come to know the injustices of homelessness. “It hasn’t been that long, but it feels like it’s been forever,’’ said King.

King ended up at Occupy Boston, she said, because she feels safer there than in a shelter: no curfews, no fight for beds. Still, she said, many people in the Occupy Boston movement do not understand the challenges she and other homeless people face.

When the police approached Monday night, she crossed the street to watch from a distance; she said she cannot afford to be arrested, because it could jeopardize her ability to get a job or a spot in a shelter.

“A lot of people here are just playing house,’’ King said. “They have a home to go to or a dorm to go to or a dad or a mom to bail them out if they get in trouble.’’

When Bob Funke, 59, was 12 years old, he marched with his neighbors for civil rights. They were Jewish, he recalled, and explained to him the terrible things that could occur when people are afraid to do what is right.

Occupy Boston, he said, awakens those same activist feelings inside him.

Funke spent 13 years on and off in the military, and he served in Vietnam. Now, he is unemployed. He and other members of Veterans for Peace have been at Occupy Boston since the first day, he said.What he wants is a job, for the wealthiest Americans to pay for higher taxes, and an end to American-funded wars overseas.

Now, his son, who lives in Lincoln, Nebraska, has also joined the Occupy movement. “He called and said, ‘Dad, I’m involved with this thing now!’ ’’ Funke said. “It’s really got momentum.’’

Next to Funke was Lisa Doherty, 56, munching on a peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich while waving at motorists honking their approval.

Doherty has spent her whole life in Charlestown; since losing her job three years ago, she has moved in with relatives who live nearby.

Class Warfare and the Myth That Free Market Capitalism is a "Meritocracy"

The rich always get their way. It needs to change. Reform isn't enough, we need a Socialist revolution. Capitalism is NOT a meritocracy and poverty is NOT a sign of weakness or failure. The 1% at the top are gaming the system and destroying our republic with absurd notions like "corporate person-hood," and by corrupting the democratic process via PACs, lobbying and gerrymandering. 

Life Without The Internets

These days find me without a computer, and thus unable to post to this blog or explore the series of tubes that make up the Internet. To all of my friends, I miss our conversations. On the plus side, I'm getting some serious reading in, which is good. I've just finished Dan Simmons' Black Hills, and plan to start Julia Phillips' You'll Never Eat Lunch In This Town Again. If you have a recommendation, write me at DWLyle@gmail.com.

A novel that will haunt you long after you've returned it to the library.

The Search for Lefse!

My wife is from Minnesota, an oasis of civilization located next to the armpit of the known universe. To the West of The Star of the North is North Dakota and South Dakota, with Iowa to the South. Wisconsin is to the East, which is a good thing, as Wisconsin is a super-fine state and a bulwark against the evils of Governor Walker.

Minnesota is also the home of The Mayo Clinic, one of the best hospitals in the world, along with about 12,000 lakes (even more than the 10,000 advertised). During my visits there, I've found affable, cool people who will happily buy you a drink  if you look a little down.

Bob Dylan is from Duluth, but he is an asshole who never shows any appreciation for what he learned  on the mean streets of that fair city. The time I spent in Duluth was very interesting. My guide and future wife, Nancy Welharticky, loves her adopted city, even though it has not always been kind to her. Duluth is like that...a lot of character, but quite dangerous if you don't want neighborhoods to avoid. Duluth is also a hilly town, and when the cold air blows through town, those hills get icy as all hell. Nancy slipped and nearly broke her ass at least five times.

Merv is a gregarious gentleman who will buy you a drink, as long as you're with Nancy. Kurt is also a Duluthian, and one amazing musician. A kinder man you will never meet. Leigh, too, is super cool. She lives across the lake a bit in Superior. Wonderful people all. Prince is from Minnesota, and I'd love to pat him on the bum when he visits.

I'm in love with Boston, but if I ever cheated on her, it would be with Duluth.

Nancy tells me that there is a Norwegian food that can only be found in Scandinavian enclaves in the Dakotas, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. The food is called, "Lefse." A little about the delicacy here.

If you know where this thing can be found in the Boston area, email be at DWLyle@gmail.com toute de suite!  This poor woman (Nancy Pants) is JONESIN'. Better yet, if you know of a Scandinavian bakery, all the better.

