Are You a Criminal or a Victim?

There’s a bit of a thief in all of us. Human beings are capable of attempting whatever deed any other human being has attempted, and can conceive of unspeakable actions without ever carrying a single one of them out.

Right now, the vast majority of people in the United States are engaged, to one degree or another, in a criminal enterprise. During Prohibition the vast majority of citizens were involved in a criminal enterprise as well. From homicidal gang lord to neighborhood bartender, when booze was illegal all those in the liquor business were involved in the same criminal enterprise. What mattered was what degree of culpability was involved. A bellboy who dropped a bottle off at your hotel room was not as culpable as an investment banker financing boatloads of booze coming across the border.

Profiting by withholding medical care from human beings in need is a criminal act. Denial of basic human rights for profit has a long and despicable history in the United States. Denial for profit of one human right, liberty, was known as slavery. Denial of medical care for profit is known as America’s current health insurance system.

Who are the victims and who are the criminals?

When a citizen takes twenty percent of their monthly disposable income and signs it over to a for-profit insurance company in order to protect their physical, mental, and fiscal well being; is that person a criminal or a victim?

When a citizen receives one hundred percent of their monthly income by investing in a company which earns a majority of its profits by withholding medical assistance to those unable to meet their price; is that person a criminal or a victim?

These are two minor examples of participants in the same criminal enterprise. Both engage in monetary transactions with organizations involved in the withholding of medical care. But one of them is a victim in that a virtual gun is being held to their head. Your money or your health, mind, and/or property. In the current situation, not buying into the criminal healthcare network puts individual citizens in great jeopardy of not receiving adequate medical attention and treatment when necessary and of losing all of one’s property if not sufficiently covered.

An individual forced to pay into a criminal enterprise is a victim.

There are also those citizens who are the equivalent of slave traders. These people are involved with the for-profit healthcare system for the purpose of extracting wealth from the withholding from their fellow citizens of a basic human right. Within the USA these people act as simple extortionists whose motto might as well be, “Your money or your health.”

An individual who intentionally inflicts harm on a fellow citizen, and who profits financially by doing so, is a criminal.

Most American citizens fall somewhere between these two extremes within the criminal enterprise which is healthcare in the United States. A part-time medical secretary at a community hospital is certainly less culpable than an investor in a medical office which specializes in Medicare fraud. But just by dealing with the present system, we all have blood on our hands to a greater or lesser degree.

And this is what the real criminals want you to feel. They want you to think that if you’re in for a penny you’re in for a pound. That we are all criminals like them.

Rubbish.

If all you do is try and survive and you feel the necessity of purchasing a policy from a for-profit medical insurance company, you aren’t a criminal, you are a victim of the criminal enterprise.

If all you do is invest your money in companies who profit from withholding medical treatment from those in need, you aren’t a victim, you are a criminal and a willing participant in a criminal enterprise.

There is a continuum here which stretches from victim to criminal predator.

Most are victims.

Many are criminals.

Occupy Where the Money Is

George went down to the local Occupation camp the other day. You have to understand, George doesn’t live in a big city. George lives in what people in big cities hardly would consider a city at all. But his hometown is a state capital and as such has an Occupation going on.

Now George’s mayor pulled a smart move when the Occupation first began. George’s mayor welcomed the Occupation with open arms and even provided park space where they could camp and not be hassled by the local gendarmes. George’s mayor said he agreed with the objectives of the Occupation movement and all seemed to be well with the world.

Well, it turns out the park where the Occupation planted its stakes is almost too nice. Everybody put up their tents and marched around for a couple of weeks and now the Occupation in George’s city is where it is.

The Occupation in George’s city is pretty much out of sight and out of mind. By parking the Occupation camp where he parked the Occupation camp, George’s mayor guaranteed that most of the people in his city wouldn’t be subjected to any aggravation by the Occupation. The folks who now live in the Occupation camp, among a whole bunch of empty tents, are trying to maintain while not being a nuisance to the citizens of George’s city.

