Thursday, September 18, 2014

America's Sweat Shops

When people hear of sweat shops being busted in 3rd world countries they get outraged and offended, when sweat shops are being run here in America it’s “capitalism”.  This comment will offend some and others will think I’m crazy but since Abe Lincoln freed the slaves corporations and the rich have been trying to bring the practice back and are succeeding at a high rate.  Lets looks at an example

Company A pays min. wage 7.25 an hour and you work 40 hours a week you make 1160 a month - of course you don’t see that much

 1160
- 6.2% Fica Tax (that rate is for the poor, since you only pay on first 117K rate is lower the richer you are)
- 1.45% Medicare Tax
=  1071.00

If you live in states/locality with their own tax there goes another  5% so you are down to 1015.00 then you have housing/utilities (estimates)

Mortgage / Rent 250.00
Water/Refuse Bill 100.00
Electric 100.00
Gas 100.00
Phone 50.00
TV/Internet 75.00

That leaves you with 342.00 a month assuming you don’t have a car payment or need gas. That leaves you 11.00 a day to feed your family and buy necessities and that’s IF you don’t get sick and need medical care or have any other surprise expenses..


Now you get sick and miss some work but you still have to pay your bills and feed your family so you ask for a little help - maybe Medicaid or Food stamps until you get back on your feet and all of a sudden you are labeled lazy, a taker or a “welfare queen”.  Slave owners used to beat, murder and rape their slaves so I’m not comparing it to that but now they try to shame you into not asking for a hand up because god forbid you rely on assistance that’s not the “American Way” they tell you.

Now you’re in serious debt and stuck in that job you hate and have to start looking for another income because working multiple jobs just to feed your kids is “American exceptionalism” and “self reliance” so now you’re working two dead end jobs, not seeing your family and still scraping by without insurance.

This is why we don’t have universal healthcare like every other civilized nation, it has nothing to do with costs or long waits because countries with it have lower costs and not much longer wait times. It’s about keeping you in line, if you need that dead end low income job because it offers you some insurance you won’t quit to find something you enjoy because you might get sick and not have the safety net of health care.

Who are these “sweat shops” that don’t pay employees enough to live on or allow them to see a doctor when ills? Some names like Wal Mart and McDonald’s which themselves are HUGE “welfare queens” receiving over 1,000,000,000 a year in subsidies and tax breaks each.

So the moral is if you are a single mother without health insurance and need a hand you are a lazy welfare queen taker and what is wrong with America but if you are a multi-billion dollar business and ask the government for a handout it’s a “subsidy” and capitalism. So don’t complain and get back to work because rich people everywhere depend on you busting your ass so they can get richer and don’t worry if you get sick there’s 100 people waiting to replace you.




Sunday, July 13, 2014

Why I now do my research and vote Democrat

I turned 18 in 1993 but and in most election voted republican, I didn’t do any research I just believed what they told me they stood for. In 2000 I supported John McCain for president, while I thought Clinton was a good president I just didn’t trust Al gore.

When Bush/Cheney won the nomination I showed them my support and voted for them. This will go down as the biggest regret and mistake in my life. On 9/11 I first started to question my vote and everything republicans stood for, then as I watched them exploit the dead and their memories of that horrible day just to win elections I started to get a bad taste in my mouth. I watched over the next couple years as they used that horrible day to invade Afghanistan and later using twisted and questionable intel played on the fears of Americans to get their support for the Iraq war.

That was the final straw and the LAST time I would let a politician fool me, as I watched President Bush use the terror alert to scare Americans into supporting him it became obvious there is nothing these people wouldn’t do to stay in office.  I do not know how anyone looking back could justify their vote for Bush in 2004 after watching them exploit dead Americans over and over, from the bodies buried under the rubble in New York to Pat Tillman and everyone in between it just made me sick.

I started doing my research and realized while republicans talk a good game they never deliver, they promise things and don’t even try to follow through.

Less Debt? - only 2 times in my life has a president cut the deficit and that’s Bill Clinton and Barack Obama

More Freedom/Less Government? Yes for corporations, while they pass laws making Americans second class citizens and restricting the rights of women and gays.

Smaller Government? Again only 2 presidents have cut the size of the government workforce and that’s Clinton and Obama.