While you're here...donate to my cause...I need a computer!

Massive Income Gap Between Rich and Poor Is Killing America

To the very, very wealthy in America, no amount of money is too much.  Any Conservative in this country will refuse to admit that our country's economic problems spring from one main source; the huge and widening wealth gap in America. While they wage war on working Americans they seek to enact policies that do one thing, widen that gap even further. Now, with all the wealth already horded to the very top Americans have little hope if more radical right-wing economics are enacted.

The fact is that the current rate of wealth distribution is unsustainable for our economy. Wealth is important to working American families for several reasons. This quote is taken from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI). Why is wealth important? Like wages and income, overall wealth is central to a family's standard of living. Wealth-particularly liquid assets such as savings and checking account balances and direct holding of stocks and bonds-can help families cope with financial emergencies that arise due to unemployment or illness. Wealth also makes it easier for families to invest in education and training, start a small business, or fund retirement. More tangible forms of wealth such as cars, computers, and homes can directly affect a family's ability to participate fully in work, school, and community life. http://www.epi.org/publication... Sadly as this chart demonstrates more Americans have been losing more wealth as the very few have seen their wealth skyrocket: Even more discouraging for working American families is the fact that the Republican recession of 2008 eroded the wealth of working America even more by destroying the main source of wealth for millions of them: The deflation of the housing bubble which started in 2006 pushed the U.S. economy into recession by the end of 2007. As house prices fell and already low equity (due to second mortgages) vanished, foreclosures and "upside down" mortgages, in which homeowners owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth, became a vicious cycle. Given the reliance of typical families on housing as a source of wealth, the housing debacle has devastated the net worth of millions of American households. Which follows the cycle of the last thirty years and proves the "Two Americas" theory of John Edwards. You see those in the other America have seen a much different recovery from the recession they caused than the rest of us have: The Great Recession officially lasted from December 2007 through June 2009-the longest span of recession since the Great Depression. The recovery since then has proceeded on two tracks: one for typical families and workers, who continue to struggle against high rates of unemployment and continued foreclosures, and another track for the investor class and the wealthy, who have enjoyed significant gains in the stock market and benefited from record corporate profits. Now even with all of this inequality and with the lack of wealth for millions of American families what are the solutions offered by too many Republican and Corporate Democrat politicians? Do they seek to close the wealth gap in America giving more money to more families to spend reviving the economy? No. Republican policies seek to do merely one thing. Ignore the huge wealth discrepency in this country and horde even more wealth to the top and heap even more damage onto our already decimated economy. They seek to lower the wages of any middle-class workers who are left and destroy any chance of them to negotiate fair compensation for their skills. The most discouraging part is that many Americans either through hate, or ignorance or just a stubborn refusal to admit that they were wrong in electing people who work against them too many Corporate stooges and millionaires are elected to continue waging war upon working America. As long as we allow the elites to tell us that they live in a different America than we do we our country will never recover and live up to the principles of freedom and equality it was founded upon. Unfortunately it appears as if the people of this country do not wake up soon we are indeed a nation that has seen its better days and will never recover from the slow and steady decline that those who dream of an old world Europe in America have initiated. Supply side economics is a pleasant fiction that doesn't work. George Bush the First called it, "Voodoo Economics" for a reason. Reducing or eliminating taxes on the very rich doesn't create jobs. It simply does not. And contrary to the assertions of the very wealthy, we do NOT live in a meritocracy. The vast majority of the obscenely wealthy have obscenely wealthy parents. Class warfare is already here...are we going to fight back? Consider a donation to The House of Four Cats...my computer died. My hat in hand is extended to you!

My Computer, Mortimer, Is Dead...Help Me Fix It With Donations!