Location. Location. Location.

Would Occupy Wall Street have worked as well as it has if it had been Occupy Staten Island? For those of you not familiar with the geography of New York City, Wall Street is the heart of the financial world and Staten Island has been referred to by many as a sleepy suburb. Now they’re both New York City but if Occupation Wall Street had been Occupation Staten Island, you wouldn’t be reading this and this wouldn’t have been written.

The Occupation in George’s city is now located in what could best be called a sleepy suburb. Out of sight, out of mind.

George’s city used to be a manufacturing city. That was where the money was. But that work is mostly gone now. Now George’s city is has two large employers. The State and a State University. Now the State capital, close to where George’s Occupation camp now is, employs a lot of people making good but not Wall Street money. Strangely enough, the State University employs a number of people making Wall Street numbers of over half a million dollars a year. (Which is odd because they all sort of work for the governor of the State who is paid a whole lot less than that.)

Plus there are all the students who might join the Occupation if the Occupation weren’t in the middle of what might as well be a sleepy suburb.

George is going to mention that his local Occupation should stop occupying the sleepy suburb and start occupying the State University because George thinks that’s where they should have been to start.

Occupy where the money is.

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*************

CIRCUS RIDER 

VOTE FOR OBAMA! After he arrests Bush

Vote for Obama after he arrests Bush.

Not before.

Not when he starts an investigation which will drag on until after the Presidential election and possibly disappear afterwards.

Vote for Obama when he stops ignoring and violating the law.

Vote for Obama when he jettisons the precedent he is currently setting of allowing those who authorized the torture of powerless prisoners to escape all legal consequences.

Vote for Obama when he follows the law of the United States of America and puts George W. Bush, self-confessed torturer, behind bars.

"Justice delayed is justice denied." 

No matter what reason President Obama may have, he is currently in violation of the law by not prosecuting his predecessor.

The United Nations Convention Against Torture not only obliges its signatories to investigate and prosecute those who commit torture, it views those who are in power to prosecute and who do not do so as being as culpable as those they are protecting.

It is now too late in the game to vote for Obama if he only begins an investigation of those who disgraced the United States by ordering the torture of prisoners. In the last few days various voices have been praising President Obama for his progressive utterances. Many of those disappointed over the past few years by the Republican programs which President Obama has been pursuing, are once again hoping for hope. They assume President Obama has some credibility. After being fooled once, they are doubling down.

Guantanamo is still in operation.

Tens of thousands of troops are in Iraq.

No job program has been implemented.

Americans will soon be forced to purchase medical insurance from for-profit medical insurance companies where lives are viewed as debits or credits.

Self-confessed torturers are allowed to walk free.

If President Obama wishes to once again become a credible human being, there is one thing he can do.

Barack Obama must stop being a war criminal and arrest George W. Bush for crimes against humanity.

After President Obama arrests George W. Bush is when you should vote for Barack Obama for President.

Not before.

If I remember correctly, this is a joke

`12

When should Phil resign as Dog Catcher?

Don't the howls wake you up in the morning? I know they do me. And I'm pretty sure that those packs of rabid dogs growling and prowling around Phil's house probably wake him and his family up as well. Rabid dogs taking control of the streets means the problem has gotten out of hand.

Like I've said before, Phil is a swell guy and if I were in college I'm sure I'd really enjoy taking one of his classes on the history of Dog Catching but right now theory just isn't getting a whole bunch of jobs done.

I have a pretty good idea what you're going to say. The folks who are putting up a candidate to oppose Phil don't want whoever holds the position of Dog Catcher to do anything at all. They say that if it were up to them there wouldn't even be a Dog Catcher. If you don't vote for Phil you're just letting those who want rabid dogs to run totally free win. And nobody in their right minds wants that.


Phil, resign now and let us run somebody else.


