Update about blogCa

Blue False Indigo at Lake Tomahawk - May 2026
Showing posts with label Barbara Baker. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Barbara Baker. Show all posts

Sunday, November 16, 2025

Ice in Florida and capitalism

My blog friends in Florida said the recent cold spell was a shocker. I include the following photo from Tampa which is across the bay from St. Petersburg, where my son, Marty, now lives. A grandson lives in Riverview, on the Tampa side of the bay.

https://www.comfortspringstation.com/2025/11/13/fla-november-record-breaking-lows-northern-lights/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=fla-november-record-breaking-lows-northern-lights

Bayshore Dr Tampa Nov 11, 2025





Marty and Barb's new home, St. Petersburg FL (Google Earth photo 2022)

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And more interesting information...perhaps. At least it's not political (or is it?)

Warren Buffett gives more than other billionaires, born August 30, 1930
CNN says this Nov. 10:
New York — 

Warren Buffett, in his annual message as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway to shareholders – a tradition dating back to 1965 – said that he will be “going quiet” after he steps down at the end of this year. But the 95-year-old is not going away just yet.

Buffett will no longer write the message atop the company’s annual report, but he will continue to deliver an annual Thanksgiving message, and he will “step up” his philanthropy, giving away the $149 billion in Berkshire Hathaway stock he continues to hold.

“The Oracle of Omaha” has become an investing icon, a billionaire who has cultivated a folksy image, particularly through his letters to shareholders. Although his market moves are closely followed by investors around the world, Buffett has also worked to present himself as a cheerleader for America and ordinary Americans – and for capitalism.

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Do either of these topics have anything in common? I read about homeless people coping with the recent cold snap. Perhaps, the economic disparity which I wrote about earlier, should be considered more!

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Robert Reich posted this Nov  14,

Last week, two things happened that may shed some light on where American capitalism is heading.

First, Tesla’s board caved in to Elon Musk’s demand that he get a pay package of $1 trillion (if he meets various goals).

Musk’s trillion-dollar pay package is so grotesque as to make a mockery of the most ardent free-market capitalists. Although his board is stuffed with cronies and relatives, he still had to hold it hostage to get his trillion — threatening that if he didn’t, his attention would wander elsewhere. Other Tesla shareholders got shafted.

Second, the voters of New York City — the capital of world capitalism — elected as their mayor a Democratic Socialist who thinks billionaires shouldn’t exist.

New York’s oligarchs spent more than $55 million trying to defeat Mamdani and get Andrew Cuomo elected instead. With Cuomo winning just under 855,000 votes, that came to about $65 per vote. Total spending for Mamdani was about $16 million. With Mamdani winning more than 1 million votes, that came to about $15 per vote.

One can’t draw vast conclusions from all this, but Musk’s bizarre pay package and Mamdani’s unlikely win together suggest that the unique form of harsh capitalism now practiced in America may be coming to an end.

No other advanced capitalist nation subjects its working families to as much fear and uncertainty over jobs, wages, health, and retirement as does America. None tolerates nearly the same inequalities of income and wealth (although some are moving in our direction). Musk’s pay and Mamdani’s victory are exhibits A and B.

Harsh American capitalism has become unsustainable, politically and economically.

The bottom 80 percent, whose paychecks haven’t kept up with inflation, have grown increasingly angry. That anger has infused both political parties with fierce antiestablishment populism and fostered deep distrust in all political institutions.

In 2016, much of the voting public went with Bernie Sanders or Donald Trump — two outsiders who at the time were neither Democrat nor Republican but who told voters what they already suspected: that the system was rigged against them. Both candidates promised fundamental change.

Unfortunately for America and the world, the corporate and Wall Street wing of the Democratic Party put an end to Sanders’s candidacy — leaving Trump to talk about the rigged market and convince voters he was on their side. In reality, he was and has remained on the side of the billionaires.

Antiestablishment populism continues to be the most powerful political force in America, within both parties.

Last Tuesday, Democratic populists prevailed. Even the so-called “moderate” Democrats who won the governorships of Virginia and New Jersey targeted utilities, AI data centers that demand huge amounts of electricity, big corporations that collude to keep rents high, and pharmaceutical middlemen that have been driving up drug prices — all populist targets.

