Dada models his new G.I. style "hat."But who am I kidding other than myself? With my easily distracted attention, I never was much of a bingo player and the one great rocker I had fell apart several years ago and disappeared shortly after I sat it out on the front curb. Besides, our house has no front porch to sit on anyway. So I suppose playing soldier is as good a pastime as can be expected in light of what's happening to everyone here, on the homefront!
Forget the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. As this month's election showed, they've taken their place on a back burner to the newest and hottest issue, the war at home where Americans are now fighting desperately to salvage some modicum of life as we knew it! While I don't expect whatever comes through this to resemble what we had or what we were, I do hope that, should we ever end our foreign wars, our members of the armed forces will still have a nation to come home to.
In the meantime, I -- like most Americans -- will be fighting to hang onto my health in face of vanishing health care, clinging to and defending my savings and retirements from the onslaught of shriveling wealth. And that freeway overpass I've joked about for years as our possible future home? It's looking more and more feasible. The war is on and I suspect more and more of us will be joining up to fight it.
21 comments:
Economic wars are the bloodiest!
ps, you are one handsome soldier, Dada, now give me fifty on the floor! (I am applying for drill sargeant in the new economic army)
I hope when you pick out that new Overpass that you paint beautiful murals on it- like the Dish art that you painted..which I love...
me- I am looking to be a professional squatter....there is a neighborhood about 5 blocks away with big empty houses...and tons of room.....feel free to come up...block by block , there is tons of empty space...
( we are all fighting to survive...me- I work...by the end of this if I have 20 jobs I might survive and send 6-6 to college...right??? )
Love the photo. I thought this post was going to be about Juarez. Now there is a war. Get ready on the southern front, too.
I was counting on a peaceful revolution!
Doh!
d.k. - Thanks. You would have made an excellent drill sergeant, but as for the fifty push-ups, aren't you forgetting my senior citizen discount there? Don't I get some kind of break??
enigma: I kinda like that satellite dish too. I guess we share a deep appreciation for great art, huh? (LOL)
I'm still waiting for someone to walk by and inquire as to what kind of satellite service Liberte is. (But then, as noted in this blog, I don't have a porch or a rocker on it to sit in, so I don't go out in the front yard much.
Isn't it ironic how the more and more homeless there becomes, the more and more vacant apts and homes go wanting for someone just to move in, occupy and warm 'em, making them once more what they were intended to be -- homes?
I was reading about the collapse of the USSR and it's ensuing economic decline. They didn't have this huge growing homeless problem. (I don't 'member why, maybe it was because the state owned all the apts. etc.?)
Hang in there. You're an inspiration to many, E.
B.E. - On BE, I can't even begin to think about all that's going on just over the border. So tragic, so sad, the killing of journalists and now extortion of teacher's December bonuses and the threats against them, their students and their schools if they don't submit to local terrorist's demands. Merry Christmas!
Fortunately, our dope supply here is relatively unaffected, thanks to the efforts of our gov't and Mexico's.
fran: Me too, me too. I keep hoping, but you know about the natural born pessimist in me.
I sometimes wonder about reincarnation; if we can choose to come back to this Earthly plane whenever. And if such a thing was to exist, how many of us chose this time specifically to witness what's about to take place? (Of course, that smacks of predestination. Too much to think about whilst I must decide how to compensate for our latest $100 drop in monthly income. Minor, yes, but good practice for what's around the corner? Probably.)
Dada::
thanks for what you said ;-)
that was nice...really...
About the Empty Building Syndrome...it really bugs me...I will walk the dog and see homeless sitting outside....and the buildings right behind them are empty...both need warmth..human contact...on the news they talk of foreclosures....10,000 a day...of homes..interesting that no one ever mentions commercial properties- I bet that is even higher...Ctown has blocls and blocks..so strange...
about your dish art...it is so beautiful...I can not believe that no one has come calling wanting their own dish art...if you were on my block I would..I think I would request mine to be painted like the Chinese Willow Pattern....like a giant saucer sitting empty on the roof...waiting for a giant cat...
reincarnation....you mention...
hmm...the chance to come back as something wonderful...or to give this another try...
or as 6-6 says...a chance for Dick Cheney to come back as an ant....and get stomped on by Someone's size 18 shoe ??? ( it turns out Karma wears really big shoes...)
