Our Bear...and Mean Republicans...

We have had a bear active on the ridge lately. I've run across some of his dung. Overnight he/she was quite busy tearing up dirt and roots, looking for delectables, I guess. This scraping in the photo shows the direction of his/her talons scraping the ground. It was kind of a spooky walk, because it felt like this bear was scoping us out. There was sign of him with his diggings, for the first half of the hike. It was almost like he intentionally chose to mimic our hike overnight. It probably doesn't help that our dog, Little One, likes to pee as a scent marker on the bear's dung. Little One is feisty; I don't think she is feisty enough to take on a bear.

Yet it is good to have bear sign within fifty yards of our house. I'm perplexed as to why he doesn't come over and dig out our compost pile? Or break into our shed to rip into our garbage? He (guess I'll give up and just call him a he) has been very polite thus far. In years past, other neighbors have had difficulties with bears getting into their garbage and making general nuisances of themselves. We've been lucky, but we also take out the trash on a regular basis. I'm thankful this bear has been well-behaved.

It is the weekend, Sunday, and the Republicans have decided to play games with the economy by attempting to stall Obamacare for another year. Within our household Joni's 37 year old daughter lives with us. We were going to sign her up for health insurance through Obamacare. It seems rather cruel to the Working Poor to have this program set to go into place, that will do immeasurable good, and then play games with its implementation. They are even ready to shut the Government down over it. Seems Juvenile to me. But that's what happens when you have the Republican Party taken over by people who do not see any reason for Government to exist. If you put me in charge of a Nuclear Power plant, I'd do my very best to get that thing shut down; It's the same principle at work with the new Tea Party Republicans. They are the great destroyers. People will suffer.

Nothing will change until we vote these Bozos out of office. We have one of the worst of them here, who I have written about countless times, Doug LaMalfa. Doug voted to cut Food Stamps by billions of dollars. Doug commented that he didn't think it was government's job to feed the poor. This should be done by charity.

Of course Doug LaMalfa also has received 5.1 million dollars in direct payments for his rice crop. And his proposal to change it would be an insurance program that would line his pockets even more than the current program does.

I'd like to see Doug LaMalfa's tax returns. If he thinks charity should feed the poor, how much money does LaMalfa provide charity to do just that?

This new Republican philosophy has become just plain mean. It is ugly and racist and devolves to the very worst attributes of greed and selfishness. Doug LaMalfa is probably the best witness when it comes to this nastiness. He is one cruel, cruel man.