So if you like all the things republicans “claim” to be fore do some research and you will find out that’s all they do is claim. When they get in office they spend, restrict freedoms and exploit every chance they get. If you like what they claim to stand for you would vote Democrat who actually puts those policies in place.

Thursday, June 19, 2014

Republicans Say Frack The Environment

If I had a nickel for every time I heard a republican say “We can’t leave our children debt it would be irresponsible” I would have more money than Exxon Mobile.  They think debt is wrong but have no problem leaving their children dirty air and undrinkable water as long as they can fill their cars for under 3.00 a gallon. In 2013 alone the republicans voted over 109 times and 300 times since 2011 to endanger the environment so corporations could avoid life saving regulations. Here is a look at some of the things republicans have done that will lead to more diseases and endanger the lives of your children.


September 21st 2012 was Black Friday for the Environment all in one day the GOP

Voted Carbon Dioxide is not dangerous to Americans today or in the future and does NOT endanger the public health.

Voted to block the EPA from studying or taking any action to address climate change, allow the unsafe disposal of coal ash and blocks the EPA from cleaning up spilled mercury from power plants.

Strips the EPA Authority to stop disposal of waste in waterways even if the EPA determines the disposal will have adverse impacts on water quality, fish or human.. That’s right it allows for toxic dumping in waters and takes away the EPA authority to stop it.

Took away the EPA’s ability to provide clean air protections from states that ignore standards and fail to act. Eliminates the EPA’s authority to control the level of pollution a corporation puts into the air.


That was all in one day but wasn’t the only day - here are some other GOP gems against environment


Allowed for unlimited deforesting and mining in the Superior and Chippewa National Forests.

Blocks regulations to protect health and environment until the unemployment level falls below 6% allowing for unlimited pollution as long as unemployment was high.

Block any regulation that would cost over 50 Million - they actually put corporate profits over humans in a cost benefits analysis

REQUIRE new offshore drilling w/ no environmental reviews and without drill safety requirements

Voted offshore oil drillers do NOT have to improve their standards as outlined in the BP oil spill commission

Makes mining the number ONE use of public lands and allows companies out mine without paying any royalties, it also requires the Forest Service to allow mining companies to build mining roads even at the harm of the environment

Delayed EPA rules that help prevent asthma attacks, hart attacks, cancer, birth defects, brain damage, premature death or other serious harm to human health if it damaged corporate profits.



Republicans have suggested cost benefits analysis of any regulations and have sided with the corporation over human health, they don’t even hide it. When you hear republicans sarcastically say “GOP want dirty air and water” tell them YES THEY DO and their voting record proves it. Above is just a few examples from the last 2 years and there are many, many more.

I live in an area where fracking is all over and they have recently approved a fracking well right next to our drinking water. This is even after the next town over had a massive spill from fracking runoff into their drinking water because they were told “it’s harmless and fine to drink” but thanks to republican laws passed under Dick Cheney’s guidance oil/gas companies do not have to tell what chemicals they pump into the ground no matter how dangerous or poisonous.

We do need oil, gas and electricity but not at the expense of human lives, with more children being born with asthma and other diseases and cancer exploding how can one party overlook the connection to all the toxic waste dumped into the environment. Either they don’t have children or they don’t care about them, I for one would rather leave my children with debt than needing to use oxygen tanks or having lifelong diseases just so Exxon or National Fuel can make maximum profits and buy more politicians.


Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Racism and the Right Wing

Democrat Steve Israel had the nerve to say the republican base has elements of racism and immediately Fox News and the right wing machine exploded. Sean Hannity said it makes him sick that these lies are told but lets have a look at the facts and the racist overtones the republicans have been pushing for a while.

“Lincoln Freed the slaves and the KKK was founded by democrats”

Yes Lincoln did free the slaves and back then it was southern democrats who fought against it but the roles have reversed in a big way. Those southern democrats became hard core republicans and the south will never be blue again in our lifetime.

Lets look at a few republican politicians and their actions

Marilyn Davenport (California Republican) sent out emails of a doctored photo that showed Obama and his parents as monkeys

Doug Lamborn (Colorado republican) referred to Obama as a “Tar Baby”

And we often hear dog whistle words like “Inner City” or as Newt Gingrich calls him “food stamp president” which brings us back to the old “welfare queens”. For years the GOP has used subtle words to hide their racism but it appears they aren’t even trying anymore.