When so much of the nation’s income and wealth moves to the top, the rest of the public doesn’t have enough purchasing power to keep the economy going.

The richest 10 percent now account for half of all spending in the United States (up from a third three decades ago). And much of that spending is based on their stock market holdings, whose value has been soaring.

But it’s a house of cards. The stock market is now dependent on a handful of highly speculative stocks — centering on AI, big tech, and crypto — that could burst at any time, bringing down both the stock market and the confidence of many who are now keeping the economy going.

Trump’s unpredictable tariffs and his tax breaks and tax loopholes for the rich have added to the fragility — causing employers to hold back from making major investments due to uncertainty, and forcing consumers to struggle with rising prices for food, energy, clothing, and other necessities.

What does this all mean?

Musk’s success in getting a trillion-dollar pay package, coupled with the failure of corporate and Wall Street titans to prevent Mamdani from becoming the next mayor of the capital of global capitalism, don’t signal a sudden end to America’s system of harsh capitalism.

Rather, the two events are signposts to where that system is likely heading — not toward a socialist revolution but to a softer form of capitalism, more in line with advanced capitalism elsewhere around the world.

In the 1930s, Franklin D. Roosevelt saved capitalism from its excesses. His social insurance, public investments, and high taxes on the wealthy paved the way for the largest middle class the world had ever seen, in the first three decades after World War II.

But America got off that road in the 1980s and has been veering farther away from it since then. In opposite ways, both Musk and Mamdani pose the same question: Are we ready to get back on?

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And in other news...at least on FB since I've kind of skipped local and national news lately. Oh, Disney and YouTubeTV came to a contract agreement by Saturday, and so I'll get my local Asheville/Black Mountain NC news again!

But I wanted to give the Starbucks' employees who are striking a boost...even though apparently the employees in our local shops aren't.



I had received an order of Starbucks products (free) the day before the strike began. My friend who likes to drive through and pick up a latte said the ones she frequents aren't picketing at all.

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Open Yesterday's Pages - about the beginning of the Blue Ridge Parkway




Friday, August 1, 2025

Blog number 3000

 This is the 3000th, at least in this blog series, not counting my other blogs!

Someone might say I have a lot to say...

Rabbit Rabbit! Wishing good things come in this new beginning of a month!


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How about "Portraits, old and new"


Alfred Stieglitz and Georgia O’Keeffe, 1939 Photo by Ansel Adams


Frida Kahlo's painting, Diego and me. It shows exactly how much he was on her mind.

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Please forgive me for family portraits...they are what's in the files!


Cinnamon, the mother of two of my grandchildren. I still count her as a good friend, though she and my son, Marty, divorced several years ago.


More "Way Back" photos. Here we lived in Thompsonville CT, and my young sailor Marty was about 4, while little Russ was at least 13 months old, with my husband Doug, and myself getting leafy knees.




A bit later, son Marty sported a crew cut, I had some blond highlights, and Russ had most of his glorious blond curls cut off (which didn't last long!)


Fast forward to after my 1971 divorce from Doug, and here's Russ (around 5-6) in front of our mobile home. Below he's on Doug's lap as the 70s hairstyles allowed long locks for boys and men. Russ may have had a comb and brush, but a lot of good it did!


And yes, Russ is the son who grew up to have the wedding portrait leaning into a kiss and holding up his bride Michelle (used as header for the week of July 13)



Marty's second wife is Barbara, and here's their wedding picture. (used as header the week of July 20) (I don't have a photo of his wedding to Cinnamon, as it was before digital cameras!)


A young man (my youngest son Tai) that doesn't mind wearing a flower crown. They were making these. Not sure what the fair/function might have been, but flowers are always uplifting!


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Today's quote:

“Every important social movement reconfigures the world in the imagination. What was obscure comes forward, lies are revealed, memory shaken, new delineations drawn over the old maps: it is from this new way of seeing the present that hope emerges for the future...Let us begin to imagine the worlds we would like to inhabit, the long lives we will share, and the many futures in our hands.” ― Susan Griffin
Painting by Helena Nelson Reed



Happy Lammas, first harvest gives grains for bread making!

