THE TRUTH FROM "VIKKI WORLD"

Today I want to share an e mail I received from my "Cousin-in-law" who lives down in Jeb Bush country. I share it because I feel there is no way I could have said it any better!


My Darling Cousins:

I could point to emerging articles that cite a failure to communicate between the State Dept. and the White House on embassy security in Libya, so maybe Joe Biden was correct to say that they weren't told, if "they" are the White House. (You know what, I HATE parsing, but I just did it. Sheesh!)

I ask myself what is worse; the failure of Solyndra or the Keystone Pipeline? Yep, since 96% of the green energy initiative has been successful, I guess I'll go green.

Fact checkers are quick to weigh in on every moment of this presidential campaign, but it is only the Romney ticket that has said that they will not let fact checkers dictate what they say. I'd rather be caught in an error than state out right that I plan to ignore facts. In the end we have to make up our own minds.

It is clear that the Obama administration badly mishandled communications regarding the Benghazi attack; a terrible oversight. Still it was the Republican controlled House that blocked additional spending for embassy security throughout the Middle East. So what's a mother to do? You can't win for losing.

It's all one big adventure in Post Truth Politics in the U.S. big leagues. The Obama administration makes mistakes, and the Romney ticket dissembles and refuses to disclose.

Note from the Vikki World: The emerging mistake by the Obama administration in Benghazi doesn't even approach Bush's invasion of Iraq (and our personal privacy.) Bill Clinton could fuck Shirley Temple with a cigar on national television and his lies to the the American People don't come close to Richard Nixon's; in impact or in substance. I have come to loathe the GOP and have outright disliked every presidential candidate it's fielded throughout my life as a voter.

For me the deciding factor in this election are the upcoming Supreme Court nominations and the effect they will have on the systematic gutting of the right to a safe, legal abortion and access to low cost women's healthcare in the wake of the the primarily Republican "Pro-Life" movement. (You may well ask, exactly whose Life is it it that they are Pro?) I would not consider voting for a ticket that wants to see Roe vs. Wade overturned, nor one that treats women health as the GOP does. Can you say trans-vaginal ultrasound?

My other issue is that I have experienced adequate proof that trickle down economics does not work, and I am not signing up for more of that.

Finally it is only government intervention that can rebuild our crumbling infrastructure. There is no other source that has the money.

Something else I revile myself for saying but I have to, since it is the truth. I would NEVER vote for a Mormon. Period. Make no mistake. Their church calls the shots, period, and Mitt is devout. Consider the L.D.S. Church's overthrow of Prop. 8 in California which was so brilliantly (and Pulitzer-prize winningly) unmasked. Any church that requires financial statements from its members (apparently for purposes of tithing which is the key to getting "Temple Recommends") and then uses that information to send out letters saying "You can afford to pay $5,921.45 to overturn marriage equality," is not an organization I would care to see represented in the halls of power; let alone one of their members who may have turned around and mailed in a check.

I value my principles and I know which party reflects them. I refuse to be dissuaded from supporting what I think is just simply because politicians twist facts

I know where I stand. Everyone else may feel free to stand wherever they like. ;)

My love to you all.

Vikki

MORE ROTTEN IDEAS FOR WISCONSIN

We recently received two nice, shiny fliers from two organizations.  The first, from "Citizens For a Strong America" (read Koch Brothers money)attacking out of office Jeff Smith and the other from "60 Plus Association", Alexandria, VA. (read Karl Rove) inviting us to a "Healthcare Town Hall Meeting.

The flyer aimed at Jeff Smith had a not-so-subtle tone:  "another rotten idea for Wisconsin".

The first thing that caught my attention was the high quality card stock the flyer was printed on, the fact that it was printed on both sides, and how very small the type was for the sources  listed.

So I googled The Wisconsin Policy Research Institute.  One listing said it is a "non-partisan, non-profit think tank" but it turns out it is not so "non-partisan" as it is funded by none other than the very wealthy Koch Brothers.

The flyer lists six unsubstantiated points, but, hey!  It is on such nice paper!  and in color, too!

The other flyer, inviting us to the town hall meeting advertises free food and refreshments, free t-shirts and prizes, among them a new Kindle Fire!

Again, heavy shiny card stock, two sides.  Set me to wondering how many of the 47% could actually have used this money beneficially.

My point is this:  Don't be dazzled by shiny objects and unsubstantiated claims.  Use the brains God gave you and do a little research!

THOUGHT I LOST MY WAY ... BUT I'M BAAAACCK!

