Sunday, January 25, 2015

Pain Capable Congress


 I am proud to say that Chris Smith (R-NJ), Congressman comes from the state I live in, New Jersey. He introduced the No Taxpayer Funding Abortion Bill! Fantastic! That'll stick it to all those women trying to finance their legions of abortions on the taxpayers dime. On Representative Smiths website, it says it "resoundingly passed the house" it has a 15% chance of being passed into law. Awesome!
Lets look at the millions of abortions a year that are funded by taxpayers dollars, Planned Parenthood gets federal funding, Seriously? Why do they need any? Women who are too poor and resort to Planned Parenthood for all their abortions and we pay for it? Actually it says here that we don't; "The group does receive federal funding, but the money cannot be used for abortions by law."
Say what? I thought we just passed a law saying they couldn't do what they already weren't doing? Thank God for Chris Smith and the thousands of people who marched for the Right To Life! Thousands protest abortion in annual March for Life on National Mall | WJLA.com
Weird coincidence that the March For Life and No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion and Abortion Insurance Full Disclosure Act of 2015 (H.R. 7) - GovTrack.us happened all on the same day, how crazy is that? I didn't know that Congressmonsters could plan at all, let alone plan to pass a bill that coordinated with a March For Life. It shows how truly dedicated they are to their Christian values. Amen to that! He's an amazing speaker and another coincidence? Smith was the guest speaker in 2009 and 2010 March For Life
I didn't know men wore burkas!
Rallies, where he famously said; “Under ObamaCare billions of dollars in the form of tax credits are buying abortion-subsidizing health insurance plans,” 
Well that has to be stopped! Billions of dollars in tax credits for abortions? What?
 Actually, guess not, "an amendment that bars anyone who accepts federal subsidies for health coverage from buying a plan with abortion coverage on the exchange."Stupak revises abortion stance on health care bill, citing Obama's executive order | PolitiFact
Poor Chris, all the stress and pressure of trying to pass 7 abortion prohibitions in a matter of 2 weeks, well that could make anyone mis-speak, that's how important this issue is to Congress. They immediately went to work in 2015, crafting various bills to prevent all those federal dollars that were not spent on abortion to not be spent on them. There's nothing like free money spent on an awesome abortion experience! Well it's over now!
What is wrong with Representative Renee Ellmers (R-NC) saying that Republicans focusing on abortion is making them look bad? How is that possible? She just better put on her big girl panties and stop abortions for rape victims, for crying out loud. These rape victims, they just want it all don't they? We all know they can just shut that down anyway. Every life is a gift, even Todd Aken!

What a productive start to an amazing new year! Getting down about getting it on and all the ensuing abortions we know are going on right under our noses.Thanks Congress, for your amazing ability to connect with what people are really worried about. When American families sit around their dinner tables worrying about how to stop federally funded abortions, just knowing it wasn't a problem to begin with is such a welcome change from the usual monotony of people not worrying about abortion or worse, going to their clinics, getting a spa experience abortion on our dime. Have a look for yourselves, your tax dollars have never been better spent!
H.R. 7: No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion and Abortion Insurance Full Disclosure Act of 2015
Sponsor: Rep. Christopher “Chris” Smith [R-NJ4]
Introduced: Jan 21, 2015
Passed House: Jan 22, 2015
H.R. 36: Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act
Sponsor: Rep. Trent Franks [R-AZ8]
Introduced: Jan 6, 2015
Referred to Committee: Jan 6, 2015
S. 48: Prenatal Nondiscrimination Act of 2015
Sponsor: Sen. David Vitter [R-LA]
Introduced: Jan 7, 2015
Referred to Committee: Jan 7, 2015
S. 51: Title X Abortion Provider Prohibition Act
Sponsor: Sen. David Vitter [R-LA]
Introduced: Jan 7, 2015
Referred to Committee: Jan 7, 2015
S. 50: Abortion Non-Discrimination Act of 2015
Sponsor: Sen. David Vitter [R-LA]
Introduced: Jan 7, 2015
Referred to Committee: Jan 7, 2015
S. 78: Pregnant Women Health and Safety Act
Sponsor: Sen. David Vitter [R-LA]
Introduced: Jan 7, 2015
Referred to Committee: Jan 7, 2015
H.R. 217: Title X Abortion Provider Prohibition Act
Sponsor: Rep. Diane Black [R-TN6]
Introduced: Jan 8, 2015
Referred to Committee: Jan 8, 2015