Back when I was a teenager there was a big project I wanted to do. So, one morning I rolled up my sleeves and got to work. By the end of the afternoon, you could see I'd done a lot of work. There were parts and tools all over the place. But as I stood there looking out over a good day's work, I realized something. I realized I was way over my head and really had no idea what I was doing. It wasn't that the job was beyond my intellect. It simply was that I had no idea what I was doing. It went against my grain to realize that I should quit the job and let someone with more experience and talent take over, but that's what I did. One of the smartest moves I ever made in my life.

Some people can sing. Some can't. Some folks can play contract bridge or chess like wizards. Others have no interest or talent. Some folks can sail a boat. Others send themselves and their passengers on a one way tour of Davy Jones' Locker.

Phil, take a look around you. The dogs are running wild. You've spent all the money allotted to your department. You must know by now that you couldn't catch a dog if your life depended on it.

Phil, it's time for you to resign.

I know it's an ego thing on your part. You know you should be able to be a Dog Catcher and that people with a lot less mental capacity than you have managed to be reasonably good Dog Catchers.

That's life.

Phil, you really suck at the job. It's time for you to give it up.

This doesn't mean that we all don't like you. It's just that we really should find something else for you to do. Something a bit more suited to your talents.

Thank you.

Why Phil shouldn't be elected Dog Catcher

Phil shouldn't be elected dog catcher.

Some folks should never get anywhere near a carburetor either. Or a fuel pump. Or a radiator. Or a transmission. You pick whatever part of an automobile you want and some folks shouldn't touch it with a ten-foot long socket wrench.

Now, let's get something straight right from the jump. Phil is one hell of a smart fellow. As far as brains packed into cubic centimeters, you're not going to find a brighter bulb if you searched all around for a month.
Phil knows his history. He knows philosophy. He's studied politics. He's even taught law. You're not going to fault the guy on the academic side, that's for sure.

And personable? You bet. He's got a smile and a set of teeth which could send the hearts of an entire convention of orthodontists all atwitter. Phil can make a whole room happy just by walking into it. There's probably not a digit big enough to describe the number of mothers who imagined Phil with their daughters.

Phil is an extremely intelligent, well studied, personable, charming guy.
Which might be part of the reason he shouldn't be elected dog catcher.

Just like people with absolutely no experience as mechanics shouldn't be paid to put a wrench to an engine, Phil really shouldn't be elected to the post of dog catcher.

Maybe it has something to do with getting your hands dirty. Phil just isn't the kind of guy to actually be able to do the job. Why? Good question. Have any of you ever seen Phil with a dog? He certainly has made a lot of speeches, but nobody has ever come forward and claimed that they've actually ever seen Phil within twenty feet of a dog. If you're going to be the dog catcher around here, you've really got to get a lot closer to the animals than Phil ever has been. You can't deliver a lot of feel good speeches and expect a pack of rabid dogs to lock themselves up in a cage without any human intervention.
You have to get your hands dirty. You've got to go running after the dogs and throw a net over them. You've got to bring those curs down. You've got to break into a sweat and face a pack of bared fangs that want to rip your throat apart. You have to get out of the office, lose your cool, and get down and dirty with a pack of wild dogs.

Phil, as we've all seen, is incapable of any of that.
Just like you wouldn't let any fool with no experience work on your car, you shouldn't elect Phil dog catcher.

Some folks say because he was elected dog catcher last election we should elect him this time around.

But the question remains, has anyone ever seen Phil anywhere near a dog?

Don't elect Phil again.

Are you better off with all those rabid dogs running around?

Don't elect Phil dog catcher again.

Thank you.

---

Mere Mindlessness

And so the blather which presents itself as statesmanship continues. The party of the extreme right dithers on about no government while the party of the less extreme right wing weeps about how it will have to take even more money from the poor and hand it over to their immensely wealthy donors.

If Obama or Boehner had a balanced budget and all the discretionary cash in the world, they wouldn't know what to do with it because neither of them have a brain in their heads when it comes to what this country should actually be doing. Both Obama and Boehner are obsessed about counting the pennies in this country's household change jar.

