Saturday, April 30, 2016

Why Do Progressives Cling to Hillary?

No we don't really cling to Hillary. The Hillary Camp, the D.N.C. and the mainstream media want to convince us (force us) to support Clinton. They threaten us that if we support Bernie, Trump will be the president. They threaten Bernie that if he criticizes the queen he is handing over our country to Trump. The truth of the matter is, if we support Clinton, Trump will most assuredly be our president. Don't give in to threats. Follow your moral compass and do the right thing. www.huffingtonpost.com/les-leopold/why-do-progressives-cling_b_9796016.html"

Wednesday, August 19, 2015

#feelthebern

WHAT A FUCKING TUNE

Posted by Gary Munro on Sunday, August 31, 2014

Friday, November 1, 2013

Wall Street Pays Congress, Congress Pays Wall Street

http://www.youtube.com/v/2zq-3ohBd5o?autohide=1&version=3&attribution_tag=v4VsSDzN4d53L7Lp7ebW_g&autoplay=1&feature=share&autohide=1&showinfo=1

Saturday, August 17, 2013

Kipp Rustic County Bread


Kipp Rustic County Bread

Ingredients for 3 loaves

For the Dough

         1 ½ teaspoons dry – active yeast

         ¼ cup warm water (105 degrees to 110 degrees F)

         2 ¼ cups water @ room temperature (70 degrees F)

9 ounces (about 1 cup) Biga (yeast starter). Preferably 2 to 3 days old

4 cups organic unbleached all-purpose flour; plus ½ cup more for sprinkling (dusting)

1-1/3 cup organic whole wheat flour (or sour dough, or rye flour)

1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon sea salt

A little olive oil for the rising bowl

½ cup Corn meal for the baking stone

½ teaspoon of honey

Making the dough:

In a small bowl, wisk yeast with ¼ cup of warm water for about 5 to 10 minutes. Add honey.

In a medium bowl: 2 ¼ cup water, add biga (bring to room temperature). Hand squeeze the biga in the water with your hands – work it in until it becomes chalky white. Then pour the small bowl of yeast mixture into the medium bowl.

In large bowl measure out the 5 cups of flour (you can mix up different flour to make different breads). Add salt.

Take a cup of the flour from large bowl and mix into medium bowl. Continue adding flour, mixing with wooded spoon until it’s soft and sticky. It’s done when dough pulls away from sides, but not from bottom. About 5 – 6 minutes at medium speed. Place on counter and kneed (folding back on itself) several times dusting with flour.

The first rise:

Lightly oil a large bowl with a few drops of olive oil for rising. Place dough in bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let it rise 3x the size (about 2 hours).

Second Rise: Use spatula and take out of bowl onto counter. Divide the dough into 3 equal pieces. Pat down lightly and form a ball like pizza (closed end). Spread corn meal on board and put dough there to rest (to prevent sticking). Let it double in size (about 45 minutes).

Baking: Preheat over 450 degrees with bread/pizza stone in oven. Just before placing in take a knife and cut top of dough in 3 places and sprinkle corn meal on top. Put on stone and spray with water to get a nice crust. Place parchment paper (3 pieces) on dough for the first 15 minutes, and then remove. Total cook time about 30 - 35 minutes. Take out let it rest for 2 hours, slice and put into freezer bags and place in freezer.

I find it easiest to keep in the freezer and take out when I want a slice or two. Just pop into the toaster and then enjoy with your favorite topping. Mine favorite is peanut butter.

 

Yeast Starter - Biga


Yeast Starter – Biga (sponge)

Ingredients

          ¼ cup warm water (not over 105 degrees F)

½ teaspoon dry – active yeast or 1/5 cake (a scant ½ teaspoon fresh yeast)

          1-1/3 cup water (@ room temperature, about 70 degrees)

3-3/4 cup (scooped and leveled) organic unbleached all-purpose flour

A few drops of olive oil (for the rising bowl)

 

Mixing the biga:

First pour the ¼ cup warm water into a bowl or measuring cup. Sprinkle on and Wisk in the ½ teaspoon of yeast; let stand 5 to 10 minutes, until the mixture is creamy and the yeast has thoroughly dissolved. Pour the yeast mixture into the bowl of the mixer, stir in the rest of the water, and use the hand whisk to beat in 1 cup flour. Set the bowl on the machine; attach the paddle, and measure in the remaining flour. Mix at low speed for 1 to 2 minutes to make sticky, batter-type dough. Alternately: Mix by hand first with a whisk, then with a wooden spoon. (I use the latter method).