Every autumn, about the beginning of September, brings the annual influx of my little furry white-bellied friends, the deer
mouse, carrier of such things as the Hanta-virus, which it turns out, is carried in their urine and feces.

It is believed that humans can get sick with this virus if they come in contact with contaminated dust from mice nests or droppings.

Fortunately it cannot be spread between humans.

Rodents carrying the hantivirus have been found in many U.S. National Parks, but most people who are exposed to the virus have come in contact with rodent droppings in their own homes.

Early symptoms are similar to the flu and include chills, fever, and muscle aches.

Without going further into the very gory details, suffice to say that if severe enough, it can lead to your demise.

It's enough to make you go out and invest in a very large cat!

Instead, every Fall, here at my office, out come the good old reliable "Victor" mouse traps which I bait with either a very fragrant cheese or some thick peanut butter.

I then make the chart you see at the top of this post and the extermination, the war of attrition begins.

Here it is, the middle of October, and already I have 40 kills!  Yesterday I scored the daily double, arriving to find two traps with victims attached.

Okay.  I seem to have this under control.  But  this early morning as I made my way up the back steps to the office a familiar sickening smell filled my nostrils:  SKUNK!

For several years I had wood chucks that had burrowed under the foundation near the back of the place, nested and raised their young.

Although I know they can be destructive, I decided to try to live in peaceful coexistence and hope that they would move on, which they did.

But now I have at least one skunk that has decided that the former wood chuck apartment is just dandy for a long winter's nap.

This is intolerable.  The older I get the more difficult it is for me to destroy the life of any living entity, but come next Spring my problems will only multiply as the skunks do what comes naturally.

So today when my friend Steve (Roy) Rogers stopped in for a brief visit, we discussed a strategy.

Steve has dealt with skunks before so he has a handle on what to do.  We will live trap next week, cover the caged quarry with a black garbage bag to keep from being sprayed, take it out to the woods behind the house and there will be a 16 gauge execution.

It is not something I savor, but it is a must do

THE SAGA OF THE LOST CELL PHONE

Hard to believe that it has been over two months since my last entry and I would suppose that the few readers I may have garnered in the past have long since given up on me. I guess I just didn't have that much to write about. Until yesterday. Yesterday I had to run into town because I was once again having difficulty getting one of my prescriptions filled due to a SNAFU between my doctor and my druggist. Before I left the house, I hooked my cell phone (in it's relatively new pouch with a plastic clip on the back for that purpose) to the lip of my left front pocket. Previously I had been carrying it without a case but it had an annoying habit of taking pictures of the inside of my pocket, and occasionally I would hear this little voice saying "please say the name of the person you are calling". Very disconcerting. Anyway, I first stopped at Walgreen's to see if my prescription had at last been filled and of course it had not, so I proceeded to drive across town to the clinic and pick up the prescription in person. I returned to Walgreen's to have it filled and since I knew it would ttake a while, I decided to use that time to grocery shop at the nearby MEGA foods supermarket. After I finished getting what I needed to make supper, I returned to Walgreen's and picked up my prescription at the drive up window, then headed back out here. As I was unloading groceries I looked down at my left pocket and -- no phone. Already starting to panic (I'm good at the early panic) I rushed out to the car thinking to myself" "Please God, let me have taken it off and put in on the passenger seat." No such luck. So I proceeded to search the car, under the seats, even in the back seat. Isn't it weird how when you lose something you look in places that you know the item could never be? So I went in the house, told Kim that I had lost my phone and that I was going back into town to retrace my steps. As I drove into town I mulled over where I had been and when I had last seen the phone. I remembered that I still had it when I left the clinic because I thought about calling Kim to complain about the whole prescription thing so I knew that was one less place I had to go. My first stop was back at Walgreen's because when I had taken the prescription for filling, I actually went into the building. I asked whether anyone had turned in a cell phone in a black case with a velcro latch and the answer, of course, was no. So I went down the road to MEGA foods and went to the service desk and asked the same question and got the same response. I decided I would canvass the entire store in hopes of -- to no avail. As I went past the service desk something (luckily) told me to ask the girls to give me a minute to get back to my car and then dial my cell number. I got into my car and waited but no phone ring. I started leaving the lot and suddenly I hear my phone ringing! And it's close! I pull over, swing the driver's door open and get down on my haunches trying to find where the sound is coming from. The ringing continues for a while, then stops. I rush back into the store with my good and bad news: Yes, the phone is in my car- no, I can't find it. I ask them to give me a minute and then dial the number again. Back in the vehicle and the ringing starts and it is definitely right on the drivers side of the car. I can even feel the vibrations when it rings but I'll be damned if I can locate the phone! The girls keep dialing and I keep looking, getting more frustrated by the minute - I mean, IT'S RIGHT HERE SOMEWHERE! Then something makes me look up the side of the seat instead of down - and there, neatly velcroed around the seat belt (as if I put it there myself) is my ringing phone. Now how weird is that???????? I went in the store, phone in hand and thanked my helpers. They, too, were stunned with the story. Don't ask me how this happened. I have no idea. I guess when I released the seat belt upon arriving home, it somehow pulled the phone and case off my pocket, forcing itself between the velcro and the case and when it reached its pinnacle, the force of it closed the velcro. TOO WEIRD!!!! ________________________________________________ As long as I am finally writing again, here is some catch up on a few things. Since I last wrote, I went looking for gainful employment by day. I applied as a courtesy driver at all the Eau Claire dealerships with no luck, then went out to Hallie and asked to fill out an application at the Toyota dealership. Katie Shumacher, the wonderful woman who makes the place run, hired me on the spot. Not as a courtesy driver, but as a what I call "car wrangler". Let's say that there's a Toyota dealership in Rochester, MN that needs a Venza of a color they don't have and Markquart has one and needs a Toyota Pathfinder in exchange. That's where I come in. I take the Markquart auto to the other dealership, fill out paperwork, and return in the vehicle needed back at Hallie. It has been fun work so far - but I am still screwing up on paperwork once in a while and this week I didn't get called to drive at all so I am worried that maybe I have worn out my welcome. My other gainful employment is due to my wife Kim who I now refer to as my "Nursing Home Agent". She takes entire afternoons to call al the area facilities and gets me what money she can and it has been both fun and a godsend. In fact, I am going over to Chippewa Falls this afternoon to do a show.