For months what has been dominating the media streams is the debt ceiling. The debt ceiling is a mundane piece of crap, as any twelve year-old lemonade stand owner can tell you. How did raising the debt ceiling, something so routine that it's been done over one hundred times before, become the latest performance piece for drama queens Obama and Boehner?

It plays like this. Boehner, as head of the opposition, has to choose a position opposite that of Obama yet still be within the Republican party play book. Problem: Obama has stolen all the moderate and conservative plays and is running them himself. Boehner is stuck with the extreme conservative play book because that's the only part of the Republican party Obama isn't already representing.

Which is pretty bad for Boehner but great for Obama since all Obama cares about is getting reelected anyway. And it's pretty damn horrible for the country when in the midst of a depression a Democratic president is cutting social programs. 10% unemployment and the Democrats are talking cuts. Remember, it was Obama who signed the extension of the Bush tax giveaways to the wealthiest Americans. Would we be in such dire straits if Obama hadn't signed that extension? And no more friggin whining! The Republicans made me do it! Pitiful. The President of the United States of America has the biggest Bully Pulpit in the world and all we hear from the current Chief Executive is why he can't do anything. Pitiful.

Right now the President should be promoting a two million person job bill and the Republicans should be whining how it should only be a one million person job bill.

Right now the President should be sending to congress an infrastructure bill to top all infrastructure bills and the Republicans should be whining how their districts aren't getting a big enough piece of the pie.

Right now the President should be prosecuting those who ordered the torture of prisoners in the name of the United States and the Republicans should be hiring lawyers and resigning.

Instead Obama and Boehner are playing footsies with each other and counting the future votes.

A pox on both of them.
-----

Ersatz, or not Ersatz?

And now a brief pause.

Bin Laden is dead. No tears were shed. Moving on.

Days after the incumbent president officially announces his hat is now in the ring for reelection, the fugitive is found and killed.

Three wars.

There is time to look back and execute the terrorist but there is no time to look back and prosecute the self-confessed torturer and his cronies.

Mr. Obama is a consummate politician.

The unions no longer back this incumbent with the same mindless tenacity as they once did. Many unionists believe the Democratic Party is now run by what were once called moderate Republicans. They are surprised that the Democrats act as if they are controlled by the same pro-corporate interests as the Republicans. Others are not so surprised.

Out of the West arises a Mormon. Jon Meade Huntsman, Jr. is the scariest Republican to enter the national scene in a very long time. Aside from being a billionaire, extremely well respected in his own state, and a resume which is just this side of tremendous, Mr. Huntsman is something President Obama has always wanted to be, a moderate Republican.

Will the nation back the ersatz moderate Republican, Obama, when a real moderate Republican is on the same ballot?

Will the nation seek to repeat a similar thrill to that of electing the first Irish-Kenyan American to the nation's highest office by electing the first Mormon?

The Republican Party has shown itself to be a mindless herd of rabid sheep when its right wing is allowed free reign. Mr. Obama knows this, which is why for his entire administration he has promoted moderate Republican policies. He has left the present Republicans with no breathing space. In order to mount an opposition, the Republicans have been driven to feed upon themselves as they maneuver to the extreme right. This is brilliant politics; but, as we all know by now, even moderate Republican policy is disasterous for the American people.

Enter Mr. Huntsman.

American voters will usually elect real Republicans when faced with the choice between a moderate Republican and a Democrat who is also brought to you by your local Chamber of Commerce. Obama is no Democrat. He is, however, the person who may be responsible for selling the largest number of private medical insurance policies ever. Not to mention shoveling a dollar or two into the rapacious paws of Wall Street.

Will America vote for the real Republican bastard, Huntsman; or will they stay with the ersatz Republican Obama? Time and a pile of more dead bodies will tell.

Obama as the reincarnation of Bob Dole

Obama supporters are like prisoners who are proud of their large cell.