Republicans held a panel called “trumping the race card” in which a North Carolina tea party member went full racist talking about how slaves should have thanked their owners for giving them food and shelter at which time the crowd broke out in applause. He then went on to say African-Americans should only be allowed to vote in Africa and we should allow segregation.

Rush Limbaugh  (proud voice of the GOP) - from playing “Barack the magic negro” to his racist overtones it’s hard to narrow it down to a few but I’ll try.

“Have you ever noticed all composites of criminals resembles Jesse Jackson”

“NAACP should get a liquor store and practice robberies”

To an African American caller “Take that bone out of your nose and call me back”

“Obama is an angry Black guy” - did he point out Bush was white or McCain was white?


There are racists I both parties but I have yet to find one racist who voted for President Obama, Fox likes to point out that 96% of African Americans voted for him ignoring that for 200 years 100% of white people voted for a white president. All you have to do is go to you tube or to google and type in “Racist Republican comments” and a huge list will show up

Google - 10 MILLION results
You Tube - only 220 THOUSAND results

Thursday, March 6, 2014

Right Wing Lies and Hypocrisy

Between the time I became voting age until 2004 I voted mostly republican, that’s 10 years of my life that I now regret. I was bamboozled and hoodwinked into believing their “small government, less debt, personal freedoms” was more than a slogan then I looked at the facts about how they actually govern.

In my lifetime there have only been 2 presidents who lowered the deficit and who have actually cut the size of government and their names are NOT Ronald Reagan or Bush but are in fact named Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.  Now lets look at a couple argument that they would make

1. Congress was led by republicans during those debt reduction years.

Answer - this is true but they also were led by republicans in years when massive debt was added. In fact “fiscal” conservative Paul Ryan has voted for adding more to our national debt than President Obama and Clinton combined. After being elected and before a democrat took over the white house Mr. Ryan never voted against a spending bill, debt increase or tax cut. It wasn’t until a democrat was in the white house that the debt all of a sudden started to matter.  So yes republicans were in congress during deficit reduction but they also were in charge of congress when over 10 trillion in debt was added.


2. Republicans are best for business and the economy

Answer - Facts prove this one wrong again, yes there were jobs added during the Ronald Reagan era but in fact his jobs record was worse than Jimmy Carter who averaged more jobs created a month than President Reagan.  If you only invested in the stock market during democratic presidents you are doing very well, if you only invested during republican presidents you are not doing well at all.  Yes republicans are good for the CEO and business owners but not as good as democratic presidents and they have a horrible record on workers rights and income equality.


3. Lower taxes and less regulation help economy and create jobs

Answer - lower taxes create jobs was proven wrong when it too President Bush almost 4 years to get out of a tiny recession while President Obama turned around an economy that was losing 800,000 jobs a month in less that a year. Bush tried tax cuts which did nothing to improve the jobs market but helped make the rich richer while Obama tried stimulus which helped end the recession 3x quicker.

As for less regulation there have been 2 banking crisis in my life time and both were under 2 term republican presidents. Ronald Reagan had the savings and loan scandal and had to bail them out while Bush had a complete collapse of the economy. There is a reason we have a recession on average every 2 years and it’s the greed and deregulation of American business.

4. Republicans are party of “Freedom and choice”

Answer - Again their record proves the exact opposite, they regulate women, our wallet, sexuality in fact seems they are only anti-regulation on business. They immediately pass laws removing a women’s right to an abortion and homosexual people the right to marry. They always have a reason for limiting or restricting peoples freedoms and it’s usually “religion” but the fact is they do to keep their own jobs and make themselves richer. They cry about “government getting between you and your doctor” even if that was true the only time I can remember it was the republicans trying to overrule a doctor on Terri Shivo.  People used to enjoy online poker but the GOP tried to kill it and after they were unable they attached it to a military spending bill so they could scream “you hate the troops” if anyone voted against it and they restricted my freedom to spend my money as I choose.

5. Republicans are the party of the military

Answer - If by that you mean exploiting than yes the GOP is all for it. They are all for sending other peoples kids to die but won’t make the sacrifice themselves and when most had the chance to serve they had “better things to do”. Then when soldiers come home wounded or in a box they republicans cut their benefits, exploited their deaths for political gains and all but left them homeless. When bills were introduced to give 9/11 first responder or recently war veterans health insurance they voted NO. They are the party of the military when it benefits them as long as you don’t get injured, die or need any assistance after you are no longer able to die for their cause.