WALKER ABOLISHES EQUAL PAY LAW - SPITS ON THE WORKING WOMEN OF WISCONSIN

In a move befitting his style, earlier this week Wisconsin's Governor Scott Walker, with absolutely no advance warning, repealed the Wisconsin Equal Pay Law, on the books since 2009, because "money is more important for men".

For Scott Walker, it was no doubt the most logical step in his ongoing war on women and the working class, as the Equal Pay Law protected not just women but any protected class.

But for the Republican who was most enthusiastic about rescinding the law, it was really about fairness. After all, according to him, money IS more “important” for men.

Over at the Daily Beast, Michelle Goldberg writes a detailed account of the repeal and the effect it will have in the state. Goldberg also interviews Republican state senator Glenn Grothman, who was an enthusiastic fan of repealing the law. According to Grothman, not only is there no actual pay gap between the sexes, if there was one it wouldn’t matter anyway. After all, men need money more than women do, since they have families to support. “You could argue that money is more important for men,” he told Goldberg. “I think a guy in their first job, maybe because they expect to be a breadwinner someday, may be a little more money-conscious. To attribute everything to a so-called bias in the workplace is just not true.”

Grothman’s views on women in the workplace is very 1960′s sitcom to start with, but his understanding of breadwinning is even more so. Many families have two breadwinners, as both partners either chose to or have to both be in the workplace. And the majority of families lead by just one parent have mothers at the helm.

Then again, when asked about his source for his figures that prove there is no wage gap between the sexes, Grothman stated it was Ann Coulter.

Ann Coulter!!! Now, that’s sound research to base legislation on.

If women of Wisconsin who have read the news of the signing don't have their blood a-boil today, then I have no respect for them whatsoever.

Women: you have a chance to strike down the evil that lives in the Madison state house! If every working woman of voting age makes a vow today to cast their vote to recall Walker, your united voices will be heard.

The year is 2012- not 1957. It is time that all of us working stiffs take back what is ours!

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NEW DAY JOB - CAR WRANGLER

A couple of weeks ago I went around to all the local automobile dealerships, applying to be a "courtesy" driver - you know - the guy who gives rides to people whose car is being worked on at the local garage.

I struck out all morning and my last chance was Markquart Motors out in Hallie, exit 92 off Highway 53N. After filling out an application for employment I was offered a job not as a courtesy driver but as what I call a "car wrangler" - that is, when I get a call from Markquart, I am assigned a car to drive to a dealership that wants to swap that vehicle for one on their lot that Markquart is interested in.

The following tuesday, I got my first call to duty! I was assigned a Toyota Scion iQ (pictured). My fellow driver, Don Luedtke, was assigned a full size Toyota.

After affixing a dealers plate to the rear of the vehicle and getting briefed, I followed Don, as he has been on the job for quite some time and knew exactly where we had to go to deliver the vehicles.