Sunday, January 18, 2015

Charade

I work with a lot of people younger than myself. The majority are high school graduates. Three in my department are college educated, that includes myself. There are twelve people plus three managers, of these twelve, five are part time. These people would work full time if they could, but the business I work for hasn't hired a full time employee since the crash. I'm not sure what kind of "sample" this is, but it's the best one at my disposal.
No one votes. One of my managers voted for Obama in 2008, she hasn't voted since. Some of the people I work with are confused about candidates. In the last local election one of my colleagues wanted to vote, but didn't know who to vote for or how to find out anything about them. She didn't bother doing any research and just sat out the last election. Almost everyone distrusts politicians, they know the "democratic process" is corrupt. They have turned away from politics and politicians. I don't know anyone who is going to watch President Obama's State of the Union Address. State of the Union: Obama to dare Republicans on tax populism - David Nather - POLITICO
President Obama is going to propose a $325 billion tax cut for the middle class.
Now according to Politico, the President is setting up a Republican fall for the next election, what this tax cut would do is tax the 1%  and that is not going to happen. Basically, if President Obama wanted something like this to happen, He should have done it when he was elected, when he had the Democrat muscle to do it, but he didn't. You have to wonder why?
So, this State of the Union is going nowhere, since no one believes we are being represented by any elected officials, they will not watch it, they won't talk about it and the Congressmonsters won't do anything about it. Face it, these aren't people, they are monsters, swallowing as much money as they can till they get their fill only to be replaced by another one.
  One thing they are looking to do? A gas tax. Everyone at my job is talking about how cheap gas is now, so it's the perfect time for a tax right? The Highway Trust Fund is broke and we need another tax to fix the roads. But people aren't driving as much as they used to, there is more fuel efficiency, so what's in the works is this; VMT, a meter installed on your vehicle that will tax you on your mileage. Vehicle miles traveled tax - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
It's already being piloted in Oregon.
 It's 2015, and finally some of the money from President Obama's 2008 Recovery Program made it to the highway I drive on everyday. A highway so full of potholes that the kids used to say it was hit by an asteroid. It took that long for the money to "trickle down," what seems to happen to most "Trust Funds" is they are robbed and suddenly there's no money for the original intention. If there was money ever, in the Highway Trust fund you have to wonder where it went, because I didn't notice any crumbling infrastructure being fixed around here.
President Obama made a State of the Union Address 2 months after The Sandy Hook Massacre.Then there was a lot of controversy and finally the Assault Weapons Ban of 2013 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
was defeated and that was the end of any attempt to deal with the gun madness in this country. After a horrific tragedy like Sandy Hook, these Congressmonsters could not find a way to just ban assault weapons, I can guarantee that whatever the president presents, he knows full well will be defeated.
What is happening is one billionaire party is fighting with the other billionaire party and our wealthy taskmasters have destroyed the democratic process. It doesn't exist anymore. My co-workers know this, these people can't be voted out when all you are presented with is more people who represent billionaires. So no one I know will be watching the State of the Union, they won't care what President Obama says. They don't care about a rebuttal. They are too busy trying to figure out what bills they are going to pay and half of them have opted out of cable because it's too expensive, politicians are expensive too, more than we peons can afford, so most of us won't be watching the pigs congratulating each other at the Capitol Tuesday night.