I'm not too proud to beg, and I'll prove it right now. At the bottom of this paragraph you'll see a PayPal "donate" button. Click on it to make a donation to the Darren W. Lyle "Race for a Cure 'Cause I'm Poor (and need a computer) Fund." Any amount will help, and 100% of the money received will go to a new computer for me. I so need one! Thank you in advance, my friends. Donate here:

A part of kindness consists in loving people more than they deserve.
Joseph Joubert 

Herman Cain Proves Republicans Are Out Of Touch, Insane, and Stupid

The news broke on Sunday when the website Politico reported that Herman Cain settled 2 sexual harassment suits in the 90’s while he was head of National Restaurants Association. Mr. Cain has followed the standard for all political figures caught with their pants down (pun intended) – deny, deny, deny, then admit. At this point, it seems that these allegations are completely true, though the circumstances behind the actual accusations remain unknown. One thing is for sure, while the reporting of the lawsuits may be politically motivated, the original accusations certainly weren’t, as they happened well before Mr. Cain had any political ambitions.

What this says about Mr. Cain’s character is in the eye of the beholder. His supporters will certainly insist that the original accusations were baseless attacks motivated solely by money. His detractors (myself included) don’t really need any other evidence that he’s a ridiculous excuse for a presidential candidate – the hopper is already pretty full on that count.

But what’s truly fascinating is the way the Right Wing Sock Puppet Gallery shifted into overdrive. Rush Limbaugh, Anne Coulter, and Sean Hannity quickly went on air to decry the “liberal media” for the attacks. The extent these people will twist reality is quite stunning – that he was “set up” by the liberal media and that liberals are threatened by a black conservative.

The language these people use is pretty over-the-top: Coulter said, “Our blacks are so much better than their blacks.” Classy, no? Hannity insists that this is another “high tech lynching” that liberals are apparently so famous for. Limbaugh shrieked that “‘mainstream media’ goes for the ugliest racial stereotypes they can to attack a black conservative.”

This is absurd on so many levels and speaks more to the paranoid delusion of the right than anything else.

Politico is hardly an arm of the ‘liberal media’ (whatever that is). Their CEO (Frederick Ryan) serves as chairman of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation’s board (damn commie!). When the right screams about the ‘liberal media’ or the ‘mainstream media” what they mean is anyone who writes anything they don’t like.

The argument that liberals are afraid of Herman Cain is quite a stretch. Ask any Obama supporter which candidate they would prefer face Obama in the general election and Cain will undoubtedly be at the top of the list. It would be like a liberal dream come true to have someone so eminently unqualified, so obviously unserious, running for president in 2012. Really, we are drooling at the prospect.

And the obvious inference to Clarence Thomas is equally suspicious. This story is not like Clarence Thomas’s. In that instance, a woman came forward at a seemingly opportunistic moment to make a charge that she had never made before. In this instance we are talking about a matter of record – Herman Cain was sued for sexual harassment and paid at least 1 and maybe 2 women to settle, which he now admits. These are facts.  It is certainly well within bounds for a front-runner in a presidential campaign to have his or her background scoured. Who leaked what to who and why doesn’t really matter when the story is true.

The reality of this is that there can be almost no doubt that it is the republicans who are threatened by Cain’s candidacy. Given that Cain has received zero support from any major political figures in the Republican Party (contrast this with the legions that have lined up to endorse Perry or Romney), there can be no doubt that Republican leaders don’t want Cain running against Obama. Luckily for the nation, there are still some conservatives who are not enamored with the anti-intellectual radicalism of the Tea Party. But they are getting increasingly frightened and desperate at the prospect of a Cain candidacy. The ‘establishment’ conservatives have been on a full anti-Cain press for a couple of weeks now, yet Cain remains the front runner. And he’s doing it without really campaigning in the early states, which makes the Republican Party in Iowa and New Hampshire nervous that they are becoming irrelevant.

Liberal media hit-job? Not quite.

Republicans Are Obstructionist Corporate Whores

My computer has experienced an early demise, and it's unlikely that I'll be back online (except when Nancy lets me use her computer, which is rarely) for several months. Let me just say that I hope that Herman Caine gets the nomination for the Republican Party Presidential Candidate in 2012. The Republicans have finally gone off the deep end and embraced class warfare, their pathetic desperate attempts to get the White House, the corporate whores that they are, as well as their complete lack of moral scruples, common decency, and compassion. Herman Caine, keep up the good work and help us ensure a new Obama presidency.

Kurt Hegle...That Man Can Play! Duluth Must Be Proud of the BTJO!