Self-made Nobodies

Self-made American billionaires.
You have to be kidding.
Self-made men, that’s what America is all about.
Rubbish.
One person, raising themself up by their own bootstraps, and making a fortune single handedly. It’s the American way.
You are kidding, aren’t you?
-

Let’s analyze the myth of self-made wealth in the United States.
Begin at the beginning.
Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Oprah Winfrey, John D. Rockefeller, et al, what do they all have in common?
Aside from some spare simoleons, these allegedly self-made wunderkinds were all lottery winners. They were all lottery winners at birth. They were born in the United States of America whereas they could as easily have been born to Inuit families somewhere north of north. John D.’s fortune might have been severely handicapped if the closest oil he could have put his hands on were Canadian shale oil reserves. And that’s just luck by geography.
Ever use a dollar bill?
Of course you have. So have Gates, Buffett, Winfrey, and Rockefeller.
Consider the dollar bill for a moment or so.
A promissary note backed by the full faith and credit of the United States government.
Dollar bills are contracts. Use these and we promise they’ll be worth something. The U.S. government, Gates, Buffett, Winfrey, and Rockefeller were partners to the same contract whenever a dollar bill changed hands.
Every dollar bill in the bank is a contract with the American people. It’s not individual’s money. All a dollar bill is is a contract backed by the American people.
Self-made billionaires.
Sure, pal. And there’s a bridge in Brooklyn you might want to buy.
It’s a social contract and it’s reaffirmed every time a greenback goes from one paw to another.
Put it this way, the US military is behind every buck in Buffett’s bank. Every greenback he owns is supported by the most socialistic organization in the American government, the Army.
Now what’s all this got to do with anything?
American billionaires haven’t amassed their sizable fortunes by themselves. They’ve worked within the American system of government. They’ve played it well. They’ve won the game. If U.S. law had said all computer codes were classified information, Bill Gates would probably be pushing pills for some pharmaceutical conglomerate or other corporate pirate. If Warren Buffett didn’t know his way around the tax code, he’d probably be just another nice rich guy. They worked the system as they met it. They knew the rules of the house and they played them.
But now the game isn’t working for the vast majority of people playing it. Over the last couple of decades the rules of the game have been changed to screw almost everyone in the United States while at the same time enriching those at the very top of the economic ladder. The rich get to eat bon-bons while the teenage GIs who hold the rifles that protect all the money collect food stamps to feed their own children.
Now those who may have played the game too well cry when anyone suggests changing the rules again. They protest that they made their money all by themselves. They don’t see any reason to give those kids holding the guns enough to feed their families. Have the rich become too stupid to keep a hold on what they consider to be their own money? Don’t they know that if they give a little they won’t lose it all? Haven’t they ever heard the Wall Street expression, pigs get fed but hogs get slaughtered?
The American financial system exists because of the will of the American people. The American people decide the rules of the game. It’s time to change the rules of the game. It’s time to give the wealthiest a haircut and once again spread the wealth.
Too many of the richest among us have become far too stupid.

Spring Offensive 2011

Where We Are Right Now

Step back. Forget day-to-day trivialities. Forget politics. Step back and take a wider view. As a citizen are you proud of where this nation is and where it is heading?

At present the United States has two illegal, full fledged wars going on in Iraq and Afghanistan. Numerous smaller conflicts are occurring as well. We have military bases in dozens of other countries. Was this union created to be an imperial power?

Over the past few decades great strides have been made to eliminate the racist elements of this country’s slave past but at present the income disparity between the wealthiest citizens and the poorest may be as great as it has ever been since the Emancipation Proclamation.

Medical doctors are being executed for practicing their profession.

Corporations have been designated virtual citizens. Whatever that is.

Religious intolerance is now mostly directed at Muslims but Atheists, Jews and Catholics are still within grenade distance.

The President has stated that Americans who torture prisoners are not to be prosecuted, thereby violating the laws of the United States of America and the rest of the world.

