Saturday, July 20, 2013

USDA: Arm of the Illegal Totalitarianist US Government. Focus: Raisin Farmers

The United States need to do just that. Unite. The government is so corrupt at this point. The battles are many and diverse. This Saturday morning, I listened to California raisin farmers tell how the USDA steals 47% of their work each year, forcing them into debt and ruin, and now is punishing them for not complying with fines like the $700,000 oppressive tactics one elderly farm couple is giving part of their lives for. The stress alone will take these farmers down. Farmers that have labored for generations, watching the US jack prices of produce for their political agendas, illegally.
Bankrupt the farmers for your Oneworld political agenda, or should we just say generic greed?

American citizens are fighting a war at home, while our drones are killing people worldwide. Time to clean up: Assassinations, fracking the water into flammable liquid, chemtrail the air and land, GMO the cancer rates, vaccinate and process American kids after foreign kids are used as guinea pigs...for what? All involved are unwelcome here....or anywhere.



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Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Amends. Apathy. Not Wanting to Get Involved. Being Part of the Problem...

Ever since I was born into a very dysfunctional family, and watched the madness at home, and observed behaviors of my own peers, besides retreating to the forest at times, I have tried to help when I can. Sticking one's head above the crowd gets the tomatoes, but not saying or doing anything, is being part of the problem, itself. As adults, we have to stand up and speak out. Sometimes there is a time and a better place, especially if you have to protect yourself or your loved ones, but sometimes you just have to pick up a broom and start cleaning things out.

Besides cooking and health tips, I share my beliefs and observations on this blog--things I strongly believe we all need to be aware of and be part of. If we are not part of the solution, it is said we are part of the problem.

I know it is tough to speak up, but being complicit is a horrible hell to live in. I was second of ten children in my family of origin, and yet I am the only one who speaks out and makes an effort to heal the sexual abuse and dishonesty and betrayal chosen by the other nine, their mates, etc. My youngest sister was molested by my youngest brother, and she also began to act out and molest some of my children. The harm was unimaginable, but just as damaging was my family pretending I just didn't exist and failing to stand up for what had happened, and support and protect me and my children. Even today, there has been no admission by the two sibs that harmed by abuse, or the rest of the barrel. One sister told me she just didn't want to discuss anything. Only with her therapist. If only I could have stuck my head in the sand while my children suffered. Of course we all did.

Because of their own childhood burdens, and the inconvenience of yet another shame-filled reality, I am understanding of them wishing the problem would just go away. The youngest told me my mother and her husband (who exposed himself to 3 of my daughters) went to an attorney and were advised the family should pretend I didn't exist. That was my experience.

Raising my children with their wounds, on $700 a month child support, without any family support except my next youngest sister who helped out for a while when I was in the last part of school, probably because she wanted somehow to make it right, was so stressful, that when I finally got a cancer diagnosis after fighting it for ten years, it was not a surprise. I didn't know what was worse: teenage years, the sexual abuse consequences, the abandonment of their father or the betrayal of their whole tribe. Inevitably, because my children have not dealt with their abuse or childhood experiences, health issues and consequences, chemical dependency and distance, etc., my own family is also shredded. This is typical. A problem like this is overwhelming. There are so many complexities in this picture, and no discussion, as if it will mend itself.

Eventually the sister who helped me with monetary donations for a few months my last part of school, sounded just like the rest of my siblings and mother. Something about me not being part of their religion (Mormon) and setting a bad example with dating, etc. and so my kids were acting out. ???

Even her attorney husband, Howard, who finally offered to help me file a modification of child support Pro Bono after years of struggling, either kept or waived the amount due from the period of filing to the court judgment, without my knowledge or consent. At the time, I was shocked, and thought perhaps it was some kind of Mormon brotherhood, taking care of each other as fellow tithe payers or something, or because he somehow felt sorry for my ex-husband. The ex-Val, kept all our Arizona property and stopped child support, making it necessary for me to turn him into the State Child Support Recovery.  Perhaps he had forgotten what caused the divorce after...7 children. I recently emailed my sister twice, asking for Howard to get back with me about this issue. It's time for him to make amends, and pay up. With interest, if that is appropriate. I thought at first that I'd be okay for my sis to take out part for her past donations, but hers was a voluntary gift, and Howard's was an illegal, involuntary and unethical violation.

