Forecast for Saturday, March 12, 2011

We still a couple for sale.

Note to self: When wearing blue faery shirt, remember that glasses tucked in your neckline will totally disappear from view. This will save you hours of looking for your blue glasses.
No yogurt this morning as I had to hurry to the shop having slept late. Napoleon is not a happy camper and I shall pay tonight. The weather has turned cooler which in turn seems to activate that cats and that means the houses is mostly destroyed. Every night it is pick up everything when we get home. They must be bouncing off the wall which is odd considering they seem to be in the same place we left them 12 hours earlier.
No yogurt didn't prevent us from having a mulberry feast right off the tree. This year the birds are respecting us and leaving the branches we can reach alone. Last year, they got almost all the harvest. The mango tree has set fruit so no more pollen. I can almost breathe except for the pine, oak and ragweed.

Today's Tarot Card is the Two of Swords. Stalemate, there will be no progress today so relax. There is no point in beating your head against a brick wall.

You may not have gotten the best night's sleep. There are great ideas in the early AM and it finally looks like you will get through what has been blocking you for the last few months. Unfortunately, the aspect is completely in air signs, so it may seem like a great idea but implementing is going to be hard.

The Second Quarter of the Moon begins at 6:45 PM EST in 22Gemini03. It is time to evaluate your goals and projects and make necessary adjustment for success, but keep in mind you are overly critical of your self right now.

Remember, March 31st, wear red, on the sidewalks at 1 PM EST.

Well, it seems another goobernor idea hits reality, the world he doesn't live in apparently. His great idea to punish those lazy out of work goof offs hit a hurdle when someone noted that the Legislature in an attempt to protect our children passed a law that all "volunteers" have to pass a level 2 background check before they can be allowed to volunteer their services working with the public or doing that sort of public work. Unfortunately for those poor 100.00 a week lazy bums, the background check will cost them $46.25 and takes 4 - 6 weeks and since they need to immediately volunteer to get their unemployment check under the proposed system.....gee, any more ways you can balance the budget on the back of the middle and lower class, guys?  Oh, just out of curiosity, whose third cousin owns the firm doing the background checks for the State of Florida?
A smart reporter discovered just how much money our goobenor will put in his pocket from the corporate tax breaks he is trying to put into effect because of how those poor artificial people are suffering and discovered just how he intends to recoup the 17 mil he spent to get elected. And you thought he didn't have a plan...no one spends 17 mil of their own money to get a civil service job who is (a) sane and (b) not on the take. Electing a businessperson to a government position is like letting a fox run the hen house. The odd thing about this move to make Florida more friendly to business, is that according to every source I can find, Florida is one of the most friendly states to business with the lowest tax rates, lowest unemployment compensation rates and absolutely no workers rights being a "right to work" state. Funny about that right to work stuff. It really means the employer can fire you for no reason and you have to fight to get unemployment compensation and have no recourse. Shouldn't it be called a "Right to Fire" state? The worker isn't getting anything out of this.
And along with this making the state more friendly to business, he is gutting the educational system and making certain woman are barefoot and pregnant. Okay, I think it is time someone asked him exactly what kind of business he is trying to lure to this state with under educated labor with no rights. Should I be practicing my "yes massa's"?
Just something you might want to think about.....

Oh, and us old folks have already figured out that cutting medicare causes us to not get medicine and care and thus die faster so you don't have to spend as much on Social Security. That is the cheap form of the death panel brought to you by the GOP/Tea Party. It doesn't require the hiring of any fake doctors from the insurance industry to make decisions. You just die from neglect, all by yourself under a bridge somewhere because your social security check you spent your life paying into is so small you can't afford to live anywhere. Nice plan guys, but we didn't survive this long being stupid.

Forecast for Friday, 03,11,11

Double elevens. It has been a wet and windy day in SoFl. The plants are happy. This morning I made fresh Greek Yogurt with our very own organically grown mulberries. It was fantastic. I think Napoleon sprained his tongue licking the bowl. The winds helped provide me with yet another harvest of Russian Mulberries. The Sweet 100 tomato is producing every day and so is my orange tomato. Salads coming right up! The old garden is starting to pay for itself. I think the Homestead tomato doubles in size every day. I will weigh it when it turns red!

