Report from AZ

Snowbirds find snow in North western Arizona. Right now it’s warmer where we were a month ago (WA state) than the Southwest. Major storm, cold wind & what happened to the sun?

Then that shoot out in Las Vegas. So sad. So far the Nevada drivers are the worst. So my guess was the big black SUV was out to give the owner of the foreign sports car a lesson? Or was this an assassination?

Back to the horrible – dangerous NV drivers. This is the state where the biggest, loudest car horn would be useful. Cars pull out of side streets – as if they are the only car on the road. The fools must have a death wish. Cars weave in and out of traffic lanes with inches to spare. What is Las Vegas metro traffic like during rush hour?

If I had to choose being caught in a major snow storm — far away from the gaudy Las Vegas strip — I’ll take the snow storm.

It looks like I can make on the road reports from my Android tablet.

Arizona is getting a reputation as one of the crazy states — front line on the war on
women, where ICE agents are more abundant than fleas (or cockroaches). This border war costs US taxpayers billions. I don’t even want to go anywhere near the Constitution free zone of Southern Arizona.

The good news is that there has been rain (and snow) and the Joshua trees have lots of new green growth. The Yucca also looks healthy. This may be an excellent wildflower spring in the making. We drove tbrough an area hard hit by wildfires in southeastern Oregon – the area was black for miles. But we could see shades of green – ever so slight – but the green was evident in the dead of winter.

coming to your hometown – drones

I’m on the road — touring the Southwest until next Spring.

So far I’ve seen extreme poverty and extreme wealth. There are pockets of private land in the middle of the Gila National Forest. Most of this land is farm land and range land where you can see working farms and cows grazing. Then there are the pieces of land sold by ranchers so that they can stay in business. Huge houses are being built on these mini ranches, as the worthless for farming land is usually advertised.

New Mexico has several “scenic driving tours” and we were on one of the extreme back roads heading into the Gila National Forest. It was lunch time so we stopped for lunch and I was taking photos of the mountains in the distance. This was a high overlook or vista on a steep road. Camera in hand — I suddenly saw two small white aircraft. Instantly I knew I was watching the flight of drones — just like the ones used in Afghanistan, Pakistan and in the near future, Africa. The biggest clue that I was watched the flight of drones was that there were no windshields in the tiny craft, plus their size means no humans were physically piloting these low flying drones. No civilian air craft would be flying so low – in fact I am told that this sort of joy riding would be illegal for civilian aircraft.

Once we returned to our home away from home I quickly did a google search and found photos of the drones and some additional information about the increasing use of drones against civilians in the US. It is all about the need to monitor and keep the 99% of us under the control of the militarized police gestapo forces in the US.

Tampa will host the GOP convention next year and they will be using drones to monitor citizens.

Rick Perry, who is the Texas Governor trying to win the GOP nomination. He wants to use drones to monitor the US/Mexico Boarder.

Drone like the one observed over Gila National Forest, NM

Article about drones and photo at this link. Article with more information about the militarized police.

Rick Perry wants to use the drones to watch for illegal drug traffic.

The two drones that I watched were completely silent the whole time they traveled over the landscape, until they turned down a canyon. Then all I heard from the drones was what sounded like distant thunder. We continued to hear the thunder of the drones for several minutes. These drones are designed to sneak up on a target — deliver their rockets and be out of sight.

Earlier in the day we realized that we also witnessed another very low flying aircraft — again very small, with no windshield. This one was painted a bit darker color. There were no identifying markings on this aircraft.

The Occupy crowd is fighting for a better future and I’m in a remote area of the country watching the future fly by.

Occupy Wall Street has grown

Occupy Wall Street has grown. Perhaps we can thank the corporate Cops of New York City who decided to beat and mace a few “hippies”. Watching that cop wearing the white shirt macing innocent protesters was very stupid but typical cop behavior. I firmly believe that often it is the cops who are rioting — and they are protecting the interests of the 1%. When the cops on the line realize that they are indeed part of the 99% and that the pensions they have been promised will NOT be waiting for them when they retire — then perhaps real change can happen.

John Smart has a clip of “Chris Hedges annihilat[ing] Kevin O’Leary. Chris Hedges did a superb job of explaining what OWS is all about. Kevin O’Leary from Toronto did some name calling and basically acted like a jerk.

I’m on the road again — this time in New Mexico. It would seem that in western and northern New Mexico some of the most popular stores are Walmart, Big Lots, Dollar General and Family General. As yet we have not been to a crowded or busy Home Depot, Ace Hardware, or Lowes. People don’t have the money to spend on home improvements. The economic reports are telling us that income hasn’t risen and there are few if any jobs. Meanwhile the CEOs of major corporations are making multi millions of dollars.

What sort of future will today’s high school and college graduates have? College grads are now saddled with thousands of dollars of debt — that’s before they even begin their careers (often as store clerks).

The tipping point in OWS’s protest has been reached.

0bama might have been right — CHANGE CHANGE CHANGE. But that change will probably not happen with his leadership — because he represents the very Corporate interests who are stealing from America. Take a look where 0bama’s money is coming from — Wall Street.