Last of 50 and Chapter From “Poor Ronnie’s Anti-Ethnic Cleansing Almanac”

Homage to Edgeworth and Donald 2025. Acrylic on cardboard, 11x 14"

The last painting in my series of 50 heading to Lincoln, UK for an exhibition. All paintings are free with a suggested donation to the gallery. Edgeworth Johnstone has said, “Free art frees art”. I think he is on to something. Below is another chapter from my soon to be released book of prose and paintings, Poor Ronnie’s Anti-Ethnic Cleansing Almanac. Thanks for reading!

“During the first week of January, 2024, I spent $269 playing poverty against empire. At this rate, by keeping my life expenses under $300 per week, I will symbolically break my connection to the forces of unhinged psychopathy. It’s a start, and a non-violent one, which keeps me above ground and walking free, for now, while I remain nonviolent (time will tell). Not a single tax dollar can be squeezed from me. It will take a year, but I will teach myself how to live like a comfortable pauper once again, eating crackers and making art to outline one way to take down powers complicit in 21st century ethnic cleansing (euphemism for sub-human oligarchs conspiring with psychopathic U.S. politicians and Zionists to waste brown babies in Palestine). I won the first battle this week. 51 more to go.
I have made a few adjustments.
The project might actually gain traction depicted as an art performance. Provide as much detail as possible so others can follow and remove their consciences from the kill lists of violent drunken power. Just getting people to revolutionize their thinking is an achievement cause celeb for the first half of the 21st century. It will be easier for young people (the justice-demanders among us) to play along. Most have not yet accumulated the junk house full of the baubles and bullshit that bind. They should continue to rent apartments together in small groups for another year, attend Saturday afternoon protests, and sneak homemade limoncello shots from concealed flasks while clubbing late into Sunday morning. All one needs is a little book to keep a ledger, a sharp pencil, and expenses itemized. For those young and old who are taxed because they make too much money, the solution is to donate all taxable income to charity organizations (the non-corrupted ones) until Israel ceases to carpet bomb starving families. Preferably, for even longer, until our government leaders are jailed. Why not remain poor indefinitely to impoverish all world governments associated with civilian murder? My life hope is to witness the United States drop fast to the proportional GDP of a modern Portugal or Finland, two countries very capable of providing social safety nets without the despicable tax breaks offered the Boeing-Lockheed-Northrop Grumman thug faces and their janitors. There will be a domino effect. Once the U.S. falls economically, killer nations like Israel and Saudi Arabia will instantly rupture, and Big Emperor China will lose the fidget-spinner trade that miraculously funds its stupid fake communism year after year.
I truly believe world poverty equals world peace. Perhaps “world peasantry” might be a better term. In the past, some lucky serfs were able to build nutritious, creative lives, even while under the ever-greedy eyes of their extortionists. Today, (in my dreams) with all the world just “scraping by”, think how much success local peasant communities can achieve, (redefining “success” as getting through life joyfully without ever having to starve a neighbor or vicariously kill a Palestinian). My wife and I visited a dreamy Catalonian town back in 2022 while oblivious to Israeli/U.S barbarism. The media was thoughtful enough during the tail end of COVID to keep notice of Israeli murder sprees down to a minimum, which was just what our mental health needed at the time. A beautiful, peaceful place Catalonia. Innocent, dancing inhabitants of New Spain, celebrating religious and municipal holidays with passion and deep connection. Cortez, Pissaro, Netanyahu, Trump and Biden long since buried and forgotten after the indigenous gold ran out.
If I am able to keep below U.S. poverty indicators for a year, and still retain my health and sanity, then maybe others can be convinced to follow suit. Charity begins at home, and though it is unlikely, I would hope to set an example for my wife, children and grandchildren. Peer pressure wins in a nuclear world. And they will feel and act on the power most likely. Lack of charity drove Buddha to cast away his entitlement to go drink and think about enlightenment with a little buffalo boy. His princely lifestyle was just too resplendent for a comfortable wife and kid to willfully abandon. I think he would have been a better servant to his people staying put and going broke, weakening the ostentatious kingdom with steadfast non-participation. Let the chips fall where they would. But Buddha was a coward. He chose to run away.
Today we have all the comforts (and more) of an ancient clan prince. There are faceless Americans making and delivering toilet paper to supermarket shelves across America. Some actually visit sick bedsides to use rolls of it on dying rich strangers. The awful irony is that these “poor” folk with unlimited smartphone data, pay a federal tax to perpetuate real, authentic coolie-dom throughout the world. Yes, there are literally millions and millions of individuals worldwide more fortunate and never guilty, making less than $269/week, keeping expenses way low, with consciences shielded from investing in any government’s war agenda. In a true peasant’s world it takes a ton of charisma and cajoling to convince another free peasant to wipe an ass of even the most financially persuasive stranger.
Compared to most nations, our standard of living is astronomically high. It’s an easy break for a citizen of the U.S. to do with less. I intend to prove it, symbolically. There will be some discomfort for sure. I’ll switch back to self-pampering the moment diverticulitis revisits my lazy gut, rushing to the morphine dripper quicker than you can ask, “But what about Genocide Joe?”
Here are some changes to my performance art:
Making under $15,000 in the real world, I could not afford a car and insurance payment, so I have cut those from my intitial expense list. Each local one way car ride will be charged $10.25. About as much as an Uber. Any time my wife is with me, we split the cost. I will account the same for visits to family on special occasions (birthdays and holidays). Other pleasure road trips will be custom figured.
I will refrain from paying property tax, mortgage fees and homeowner’s insurance because no one living below the poverty line can “purchase” a house. $410 per month is half of what we pay for mortgage and escrow taxes and fees combined. It is also a realistic room rental cost for a single person of my locale.

Adjusted expenses, monthly:

Rent: $410
National Grid: $90
Internet: $17
Netflix: $10
Apple Music: $10
Phone: $40
Website: $20
Garbage: $13
Blood thinner: $20

1 month = $630
12 months = $7,560

Base expense per week = $145.38

Total montly expenses will likely fall between $1015 - $1,250. This week I spent $269. Still within the project’s parameters [269 x 4 weeks = 1076 + 3 days (103.50) = $1,1079.50] After a year, I plan the monthly average will keep expenses below $15,000. I promise to keep my poverty sustainable, accounting for every penny in the almanac.”