Sunday, January 11, 2015

Post-Charlie

Well, I can kind of guess what will happen as a result of the massacre at Charlie Hedbo. After reading a New York Times article, this part really interested me;
"Mr. Holder announced that the White House would convene an international forum on Feb.18 to discuss new means of countering terrorism"
What this has meant in the past is The Patriot Act. This situation will probably cause more surveillance, more military spending, more of everything we don't need. Somehow governments haven't got the memo. There are people in the world who are going to do bad things and you will never be able to control that. How is it that the "terrorists" responsible for the atrocity in Paris were identified as such, were able to travel, were on a watch list, everything put in place to stop this sort of thing from happening failed, it failed because it obviously doesn't work. It's an excuse to put more infrastructure in place on law abiding people. Anyone up to no good will always be able to figure out a way to fade and evade the system. People, in general, won't look closely at where these men came from "The three men were all members of the same Paris jihadist cell that a decade ago sent young French volunteers to Iraq to fight U.S. forces."
Paris gunman was from same jihadist cell as Hebdo suspects: police | Reuters
War + Petrodollars= Angry People

Yeah, about that war in Iraq, spreading democracy all around the world. The article in Reuters doesn't say we need to be spreading good will instead of war, because that's not very profitable. No one I know is even talking about this situation, firstly because most Americans don't pay attention to other countries. There may as well not be other countries. I only know of one person, other than myself who owns a passport.
There was an estimated one million people who went on a "unity march" good for them, but exactly what will that change I wonder? Maybe that wasn't the point, but you would think some action would be demanded by the people.
In America, more people died in the Sandy Hook massacre and well, just can't do anything about it, because that would send gun nuts and manufacturers into the stratosphere, however something happens in Paris and the President is going to host some international forum, whatever. Wonder what corporation is salivating at the thought of profiting from some defense, Homeland Security, surveillance contract? Probably the one that told President Obama it would be a great idea to have an international forum and brainstorm the next fix-it
scheme so "terrorists" would think twice before, shooting up say, Sony Corporation for the awful movies they produce. Seriously, that's the take away I have from all this. Because we aren't going to address exactly why and how this sorry situation went down. We need a New Cold War, we have to have an enemy. We need to keep the sheeple frightened and under control. What we need is an anti-movement. Sort of like the Dada movement in art. Which came out of the horror of World War I. I think it should be called the Anti-Intelligence movement. First of all I don't see many signs of intelligence, second, intelligence agencies own the bureaucrats and we should be resisting them at all costs. This is where the attention should be. We should be rejecting any more influence of the NSA, CIA, scrap the whole thing and use that money for something radical like free college for all! Obama calls for 'free and universal' community college | Al Jazeera America
Hey, President Obama, why a meager two years? Why don't you really blow my mind and go for four years, then maybe compromise on two, like your always doing. This is another empty gesture that will go nowhere, just like universal healthcare. Thanks for that but how about you end the drone strikes and call for Universal Peace? I know, how about an international forum about peace or hunger or something productive?
Yeah I know, what am I thinking? I should be anti-thinking!
Yes, it's art!

Thursday, January 8, 2015

Je Suis Charlie

I didn't think after I blogged on Sunday, about art and politics, I would be reading on Wednesday about the terrible attack on the artists at Charlie Hedbo in Paris. The Guardian shared how artists around the world showed solidarity with the victims of this terrilble crime. Here's mine;

This is a crying Prophet because if he exists in this life or the next, this is what he's doing.
I noticed in the drawings shown in the Guardian what was missing. Can you guess? Can you guess why?

 I remember the controversy in 2007, I also remember a fatwa called on Salman Rushdie. I guess there will never be an end to people who take offense to art and try to punish an artist.

