Verizon is Bank of America's Evil Twin

After Bank of America's epic fail to hike debit card fees, Verizon has decided to test the patience of their own customers who either pay online or by phone with debit or credit cards. Ringing in the new year Verizon announces....The $2 convenience fee, where, for just two measly extra dollars a month -- they will graciously accept your payment.

Can you feel the love?

Verizon is using this new fee in the same way a beef rancher uses a cattle prod, by encouraging customers (cattle) to sign up for Auto-Pay, a neat way to ensure Verizon has the ability to deduct (from your account) the many billing errors and over-charges they are so famous for-- before you have a chance to object.

Verizon is so well known for hidden, unscrupulous charges, and predatory early termination of service fees , that if you didn't look too closely you'd swear they were Bank of America.

The $2 fee will apply to those who pay with credit or debit cards on a per-statement basis, either through the company's website or by telephone, and the company says that the fee is designed to offset the cost that credit card companies charge Verizon for processing payments. 

Didn't Bank of America use that same reasoning for their fake- fee hike? Hmmmm, me thinks the two are one.


The new fee goes into effect on January 15, unless the sh** storm of blow back-- from fed-up customers running out of nickles and dimes, makes them, eat the fee.

Verizon offers "Numerous free and simple ways to pay your bill " (As long as you choose Auto-Pay)


Verizon's reasoning is that they need the money to maintain the systems that process those payments. Which is funny because Auto Pay uses those same exact systems and it doesn't have the fee. What does that tell you? It's called a money grab.

Verizon, just like Bank of America made a big deal about "Going Green" by encouraging­g people to pay online or with debit cards to help "save the planet". When in reality, both construed going green with growing greed.

As with Bank of America, Verizon too will experience customer revolt, because two bucks is two bucks, and that same two dollars is more than




Verizon paid in taxes last year.




ickenitte

Not Being Poisoned by Mercury has no Benefit

Representative Ed Whitfield (R-KY), of the House energy and power subcommittee wants you to know that when it comes to mercury poisoning, he doesn't care if your kid suffers from brain damage.

 Courtesy of Wikipedia;

Unborn babies and young infants are very sensitive to methyl mercury's effects. Methyl mercury causes central nervous system (brain and spinal cord) damage. How bad the damage is depends on how much poison gets into the body. Many of the symptoms of mercury poisoning are similar to those seen in cerebral palsy. In fact, methyl mercury is thought to cause a form of cerebral palsy.

In an implausible argument in favor of status-quo regulations, Rep. Ed Whitfield strongly objected to new regulations from the Clean Air Act that specifically targets the coal industry (which has been re-branded the new clean- coal )

“There are already strict regulations relating to mercury emissions, there is not going to be any benefit from this new regulation in reducing mercury levels. Whitfield said, then added,

"Well, the scientists that testified before our committee were unanimous in the view that there is not going to be any benefit from this new regulation in reducing mercury levels. All of the benefits were calculated from the reduction of particulate matter, which is already covered under ambient air quality standard regulations. "This is about closing coal plants, and that’s precisely what it is about."

Apparently not suffering a hideous death, or being permanently brain-damaged from mercury poisoning is not enough of a benefit.

Once upon a time automobile manufacturers saw no benefit for seat belts.

Every regulation comes into being after the harm has been done.

Only Republicans and the Chinese government see no need for any regulations.

 but wait--what's this;

Chinese Citizens Protest Over Coal Plant

Tens of thousands of residents in China’s southern Guandong Province gathered in the streets, occupying a highway to demonstrate against the development of a new coal plant near Shantou city. The residents say existing coal plants in the area are fouling local air and water, and are making people sick.

China’s coal use has exploded over the last few decades. Since 1980, coal consumption in China has grown 500%, and now represents three quarters of consumption in Asia. That has coincided with a five-fold increase of lung cancer since 1970, now the leading cause of death in China.

At least there's hope for China.

They don't have to deal with Republicans.



ickenittle

Reinventing Reality (R)

The Republican Governors Association met not too long ago to discus even more ways they can lie to you without your knowing it.