Today's Tarot Card is the Wheel of Fortune. Major changes are on the way!

The Moon is Void of Course from 12:26 AM EST to 12:31 AM EST when she enters Gemini and people start talking, thinking and generally making a lot of noise. The Moon in Gemini always stimulates the intellect and multitasking.

Once again, our poor teachers are up early in the morning but this time the message is nice. However, don't expect any quick change in the afternoon. It's not happening.
Uranus enters Aries at 7:49 PM EST. Wow, the planet of sudden happenings and surprises in the sign of charge right in there and don't watch where you are going. How many years do I need to stay home with this one?
There is good financial news in the evening and a social event is very pleasant. However, as you move into the wee hours, arguments start so call it an early night. This is the last day of the first quarter of the moon.

The last thing I heard way early this morning was that the police had simply allowed the protesters into the capital building in WI and they were afraid the balconies might collapse from the weight of everyone and some windows had been broken. This was after the Legislature gutted the Unions with a technicality allowing them to vote. THAT WAS THE LAST THING WE HEARD DOWN HERE! Are you all right in WI?????
There is a total news blackout. Do you need help? Let us know on Twitter and FB.

Meanwhile in a definition of Irony, our lame president opened the conference on Bullying at the White House today and the biggest news was American Idol. Someone thinks I am stupid and they are so very wrong.

Remember, March 31st, 1 PM EST, on the sidewalk, in red. Let's stop the entire nation. WE HAVE HAD ENOUGH!

Revolution Now...Need Artist

First order of business:

March 31, 1 PM, everyone wear red even if covertly under something. At 1 PM leave your desks, houses, cars. where ever you are and walk out to the sidewalk displaying your RED. Just stand there for 30 minutes so the satellites can pick up the streets  running red with the blood of the American worker and middle class. Don't do anything or say anything, don't picket or wave signs just make certain the red is visible from above.

Blood Red will be our color. It is our blood that is being sucked dry, our life stream and we are the life stream of this country.

We need a flag and I am a poor artist. This is my design: A bright red (color of blood) flag with a young girl holding her brother done in outline in grey in the center. Do it yourself. the design is free for all.

WHY?

Because the our children are the real victims of these artificial people (corporate politicians). They are neglected by parents struggling to make enough money to get them paper and pens for an education that is being slashed worse than the blond in a horror movie. They are the ones huddling alone at home until Mommy comes home, dead tired with fast food containing no nutritional value. Maybe this weekend they can visit Daddy and his Barbie Doll because after all, the corporate model is to dump the woman and children who were neglected and still supported him through 10 years of overtime, weekend conferences and screaming fits brought on by stress for the Barbie Doll. In another 20 years he can dump her and start a new family and maybe actually remember the names of those children. Daddy has a cook and a full refrigerator. They are the ones who have no dreams.

Why a grey outline? Because grey is the color of all in the end. It is the transition between colors where all are included.

Why a little girl holding her brother? Because it is usually the oldest girl who winds up being mother to her siblings and a little boy who "mans up" and tries to protect his siblings from the horrors he sees only too clearly. It is a scene I have seen played in every third world country I have lived in and make no mistake folks, this is now a third world country.

This is our manifesto. We are too numerous to be ignored. We can bring this country to its knees or we can take it to heights never seen before, but first someone has to get off their ass and walk out the door on March 31st and put the artificial people on notice. We are the people who keep your fancy suit clean and pressed, your car running, your lawn mowed, your nails clipped, your food in the store, and your garbage picked up. We are going to show you what it is like to live without us for half an hour! The phone will not be answered. The pizza will not arrive. Traffic will stop. People will park and get on the sidewalk. Not enough parking? Hey we've been telling you that for years...we'll just use the street. You have just stepped in a red ants' nest, my friends. They may be little, but they can take down a horse!

Share this. Tweet this. Get the word out.

Forecast for Thursday, March 10, 2011

Never Mess with my Food!

This has been a day of losing things only to find them under my nose. Frustration level: High!