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Sharing with Sepia Saturday for tomorrow. A big thank you to Alan who puts together this meme. Stop on over to add your own old favorite photos, or just check out those who do!


Sepia Saturday says:

It is summer. We are sat on the pier. We have our overcoats on because it is Britain and it is cold. Everything is all right and everything is as it should be .... except the world seems to be tilting to the left. For those who like to look for themes for their Sepia Saturday offerings, there are themes a plenty here - from flat caps to straw baskets. For those who just like sharing old photographs why not get yourself off your seat and share your photos on or around Saturday 2nd August 2025 and add a link to the list below. 


Thursday, July 17, 2025

Beauty and love (and Good Trouble)


 


My neighbor's planters with abundant flowers!

Summertime at Lake Tomahawk, 2025


An unframed version of wedding photo of Michelle and Russ Heym, April, 2000. 



Some of the wonderful people at my son Marty Heym and Barbara Baker's wedding in May, 2019. Barbara is in the great white hat. Marty on far right with bow tie. I know Beverly Baker is in center with the black lace dress. But the rest of the folks are unknown to me.


Hiking in Colorado, 2025, here Kendra uses 2 poles on rocky trail.


I love this with Kendra stretching her hair out while by her left elbow Zora has her tongue hanging out. They made it to this wonderful flower-flung place of rest!

Family portrait with Zora dog, Kendra and Tai Rogers, 2025 July.

Today's quote:

We cannot have harmony and balance in our lives if we forget to include the Earth and natural rhythms in our lives.

An old photo:


Myself as bridesmaid for my friend Rosie, in 1962. (Dress was pale blue chiffon which I never wore again.)



Today there will be demonstrations of "good trouble" as taught by Congressman John Lewis.

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Personal update!
I found it!

In a file folder between "Pets papers" and "Pottery," was one called "Papers - Important." And there was my original birth certificate. I received it from my parents when I got my first passport in 1963.


I do hope that will serve, it has numbers and a seal of Texas.


Sunday, March 9, 2025

Great book by a man who stood up and said what he needed to

     I'm talking about Anthony Fauci, who wrote his own biography and I enjoyed listening to him read it in the audio version (from our Libby library on line).


He does spend a lot of time talking about his life, which had made it over 80 years by the time it was written (2024).  So for lots of details, I listened to the first third when he finally dealt with the Aids epidemic and his work in public health helped provide treatments. But then I got a notice from the library that I only had 3 more days to listen to 12 more hours. So I admit I fast forwarded through a lot of his life, because I was particularly interested in his work during the COVID pandemic.

And it was quite interesting...because I found out all the other people that had tried to hamper the efforts to wear masks, to get vaccinated, and to have boosters (including Robert Kennedy, Jr. who wrote the book against vaccinations and has now been appointed Secretary of Health and Human Services for Trump's 2025 cabinet.)  I finally listened intently to the last hour of the book, to find out what was learned by scientists from the mistakes made, and the efforts that might have changed the outcomes and saved many lives.

He said at minute  18:11:29 (my underline)

Instead of concentrating all our efforts against a common enemy, the country was divided about masking, and during the first year the messages from the top were  quite confusing. Political leaders differed on social restrictions of masks and on vaccines, interventions that were clearly shown to save millions of lives. 

Unfortunately, the acceptance of public health measures such as vaccinations was highly politicized as exemplified by the fact that there were fewer vaccinations and more hospitalizations and deaths in states that are predominantly Republican vs. states that are predominantly Democratic. Furthermore, our overall uptick of vaccines was less than most developed countries, and even less than some low and middle income countries. That should never have happened, and likely would not have happened had the right tone been set by the highest levels of government for the promotion of proper health principles and practices right from the start of the outbreak. 

All these weaknesses in our public health response to COVID were profoundly compounded by one of the true enemies of public health, the spread of egregious misinformation and dis-information, enabled by the internet and social media, that unfortunately remains with us today.

