Why I feel the need to spew on about things.

Well, as I said last post, because I can, and because as a single human being, there's not much else I can do. Believe it or not, these writings are very therapeutic for me. I really don't care if they are read, but if they are, I hope they get people to think. I know it's cliche to say this, but if I get one person thinking, then haven't I accomplished something? Do I have to share music to get people to take a look at this blog? So far, no, but who knows in the future.

I have searched through phone books, the net, called various people who were supposedly "in the know" because I don't want to just sit on my ass in front of this computer, rant, and do nothing more. But finding a cause worthy of what little time I have to donate to it is proving harder than I expected it to be. Are there any groups out there that are devoted to trying to end global corporate takeovers? I can't find them. Is anyone trying to do anything about the seemingly endless influx of illegal immigrants into this country? No, but I heard yesterday New Haven (Mexico's new haven!!) Conn. is now going issue them identification so they can open bank accounts and get drivers licenses. I am eager to see how that turns out. Run to your New Haven all you illegal aliens!!!

Why has this country turned into a bunch of pacifists? Why is there no public outcry about this, and a million other issues that need some serious attention. When there are citizens of this countrywho are poverty stricken and homeless, there should be a battlecry from depths of hell about letting more fucking people in this country. Until our people's own needs are met, why is this country out helping everyone else?
Blah, blah, blah, and fuck it. I could go on until I'm blue in the face, and it wouldn't do a goddamn bit of good.
Folks quit walking around with your eyes closed.



On another topic:

I had a sad conversation with an older African American gentlemen yesterday. He was looking for a street in the area to go apply for a job. We were very busy so I handed him a street map and he spent about 10 minutes looking through it. As the store got a bit lighter in traffic, I watched him, and it hit me, that the man couldn't read. I walked over to where he was standing and tried to help him find the street he was looking for and we began to talk about the lack of jobs. He mentioned it was very tough for him, as he had gotten laid off, and nobody wanted to take a chance on a 54 year old man, but he had been working and helping to support his family since his father died (the man I was speaking to was 13 when his father died). He refused to have any part of welfare, as he had never taken any in his life. He was a proud guy, and looking at his stature, I betting he could work rings around guys half his age. He said he didn't care what job he got as long as it was good honest work.

We never did find the street he was looking for, he said he got it over the phone, and he would try to call them and get better directions, but I hope he found it and got the job. The world needs more people like him.




And a bit of good news:

The Ohio minimum wage has been upped 1.50. Mama can go buy a new pair of shoes!! Ohio lawmakers, no doubt inspired by the Drowning in a Sea of Madness blog, got off their dead sorry asses and made a move that helps the little guy for a change. They put aside their rare coin scams, and their "let's see how fucking rich we can get in a week" campaigns and did it!! Kudos to you Gov'na Brown! You da man!!! WalMart contemplates a move out of the state, and the people shout, Hurrah! Now we're only 60% below poverty level!


TT-

I could take this in 50 different directions but here we go.......

You can hit the google search engine and find hundreds, probably thousands of websites devoted to the evils of the corporate giant Wal Mart. From huge sites that post hate mail from virtually thousands of people with horror stories of what Wal Mart did to their communities to small sites created by former disgruntled employees. So why do I insist on bringing them up here?

Because I can, and one more blog shouting about the evils of the United States' largest employer can't be wrong, can it? Maybe it will get a few folks googling them and seeing for themselves how much one company is responsible for a lot of the ills in the world. If not solely responsible then at least a BIG contributor.

A lot of people ask me why I beat up on the corporate whore so much, and I guess my best retort would have to be "Because they make it so easy".

I hate WalMart on many levels. Two of my good friends got jobs there (against my advise) and got screwed over in so many ways, from being denied days off when they asked weeks in advance to being dicked out of raises for reasons that were either ridiculous, untrue or both. And constantly lied to.

I hate them for what they've done to the job market. They have created a system where the middle class is shrinking at a rate faster than anytime in history except for maybe the "Great Depression" . By doing this they create a situation where more and more people have to shop from them. But it doesn't end there.

They sell everything low which on the surface seems great, but they don't do this innocently. They are the biggest buyer of goods in the world, so if they don't buy from a certain company they can effectively cause that company serious if not fatal blows. If that isn't bad enough they can basically dictate the prices they pay for the items they sell in their stores. This in turn lowers the profit margin for the companies they buy from who in turn have to cut their costs. Guess what usually gets cut. That's right, salaries. And not CEO and other high level executive salaries. It's middle class workers, barely surviving as it is, who see their hours cut, wages cut or both. And WalMart will be happy to come and show you how how to get the work of 10 people out of 5. They are masters of doing it. And let's not even mention lay offs which are usually inevitable.