Boogaboo is minus a head, sort of. He stuck his nose in my plate when Fionna was cleaning it. I never want to see that side of her again. All ten claws and four fangs hit him on the head. She was vicious. Never get between Fifi and her food or you are food.

Did a short interview with http://hiyaheights.com/ tonight. I think you will like their web site.

Today's Tarot Card is the Hanged Man reversed. Today is a day of major decisions. Think things through before making them.

Pleasant dreams are yours and a pretty much aspect free day, so enjoy! Late tonight things get really distorted and fuzzy. Avoid buying over the phone or internet. You may not get what you think you are getting.
Through the 18th you are more likely to get job offers at social events than through applications.

I am always amazed at the latest scheme to get free readings. This time it took me about 3 minutes to figure out what was going on when the woman asked for an "initial consultation", free of course. Now, if I can tell her something the other 50 psychics she just spent all her money dialing 900 lines didn't, she might schedule a reading with me. Meanwhile, I am sitting here with a backlog of mail readings I have to finish and this woman in prattling on and on. I believe after the third NO, I hung up. My time is money and I have no shortage of work. Why should I do a free reading after someone spends hundreds of dollars on the phone lines getting nothing over and over again? Should I be the one who gets punished? Nope, not this lady. But, I will tell you that every psychic I know gets these calls after they run out of money on the phone lines. Now, why don't they call us first? My guess is because they never had any intention of paying their phone bill. Once again my friends, this stuff comes back on you. I am smart enough to never try to get freebies as I know the bill will come due some place else. It's just the way the Universe balances itself.

Yesterday, my allergies were acting up so I was doubly grouchy. Then people started asking me if I was all right, I mean, really ALL RIGHT. I couldn't figure out what on earth had everyone so concerned until I got home and realized I had not put any makeup on because of the swelling around my eyes and nose.

Forecast for Wednesday, 03/09/11

Fiona the Thief

Today is Ash Wednesday. Ihave no idea what that is and please don't tell me. As a Druid, I have enough holidays to keep track of as it is, planetary hours, astrological aspects....one more holiday may cause mental meltdown.

So.......I went outside and carefully watered every plant only to look up because my bright and sunny day was getting awfully dark, and in comes the rain clouds. Yup, only a 10% chance of showers unless I water the plants and wash the walkway stones......All I need to do is wash Vanwitch and we will have a deluge.
It is a busy day of general Salamander work. Yesterday I took George for his physical for life insurance and he is disgustingly healthy. I mean, men in the 30's want to have his stats! As for me...I get the calls from long term care facilities and the graveyard. Just kidding. I may not be well, but I am tenacious.
When I began calling Fionna Fif, I didn't realize how close that is to thief. There is a fine line between washing Mom's plate and stealing Mom's breakfast. I went to dip my toast in my egg yolk and hit a furry black little head instead. Goddess, she is fast. Of course Napoleon will eat your yogurt if it is not guarded.

Today's Tarot Card is the Seven of Swords. Be wary of theft today.

Mercury enters Aries at 12:47 PM EST causing harsh words, rapid speech and general cases of foot in mouth disease. Try to think before you speak. And a two day Mercury aspect has you blurting out things you didn't want anyone to know.

Thoughts of change and social events awaken you very early only to have your plans dashed by dawn. The event may well be cancelled. Don't fret, by noon you are active and working on making some money! Unfortunately it will not be enough for the project you had in mind and by evening you are just plain jittery. It would be better to look at things tomorrow than try to plan your budget tonight. Remember, chocolate used to cure everything before the price went up. Social events for a week or two are networking events to make money or get donations. By the end of March, you may consider a time share presentation a nice thing.

Everything I have said is coming to pass really, really fast. There is even a bill being introduced to split the Florida Supreme Court and remove its ability and jurisdiction over the legislature allowing them to pass any law they want with no legal recourse against them. Shall we just smile, bend over and admit we have elected a dictatorship or pretend for a while longer? I'm too much of a realist. I know I'm sitting in a hand basket. Once these laws are passed, even without the new muzzle on the Florida Supreme Court, we will be living under them for at least 7 years until they can expire naturally providing that law is not repealed. There is no recourse in the courts. The courts are stacked and controlled by the GOP/Tea party. It's over folks. Democracy is a facade. We elected our masters, or you did because I sure didn't vote them.