;-)
oooops need to correct myself...it's 10,000 a week....btw at our County...they have put ALL rental Evictions and otherwise on hold until Obama takes office...I found this out standing next to the person in charge of it at an Obama rally - the Springsteen one here 2 days before election....( when we did not know if he was elected...) She said that our county had made the un-announced decision also because of the Holidays and the Winter....( that gave me some hope ....of reclaimed Humanity...)
Hang in there...
hmmm ... when I told EK I was demanding 50, he said the usual punishment was to "drop and give me 10". Sounds more like a porno movie to me, but what do I know? Maybe Economic War, like all war, is fought in pornographic terms.
In order to keep my drill sargeant application active, let it be known, there will be NO "senior breaks" ... MAGGOT!!!!
We will storm those empty homes that Enigma has reconnoitered (good work, there, Lieutenant E) and commandeer them for our headquarters. We will check all insects for bush/cheney-resemblance and stomp accordingly. The bush ones will be wearing little cowboy hats & riding miniature mtn bikes. The cheney ones will be torturing their fellow insects while a team of gonzo-addington-lawyer insects observes. They will all be smirking sideways.
Piece o'cake, grunts! ... literally, we will lure them out with pieces of cake ...
Oh yea- about empty homes. My Mom has a perfectly good brick 3 bedroom home sitting empty. The first year it sat empty because we were seeing how Mom's adjustment to care facility living was, and to avoid any additional trauma.
Then we decided there was no way she could ever move back home, so we cleaned & cleared 45 years of stuff from her home & put it on the market. It's been on the market for 5 months, with little to no interest.
The market is flooded with foreclosed homes-- nicer homes with better features selling dirt cheap to try to avoid full on foreclosure.
So although her home has been paid for for years--all the foreclosures are dragging down the market
and there are too many homes for sale.
I am starting to wonder if we are going to have to wind up renting it out - maybe to someone who had a mortgage foreclosed?
Just like Enigma said-- you've got homeless people in need of housing, and a ton of homes that are peopleless.
Dada...
hope you don't mind me stepping back in to the conversation here...
Fran...
about rentals..here in the Midlands...
the problem is many Landlords are also losing homes...so actually renting your mom's home is a great idea...esp...as her home is not a risk of foreclosure....there are so many families like me that would love to rent from you...or your family.....just ask for a deposit...( most families do not have first and last- and like me when I lived downtown and my landlord got foreclosed I never got any of my deposits back- not a dime..you can also ask for cleaning and pet deposits.....) I hope it works out for you....
DK...man we need to put you in charge...wow....you and Dada have it all figured out....( ten pushups ..really ...that would kill me ;-)
have a good night ....
( see Dada..one creative photo..and we are all inpsired to sign on..)
Dada...just to let you know...the college kids next door came up with a NEW Dish "purpose" today...I will try to take photos this weekend....
( ahem,....it involves snow activity....hopefully not a trip to the ER...I think Painting the Dish's is a better past time..)
Enigma: I'm imagining the new satellite-dish-snow sport wondering, how many can you fit on one of those things anyway? (Sounds like a great way to break some bones maybe but, hey, they're young and I seem to remember occasional lapses of common sense at that age.)
As for what's happening with foreclosures around the country vis a vis what's happening here locally? Getting real mixed signals like we've been insulated so far by the obscene government expenditures ($billions) here in the Ft. Bliss, Holloman AFB, White Sands Missile Range triangle.
Every time I venture over to the east side of town I find the huge military build-up has totally altered the landscape in some way (massive new road projects, plus the new military "city" where mos. ago there was only desert). Thank god we have water, that we don't live in a desert!
Yet houses on the market are way up over last years figures.
Fran: Thanks for sharing the story of your mom's house. It will be interesting to see how this story unfolds in these most "exciting of times." (We have an elderly mom who owns her own home locally, making your story particularly pertinent.)
D.K. - Might stomping on those little Bush-Cheney roaches get you in trouble? (Haven't they granted themselves immunity by sprinkling a little magic roach dust over their carcasses?)
re: "magic roach dust" ... Drat, Dada. Well, I will have to turn to science for the cure for immunity ... assuming such a thing as "science" exists in the Brave New Post-BushWorld.