On an ordinary day, driving the Scion iQ would have been a lot of fun - it is not much larger than a "Smart" car. However, once we got out on Interstate 94, I became aware of how windy it was - with cross gusts up to 45 mph - and it was a bit like riding a bucking bronco!

I made it, white-knuckled, in to the dealership, went through the necessary paperwork, switched the plate over to my return vehicle, a top of the line Camry with all the bells and whistles.

Needless to say, the trip back was much easier with the heavier vehicle.

I have had two more days of work since then and I am really enjoying my new-found "day gig". as an adult, if you think about it, I made my living driving so I feel quite comfortable at this job.

The other really cool aspect about it is that I am getting a chance to drive a lot of the brand new models of Toyotas on the market.

Good to be employed!

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WALKER CERTAINLY NOT A RUNNER - HE'S EVEN TOO CROOKED TO WALK STRAIGHT

A couple of weeks ago as I was making my way to my automobile outside a grocery, an elderly man accosted me, pointed to my Recall Walker bumper sticker and said, quite unpleasantly: “One Walker is worth a hell of a lot more than fourteen runners!”

Taken aback, I just said “okay” and went on my way.

But as a comic, I am supposed to be adroit at the dazzling “come back”. Turns out, there are a number of reasons why I should have agreed with Mr. Unpleasant’s theory:

I have to agree with you there, sir. The governor is certainly not a runner.

Cutting eduation funding. He never ran on that during his campaign. Making it more difficult for the elderly and poor to vote .. he never ran on that. Voiding contracts with public employees .. he never ran on that. Cutting wages on those workers .. he never ran on that. Raising taxes on public employees .. he never ran on that. Pushing through late-night, closed-door legislation .. he never ran on that. Hiding non-fiscal poiicy changes in a fiscal legisltive proposal .. he never ran on that. Claiming budget relief needed after his $140M crony tax breaks took us from a $3M balance at swear-in time to a $137M deficit .. he never ran on that. Gerrymandering voting districts to give his party advantage .. he never ran on that. Reducing health care for the disadvantaged .. he never ran on that. Taking credit, as though it was his initiative, for federally mandated programs .. he never ran on that. Refusing to negotiate on his take-it-or-leave-it policies .. he never ran on that. Avoiding calls from the fourteen senators while readily accepting a call from a supposed Koch .. he never ran on that. Filling in wetlands to cave to his real estate backers .. he never ran on that. . Expanding mining in our pristine northern forests .. he never ran on that ...

No, sir, he certainly wasn’t a runner!

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In an all out attempt to keep the one credit card that I am still using paid up each month, this past month I began taking stock here at my office of various collections I have procured over the years. When a man is about to turn 71 years of age, he realizes that he is in the "autumn" of his life- if not the dead of winter - and there is another benefit to selling my vast collection of NFL football helmets: After I'm gone, Kim won't have to wade through all the stuff i have accumulated.

It had been a while since I used eBay and I found out a couple of things. eBay's selling fees have skyrocketed and the cost of shipping has also taken to the moon!

Nonetheless, it was with a great deal of pleasure earlier this week,that I wrote a check to VISA that got me back to even!

Sometimes I wonder if the Mayans are right and the world will end on December 21, 2012. If I could only be certain, I would max my card out!

Here's another active daydream that I have: I go to the doctor and he announces that I have six weeks to live. I immediately go to Scheels and purchase a high powered rifle and apply vigilante justice to those who are truly in need of it.

I often wonder what society would be like if a law were passed that gave everyone permission to kill one person without being punished.

After an initial spurt of mass murder, the USA would become a much nicer place in which to live because nobody would want to piss off anyone who hadn't used their free pass.

These are the things I think about because I have way too much time on my hands and far too little work.

I have been attempting to address that ongoing situation quite actively the past week. I have decided that I need a day job - something that a man of my age with a bad right leg could still manage and I decided that being a DRIVER would be just about perfect.

So I went around to all the local auto dealerships and filled out applications to be the driver of the "courtesy" van - I come equipped with a portable GPS, which would be most helpful.

I have also done some applications for driving the elderly to appointments and making certain they get home again. But it seems there are other seniors who beat me to the punch as I continue to fill out applications and get "No, we don't need you now" for an answer.

So far, the only glimmer of hope is with Markquart Toyota where they have assured me that I will be getting some occasional work as a shuttle driver to Milwaukee to drive a new Toyota back to Eau Claire.

Still I maintain a positive attitude!

As the old joke goes: My friend said: "Cheer up. things could be worse." So I cheered up, and sure enough, things got worse.

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