Both major political parties are in a race to shift income to the richest members of American society by lowering taxes for the wealthiest while at the same time burdening all other Americans with higher taxes and fees.

Both parties have decided that even though the President has stated that "health care should be a human right", that right should be considered a commodity. When another human right, freedom, is considered a commodity, that condition is called slavery.

Capitalism and the free market are taken as ethical markers even though both have nothing to say regarding the human condition. Neither capitalism nor the free market would demand the feeding of their human chattel if such deprivation meant more black ink.

There have been no prosecutions for the most recent economic collapse even though the crimes are obvious to all.

Teachers are taking to the streets.

Will the unemployable students follow?

Is this the beginning of the Spring Offensive 2011?

Obama looks back for the Mafia, not for the Torturers

Big news today is the rounding up of Mafia members all the way from the balmy shores of New Jersey to the frequently frozen fens of Boston. The Obama Justice Department decided it was about time they should enforce some of the laws of the United States. Attorney General Holder instructed his department that they should look back and notice some actual crimes probably had been committed and the full force of the Department of Justice descended upon a hundred or so Italian-Americans and their associates.

Isn’t it wonderful watching all those bad guys being rounded up and forced to march in the ever so popular perp walks.

Gambling, murder, pension fund plundering, you name it, overweight middle-aged men were suddenly busted for it.

There’s pretty good odds not a single one of them confessed to their criminal activities before the Feds called their press conference.

Not one of them copped to having ordered the torture of prisoners. There may or may not be photographs of hooded prisoners having live electric cords attached to their bodies while numerous fat bellies consumed uncounted cannoli.

Why has Attorney General Holder decided that he should stop looking ahead and stop not looking back when it comes to the Mob but keep looking ahead and never looking back when it comes to the self-confessed crimes of George W. Bush? Why has the Obama administration decided torture is no longer a criminal offense but bookmaking still is?

Perhaps the recently arrested capos should confess to ordering their soldiers to waterboard their victims instead of instructing them to break the usual kneecaps.

According to Obama administration precedent, confessing to ordering torture grants the penitent unconditional immunity for themselves and their underlings.

So, let’s get this figured out. If you make book in New England, you go to jail. If you dip your fingers into a pension account, you go to jail. But if you order the torture of powerless prisoners under your control, you get to brag about your nefarious deeds in a best selling book and have the President of the United States of America dismiss your crimes against humanity as something less worth investigating than running a whore house in Manhattan.

Illegal gambling - worth prosecuting.

Ordering the torture of prisoners by waterboarding - not worth prosecuting.

President Obama and his underlings have demonstrated the complete contempt they have for the law.

Gumby has shown more backbone than either Obama or Holder.

(Is it surprising that there doesn’t appear to be any Mafia activity in Chicago?)

While You Were Sleeping

It’s been two years, are you awake enough now to open your eyes?  Or are you still having your sweet dream about a handsome, wise, young man arising from the Midwest who at long last will fulfill a liberal Democratic vision of government?  And bring peace and universal health care to the United States?