A good friend of Nancy and I, Kurt Hegle can be heard here playing with the BTJO (Big Time Jazz Orchestra).

The Stoned Coffee

It's all about the stones today, folks. Watch the video and find out how to keep your coffee hot using a boiled or microwaved stone. The gratuitous picture of an attractive woman's back is simply to demonstrate the many uses of a hot stone. Yeah. The stone I used is about the size of the one sitting on her T6 thoracic vertebra. The one in the middle. Be sure to buy a travel mug with a cover before trying my trick, or you'll knock your fucking teeth out.

Good evening, friends and comrades!

Fun Fact: In Boston, a convenience store where one can get coffee is usually called a, "Spa." The store just up the street is called, "Boyle's Spa." This confuses Nancy, and a lot of tourists.

No Money For Halloween? Some Ideas to Keep the Porch Light On

Halloween, All-Hallows-Eve, Fat Kids Looking for Free Candy...what a great holiday. Get to know your neighbors, and then enjoy avoiding them for the rest of the year! My video blog will help you get away with spending nothing (or nearly nothing), and still participate in The Devil's Night of Free Candy. Shoplifting candy is another option, but I don't recommend it. It generally leads to unpleasantness! Like jail. Jail isn't pleasant. And the conversation just isn't up to snuff!

Right on, Linus! Don't let Walgreen's, Wal-Mart, and all the rest take spirituality and The Great Pumpkin out of Halloween!

Introducing The Big Four

From left to right; Impy, Panther, Fluffy (mother of Impy) and Ghost. They all have their share of eccentric behavior.

Northeast Shooters Are Intellectual Cowards

Just a word about Northeastshooters. If any of you visit this website, pass this little tidbit of information along: I was banned from the site. Everything you've said on your little forum is easily answered, but I can't answer. This creates a nice illusion for you all...that I've gone and run off because, "Nobody messes with NES." I would have loved to continue messing with it, but again, I was banned.

And to EddieCoyle (great Boston movie), there is nothing creepy about my blog. The NES are a far wackier and bizarre bunch who are unable to process information and think critically. And I don't give a rat's ass what you think about my disability. You know very little about me. Ironically, at some point someone at NES will need food stamps or some form of government assistance, and he or she will take it, using the excuse that, "I really need it, unlike the other deadbeats who receive help from the government." The NES are a group of conservatives who have embraced a pleasant fiction, and refuse to see the hypocrisy of saying that taxation is theft, but it's acceptable theft if it pays for police and the military. It's laughable.

Long after I was banned, members continued to dig up information about me, like my electro-shock therapy, obesity, and testicular cancer, gleefully posting away. In my opinion, it's pretty low to do that after a person is banned and cannot defend himself. Wouldn't you agree?

Finally, the reason I posted to NES to begin with is because of a fellow named Josh Manjarrez. I knew him in high school, and he was practically stalking my blog. When I visited NES, I realized that you all needed to be educated about socialism, free market libertarians vs.civil libertarians, public assistance, and a whole host of other issues. Instead of debating with me, the discussion turned quickly to insults...and I was accused of being a troll. Ridiculous. The NES is a little group of people with a very high opinion of themselves ("Don't mess with us!") that gets reaffirmed again and again because people like me, who disagree and present a well thought out argument, are banned and mocked. You're a bunch of intellectual cowards playing with your guns.

Repeated attacks on my being on disability ignore that I worked between age 14 and 35, full-time, and all the while paying into the Social Security system. I never anticipated having to use SSDI, but one never does until something happens. When I was making pretty good money (not great, but respectable), I paid my taxes, and my tax money was used for a series of stupid wars and corporate tax cuts. Tell your friends to climb down off of their crosses and accept that we all pay taxes, and some of the money we pay goes to programs we don't support. In my case, I'm on SSDI, an insurance program that I ended up needing. It could happen to you or any one of your gun nut friends. If you think otherwise, you're delusional.

The people of NES are Social Darwinists (Eugenics). They make me sick and I'm happy that we are going our separate ways. As one who holds a degree in evolutionary biology, it saddens me to see Darwin's theory of natural selection used to justify such a repulsive and brutal social and political philosophy. A misinterpretation of the term, survival of the fittest (which is all about reproduction and live offspring) is responsible for creating more assholes and dickheads than Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead combined.