And are you saying there are more houses on the market in your area than last year, or that the housing prices have increased over last year? Because if you're experiencing housing price increases, maybe the massive military spending along the border isn't all that bad? Homes prices here are down 30% from their peak in 2005-6. New homes have been left in a stage of unfinished construction, just boarded up & left as is. Bldrs out of biz, can't even sell those shells for what it would cost to finish them. But hey, we are still trying to get a water pipeline from Lake Powell.
D.K. asked - "are you saying there are more houses on the market in your area than last year, or that the housing prices have increased over last year?"
deke: Both! Here's the headlines from two different stories in yesterday's EP Times:
"El Paso home prices defy national trend" (Home prices remained up slightly in El Paso in the third quarter compared with a year ago)
and...
El Paso home sales plunge 24.5%; supply swells.
So, I'm interpreting this as the local economy being buoyed by the military build-up, yet with the housing supply swelling, if we're to avoid the nat'l trend, those add'l GI's better hurry up and get here soon. (I'd rather see a housing mkt decline than the militarization of the the local economy).
How sad to see new homes in your area sitting there boarded up. This is just the beginning of what's going to hit the fan I fear.
So, how's your long-term water supply looking. You need that water from Lake Powell for drinking? (Now I don't wanna see any wars between water skiers and water drinkers, ok?)
Talk about mixed housing signals, Dada! well, maybe instead of vast numbers of military soldiers occupying those homes, they will be turned over to vast hordes of fleeing DC criminals, huddling in empty "safe" houses as they wait to cross the border in the middle of the night. Wouldn't you love to see Cheney trying to swim the Rio Grande, quail-hunting rifle held above his head, all his belongings tied to his back?
re Lake Powell: the only reason for the proposed pipeline is to supply the proposed population increase that had been projected before the economy fell into the cesspool. No huge increase, no need for more water here. In fact, many pipeline opposers are of the opinion that "if you build it, they will come" and would therefore hope it is never built for that reason alone. Everyone always holds up the vegas fear card; as in, "we don't wanna become another vegas"! Shit, even vegas doesn't wanna be vegas right now. Highest home foreclosure rate in the nation! Tent cities along the freeway. The Sands is laying off 11,000 & that is the tip of the proverbial 3-lemon cherry bingo.
D.K. said, "Wouldn't you love to see Cheney trying to swim the Rio Grande, quail-hunting rifle held above his head, all his belongings tied to his back?"
Dada says: Yes, lying there on his gut thrashing and kicking around in muddy water that's 10" deep in the middle. Yes, I'd love to see that!
Re Vegas: I credit the beginning of this blog to a "Politics" chat room laden with conservatives where I would sometimes frequent just for a sense of what was on their minds. (It was a pretty senseless.) Sometimes I would poke a stick in their hive just to excite 'em.
One of the queen bitches was a southern state real estate agt/broker(?) relocating to Vegas. This was back in late '04, early '05. She was a real cock-sure of herself one, she was.
I only hope she has lost her ass by now. See? See how those sumbitches can make a nice guy like me such a angry man?
As for water, I'm glad your H2O future is secure. I'd hate for St.G to gain the wrath of water skiers.
Oh, and thanks for the latest news from the Vegas/SANDS economy. That's encouraging!
LOL, Cheney is so out of shape, he probably would have trouble negotiating 10" of Rio Muddy! Your imagery of him laying on his gut is probably the only way he could do it -- HYDROPLANE! But I would hope his sense of direction is so bad (mistaking Iraq for Aghanistan or Iran for instance) that he would never cross the border & thus never inflict himself on another country. I would hope he becomes hopelessly lost, forever gut-boarding the Rio's length & breadth, occasionally bringing down a Wittington for lunch, becoming a sort of Legend of the Rio, a mysteriously large sturgeon-like beast with glasses & gun. If he ever wanders up on the other side of border, let it be near Juarez where the head hunters will know just what to do.
I guess some consolation can be taken from what must have happened to the fortunes of that former conservative chatroom lady. The complete collapse of vegas RE coupled with the county actually voting for Obama in such numbers as to return the whole state to blueness might have driven her insane (or more so). With RE unable to provide much income, maybe she applied to The Sands only to become one of the 11,000. Not to worry too much though, vegas has a Plan B for women who are "cock-sure".
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