Denver ….. A Liberal City

 

Queen City of the Plains is what Denver used to be referred to.  Then sports got to be big and the moniker was changed to the Mile High City.  With all the dirt and other stuff in the air, Denver isn’t much of a Queen City any more.  Maybe a dowdy has been.  Sitting a river basin, creates a failure for air quality.  There are temperature inversions that trap the dirty air for days at a time.  Creating a pretty ugly city skyline.

Also being a city dominated by liberals there tends to be stark contrasts between neighborhoods.  Most of the middle class has left the city for the burbs.  In Denver are the upper class/elites and the poor wannabe’s.

Yet the spectacular view of the mountains will always be there.  Denver has one of the most picturesque settings in the world.  Even when it obscured by the haze, there are clear days when the view is beyond compare and for that reason people want to move to Denver.

Denver is not a blue collar town.  Most of industries and factories have been chased and all that’s left are government jobs and the service industry.  The closest thing in the area to a factory is Coors Brewery in Golden and it is so despised by liberals for the Coors family is supper rich and very conservative plus they fought off the union from getting into the brewery. 

At one time Denver was only second to DC for federal government jobs to Washington DC.  The feds set up lots of regional offices in the area so they could go out and visit the mountains plus Denver is a central location for the Rocky Mountain region.  As a result there are lots of government contractors in the area.

The location also is a nice distribution area for the major factories back east/midwest.  There are huge warehouses surrounding the city and small support businesses. 

These jobs are skilled/semi-skilled workers so for the poor people there is not a lots offered to them.  This sets up a good conflict and the poor me mind set.  So the politicians have easy prey and can promise lots of things and deliver hardly any thing. 

Yet this large government payroll pros up Denver and kind of insulates it from economic downturns. 

Look at the pay scale of the government workers, most are in the $70-80,000 range and into six figures.  Then look at the pay scale for the workers in the service industries, the Wal-Mart workers, the Kwik Stop stores, most of them pay in the $20-30,000 range.  Even the good union jobs are seldom over 50K a year. 

A low level government administrator gets a nice mid six figure income.  The socio economic gaps are growing between the work a day person the one who lives on the government payroll trough.

It was this type of gap that the Bolshevik's and Lenin used to overthrow the Tsars of Russia. 

Kind of makes one wonder what is being set up?

Having lived in the Denver area for over 30 years I have seen lots of changes.   It moved from a CowTown to a oversized metropolitan area.  People have moved from other parts of the country to escape their problems and in the process brought more problems with.  No longer is it a simple pleasant town built on  the plains.  It has become a complex metropolis intertwined in the bureaucracy of government. 

Ah well, it has its days when all things are great, so I will go visit on occasion and remind myself why I live in a small one horse town now.

ReLiving The Past

 

One of my pleasures is taking the time on occasion to visit the museums in the small towns.  Most are closed through the winter.  So when I do find open for a snow day I take advantage of it.

I like to look at things and imagine what it would have been like in years past.  What would it be like to use that machine, cook with those pots n kettles or ride in that buggy.

This mail cart caught my attention.  Look at how it down between the wheels and look at the suspension and springs.  I could see the letter wagon trotting down the rod, the driver letting the horse amble while reading the latest in pulp fiction. 

At the mailbox the horse pauses, the letters are removed from the box and new letters are placed inside.  A clicking of the tongue and the horse begins trotting down the road again. 

Down the road at the next house some children are out front playing when they see the horse and its cart.  Out to the road they  run to say hi at the mailman.  Out of the back a catalogue is retrieved, with joy the children jump up and down.  The wish book has arrived.  Inside are the latest toys, clothes and other dreamy things to look at.

The children run to the house, a clicking of the tongue and down the road to the next mailbox they trot. 

What a difference in the pace of time and choices of what is fun.   How many today know the name of their mailman, say hi to them, pass the time of day?

I don’t get home delivery, I have to go into the Post Office and open my mailbox.  Sometimes Linda or Kay are in the lobby and a quick hi or pleasantries are exchanged.

1800’s Drug Peddler

 

I like to stop in the museums of the small towns and browse their collections.  It gives me a sense of what my forefathers dealt with before the conveniences of today.  Plumbing and electricity were new gadgets back then and the car was a dream in a back room some place.  The horse and buggy/wagon was the still the primary form of transport.  The train was still in diapers. 