Wait, let's mention those because they lead to another of the complaints I have against the Almighty Goliath. The tax burdens they lay on the states they worm their way into. From the day they move in, they create burdens on all tax payers of whatever state their are in. From WalMart's own personal tax reliefs states and cities gladly give when they move in (that often never get made up because WalMart will spend millions to move a mile down the road to get out of paying any taxes) to the tax burdens they cause the counties they move into in welfare costs for it's employees that can neither afford health care or ever become eligible due to WalMart's shifty & shady ways of conducting it's business almost constantly. And although you can argue that taxes are paid heavily by the rich of the world, my question is this: Weather it's fair or unfair, who can afford to pay taxes easier in the world, a multi-millionaire paying 44 percent taxes on 20 million a year or a family of 5 or 6 paying 22 to 30 percent a year on 40 thousand (if they are lucky). Either way, and whatever you answer to the question, it's just not fair that a company making the kind of profits yearly that WalMart makes should be causing ANY tax burden on ANYONE other than themselves!!!!

I think what astounds me the most about WalMart is, with all the negative press they get, with all the horror stories (there is even a movie out about their shady practices which I highly recommend even though it's a bit biased like a Michael Moore movie), with all the websites decrying this bastard of society which is slowly contributing to a major depression coming soon to a nation near you.....................

Their parking lots are always full.

Always.

Wow, I find out something new everyday......

According to the save the children foundation, I live in extreme poverty!!!


http://www.savethechildren.org.uk/scuk/jsp/resources/details.jsp?id=5037&group=resources§ion=news&subsection=details

I'm not really sure what their guidelines are but I make less than the U.S. equivalent of 7,000 pounds, so my kids and I must be living in squalor. And I thought we were livin' it up!!! All those trips to Goodwill must be spoiling us!!!

And on another issue, one that's probably going to make me as popular as a union rep in Walmart's corporate office, here's a funny editorial that a friend emailed me. And before I give it to you (minus the GIF's and things that dressed up the original) let me give you my take on the illegal immigration situation.

Before anyone jumps down my throat, I have family and friends who legally immigrated here from the late 40's until the mid 60's. It was a long arduous process that took a lot of time and for some considerable courage to take a shot at becoming an American.

They learned the language, they learned the culture (which was a mixing pot of cultures to begin with) and really wanted to become a valuable member of what was then the greatest country in the world. It meant something to them to be a part of this country. Some people still feel that way.

My problem with Mexican illegal immigration is multifaceted. My country can't take care of it's own, yet now they are considering making 12-28 (depending on your source) million more people citizens? What the fuck?
Do they really believe these people are doing jobs that American's won't do? Well, they are partially right. American's won't do them for 3.00 an hour (and most of the illegals make more than that anyway). I think they keep forgetting to add that part.
The money these illegals make barely helps the U.S. economy as the majority of it gets sent back to Mexico to their families. I've read as much as 99 percent of the money goes there. And they also hurt the already ailing economy because they don't pay into FICA (which in turn pays many of our supposed American "rights" like social security), or any state or government taxes.

Do American politicians actually think these amnesties are going to work? These illegal aliens already have fake identification and basically live in houses and apartments with as many as 20 people in a 3 bedroom unit. They are here for one thing. American money to ship back to "their" country. They don't want and aren't going to conform to any American standards. Most of them can't even be bothered to learn the language, and they have no desire to. I see them driving around my neighborhood in brand new Envoys and Escalades that they got tax free while living in houses with 18 people in them. I stood behind a guy who had one not even two hours ago. It took 5 minutes for the clerk to understand he wanted a box of Marlboros while his beautiful brand new car with 7 other people in it sat running next to my piece of shit. Bitter? Bet your ass I am. They walk into my store 12 at a time to buy their lunches of crackers and bottled water and pull out wallets lined with hundreds and 28 different credit cards in them that they will run up and then disappear off the face of the earth when they've maxed 'em all out. And all under an assumed name. And you won't find any of them with a search warrant when it's all said and done, because they never existed to begin with.

And another big gripe I have, you may or may not know. If a pregnant Mexican girl gets(or more likely, goes, it can't be very hard) across the border here and has a baby in America, that baby becomes an American citizen and her (and probably the rest of her family) can now take part in the wonderful welfare system that American's own citizens have to fight tooth and nail to partake in.