Truth is only an interpretation

Republican strategist Frank Luntz had this to say about the Occupy movement;

"I'm so scared of this anti-Wall Street effort. I'm frightened to death," said Frank Luntz, a Republican strategist and one of the nation's foremost experts on crafting the perfect political message. "They're having an impact on what the American people think of capitalism."

Rivaling George Orwell in the art of new speak, Luntz offered tips and tricks on how to address the occupy movement without sounding like the one percent.

The 10 do's and dont's of addressing the Occupy movement: (also known as the new, bigger, lie )

1. Don't say 'capitalism.'

"I'm trying to get that word removed and we're replacing it with either 'economic freedom' or 'free market,' " Luntz said. "The public . . . still prefers capitalism to socialism, but they think capitalism is immoral. And if we're seen as defenders of quote, Wall Street, end quote, we've got a problems."

2. Don't say the government 'taxes the rich.' Instead, tell them that the government 'takes from the rich."

"If you talk about raising taxes on the rich," the public responds favorably, Luntz cautioned. But  "if you talk about government taking the money from hardworking Americans, the public says no. Taxing, the public will say yes."

3. Republicans should forget about winning the battle over the 'middle class.' Call them 'hardworking taxpayers.'

"They cannot win if the fight is on hardworking taxpayers. We can say we defend the 'middle class' and the public will say, I'm not sure about that. But defending 'hardworking taxpayers' and Republicans have the advantage."

4. Don't talk about 'jobs.' Talk about 'careers.'

"Everyone in this room talks about 'jobs,'" Luntz said. "Watch this."
He then asked everyone to raise their hand if they want a "job." Few hands went up. Then he asked who wants a "career." Almost every hand was raised.
"So why are we talking about jobs?"

5. Don't say 'government spending.' Call it 'waste.'
"It's not about 'government spending.' It's about 'waste.' That's what makes people angry."

6. Don't ever say you're willing to 'compromise.'

"If you talk about 'compromise,' they'll say you're selling out. Your side doesn't want you to 'compromise.' What you use in that to replace it with is 'cooperation.' It means the same thing. But cooperation means you stick to your principles but still get the job done. Compromise says that you're selling out those principles."

7. The three most important words you can say to an Occupier: 'I get it.'

"First off, here are three words for you all: 'I get it.' . . . 'I get that you're angry. I get that you've seen inequality. I get that you want to fix the system."
Then, he instructed, offer Republican solutions to the problem.

8. Out: 'Entrepreneur.' In: 'Job creator.'
Use the phrases "small business owners" and "job creators" instead of "entrepreneurs" and "innovators."

9. Don't ever ask anyone to 'sacrifice.'

"There isn't an American today in November of 2011 who doesn't think they've already sacrificed. If you tell them you want them to 'sacrifice,' they're going to be be pretty angry at you. You talk about how 'we're all in this together.' We either succeed together or we fail together."

10. Always blame Washington.

Tell them, "You shouldn't be occupying Wall Street, you should be occupying Washington. You should occupy the White House because it's the policies over the past few years that have created this problem."

Don't say 'bonus!'

Luntz advised that if they give their employees an income boost during the holiday season, they should never refer to it as a "bonus."
"If you give out a bonus at a time of financial hardship, you're going to make people angry. It's 'pay for performance.'"

"We get it," occupiers, "we feel your pain," and want you to know we understand that you are all "hardworking taxpayers, who don't really want to "take from the rich" who are merely, being "paid for performance" by "creating jobs" and "careers" for your own "economic freedom".


So don't be angry at us occupiers, it isn't our fault, we are "all in this together."


Corporations are people too.


You just can't make this stuff up.

ickenittle

The New Brand of Heartless Conservatives

Oh where - oh where, have all the compassionate conservatives gone?

You know, the ones who professed the importance of genuine family values and who used to think Jesus Christ was one of the good guys. Anyone with a strong enough stomach to watch the Republican debates (all 12) had to come away wondering just what on earth is wrong with these people? Yesterday's republicans were like Eisenhower, today's are nothing more than cut-throats, back stabbers and political  jihadists.

