Today was collaboration day in Mila’s painting class.  We each started one canvas, and then swapped back and forth several times, finally finishing with the one the other person started.  Many cuties were consumed by the cutie during the process.

and the finished works:

It’s been a long time since I’ve gone to Gates Pass for the sunset.  Tonight was a perfect time to revisit it.  I went out with my friend Two Feathers to take photos, first on the west side of the Tucson Mountains, and then at the pass for sunset.

Here’s Two, hard at “work”:

You are focused on the horizon, waiting for the sun to drop below it, when suddenly you feel the urge to turn around and find this:

There are always lots of couples at Gates Pass

Last look:

By the year 2020, it is estimated that 50% of the US population will be working full time and still living in poverty. – NPR yesterday. 

One way to solve this problem is to do what Republicans actively campaign to do, and many Democrats passively go along with: bust unions, eliminate worker protection, cut regulation, keep the minimum wage low, give tax breaks to billionaires and multinational corporations, and sign trade agreements internationally which allow the exploitation of third world resources and workers, keeping goods cheap enough so the poor in American can imagine they have enough to live on as they buy socks made by Tibetan slave children in Chinese factories powered by dirty coal.

A better way would be to scrap Nafta and all the clones thereof, including Obama’s Asian Free Trade initiative, strengthen worker and environmental protections at home, and then pass laws requiring that any company wanting to do business in the US abide by the same standards we require here.  This would raise living standards and environmental quality world wide, creating new markets for our goods, jobs here at home, and a healthier planet for us all.

Tonight on Locals Only in KXCI’s Studio 2A