I am so exhausted I can barely move. The odd thing is all my psychic friends on Facebook have been posting they are exhausted since Friday. What is this....a world wide psychic plague of exhaustion?

Forecast for Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Today is Mardi Gras and Fat Tuesday.

I saw a letter to the editor referring to the Unions as a bunch of thugs. Now that is a good way to get my blood boiling. Half my family worked and died in the mines in WV before there were unions. They joined up the moment they could. My Uncles were truckers before unions. Their children are union. My Uncle-in-law belonged to the railroad union. My other uncle-in-law belonged to the Steel Mill Workers' Union.
I remember the steel mill going on strike over safety issues. My uncle-in-law was a little man, around 5'8" and 130 lbs dripping wet. His car was vandalized at the Mill, so he asked my father to pick him up at a local bar he could get a lift to rather than driving all the way out to the mill to pick him up. It was quite a drive out there.
A few hours later they returned home. My uncle-in-law was beat to a pulp and my father had taken him to the hospital to be patched up. It seems some real thugs were laying in wait for the union members to show up at the bar to be picked up by their family members since they were the ones who had vandalized their cars. My father was a little beat up and my mother asked him what his excuse was being an Irishman and a really big Irishman at that and a little tipsy. He looked at my mother and said...and I will never forget this even though I was only around 5, "When my friend here could not explain the value of joining a union to them I thought it appropriate to explain to them the value of having union subsidized health insurance," and he put five of them in the hospital. With that he plopped down in the kitchen chair and winced and we realised he wasn't drunk, they had given him something for the pain of a couple of broken ribs. So, he looked at me and said, "And you remember never to pick on someone smaller than you. Oh hell, there isn't anyone smaller than you. Remind me to teach you how to fight and run fast." He made good on his word. I can run really fast.
Many years later I am working for one of the Fascist, I mean Fortune Five Hundred Companies when the manufacturing part went out on strike. I really needed that job and as I approached the picket line I knew George would kill me if I lost that job. My friend and coworker from NY was scared to death as she had never crossed a picket line in her life. On one hand, I had the need for that money and on the other, a family tradition going back generations. The Cuban girl next to me asked what a union was. That was when a representative from my boss said that if we didn't cross the picket line we would be fired because we were not union.
That was a really bad choice of words because my answer was: "Not today but I can be union tomorrow. Give me a sign." Then we explained unions to my Cuban friend and she and all her friends joined us and we were all picketing downstairs now in English and Spanish and a couple of hours later they caved and we all went back to work. That was when my coworker who was already upstairs and a bit of a drama queen told me they fully intended to fire me when he did his best hysterics and said "Don't be stupid. She'll organize the office workers and all the Cubans. This whole place with be union. Haven't you read her writing? She can convince you anything." They looked out a few minutes later and saw signs in Spanish and figured things were about to go to a really bad place for them. We didn't get fired. I know thugs and the union bosses may play the part, but they are nothing compared to the people the corporations hired to use against them.
Yes, I am a proud supporter of the Unions in every country. When I was told that to say Union at Wartmart would get me fired, I wore a union T-shirt and dared them. Admittedly, it was hand made that afternoon with a magic marker. Don't mess with a redhead. As Mark Twain said, "Red heads and cats are a different species from man and will never be understood by him." or something to that effect. He was a wise man.

Today's Tarot Card is the Hierophant reversed. This will be a very unconventional day when rules and regulations are flaunted.

The Moon is void of Course from 11:04 AM EST to 12:52 PM EST when she enters Taurus. Taurus makes people possessive, territorial and stingy. So be respectful of personal space and don't try to borrow anything.
The morning is very psychic and slightly dreamy. Unfortunately this aspect can also cause fires from electrical shorts. In the afternoon, teacher finds more allies than they thought they had. The lesson is finally getting through.

At the Cosmic Salamander, we proudly stand with Wisconsin's workers in their fight against tyranny and the union busting GOP/Tea Party.