Once upon a time Republicans actually were compassionate-- and (gasp) they didn't all see Government as the enemy, and they weren't all war mongers, and sociopaths were in the minority. It seems particularly bizarre that today's most out-spoken haters of government think it's just fine to work in it.

Old time republicans believed government should play a small but important role in lifting people out of poverty, both here in America, as well as abroad. In fact, these old school conservatives actually had flesh and blood beating hearts, unlike today's authoritarian empty vessels who have said publicly that poverty is a choice and if you find yourself there, well, it's your own damned fault.

The Republicans of old prayed at the alter of Jesus, not the alter of Goldman-Sachs like today's fake republicans, who are like the New Coke, a failed attempt by Coca Cola to improve something that was fine the way it was, and couldn't hold a candle to the old product. It took consumer rejection and back-lash to force Coca Cola back down to earth, and put right this epic fail.

Maybe the Republican Party will suffer the same fate.(One can dream)

Nearly all the republican presidential candidates condemn government help for the poor in any form what-so-ever. Rick Santorum (creepy Rick) even had the gall to announce he felt food stamps should be eliminated completely because there are too many fat people in America. He also fears and loathes the Gay and Muslim communities to the point of fanaticism. (Wha'd they ever do to you Rick?)

Rick Perry (scary Perry) another boot-strap republican says churches and charities should be encouraged to help the poor, yet his own tax records prove what a cheap-skate he is, having only donated one one-thousandth of what he made to his church. His total church giving was less than a hundred bucks.

Michele (crazy eyes) Bachmann, who regularly touts her evangelical credentials, was the first to attack Newt Gingrich for suggesting the country adopt a "humane" immigration policy. Bachmann thinks it's perfectly OK to break up families that have been here for over twenty years, deporting people who have been good citizens, helped stabilize communities, and are our friends and neighbors -- with absolutely no exceptions. Bachmann is the flesh -and -blood persona of a CINO (Christian in name only) -- where any honest atheist is closer to being Christian than a practicing Christian hypocrite.

And what about the GOP frontrunner's? Mitt Romney has had little to say about compassion for the poor and marginalized. When asked about poverty-focused foreign aid his answer was to let China take care of it. As hard as Mitt tries to "feel your pain" by saying things like, he can relate to the unemployed - because he doesn't have a job right now, only falls flat. Must be tough being a multi-millionaire.

At least Ron Paul isn't a hypocrite, he's been saying the same wacky stuff for forty years.

Newt (the Grinch) Gingrich said that America's poor children, who live in the poorest places in the nation, have never worked or even been around anybody who has worked. He'd like to make them work by bringing back child labor, where children could compete in the free-market for slave wages as school janitors with adults trying to support a family.

Such a hateful bunch these republicans are. They show zero understanding and empathy, or even any experience dealing with poverty. They are clueless to the nth degree when it comes to walking in someone else's shoes. They live at the top, and have absolutely no idea how it feels to hit hard times, (as if that isn't bad enough) then to have someone at the very top constantly call you lazy. Today's compassionate conservative are anything but.

If the Jesus the carpenter were alive today, chances are he'd be collecting an unemployment check.

The neo-conservatives are a nasty lot of far right narcissistic purists who in their arrogance even get to decide who is a "real American", as long as you agree and pass their purity test called American Exceptionalism they will let you in the door, otherwise it's "don't let the door hit you on the way out."  They even view themselves as being on god's favorites list, because they have been blessed with wealth and power-- the very two things Christ advocated against.

What would Jesus do?  ( probably shake his head and walk away )

This long-con stated over 30 years ago, and hopefully in it's death throes. The Cons have stolen all they can and the 99% are waking up. It's just too bad they had to lose their homes, pensions and dreams before coming out of the coma.

Now the Grinch's are plotting to steal your Christmas with not extending unemployment and the payroll tax cuts. But we all know it's just a bluff, they just want to keep people in pain, for a few more days until they have had their fill of sadomasochistic fun.


They like scaring people, and holding them hostage.