There are still prisoners being held at Guantanamo. They are being kept there on the intelligence of the same people who brought us to war in Iraq. We know what was promised would be found in Iraq.
Afghanistan remains a war zone.  This has been the Democrats’ war for some time now. Congratulations.  If you voted for, and still support, Obama, you now own the wars.  Go immediately to the bathroom and try to wash some off your hands.
Iraq remains under United States occupation.  You keep forgetting about that, don’t you?
Charter schools continue to foster segregation.  Remember segregation?  Where the folks with the money had schools for their kids and those without the money could rot in hell?
Still drilling in the Gulf?  You betcha, Barack.
Obama, Democrats and Republican cronies continue to increase military spending.  But the budget has to be cut somewhere.  How many thieving Democrats will it take to get all the money into the hands of the top two percent of the population?  Once again, congratulations to the present administration for passing the cornerstone of the Bush agenda, tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans.  It takes a tough Democrat to do exactly what the Republicans want him to do.
Nice work on defunding the Social Security Administration by lowering the percentage of withholding.  How eminently Republican.
Cuba provided more aid to Haiti than the United States.  And that obscenity continues.
Even after mandating that even more fatally flawed private insurance policies be purchased, the United States will continue to have the most piss poor health system of any industrialized country.  With the alleged percentage cap on insurance company profits, one of the best ways for those companies to increase their profit will be to increase the cost of medical expenses across the board.  Instead of lowering costs, the Obama for profit system will lead to ever expanding medical expenses since that’s the way for insurance companies to make the real money.  All you Democrats say DUH!
Admitted torturers continue to run free across the United States because the current President refuses to obey the law and prosecute those who ordered or performed torture.  That makes two Presidents in a row who are self-admitted criminals.
How we doing so far?
How does it feel to be in the third term of the Bush presidency?
It’s time for you to wake up.
Obama has been a colossal failure if you consider yourself to be a liberal Democrat.  Obama has been an incredible president if you are inane enough to vote for Republicans.
Keep supporting Obama.  Keep supporting wealth disparity, perpetual war, torture, and a failed for profit health care system which will lead to thousands of needless American deaths.
Or better yet, go back to sleep and wake up in eighteen months and start waving your Obama for President flags again.
People shouldn’t call others morons.

CIRCUS RIDER now at Amazon.com

CIRCUS RIDER at Amazon.com

IN THE WIND

IN THE WIND now for Kindle.



(a paperback edition may be purchased at http://www.circusrider.org/)



http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004FN2B00
-

excerpt from CIRCUS RIDER - Introduction

from CIRCUS RIDER, a novel history by Peter Breschard copyright 2010

INTRODUCTORY NOTE

When the original manuscript of CIRCUS RIDER arrived at our workplace, my staff and I were decidedly cautious. In the course of an ordinary week, we encounter numerous historical novels based upon an author’s ancestors and the allegedly amazing, wonderfully wicked, emotionally engaging events which may or may not have occurred. Under usual circumstances, these failures at both history and fiction are rapidly rejected by our editorial process.

So, I am sure you are asking, what is the difference between this volume and the thousands of others which attempt to illuminate long forgotten historical events? I shall explain.

Of the prodigious number of painters the United States has produced since its inception more than two centuries ago, Gilbert Stuart rises head and shoulders above them all. Not only is Stuart acclaimed for his artistic talents, but many of those he chose as his subjects have escaped time’s voracious grasp and managed not to disappear from memory. Their faces are now icons of our nation’s history. Portraits of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams are among the many images Gilbert Stuart created which will linger forever in the American consciousness.

What do Gilbert Stuart and the rest of early American history have to do with the following pages? In 1808, while plying his trade in Boston, Massachusetts, Stuart was approached to immortalize one half of the most famous duo of entertainers ever to perform in these newly minted, and united, States.

Jean Breschard and his partner, Victor Pépin, were highly acclaimed equestrian performers from the world renowned Paris circus of Monsieur Franconi. As had become circus tradition, Breschard and Pépin, having achieved sufficient recognition and experience under M. Franconi, launched their own troop. After two extraordinarily well received seasons in Spain’s capital, Madrid, the Circus of Pépin and Breschard sailed to North America where entertainers of their stature and professionalism never had previously performed.

Stuart’s likeness of Breschard remains incomplete, much like his most famous portrait of George Washington (reference any one dollar bill). When this Boston portrait painter presumed there would be some future demand for original oil copies (which he created himself) of any particular painting, he would leave the background unfinished as a detailed setting was unnecessary to facilitate reproductions. One can only suppose that this great American master foresaw an audience for copies of the Breschard portrait which might well have rivaled that for his most popular work, the portrait of the father of these United States, George Washington.