OK, I'm off to listen to the last hour of the book. I only had to wait to read it for 5 months in our library system after putting a hold on it (and the audios usually come through faster than the written e-books.)

But I do remember going through the pandemic, and have blogged about it, as probably many other have. So far I haven't caught COVID, and I still wear a mask when in crowds, as well as get boosters when available. My fragile lungs would probably not make it through a bad case, so I am doing all I can to stay somewhat healthy.

And, I not only believe in science...I know it's true. It has a system in place such that one or two anecdotal stories are not considered truth. The hypothesis/theory testing method is definitely a good way to approach things. Then publications which are peer reviewed...so anyone can't just claim that their thoughts are true, another step to assure me that I'm not being given someone's dreams as truth. Finding a source that publicizes actual scientific documents is my own choice, and I seldom stray into the la-la-land of conjectures.

I am grateful to science, especially medicine. It keeps me alive while this particular disease is still lurking around, and I'll continue to do what the doctors recommend.

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Today's quote (more inspirational):

If time is my measure, then let me fill it to the brim, pouring out my best, sharing my heart, loving all I can, giving all I have. Let no day be wasted, no chance taken for granted, no moment passed by unseen for the blessing it reveals.

STEVEN CHARLESTON

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Today's art:

"Spring Light" by Philip Huckin 


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My family album for today:

Daughter-in-law, Barbara, and oldest son, Marty.  St. Petersburg, FL, holding a pitcher I gave them for Christmas, 2023


Friday, December 1, 2023

Have a happy (or as close as you can) December!

 Nope, no rabbits here this month!

A bit of love on display...the honeymoon by J. C. Leyendecker 1926

Moonlit Macarons on display at Shopapalooza Festival 23, in Vinoy Park, St. Petersburg FL



Barbara Baker, my daughter-in-law was interviewed for Channel 3, Tampa early in the morning Saturday....but they didn't air her clip when I looked on line. Maybe they were saving it for one on Sunday. Barbara started this business when her former business had to close due to COVID. She had organized band events for an outdoor theater in St. Pete until then. 

She's now won some awards as a small-business-owning-woman now!

And if you're around Black Mountain NC, this afternoon/evening is our Holly Jolly event, where shops stay open late and offer treats of cocoa, cider, cookies, candy etc. and a tree lighting in the Town Square and other fun things.

Today's quote:

Paul Klee said, "Art should be like a holiday: something to give a man the opportunity to see things differently and to change his point of view."





Yes, a fall picture of Snoopy and friends...but I just found it and thought how much joy those little comic characters have spread through the years. Thanks Charles Schulz, wherever you are.



The Art of Christmas- This is a painting by Marcel Rieder,1898

Note that it's a bit skimpy, but is a live tree, in a pot! Good for that family back in 1898!

Saturday, August 22, 2020

Happy birthday to Barbara B

My newest daughter-in-law...who is also somewhat of an outlaw, come to think of it! She's such a fun person and I'm so glad she joined my family a bit over a year ago. (In my fevered state when I wrote this, I forgot another daughter-in-law joined my family this year...so Barb is my next-to-newest daughter-in-law. I claim brain fart.)


I love you Barbara! Have a happy day, week, month and year...and many more.

I'm not feeling well enough to sit here and gather more FB photos that I've saved since I met you and became FB friends. Later...

OK, here's a better pic of you!

Well, it doesn't show your face all that well...

Even though this one is somewhat perspective truncated (tiny feet youall have!) I love it!

Wednesday, November 13, 2019

From Mesa Verde to Mancos CO

My panorama shot of Park Point

150 rooms...that means a lot of people!














And then back to Mancos to meet our new cousin!

 Becky Baker, my new cousin by marriage.  Her first cousin, Barbara Baker married my son, Marty Heym, last April!

 Kendra, Tai and Becky! And oh those cider drinks! Mine was really powerful!

 The Cider Bar was right next to a river...

 And a cute puppy was moored next to the river...not belonging to any of us.

 The outdoor seating of the Fence-line cider bar.
 All the women were elsewhere and there's Tai sitting all alone!

We only had a short visit since Becky had to go do something in Durango. We arrived home to Cortez to another beautiful sunset.