At least you won't have to
buy gifts next year.

The good news is the Mayan 'end of the world day' is only a year away, and if true, we won't have to stomach anymore garbage from the party of no, as well as from the party of....

we don't know.



Yippee - let's go shopping.



ickenittle


 

You Can't Squeeze Money from an Empty Wallet.

According to the latest census data a record number of Americans have fallen into the abyss of poverty. The once robust middle class has been re-branded as the new low income, pushing the former low income  folks into the impoverished class, where those folks are waiting to be categorized.

What does come after impoverished on the hopeless scale? The disappeared?

With 1 in 2 Americans living at, or below the poverty level, more and more people are living, not the American dream, but an American nightmare. The latest census data depicts a declining America where the former middle-class is moving down the poverty scale at break-neck speed. Over the years flat wages were cleverly concealed by easy credit, doled out in extra-large portions by predatory lenders who encouraged personal greed over fiscal responsibility.

"Why save money?" the vultures cooed,"We can get you into a home that will make your dreams come true."

TRUST US.........

Easy credit bought all the trappings of a middle-class lifestyle (homes, cars and stuff) while wages remained flat. Clever financiers created an illusion where credit equaled savings in the minds of gullible Americans who believed having a high credit limit meant they had " money in the bank."

For those too poor to pursue the new American scheme, it was Medicaid, food-stamps and tax credits that held them together. With this social safety-net glue in place, poverty rates stayed roughly the same in 2010. Now entitlement slashing is the theme of the day- and we are likely to see a great flood of broken dreams sweep across the states forever changing the American landscape.

Republicans have borrowed the saying,"Rising tides lift all boats" as their trickle-down propaganda bumper-sticker slogan. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The only boats rising are those owned by the 1% who have never seen better days. For the rest of American it's become a fleet of sinking ships.

Congressional Republicans and Democrats were sparring over legislation that would renew a Social Security payroll tax cut, part of a year-end political showdown over economic priorities that could also trim unemployment benefits, freeze federal pay and reduce entitlement spending. They decided to kick the can down the road agreeing to only a two month extension, to further postpone the showdown.

One noble republican, and senior research fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation, wondered aloud whether some people classified as poor or low income actually suffer from hardship. He said that while safety-net programs have helped many Americans, they have gone too far, citing poor people who live in decent-size homes, drive cars and own wide-screen TVs.

But what about the microwaves and refrigerators? Surely if you have either of these you can't be considered poor, just ask Newt Gingrich, who believes poor children and their parents have no work habits.


Mayors in 29 cities say more than 1 in 4 people needing emergency food assistance did not receive it. Many middle-class Americans are dropping like flies way below the low-income threshold – roughly $45,000 for a family of four – because of pay cuts, a forced reduction of work hours or a spouse losing a job. Housing and child-care costs are consuming up to half of a family's income

Paychecks for low-income families are shrinking. The inflation-adjusted average earnings for the bottom 20 percent of families have fallen from $16,788 in 1979 to just under $15,000, and earnings for the next 20 percent have remained flat at $37,000. In contrast, higher-income brackets had significant wage growth since 1979, with earnings for the top 5 percent of families climbing 64 percent to more than $313,000.

Among those requesting emergency food assistance, 51 percent were in families, 26 percent were employed, 19 percent were elderly and 11 percent were homeless.

The Republican dream of a neo-feudal society is progressing nicely as planned, and according to them,

Clearly there is only one way to solve this problem. We must cut taxes for the rich.

Our Republican overlords believe you can't have nice things if you are poor, even though you bought those things at Goodwill.

Unless you are sufficiently suffering, in conservative eyes the poor "have got it too good."

Just some more of those good Christian (in name only) values for you.

And Jesus wept


ickenittle

Global Depression Confirmed

This is a must read article from Paul Krugman, Nobel prize winning economist.

Hold onto your seats cuz the news ain't good.

Here


ickenittle

While the Postal Service Burns Congress Fiddles.

You can thank our do-nothing Congress for the current state of despair concerning the Postal Service. With looming budget cuts hanging over-head, the struggling U.S. Postal Service is revoking it's promise to deliver first-class mail on time.