Now on to a practical matter. Bank Atlantic is a local bank. They are fighting hard for survival against the big guys who took your tax dollars, paid themselves million dollar bonuses with it and haven't paid a dime in taxes in years. If you are with BOA, Chase, Wellsfargo or the rest of the robber barons, take your money out and put it in Bank Atlantic. They support our community and they need to increase their assets to stay in business. They are FDIC insured and some on that list up there: AREN'T. Vote with you wallet.

How to make money in Business

This basic principle of business seems to have been lost somewhere in the political rhetoric, so let me explain how you actually make money in business:

You produce a product as cheaply as possible, create interest and sell it for as high a price as the market will allow or people will pay.

The largest part of the cost of a product is its production expense which is NOT the raw materials, but the workers that produce the product. So, the cheaper you can get workers, the more profit you make on the product. Your raw material expense is fixed or unchanging. Thus to make money, you have to reduce production cost.

Corporations do not sit on profit. Corporations are made up of people who bought and hold the shares of stock in the corporation. These shares of stock are what provided the original money to start and set the company up and get production started. The people who hold most of the stock make up the Board of Directors.
In the old days, the Board of Directors was ruled by the person who had the most stock and this person made the major financial and business decisions. Today, this person is hired by the Board of Directors and is called the CEO, Chief Executive Officer. Along with this individual may also be a CFO, Chief Financial Officer and a variety of 3 letter people all starting with C. They make salaries in excess of a few million dollars a year guaranteed whether the company makes money or not.
They also have a guaranteed employment contract so they can not be fired. In addition to that, they have bonuses loosely based on how much money they make the company by reducing expences and what is called a Golden Parachute. That means if the Board of Directors should have to get rid of them because say, they are convicted of murder, they get several million dollars for giving up their position in addition to their guaranteed salary and bonuses.
At the end of the quarter, 3 months, the profit made by the company less the salaries of these "big boys" is divided up among the stock holders and paid to them. This check is called a dividend. You may remember, you gave these people a vitual free ticket taxwise earlier this year on dividends. A dividend is nothing more than the paycheck a stock holder gets for risking their money by buying the stock in the first place. Dividends are how the rich get paid. You  may get a few dollars on your savings' accounts and it is called a dividend. They get a few million and it is also called a dividend.
Now, the reasoning behind a lower tax rate on dividends is the corporation has already paid taxes on the money "it" made. However, you may remember you gave corporations a huge tax break at the beginning of the year and the "big boys" like Bank of America even with all our tax payer money, paid no taxes the last two years. In fact, only small companies commonly called small businesses actually pay any taxes. The big ones have a variety of tax dodges like shipping their money off shore.
So, the big companies make a lot of money and are trying to make even more money. Since they can not reduce the cost of raw materials, they have to reduce the cost of production and the only way to do that is to eliminate people.
For example: an ATM costs around 15,000.00 and works 24/7 and replaces two tellers (people) than make around 30,000.00 a year. The ATM will last at least 2 years at a total savings of 105,000.00 in 2 years on the surface. However, an ATM requires no contribution to FICA, insurance or pensions, so it actually saves the bank way more money than that. They no longer require deposit slips, so that puts a paper manufacturerer and a printer out of business. Banks can now be a small store front with a couple of ATMS outside and maybe 3 people inside, reducing the rent, electricity and cleaning costs for the branch, making the bank even more money. Now multiply that by a few thousand branches and you are talking a significant chunk of change.
The lesson here is that businesses do not make money hiring people. They make money getting rid of jobs, i.e. people. So, when the government gives your tax dollars to big companies they do not create jobs, they eliminate jobs with your money. When you reduce government, you reduce the number of people employed by the government and once again, unemployment rises. The private sector does not absorb these newly unemployed because you just paid the private sector to elminate existing jobs.
This is how Trickle Down Economics works. The top 3% of the country, who do not work at any job but just collect a check from "dividends" on stock they bought with inherited money that they paid no taxes on because they made a deal with the IRS to place it in a "public trust" of some kind,  take your job away so you can now not work also and collect welfare which is now your dividend check that your few neighbors who still have a job slinging hamburgers pay for. It's easy. Why are you having a problem understanding it? Just remember, thank your neighbor with a job. They are supporting you and your children.