I have never been much of a portrait painter. On my lunch break I managed to sketch this out. I thought about the funny things that Charlie Hedbo did with their cartoons. But I don't feel like this is funny. I feel sad. I also feel like religion has become the scourge of this new century we are living in. In the year 2015 people are still being slaughtered because of religion.
So here's my part in solidarity with my fellow artists slain in another country. Their families are in my thoughts.
You can't kill an idea, the pen will always be mightier than the sword.
                                                                          

Sunday, January 4, 2015

On Art, Politics & Change

I don't know about any of you, but it's really getting old. Here we are in 2015 still grappling with issues like poverty, gun violence, health care, a decent living wage. Then I see bullshit like this, G.O.P. Turns to the Courts to Aid Agenda - NYTimes.com
Yeah OK, Republicans have been able to get the courts to do their bidding in the past, but President Obama is just as owned by corporations as the GOTEA Party, so really we will still be living with the same stagnant status quo. As long as we continue to play this game, like these binary parties are going to do anything to improve the quality of ordinary Americans life is nothing more than a joke. That's basically what this country has turned into. These elected officials aren't representing us. We're still fighting for oil in the Middle East, we've got sanctions on North Korea, sanctions on Russia, where are the sanctions on the US? Venezuela sanctions highlight US hypocrisy on human rights | Al Jazeera America
We do an awful lot of meddling considering our track record isn't very good at all. The system is out of control and there's not going to be any hope or change for it. Which for me, means I am going to be going in a different direction regarding politics and art. I think the only way we are going to be able to confront  and foment change is through art. So I am getting my art on and and I am in the midst of finishing work and then organizing and maybe redesigning the blog, the time has come for me to do these things.
I read a really interesting article about Al Diaz, Al Diaz | As an end to mindwash religion, nowhere politics and bogus philosophies
check him out, here's a  link to the article; Underground artist surfaces a generation later | Al Jazeera America
 When I was in art school Basquiat was huge, but I didn't really know as much about Al Diaz, which it's nice I get to discover him now, I like what he has to say about "nowhere politics" not to mention, "mind wash religion." I've been feeling this way for a long time now, this country is in a Christian stranglehold. The thing is that no one acts like they're Christian or Christ-like, it's ridiculous.
So I got this idea about the Green Man. I was particularly interested in 
the Green Man as an archetype. Oddly enough he does turn up in cathedrals, which would be Christian by day and Pagan by night. It looked as if he had been co-opted by the church as a decoration or code.
 Is he some legend or myth, that Christianity tried to absorb? He's such an interesting visual image, made of wood and foliage. He connects us to nature to sacred tree's and woods in ways we don't connect to nature now. I spend a lot of time in the woods in the presence of trees. I am lucky enough to live near several State forests. So while I was thinking of the Green Man I was also thinking of his Pagan roots, when we were much closer to the earth. At that time humans weren't capable of causing climate change. Back in October of last year there was a march on climate change. I think one thing we can all agree on is that in our own self interest, we should be taking better care of this planet. This will not happen as long as corporations can lobby against it. As long as we have a fundamentalist Christian sect that can deny climate change and just continue to pollute the planet, then I think we need to look at different imagery in an effort to connect with what's really important and our environment should be a top priority but it's not... and we know why. So I started playing around with Green man imagery, but I wanted something different.
Image By Patricia Greenlee Copyright © 2015
This was what I came up with but not just a masculine or male image. This is the first in a series, so it's my prototype. One of my goals is a deeper and more spiritual connection to nature and this planet. My work has largely been about environment, it inspires me and grounds me. It worries me that we may be running out of time for our planet. One way maybe we can connect is through art and caring for the earth. All politics is doing is dividing us.That's intentional, I am looking for what can unite us. This is one of my ideas.
Art created by Patricia Greenlee Copyright © 2015
agree not to copy, use or disclose the Proposal (or any other information and material submitted in connection with the Proposal) without first obtaining my written consent - See more at: http://www.artslaw.com.au/info-sheets/info-sheet/protecting-your-ideas/#headingh25