Starting in Spring the Postal Service will slow first-class delivery, and for the first time in 40 years, eliminate the chance for stamped letters to arrive the next day.
In an attempt to stave off bankruptcy, Postal vice president David Williams said the agency will be eliminating 252 processing centers across the U.S.

First-class delivery is the first of many Postal Service casualties to come in the war waged by the cult of privatization.

Since time sensitive mail will be mostly at risk- don't expect that check you mailed to the PUD to get there on time, or those DVDs from Netflix are sure to be late. If you are unfortunate to get prescriptions by mail--well, you'd better save a few pills here and there-- just to get you through.

When you can't depend on the Postal Service, you know things aren't good in America.

The new first-class standard for mail delivery might as well be re-branded as "enhanced second class" which like everything else happening around us, means lowering the bar, getting less service for more money, and doing without.

The Postal Service has become target number one for the party of cheap labor, those privatization gurus, who just can't wait to get their greedy hands on one of this country's foundation stones. All in yet another short sighted, profit centered, money making scheme, where they destroy something, then later claim they were trying to save it.


There will be roughly 500 less mail processing centers across the country as early as next March, so be sure to mail Mom's birthday card well in advance, and this time next year you might be sending those Christmas cards in November.

Separate bills have passed House and Senate committees that would give the post office more authority and liquidity to stave off immediate bankruptcy. But prospects are somewhat dim for final congressional action on those bills anytime soon, ( as usual ) especially if the measures are seen in an election year as promoting layoffs and cuts to neighborhood post offices. Our hero's in Congress would rather play a game of hot-potato with the Postal Service if it means they might look like: 

(a) Heartless republicans (D) or,

(b) Soft-hearted democrats (R) So both (cowards) are leaving the Postal Service to just twist in the wind.

This is a deliberate, manufactured crisis brought to you by the party of "No!"...and their co-conspirators, the party of "We don't know." 

What has been purposely lost in the political debate over the Post Office is why it is losing this money. Almost all of the postal service’s losses over the last four years can be traced back to a single, artificial restriction forced onto the Post Office by the Republican-led Congress in 2006.

At the very end of that year, Congress passed the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006 (PAEA). Under PAEA, USPS was forced to “prefund its future health care benefit payments to retirees for the next 75 years in an astonishing ten-year time span” — meaning that it had to put aside billions of dollars to pay for the health benefits of employees it hasn’t even hired yet, something “that no other government or private corporation is required to do.”

According to Ralph Nader , if PAEA was never enacted, USPS would actually be facing a $1.5 billion surplus today: By June 2011, the USPS saw a total net deficit of $19.5 billion, $12.7 billion of which was borrowed money from Treasury (leaving just $2.3 billion left until the USPS hits its statutory borrowing limit of $15 billion). This $19.5 billion deficit almost exactly matches the $20.95 billion the USPS made in prepayments to the fund for future retiree health care benefits by June 2011.

If the prepayments required under PAEA were never enacted into law, the USPS would not have a net deficiency of nearly $20 billion, but instead be in the black by at least $1.5 billion.

The current deficits attributed to the Postal Service arise not from falling revenues, overly generous employee compensation, or too much capacity, but rather from accounting transfers to the Treasury mandated by Congress.

The plain and simple fact is that Congress, essentially the owner of the postal system, has extracted billions of dollars of profits and value from the Postal Service. The bottom line is that the Postal Service is not only doing fine - its surpluses are being taken by Congress and used to mask other budget deficits.

Just like robbing Peter to pay Paul.

It’s up to Congress to act to allow the Post Office to save itself, lest it become a victim of a crisis that Congress itself manufactured.

Will they act...or just sit back and watch the Post Office burn to the ground?

Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them.

They are also the only people who destroy something in order to save it.

Don't let them.