As I mentioned before, I do know a few of these guys, they come into my store almost everyday. I have nothing against them personally. They are doing what they can to survive like most of us. But it's a shame with so much of our nation's auto and other industries moving to Mexico, the citizens of that country come to this country and make a better living here than in their own. Someone should be checking into that too!!!

That in a nutshell is why I have a really big problem with Mexican illegal immigration. And here is the editorial piece. And the comments are open if you think I am a big dickhead for feeling the way I do or you'd like to try to change my mind about it. (Don't try too hard because it isn't going to happen.)

HERE IS THE EMAIL:

A lady wrote the best letter in the Editorials
in ages!!! It explains things better than all
the baloney you hear on TV.

Her point:

Recently large demonstrations have taken place across the country protesting the fact that Congress
is finally addressing the issue of illegal immigration. Certain people are angry that the US might protect its own borders, might make it harder to sneak into this country and, once here, to stay indefinitely.

Let me see if I correctly understand the thinking behind these protests. Let's say I break into your house.
Let's say that when you discover me in your house, you insist that I leave. But I say, "I've made all
the beds and washed the dishes and did the laundry and swept the floors. I've done all the things you don't
like to do. I'm hard-working and honest (except for when I broke into your house) .

According to the protesters:
You are Required to let me stay in your house
You are Required to add me to your family's insurance plan
You are Required to Educate my kids
You are Required to Provide other benefits to me & to my family
(my husband will do all of your yard work because
he is also hard-working and honest, except for that
breaking in part).

If you try to call the police or force me out, I will call my friends who will picket your house carrying signs that proclaim my RIGHT to be there. It's only fair, after all, because you have a nicer house than I do, and I'm just trying to better myself. I'm a hard-working and honest, person, except for well, you know, I did break into your house. And what a deal it is for me!!! I live in your house, contributing only a fraction of the cost of my keep, and there is nothing you can do about it without being accused of cold, uncaring, selfish, prejudiced, and bigoted behavior. Oh yeah, I DEMAND that you learn MY LANGUAGE!!! so you can communicate with me.

Why can't people see how ridiculous this is?! Only in America .

Let me know if you see the value of this....
If not blow it off.........along with your future Social Security
funds, and a lot of other things.

Well folks, you'll either either love me or hate me now. Let's see what you think.

Hello kiddies!

Well, howdy there minions. Some of you probably know me already, some of you have never met me before, and to be perfectly blunt (and grammatically incorrect) it don't really matter.

This is my third blog, and in my opinion, my most important one. Here is where I am going to address what I feel are grave injustices in this crumbling society we all know and love. Why am going to do that? Because I am sick and tired of the things that are going down, and I would to draw your attention away from Lindsey Lohan, Princess Paris and bullshit that just doesn't matter to try to bring to your attention to some real issues going down.

And I am not going to bore you by strictly ranting and raving about how shitty the world is, hopefully I will be able to point all the fine folks visiting here to sites that are trying to change things for the better, weather it's giving you alternatives to the money grubbing corporate cocksuckers that are draining the world of "the dream", pointing out the good guys, and at the same time sticking it to the whores of the world who could very well wind up being your leaders IF YOU AREN'T CAREFUL.

On my other blogs I have tried to show people what the world is coming to. It may have been coming to this for many many years now. I have only recently become aware of it. I, like way too many people in our world, turned a blind eye to it, while I was out there helping to make many corporations rich, and way too powerful for the good of society. Since my other blogs were started for entirely different reasons than my reason for starting this one, and I got some really good feedback from my light touch on the subjects I hope to give forum to here and leave my other blogs to their intended purposes.

I am just a regular guy, and I am not going to pretend to understand all of what I am going to present here. I am probably going to offend some people as I tend to slip into sailor mode language-wise when I get irrate (as you've already noticed, no doubt). I can no longer hide my ire at the state of things in my city, state, country and the world. The rich are getting richer by the minute, the poor are getting poorer by the second, and the middle class many of us remember as children is a dying entity. There used to be this thing called the American Dream (sorry those of you from other countries, they never taught us in school weather or not your countries had dreams too, they were to busy teaching us to conform and be sheep) but the dream is dying along with that middle class, and although I may be living in the past, it breaks my heart. I am literally beginning to feel like there is no future for my children.