Now that we all are approaching the later years, I think it's time to clean up some old problems. I have heard nothing from my sister. It's been weeks now. That seems to be the problem-solving technique of my entire family, besides blaming me for any problems. I'm just not interested in being their scapegoat, or anyone's. I'd like an accounting.
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So, in world news, I listened to this General speak on a Youtube video this morning, and thought you might be interested...



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Monday, July 15, 2013

Poppycock and Peacocks

Mr. Peacock's mating dance. He left a fuzzy hind feather by the rhubarb.
The 55 and older mobile court I currently live in, until I sell and move further south, has a surprise mascot that I mentioned earlier. A young male peacock has been roosting in some tall Douglas Fir trees and waking up residents with his call at 4 am or earlier or later, in the morning. He has been a bright spot for me, and many of the neighbors, but some don't appreciate his raucous call. I mentioned him in an earlier post.

Lately I watch his mating dance, feathers all displayed, leaving a fluffy small tail feather behind by the rhubarb. I had to run get my camera, put new batteries in it, to get some pictures. I worried that the dance would be over before I could get situated. Out in the yard, I put a full length mirror by a back garden area, by the metal yard art bird that the peacock checks out on a daily basis. I wonder just what he thinks, and if the mating rituals are for Duke the yard bird.

A couple of nights ago, a neighbor told me there were some dead squirrels in the park. This means someone is poisoning them, most likely, which makes me worry about my friend, the Peacock. The management is supposedly trying to scare him away because of some complaints, with lights, and noise, and posting a sign not to feed the Peacock. This is impossible with all the nurturing lonely seniors here, but they are feeding him the same nasty bread they are eating themselves, which can't be good for Mr. Peacock. So, because I feed wild birds, I was at a garden center in Portland looking for a Hops plant and found some organic chicken scratch.

If I shake some of the scratch in a small plastic bag, the Peacock cocks his head, and gets very serious about dinner. He makes his one-note call for food throughout the neighborhood, in the Am and Pm. He comes within a foot of me, as I put the scratch on top of a mole hill that I leveled out, on my lawn. There is water out also, but I don't know if he drinks there or not. I hope he doesn't drink from the pool here.


Along with his varied diet, he has helped himself to blueberries from my bushes, loves to eat tender salad from the green beans and bokchoy plants, squash flowers, pumpkin nibbles and even plucks green peas and tendrils causing the long climbing plant to fall on the ground. I tuck it back up, but it's not that important. Mr. Peacock gets a sacrificial blueberry or two or three on top of his scratch offering, or some fresh garden peas from the pod. He seems to really love the peas. At times I see him in my neighbor's garden foraging under the bird feeder, and I offer him peas, but movement and living in the city apparently has ravaged his nerves (think 4th of July-horrendous for even us, with rubber membrane roofs-not just the noise of illegal fireworks everywhere around us). He'll walk away, and come back and eat them where I've left them.

Poppycock: A friend moved his mother near him, 5 hours away, and asked me to clean the trailer and show it so it will sell soon. A neighbor was parking his car in the driveway, and I asked that he let the fellow know he'll have to find another place. The fellow blocked the driveway the first day, parked in the driveway the next, left his car in the street after ten violating the fire code here (ambulances and fire engines frequent the park), and parked there again on Friday the 12th, despite me asking him nicely to please find somewhere else. If he cleaned up his driveway, he could easily park both cars in it. He lives with his mother in the court. I wondered if he could just move it at 7 in the morning, but it is leaking oil or tranny fluid and I just don't want to clean it up. Since it's inevitable when a new neighbor moves in, he just needs to find another spot or clean his driveway.
Side yard

The last time he did this, after an unasked for park warning of a complaint, I just walked down w/ a friend of mine, took a picture to take care of it later, and went back to fixing the lawn mower on the side of my house, with my friend. This fellow comes down the street with a pencil and paper and asks me for my full name. I ask why. He asks again. Why do you want my full name? "Because you are harassing me, and I'm going to write up a complaint." He proceeds to tell me I think I'm better than anyone else, because I am not going to comply with his request. I try to be patient.