Fortunately, the story of George Washington has not been lost or intentionally mislaid, which is more than can be said for the history of Jean Breschard. What follows in these pages is the story of a great American portrait by America’s greatest artist. It is a tale of art, war, pirates, politicians, the new frontier; and all the other ingredients necessary for the stew which was this novel democracy. As well as, of course, the circus.

With considerable trepidation, the editorial board and I have left the ordering of chapters as they were when we originally received the manuscript. The author of this work, not the most loquacious of correspondents, has informed us this arrangement represents the progression in which this history was rediscovered and recreated. Although certain readers might experience a minor dose of literary vertigo as they attempt to follow the non-traditional time line, we hope the clientele of this carnival ride will suffer no severe injuries. Fortunately, with fiction, certain liberties may be taken regarding the ebb and flow of chronicled events. Unfortunately, with history; with reputable history; events are best related as they actually occurred. CIRCUS RIDER being a novel history, we elected to follow the less chosen path.

Gilbert Stuart’s portraits immortalize many of America’s most notable players. This is the story of one of them, and of how he was lost, and now he is found.

Walter L. White
New York, NY
2010

from CIRCUS RIDER by Peter Breschard copyright 2010

now available at www.circusrider.org

Perpetual War - Thanks Democrats and Republicans

Do you even think about the wars? After ten years of occupation of one Muslim country or another, do you ever stop to think about just how wrong these military actions are?

With all the whining from both parties about nickels and dimes and new economic theories coming out of liberal or conservative think tanks on a daily basis, does anyone ever talk about how much those predator drones cost as they crash into another home wiping out the families of somebody someone somewhere thinks may be a terrorist?


How much does it cost every time the current president decides to put out a death contract on another United States citizen without benefit of the judicial process?

But you read and listen to the idiots who hour after hour, day after day, week after week, repeat the same theme, endlessly, that the economy is the most important problem of the day.

Sure it’s the economy.

After all, your tax dollar probably went to pay for that piece of shrapnel which ripped through the brainpan of another child, as unmindful weaponry wiped out the family of another presumed terrorist.

As recently as two days ago these military minded morons didn’t even know who they were negotiating with at the highest level. Yet you stupidly buy their declarations that they know exactly who they are assassinating. And if you dismember innocent children, well, that’s that. Bloody, mutilated, innocents. After all, the economy is the most important topic of the day.

You think that if you don’t allow the professional gunmen to destroy whatever they wish to destroy, dark foreigners will again attack the homeland. Why don’t you simply admit you’ve become a Nazi? Take a look at yourself. You’ve allowed the executive branch of this government to wage war, imprison whoever they want, and assassinate Americans at will, without any judicial or legislative review. You’ve surrendered your rights to your fuhrer out of fear. The leader can kill whoever he thinks is necessary to kill in order to protect the homeland.

And there you have it. The news is composed of the ravings of a photogenic ranter from Alaska, the domestic dramas of foreign royals, and idiots espousing capitalism as if it were part of the constitution, and that’s the way you like it.

Ten years. How many deaths are you responsible for? You’ve been financing this carnage but you feel clean because you are not given the opportunity to witness this bloodbath hourly on the tube.

And now the Democrats say troops will occupy Afghanistan at least until 2014.

Obama had a secret plan to end the war. By now you should recognize it as the same plan Richard Nixon had, keep killing until someone stops you.

Have you had enough of the bloodbath? Have you sucked enough life juice from the necks of Afghanis and Iraqis? Have you returned to sanity following your 9-11 breakdown?

You are killing innocents. You are mindlessly supporting those who protect torturers while bombing children.

It’s all on you now.

It’s all on us.

It is time to stop the madness.

We are destroying this country while at the same time mindlessly killing thousands half a world away.

It is time we try something else.

It’s simple.

Stop relinquishing our rights to the military.

Give peace a chance.

Something a little different

http://nell-miniminis.blogspot.com/

Every now and then it's nice to publicize the magnificent work of my bride, Nell Corkin.
Small packages, very small packages.