Yet what we consider hardships today, back then they had the latest in technology and equipment.  Peddlers of various types, roamed the country side with their horse and wagon pedaling their wares.  One of the more colorful peddlers was the patent medicine man and his carnival type of sales pitch. 

These early day side show peddlers were an early version of the drug dealer.  For most of their medicines contained a narcotic of some sort blended with a mild alcohol.  Most common narcotic was Laudanum and then cocaine. 

Laudanum, has been used for centuries as a cure for what ails a person.  It would get them so high, no pain was felt.  Laudanum was a common remedy for consumption across Europe.  Cocaine is what gave Coca Cola its kick and endearing desire by many.

Across the land these colorful peddlers traveled.  Barking out the glories of their special concoctions. 

Then the morals police entered the scene and got the government to declare that this business was no longer legal.  No longer could these legal drug peddlers roam the land freely.  

The government did not eliminate them.  Instead the drug dealers went underground with their wares.  The poppy growers of Afghanistan still had a market for their white powder.  No longer was the powder sold through a business, it now had a secret market. 

Yet the narcotic is still used today as a medicine, mostly as pain killers. 

As a medicine, the government can regulate it and tax it it at a higher level. 

Like many things, when the government destroys a business, others crop up and flourish.  Probably one of the more unsuccessful government campaigns was the prohibition movement, lots of the them the same anti-drug people. 

Look what happened when booze was prohibited, crime flourished.  Much like the crimes of the drug lords and their gangs.  So many times the government creates more  problems then they solve. 

No matter, it is still fun to travel through the time machine of the local museums. 

 

Politicking …. it has begun

 

The precinct caucus were this week and the rhetoric of the season is beginning.. 

Ads are appearing, puffery is floating over the land and the do do is getting deeper.  It will be interesting to see how the Republicans fare this go round.  They have been beaten and bullied pretty good by the Democrats.   The Democrats have been pretty successful at portraying the Republicans as bad people, rich old white men.   This creates a sense of jealousy and the Democrats say they will give you this and that at no cost.  Bribery by tax money.  Vote for me and I will send a  tad bit of your money back…. the rest goes to my cronies. 

The Republicans fall prey to so many of the Democrat tactics of doomsday stories.  They get engaged in debates that are meaningless and over time the debate becomes a real opinion of fact when presented by  the Democrats.  The Republicans need to be more selective in their debates and also look behind what is being presented to them.  Best example of that is gay marriage.  A debate that should of never happened.  There are laws in place already for gays to use to settle their disputes over shared property and co-habitation.  It is the same laws that adulteress use in common law partnerships. 

But the gays wanted to justify their behavior and pushed the hot button of Republicans.  Simple little fact: 100% of women and 50% of men in prison, engage in homosexuality,  those are daunting figures. 

Way to many people try to control the behavior of others.  Laws are used by many for control but how do laws change behavior.  By granting common law status to gays, what harm would of there been?  Homosexuals do not change their behavior, morals do not come from laws.  Yet people like to use government as their pulpit to preach morality.  Tell people how they should live.   The Republicans are just of guilty of this as are the Democrats.  And the really ugly ones tell others how to live are the religious fanatics that preach doomsday, not salvation. 

So it will be interesting to see if the Republicans are suckered into losing debates or if they can expose and agenda that actually helps people and not get wrapped up in the corruption of niche politics.

One of the key things is the economy.  Under Republican leadership, the economy flourishes and tax revenue increases because of this.  Will the elephant push this?  Other thing is large governments decline in quality services, just as large corporations falter in efficacy. 

So many layers of agencies in the corporation create loss of the consumer.  In the same manner the big government loses sight of its customer…. the people. 

Can the Republicans recognize their faults and correct them or will they stay in their largesse mantra?

 

 

 

 

 

Putin VS. Obama

 

Been a number of years since the Russians and the Yanks were at each other.  The cold War hasn’t really ended, continues on a more subtle level.  There are people who still do not like communism, although Marx is still taught in Universities.  Marxism is not taught as a failure, rather a successful ism.