Save the Postal Service-and let Congress burn by voting them out.

ickenittle 

Drug Test Newt Gingrich

Newt Gingrich, Republican presidential front runner has been honest to admit that the "war on drugs" has become a dismal failure. He wants you to know that when he is elected he has a plan to replace this failed Bush policy with another policy doomed to fail. Newt's plan;

I think that we need to consider taking more explicit steps to make it expensive to be a drug user. It could be through testing before you get any kind of federal aid. Unemployment compensation, food stamps, you name it.

It has always struck me that if you're serious about trying to stop drug use, then you need to find a way to have a fairly easy approach to it and you need to find a way to be pretty aggressive about insisting--I don't think actually locking up users is a very good thing. I think finding ways to sanction them and to give them medical help and to get them to detox is a more logical long-term policy.

Sometime in the next year we'll have a comprehensive proposal on drugs and it will be designed to say that we want to minimize drug use in America and we're very serious about it.

Keep in mind, this guy is supposed to be the conservative candidate, the small-government guy. Evidently that doesn't apply to people in need. Then he's the big -- very big -- government guy.

When the Ohio GOP introduced a bill requiring drug testing before people could receive unemployment benefits or medical, housing, food, or energy assistance, Rep. Robert Hagan, (D) came up with a bill of his own, which called for mandatory drug and alcohol testing of state legislators, Supreme Court justices, and other statewide elected officials. In a statement Hagan had this to say;

“It is hypocritical to demand that the average Ohioan and working poor should be held to a higher standard than the political elite in this state,” Hagan said in a release. “Substance abuse is substance abuse, and receiving tax dollars is receiving tax dollars. It shouldn’t matter who you are.

He'd also like to test Bankers who took TARP bailout money.

Newt Gingrich clearly has a problem with poor people receiving government help. He ever so recently said that the children of poor people don't have a work ethic as their parents just hang around the house all day collecting government checks. Newt would like to see poor kids replacing all those illegal aliens working in the fields for slave wages. If you can't force adults into servitude, then go for their kids, who have nimble little fingers and are short in stature just right for doing stoop labor.

Newt's special take on poor kids:

“Really poor children in really poor neighborhoods have no habits of working and nobody around them who works. So they literally have no habit of showing up on Monday. They have no habit of staying all day. They have no habit of ‘I do this and you give me cash,’ unless it’s illegal.”

On the other hand Gingrich may be onto something, as long as his sanctions are mandated to the 1 percent and their kids.

Drug test all "job-creators". All elected officials, all judges, all government contractors, and corporations receiving government contracts or subsidies- or at least their executives and boards of directors.
Let's start at the top and drug test those receiving the most taxpayer money before we start worrying about unemployed single moms getting food stamps. And make their kids volunteer to work the fields.

And for being caught drinking during working hours, all Congress critters should be suspended without pay and be mandated to pay for and attend alcohol counseling.

Newt might not own a drug testing company like Florida's Gov.Scott, but I'd lay even money his consulting firm has one as a client. Of course this policy would extend to recipients of subsidies and tax credits ... the wealthy and the corporations (since they are people too).




The Ging-grinch has spoken.

 What's good for the poor is also good for the 1 percent, at least in a just system.


But we don't have a just system do we?

While the U.S. is trying combat child labor in India and Third World countries, the “front runner” wants to exploit child labor in this country amongst the poor - so what’s the difference between U.S. and India?


Newt Gingrich is today's real life Grinch with a sprinkling of Scrooge on the side. But unlike the Grinch- Gingrich never had a heart to begin with. Just ask one of his many jilted wives.


ickenittle 

Blaming Poverty on the Poor is Like Blaming Farmers for Famine

If Fox News is your only source of info-tainment, you are probably unaware of the real reasons behind our economic disparity. Life in your world (Fox viewer)  may be all well and good as you continue to live in the Fox bubble, where misinformation and lies create an environment of division between the rich and the poor. We can thank the good propagandists at Fox for creating this idea, where the rich have become victims of the poor, just like the too-big-to-fail banks were blameless for the mortgage crisis.

The average Fox viewer is a 35 year old white male which explains this networks' propensity to employ mostly blond, highly attractive female eye candy to dispense it's toxic message.



A spoonful of sugar helps the
lies go down.