The evening before, I had a visit from another resident who lets his cats roam, against rules, and they are pooping in the garden where I work, across the street, so I asked him to keep them home. I also told him there are people at the park that are so tired of the cat toileting/trespassing problem, they may not take the trapped animals to the Multnomah Co. Humane Society. In fact, Mult. Co was currently refusing to take any more cats. This sets up a sad scenario. I was just the messenger. He later told the fellow I help w/ yardwork something about I was after killing his cats. In the evening, this resident walked across the street w/ one of his cats while I worked in the yard of yet another fellow who can't do it any more, and started talking about Multnomah Co. and other things, ramping up, getting more and more angry. He was hostile, threatening, leaning close to me, and I patiently reached out to try to reason with him, and touched  him lightly on the arm, as I talk with my hands, also.

"You touched me!" he says. I try to tell him I am not his enemy, but his cats are his responsibility. He walks away saying I'm the 'instigator' of reigning in the cats, and I was supposed to move a year ago, and that I'm a 'cat killer'. As I put my tools away and walk back with the resident who carried my weed eater for me, a police car  is visible, and an officer approaches me saying the resident claims I slapped him. Thank God the man I was helping was standing right there, and shows the officer separately in the distance, what happened. "That's not assault, the officer says. That's harassment." ??? This is so stupid and silly, as I was trying to de-escalate the situation, and had no mal intent. "He wants me to arrest you", the officer says. I tell him what went down, and he goes to talk to the upset resident. I go home to drop in bed after I shower off the dirt of the day.


Meanwhile, the man whose yard I mowed, etc. observes the husband and wife that run the Neighborhood Watch monthly meeting, going to the police-calling resident's place with paper and pen, supposedly to write up a complaint. They both are angry with me when I spoke up at the last meeting in July, to defend a woman they had verbally abused, reminding them of respectful, professional treatment in public meetings. So, the man next door to this resident, who was parking in the driveway after the owner asked him not to, coming with a paper and pencil, was not a surprise.

A Personal Injury Attorney would take this case, and make some money, I'm afraid. But, I'd rather spend my energy elsewhere-- somewhere positive. I'm leaving... I can only hope my advocacy work here has helped the neighborhood in some way.

In this Park, there are some houses where obvious drug dealing is going on. The management only evicts certain people who have a drug-using guest, but leaves others. Some of these dealers, for instance soliciting for Oxycontins at $3.50 because they can sell them for $7 while enjoying social time at the pool, go to the Neighborhood Watch meetings. The woman who reported this July 7th incident to the 'management', was upset that I had confronted her son during a drug delivery that day, after I coincidentally heard about another reported illegal sale, telling him he really should find another way to earn money, that everyone is watching him, and prison was inevitable, and his mother needed him. Of course, the large new white Mercedes that slowly ...drove behind my place on Friday, was the rankled supplier, most likely.

The Manager's mode of eviction is having 5 written complaints to get rid of someone, and then if they leave their mobile behind, or can't sell it while paying the $500 monthly space rent, he can take it and strip it. I've watched it happen, and listened to the reports of residents, one buying a shed from the previous manager and his now-manager Stepson, and watching them pocket $100 each.

I've been trying to help leave this place better than I found it, but it takes my precious time, and it's hard to do when many don't appreciate it. I just collated 10 gallons or more in various containers like 5 gallon jugs of oil and water (some didn't have lids and got rain, allowing the floating oil to ooze out on the asphalt), gas and transmission fluid sitting for months by the pool area garbage, gave the maintenance gal a 3x5 card with dates of Hazmat collection 'events', the Metro number and address and hours of operation, $5 for the first 35 gallons and a suggestion to have a collection area that management takes in once a month, without even a thank you. There are sewage lines without caps in empty spaces, ($75-100 fine for each one I've heard) cat poop drying in dirt and dust to waft into the breeze to give people Toxoplasmosis parasites, animals itching and scratching for over a year, empty trailers with price tags of $8500 with mold and sagging ceilings, but the overseeing management in California are just as dysfunctional and passive in response to my certified letter to transfer the liability of safety and public health issues. They have not returned two calls now after my initial call to follow up on my certified letter, unanswered.

Mr. Peacock....moving on.
But I figure, I'm moving on. I am in search of polite neighbors, non-smokers so I can open a window or front door without further respiratory problems, and a new vista.

Questions? Contact us at leangreencafe@yahoo.com