Pass that along, would you?

Don't Die of Embarrassment: Feel Your Balls For Cancer

This video shows men how to check for testicular cancer. Again, thanks to Torsten Koehler:

Very simply done in the shower.

Of Card Tables and Canes

Dissent is Wicked Patriotic!

Quite a bit has been happening in our quaint little republic. The true grassroots movement against the attempted destruction of our democracy (Koch Brothers, Diebold), corporate person-hood, and an historically unprecedented bail-out of capitalism is deeply moving and inspiring to me. Back in the day ('90's), when I was very active in the Socialist Party USA, and in the Socialist Party of Massachusetts, and in the Boston Local, I learned quite a lot. Here is a short list of what I learned through activism:

1. It's possible to have a very productive meeting with just a card table and four chairs.
2. Intellectuals love to argue. The love it.
3. Getting people involved in a grassroots movement is a difficult task, in the extreme.
4. It's absurdly difficult to get a third-party candidate on the ballot (the most we could do was a, "certified write-in," which meant that the votes had to be counted. Yeah, big deal).
5. The longer one is involved in a radical, left-wing movement, the more psychosomatic illnesses accrue. Frank P. Zeidler seems to have been the exception. As a thrice-elected Socialist mayor of Milwaukee, he didn't have to bottle his outrage within himself. He had access to change things as a, Sewer Socialist. If memory serves, he got around pretty well, and wrote me often after our time together in Milwaukee. Sigh. I miss his letters. Anyway, other Socialists use canes, take SSRI's, have gone blind, suffer from vague aches and pains, argue with birds in the park, and have irritable bowel syndrome. Why? It's not easy knowing what is wrong with the country you love, only to have your solutions ignored and to be accused of being, "Anti-American."

That's a short list of five. I took away a lot more than that. For example, at the Feminist Expo 2000 in Washington DC, I learned that feminists are not to be fucked with, and will punch your lights out if you piss them off. Also, Eve Ensler's, "The Vagina Monologues" is incredible. At the Socialist Scholars' Conference at the Borough of Manhattan Community College, I had lunch with a group of Libertarians who were there in solidarity with our cause for fair ballot access for third parties and learned that real Libertarians (not "Republican Libertarians" who are just confused) are a fine bunch of people. They enjoyed calling me a, "Pinko." I loved it.

Advocating revolutionary change is not an easy business. Hell, taking the bus to Chicago for the 1992 National Convention of the SPUSA was a fucking nightmare, but hey, that's how us poor folk travel. One does what one has to do! Trying to unionize a shop is not easy. Getting people out to vote is also not easy. Overcoming the natural inclination towards despair that afflicts the poor and powerless is extremely difficult. As a poor person who feels that our nation has been robbed from us, I feel that despair, as well.

We all get by with a lot of help from our friends and comrades. America is a very flawed country, but at least there is a chance (albeit small) for poor and middle class people to get together and scare the hell out of corporations. It's also deeply satisfying to stand-up for human decency (universal health care, amnesty for illegal immigrants, a minimum wage increase).

And the people you meet! The comrades! J. Quinn Brisben, Frank Zeidler, David McReynolds, Eric Chester, Ann Rosenhaft, Kari Fisher, Matt Andrews, Paul Avery, Greg Pason, and on and on. These are people I admire. Now we have a grassroots movement of consequence. Very dedicated and bright young men and women are doing a magnificent job. Bravo, comrades!

Occupy Boston: Well Done, Comrades!

**Message to Northeast Shooters: I was kicked off of your little discussion group. Enjoy your love fest and have fun talking shit, you ignorant assholes**

Occupy Boston is up and running and raising hell and doing a mighty fine job. Here are some pictures. This is the time for real change. Right now! Breaking news:
1199 SEIU will back Occupy Boston State’s largest healthcare union (44,000 members strong) to lend resources, support to growing movement. Complete story here.

Capitalists are damn lucky we don't have a, "meritocracy."

Dr. Cornell West in action.

Well put.

This is so inspiring to see in my city.

Wicked good sign!

We owe so much to unions, even the suit knows.