 A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down. 


The white male Empire is in it's final death throes. These walking dinosaurs have nothing more to offer society but more of the same, and the backward, thread bare rhetoric of the good old days.

"Pick yourself up by your boot-straps" ideological bull crap


 Families living in cars are portrayed by the heartless right-wing sociopaths on Fox News as a sign of not just personal failure, but of the failure of the so-called nanny state. The human wreckage left on the shores after the economic tsunami in 2008 is portrayed as the fault of those non-deserving of the American dream.

The collapse of a middle class looted and plundered by the 1%, is simplistically seen as  the difference between winners and losers.Winners being those who not only have theirs-but yours as well, in a 'tough luck',' get over it,' callous, cruel one sided view.

For the larger part of human history,  people were sure that the sun circled the Earth and that we are at the center of the universe. It doesn’t, and we aren’t. The conventional wisdom that the rich and businesses are our nation’s “job creators” is every bit as false.


It is unquestionably true that without entrepreneurs and investors, you can’t have a dynamic and growing capitalist economy. But it’s equally true that without consumers, you can’t have entrepreneurs and investors. And the more we have happy customers with lots of disposable income, the better our businesses will do.
That’s why our current policies are so upside down. When the American middle class defends a tax system in which the lion’s share of benefits accrues to the richest, all in the name of job creation, all that happens is that the rich get richer.

And that’s what has been happening in the U.S. for the last 30 years.


Right-wingers play blame the victim-they chant this mantra in unison on the poisonous airwaves and cable stations nationwide to the point of fanaticism. And just in case you might view financial inequity as a symptom of Americas' decline, they are quick to convince you otherwise, chanting, the 'end entitlements 'mantra where "I've got mine" has become the new National Anthem.

Worshipping the one percent has become right-wing America's new religion.

But this religion is snake oil-pitched by the evangelizing hucksters of the same one percent.

Poverty has been re-branded as a character flaw of the individual, who have become a faceless stereotype, painted as an individual who expects someone else to take care of them, which couldn't be any farther from the truth. These same right-wingers walk in lockstep mouthing talking points about "American values, and exceptional-ism, all the while being on the take.  

Placing blame is the last resort for a failed ideology.


Poverty is not failure, just like famine is not the failure of the farmer. Now-a-days homeless parents fear losing their children simply because they have fallen on hard times. The solution offered by conservatives is to destroy what little social safety net there is through austerity on the 99% while maintaining the military industrial complex at any cost.

When people have nothing left to lose- they finally take action, and that action is the Occupy movement. 

As long as our republican overlords continue to pursue the path of least resistance for the one percent, things will decline. Right now they are furiously working to gut what remaining safety nets there are, and all are bound by a golden pledge to ideology that says never raise taxes-ever. It's a scorched earth approach that justifies maintaining the status-quo where the rich get richer and the poor are pushed further into desperation.

The conservative mind set is as toxic as a nuclear waste dump, it is bereft of compassion, and honesty, warping Jimmy Carter's Christianity with an ugly, dark, narcissistic, self serving Christianity that worships money over people. This sick conservative vision is one of embracing endless wars, militarizing our police forces, maintaining and controlling the populous with propaganda and fear, which  leads to the ultimate enslavement of our own people to benefit the corrosive practices of the one percent.


The difference between a civilized society and U.S. society is in a civilized society, a poor person is considered to be a failure of society, in the U.S. being poor is considered a failure of the person. This is today's social Darwinism at work, where a dog-eat-dog, plutocrat dystopian world is the rule of the day.

It's a pity Jesus isn't around to unleash a ton of whup-ass on these miscreants. These 'Christian in name only' panderers wouldn't give Jesus the time of day if he passed them by- because he wouldn't be wearing a thousand dollar suit.

They'd tell Jesus to "take a shower and get a job."

Remember, today's republicans live inside an Orwellian reality: Up is down, left is right, and backwards is forward. Whatever they say is 180 degrees from the actual truth.

They put yesterday's republicans to shame.


