Green Beans

His uncle Leonard was a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa. He served in the Army in World War II and somehow came away with a serious limp and speech impediment. He was on disability of some sort and to supplement his income, would board labor buses to rural areas outside Seattle.  There, he would join farm workers and provide stoop labor to pick various types of vegetables including pole and bush beans.

Pay was two to three cents a pound and it was possible to make 3-5 dollars a day.  The hayseed, while a teenager on summer break, joined his uncle on a few of those trips. It was decent, honest work and the few bucks helped him subsidize his passion for shooting pool.  

Leonard Gladue

Leonard passed away in the Spring of 1970 at the age of 47. To this day the hayseed regrets not asking his Uncle about his war  experience.

The Blue Dog - Dem that is

America is truly a "sweet land of liberty."  It's built on a premise of checks and balances. While it's designed to prevent certain 'isms like racism, extremism,  fascism, imperialism and sexism among others, it's never been perfect.  Contrary to a certain expression often used today, it's never actually been "great" so to say it will be made that way "again" is a clear oxymoron. Yet, to the Common Man, it's always seemed to be something worth striving for.

Ours, when it is at its best seems to be, and should be a balance between socialism and capitalism. That's where I am and that is what makes me what is called a Blue Dog Democrat.  Others might like to consider folks like me "leftist liberal scum."

Right now, we have a number of factors that are working against our checks and balances.  We have a partisan Supreme Court. We have a wanna-be king. We have an impotent Congress composed of those afraid their "king" will "primary" them and they'll lose their jobs. These entities are supported by a cult-like mass of uneducated and those who ""trust without verification" to paraphrase Ronald (Iran/Contra) Reagan who yes, I voted for <sigh>. What we are dealing with here is a Capitalist, radical extreme that is fueled by pure greed and a large dose of racism.  It's in right in our faces too, in our President and his sycophants and in Project 2025.

This blog is not monetized. 
Thanks for the loan George Rodriguez

The effect we are seeing is to decimate the rule of law, to violate the rights of others (ICE), to turn a blind eye toward those who have violated the rights of others (Epstein Files), to attack without provocation or imminent threat (Iran).

How do we turn this around?  There are pundits and writers everywhere who are talking endlessly and writing books that explain how.  Yet, the answer is simple.  We have to get up off our asses and vote.

River - Tyler Thomas Campbell

This... a Leon Bridges cover recorded in Sacramento's "Pus Cavern" studio.