With most of the people from World War II gone, there are very few that remember the killings of the Russians, of their own people.  What the Russians did in the Stalags, makes Hitler’s gas chambers and the Holocaust look pretty mild. 

Yet there a sector of society that relishes this type of treatment, if they are on the giving end. 

Harken back to the late 50’s and early 60’s.  Then it was Khrushchev the Russian and another democrat, Kennedy.  Consider how Kennedy dealt with the Russians to how Obama deals with the Communists.   The problem is, we are only fed what the press wants us to hear/see and we are not privy to lots of behind the scenes. 

 

World politics is just as important as is local politics.   From past experiences, Obama will politicize the happenings in the Ukraine rather then actually take a stand.  They guy would we a terrible pooler player but a good crook.  For he deflects off the issue and talks about what himself look good. 

It is also setting up a good issue for the mid term elections.  

Now where did the White House put those Russian Voodoo dolls?

Presidential Racist Blowback

 

Watched an incident the other day that made the mind do backflips.  A guy went off a black guy, for apparently no reason.  So many expletives deleted were used I ran out of fingers counting them.  The guy was just ragging on the black guy.

Made my wonder, how much has Obama’s using the racist remarks to people caused backlash from people he has been hating on?  There is a certain segment out there that is going to be racist no matter what, that’s a given   My question is”": has the number of people hating on blacks because of Obama’s remarks created another layer of hatred? 

During the segregation protests of the 60’s, there was a certain level of race baiting, yet lots of that subsided over time and into the 70’s lots of racial hatred subsided. 

 

With Obama, I have seen an increase in hateful racial epitaphs.  Has there’s been there all along and Obama brought it to the forefront?  Has the Prez, fanned the flames with comments or are people just returning hate for hate?

The entitlement mind set turns so many people off but the government keeps pushing the freebie programs, fueling the flames.

Canadian Refrigerator …….. No … No Bacon

 

To the north lies the Artic Circle, that magical ring of cold.   The land of igloos, icebergs and cold air.  The gentle folks of Canada embrace that cold air mass and live as its neighbor.  They are a hardy group of people when it comes to cold. 

When it comes to the cold air up there, it tends to stay to the north.  There are occasions though when the door is left open and south flows the cold.  In the summer that mass of cold air is welcomed when if flows south.  Bringing with it a brief respite from the heat.  In the winter though, people want to bar the door on the cold Canadian air mass, keeping it up north.

Couple of weeks ago, the bar broke and the cold air ushered forth.  Growing icicles, frosting limbs, shivering timbers and raising havoc.   

Generally these cold snaps are short lived.  In a day or two the sun is back and the thaw begins.  This time the air hovered, frosting ice on everything.  Day after day, the skies were overcast, the animals were hunkered down and the humans seldom ventured forth.  It was a battle of the mind.  Would the mind succumb to the cold are would there be thoughts of warmer days.

Yet for as nasty cold as it is, there is a silence over the land, a peaceful tranquilly as the cold envelopes.   It seems like the cold will last forever, day after day the sky is shrouded in gray clouds.  Tiny snow flakes float down, skipping over land, collecting into tiny drifts.   The bitterness if felt, yet not. 

The drone continues, man continues.  Walks are shoveled, roads are plowed and ice is scraped.  Will it ever end?  Life moves on, another day passes, will it be a day of beauty or agony, it is my choice how to see it.

I know it will pass and better days are on the horizon.  The sun has not been extinguished, it will reappear.  It warming rays will wrap me in its embrace.

Soon the clouds retreat, the cold air quivers and shakes in the warmth of Old Sol.  Tiny jewels are revealed, sparkles dance in the bright lights.  The cold is losing its grip, no winter is not over but the ice box is thawing. 

There are moments of joy, having survived another Canadian icy blast that lasted to long. 

 

Traffic moves on, animals graze, another chapter in winter is coming to a close.  There will be snow, for winter wants to linger.  It ice box cousin is closed, hopefully and spring will be a joy with the moisture.  The trees will have green leaves, the yucca will blossom and the grasses will green up.  The cold breath of winter brings the joys of spring.  Cabin fever will be great this spring because the Canadians were so nice to share their refrigerator.