You think Occupy Wall Street was some big deal?
.. just wait.

ickenittle

Berkely Police Apologize-Sort of.

An Open Letter to UC Berkeley Students, Faculty, Administration & Regents from the UC Berkeley Police Officers’ Association 

It is our hope that this letter will help open the door to a better understanding between UC Berkeley police and the University community.

The UC Berkeley Police Officers’ Association, representing approximately 64 campus police officers, understands your frustration over massive tuition hikes and budget cuts, and we fully support your right to peacefully protest to bring about change.

It was not our decision to engage campus protesters on November 9th.   We are now faced with “managing” the results of years of poor budget planning.   Please know we are not your enemy.
A video clip gone viral does not depict the full story or the facts leading up to an actual incident.  Multiple dispersal requests were given in the days and hours before the tent removal operation.   Not caught on most videos were scenes of protesters hitting, pushing, grabbing officers’ batons, fighting back with backpacks and skateboards.

The UC Berkeley Police Officers’ Association supports a full investigation of the events that took place on November 9^th, as well as a full review of University policing policies.  That being said, we do not abrogate responsibility for the events on November 9^th.
UC Berkeley police officers want to better serve students and faculty members and we welcome ideas for how we can have a better discourse to avoid future confrontations.  We are open to all suggestions on ways we can improve our ability to better protect and serve the UC Berkeley community.
As your campus police, we also have safety concerns that we ask you to consider.
Society has changed significantly since 1964 when peaceful UC Berkeley student protesters organized a 10-hour sit-in in Sproul Hall and 10,000 students held a police car at bay – spawning change and the birth of our nation’s Free Speech Movement.

However proud we can all be of UC Berkeley’s contribution to free speech in America, no one can deny this:  Our society in 2011 has become an extremely more violent place to live and to protect.  No one understands the effects of this violence more than those of us in law enforcement.
Disgruntled citizens in this day and age express their frustrations in far more violent ways – with knives, with guns and sometimes by killing innocent bystanders.  Peaceful protests can, in an instant, turn into violent rioting, ending in destruction of property or worse – the loss of lives.  Police officers and innocent citizens everywhere are being injured, and in some instances, killed.
In the back of every police officer’s mind is this:  How can I control this incident so it does not escalate into a seriously violent, potentially life-threatening event for all involved?

While students were calling the protest “non-violent,” the events on November 9^th were anything but nonviolent.  In previous student Occupy protests, protesters hit police officers with chairs, bricks, spitting, and using homemade plywood shields as weapons – with documented injuries to officers.
At a moment’s notice, the November 9^th protest at UC Berkeley could have turned even more violent than it did, much like the Occupy protests in neighboring Oakland.
Please understand that by no means are we interested in making excuses.  We are only hoping that you will understand and consider the frustrations we experience daily as public safety officers sworn to uphold the law.  It is our job to keep protests from escalating into violent events where lives could be endangered.

We sincerely ask for your help in doing this.
Like you, we have been victims to budget cuts that affect our children and our families in real ways.  We, too, hold on to the dream of being able to afford to send our children and grandchildren to a four-year university.  Like you, we understand and fully support the need for change and a redirection of priorities.
To students and faculty:  As 10,000 students surrounded a police car on campus in 1964, protesters passed the hat to help pay for repairs to the police car as a show of respect.  Please peacefully respect the rules we are required to enforce – for all our safety and protection.  Please respect the requests of our officers as we try to do our jobs.

To the University Administration and Regents:  Please don’t ask us to enforce your policies then refuse to stand by us when we do.  Your students, your faculty and your police – we need you to provide real leadership.
We openly and honestly ask the UC Berkeley community for the opportunity to move forward together, peacefully and without further incident – in better understanding of one another.  Thank you for listening.

Please know we are not your enemy.

Really? Tell that to the guy who suffered a lacerated spleen.

When those who hold power abuse that power- it's always their fault.

Just ask the former middle class, or anyone without health insurance taken away for pre-existing conditions.

Tell a homeless family it's their fault they lost their home because they were stupid to trust the bank.

It's always the victims fault in up-side down America.


ickenittle