After the cliff

After the cliff, Dems can talk about tax cuts rather than hikes.

2012 Christmas Blog Post

Well, we cycled through the Mayan Calendar and survived, so I guess I need to face the future! But first, a review of 2012.

This year I tried to concentrate mostly on singing and dancing. I spent a good chunk of 2012 working on the song "There I Said It" and its music video. I also released some shorter songs. It's a fun hobby, yes, I know I need to keep my day job! :)

I was in all four dance showcases this year, and "A Thousand Years Dance" has had over 2,800 views on YouTube as of this writing! I've also been out social dancing, and attended a couple of dance events with the college kids at the U of M. Next I plan to compete January 12 at the local Snow Ball event in the American Smooth dances of Waltz, Tango, Foxtrot, and Viennese Waltz.

Politically I didn't do much this year, but I attended my state convention, and blogged and voted for Jill Stein. One day I marched in a parade with Laura Libby, who went on to win a seat on the Crystal City Council. Another Green, John Matheson, won a seat on the Hilltop City Council. I had served with him on the local party steering committee.

On the job front, my route was reduced, but most of that was because of the new contract. I expect that I will be assigned to a new route in 2013.

In November I took a week just to throw out old junk, and donate and recycle other possessions. Things are still relatively tidy as I look around the room!

Spencer is wrapping up his undergraduate work at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. I helped him enroll in an MCAT course, and he has applied to some medical schools.

A Happy Christmas to All!

2011 Christmas Blog Post

Occupy!

The stock market should not exist, because it has little or nothing to do with the underlying real economy.

http://occupywallst.org/

Jerry Brown's flat tax

Jerry Brown supported a flat tax, which made him appear more conservative than Bill Clinton, but Brown's point was that the rich exploit so many loopholes that they would actually contribute more to the treasury with a flat tax, even if it is not progressive. Benefits to interest groups could be handled as expenditures rather than complicated tax deductions, and we could have scrapped the arcane U.S. tax code. I was super-energized for Jerry Brown, and probably spent too much time volunteering on his insurgent presidential campaign in 1992.

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1992-04-01/news/9201300018_1_flat-tax-tax-deadline-income-tax

Fiscal cliff is stairway to heaven

It's worth $2200/yr. to me just to get the rich to pay their fair share. The fiscal cliff is really a stairway to heaven. The real solution, of course, is to let government create more jobs and to pay for it by printing more money, but the fear mongers have everybody believing that would be inflationary.