Rising:

Lightly oil the rising container with a few drops of olive oil (a tall Tupperware container – rectangle 4” x 5”, about 8” to 10” tall).

Place mixture in container and cover tightly with Glad clingwrap with a rubber band to hold in place. Mark the level of the biga on the outside of the container so that you may judge the eventual amount of the rise. Set at cool temperature (about 70 degrees F) for 6 to 24 hours. The biga should triple in volume and then fall back upon itself. It will be a sticky big bubbled batter when it is ready.

Storing the biga:

Refrigerate after 24 hours where it will keep for several days.

To Refresh a Starter:

A fresh starter begins to sour after four or five days. To refresh a starter, remove and discard 1-1/2 cups of it. Blend and wisk to batter like consistency. Add 1-1/2 cups of flour in bowl with about 1/3 cup of water; stir this into the starter and let the starter rise again before refrigerating. You may freeze a starter.

I keep a portion of my original starter/biga when I need to make more. I believe this is the key to tasty bread. I add anywhere from a half a cup to ¾ cup of my old starter when making new biga.

Thursday, August 15, 2013

Here's a plan by Robert Reich

Here it is, an actual plan that will work ....

Robert Reich
In response to my post a few days ago, asking you whether you worried about the loss of Main Streets and bookstores, the decline of good jobs with good wages, and sweatshop labor -- and whether you nonetheless bought stuff through Walmart or Amazon, sought discount flights, and got the lowest-priced deals you could find regardless of where the goods came from or how they were made:
...
Some of you said you had no choice but to shop for the lowest price because you had to stretch your dollars. You just didn't make enough money to be "socially responsible." That's understandable. Workers are consumers, and people trapped in low-wage jobs can't be expected to promote, through their purchases, an economy offering higher living standards than they themselves experience. And that's precisely the problem. More and more Americans are falling into that same trap, competing over a smaller and smaller share a total economy whose largest shares are going to an ever-smaller number.

Which is why consumers can't possibly do this alone. And why we need a political movement to reverse these trends -- including, at the least, these ten essential steps: (1) a living wage and a larger Earned Income Tax Credit, (2) an exemption on the first $15K of income from Social Security taxes and elimination of the cap on income subject to Social Security taxes, (3) a new WPA and CCC, and major infrastructure investments, to put the long-term unemployed back to work, (4) early childhood education for all, high-quality K-12 for all, and access to affordable higher education, (5) a single-payer healthcare system, (6) an easy way to form unions through simple up-or-down votes at the workplace, (7) a higher marginal income tax on top earners, more tax brackets at the top, a wealth tax, and a tax on financial transactions; (8) a resurrection of Glass-Steagall and a cap on the size of the biggest Wall Street banks, (9) a ban on gerrymandered districts, voter-suppression laws, and other means of blocking the majority's will, and (10) reversal of "Citizen's United" (by constitutional amendment if necessary), strict campaign-finance limits, public financing of elections, a resurrected "fairness doctrine" for the media, and stricter limits on the "revolving door" between government and industry or Wall Street.

We can do all of this. Just look at what the Progressives accomplished between 1901 and 1916, or the New Dealers between 1933 and 1941, or the proponents of the Great Society in the 1960s. (If you don't think reforms like this are possible, you're part of the problem.)

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

2012-01-07 American Flyer Train Set

Fred Huber

Wow it's been a while since I've posted! My father-inlaw Fred Huber age 91 passed away July 5th. He died in his home with family surrounding him. It was very peaceful. We are going to miss him deeply. The grave site visit will be this Friday at The National Veterans in Sarasota.