Now many (surely not all) of you who have great jobs and everything you want out of life may not be able to grasp many of the concepts I will be presenting here. Usually the people who have it all have very little sympathy for those who have next to nothing. They will run out to 1000 dollar a plate charity functions and make donations to charities (usually for tax write offs that adversely affect the poor in other ways). TV, movie and rock stars love to throw charity concerts and benefits that donate the proceeds that basically do the same. After all the business expenses and tax write offs, very little of the total amount does anything for anyone. Why these people can't pull a few big bills out of their very padded pockets, give them to some needy people without acknowledgment and just shut the fuck up about it is beyond me. Why does everything have to be a publicity stunt? 2 percent of "the profit" of our latest CD will be donated to the American cancer society. Wow, that sounds great if you are the Stones or Madonna, but if you are a strugging no name band, you might as well drop some pennies in a jar at your local 7-11, because that's how much your profit is going to be.
I get so tired of all the pretensious, holier than thou people in the world telling everyone there is no reason people should be homeless in this country. Well, there should be no reason, but wake up, there is. So let me throw out some scenarios, scattershot as they may be--I'll gain more focus later. They work at fucking WalMart (or insert any other big business whore here, da Mart is my personal whipping boy) for a subpar wage, with no medical benefits (or if they have them the deductible is so high people can't use it, not to mention many can't afford to get it in the first place, because it would mean giving up 25-30 percent of their already poverty level paycheck every week), and no chance for overtime (at least paid overtime, they are asked, no, made to work off the clock if God forbid their hours hit 40 for the week).

Why didn't they go to college, the holier than thou ask. Well maybe they had to work to help their families so they wouldn't become homeless because the average price of a three bedroom apartment in any city larger than 75,000 is at least 685 dollars a month. Maybe they should all bunch up into a one bedroom so they can pay $450 and have a few bucks to eat? Well, sure, but hope the local government doesn't find out because it's against the law to do that. You have to have a certain number of bedrooms per people in your family.
But there are local agencies to help people get housing (and general assistance). Yep, sure are. Here in my town the waiting list for Section 8 is 2 years plus. And then if (read: when) they offer you a run down hellhole in the middle of a drug infested inner city project and you refuse it, you go back to the bottom of the list. And once they have you in their programs, you stay, because you know if you get a 7.00 an hour job, they take it all away from you instantly, which puts you back in the same situation you were in when you started. You see, there are programs to help you when you are at rock bottom (after a period of being there awhile) but nothing to help you climb your way out of the poverty they let you slide into. If you are a single parent with two kids in my town you get 300 or so bucks a month in food stamps. Well you better pray those kids are not growing, because they are going to eat up 300 in two weeks even if you shop real carefully. Unless you stick to a strict ramen noodle diet.

Minimum wages haven't gone up in Ohio since 1987. They are 6.85. Do you think the cost of living has gone up since then? Nah, of course not. Some states have increased a bit but the highest I've seen are around 7.50. Let me ask anyone---could you support a family of 4 of four on 7.50 an hour? Thats about 1100 bucks a month after taxes. If your rent is, say, 600 a month (a figure pulled from a complex that rents only to people of low income that can make no more than that an hour) you now have around 500 a month. Does a bus come by there? Does one go to where you work? I ask because unless you are lucky enough to be able to afford a car you probably are gonna need it. And if you are lucky enough, by law you better have insurance (another 50-100 bucks out of your budget a month), not to mention the gas that is at an all time high. Probably better figure another 60-80 bucks a month for that. Do you use electric? Another 50-75 a month. Gas heat? During the winter it can be astronomical. Does your family wear clothes? Do they eat? Do they go to school? Do you say fuck it all and get a second job? Probably.

Now comes the sociological problems that come with that second job (or the other parent gets a job, if you are lucky enough to be a two parent family, because, usally one of them has said fuck this bullshit by now). The kids, already affected by the lack of anything worthwhile in their lives, usually go one of two paths. The first is they work hard to make sure their life doesn't turn out like their fucked up parent(s). Good for them, but they also usually turn out to be very cold, hard-hearted people who have little or no use for anyone in the environment they pulled themselves up out of. Fuck them, they say, I got out, why can't they, without realizing that less than 1 percent do.

But those who drag ass down the second path, the most likely path, is the group to be really concerned about. These are the ones who end up alcoholics, drug addicts, prison inmates, wife & child beaters, career criminals and generally non-productive citizens. And the next generation of citizens in the exact same situation we just described above.

This is the first chapter of this blog. The above topic is just the tip of the iceberg. There is no much injustice and corruption in the world that all leads back to these situations.

Welcome to what is spinning around in my head. Up next, my life in a nutshell. Basically the tale of woe that began to open my eyes to the real world around me.