The fact is in 2004 I woke up and realized that if you like talk you vote for republicans but if you want a stronger middle class, less debt and a smaller government you vote democrat.

Wednesday, February 5, 2014

America's new slavery

This will probably offend some if not a lot of people, feel free to call me "racist", "ignorant" or whatever you want but this is my blog and this is how I feel. I don't have a racist bone in my body and IF you read my opinion you will see it has nothing to do with race but class.

Since the Confederate states lost the civil war they rich have been trying to bring slavery back to America, not in the old sense but in a new form under the disguise of  "capitalism". Gone are the days of selling people and working them to death, beating them or raping them and the horrors have been replaced with a false promise of improving yourself or being one of the few to rise above your status.

Lets take a company and call it Crawl-Mart as an example, during slavery they would buy someone, work them to death and beat/abuse them if they did not listen. They would cloth, house and feed the slaves as long as they were useful. It was a horrible time in American history and when I hear a rich white person claim they are the "American Dream" I think about the American nightmares like genocide of Native Americans and Slavery that REALLY built America.

Today Crawl-Mart can not treat people like that so they to their version of slavery 2014.  They hire people, work them to death (and get a reward), pay them enough to either feed their family or put a roof over their head and bribe them with "perks" like the ability to see a doctor if you are sick.

You go to work at Crawl-Mart because it's the only job available and you figure it will work until something better comes along. They hire you for 7.50 an hour and you work 40 hours a week, you earn 1,200.00 a month which breaks down to


1200.00 before taxes (fica, federal, local etc) - 250.00 = 950.00

You are lucky enough to find a small place to live for 250.00 a month leaves you 700.00

Utilities (Gas, Water, Electric) - now you are down to 400.00

You live on the bare min. and spend 10.00 a day on food now you are down to 100.00

If you have a child, health insurance, medical emergency etc. now you are in debt.. If you decide to have one of life's luxuries like a phone or TV then you are also in debt.

Now you NEED this job, you can't quit in hopes of finding something better. While you are working Crawl-Mart has secretly taken out a life insurance policy on you (which you can't afford on yourself) and now you are worth more dead than alive to them.

Most slave owners put a roof over their heads and fed them knowing that they needed the sleep and energy to put in the work next day, today's corporations don't even have that much dignity. Now most companies doe a background check on you before hiring that includes your finances, so since Crawl-Mart ruined you and put you in debt company B has no interest in you.

It's a vicious cycle and that's how they keep their employees and why income mobility is worse in America than in most other civilized countries in the world. Brutal beatings, rape and murder have been replaced by "perks" like food and housing and if your new master is kind enough they may even offer you health insurance so you can see a doctor if you are sick. And if you should die, have no fear they will just use some of the cash they get from working you to death to buy (I mean hire) someone new.


Saturday, December 28, 2013

9/11 Conspiracy Theories

If anyone watched how America handled the Iraq and Afghanistan wars they would know there is no way that President Bush could have known anything about Sept. 11, 2001.  Having read the 9/11 report it's obvious that we haven't been told the whole truth and the fact that President Bush and Vice President Cheney have never testified on the record about the day keeps these conspiracies alive. With that said I have seen some insane theories and thought it would be fun to create one of my own. So here goes my conspiracy theory (or fan fiction as it were) ..

Bill Clinton is in the middle of his second term and starting to dismantle the military industrial complex that Reagan had started to rebuild, this would cost war profiteers billions if not trillions of dollars. Realizing that there hadn't been any major wars in years and the American people were starting to move away from the idea of a large military these groups that profit from wars held secret meeting in which they planned to get the United States involved in military action which would lead to large profits for them. In these meeting the plan was formed and things were put in motion -

A puppet president would be needed and they found the perfect man for the job, to make sure that he did their bidding one of the corporations leaders would have to move himself into position to have the Presidents ear and influence. When one of these military corporations former leaders was put in charge of finding the perfect VP to run on the republican ticket he chose himself, putting his right next to the president.

The plan was working perfect until they realized that their puppet had a chance of losing the election and the guy who would have won would cut military even more. Luckily the company that made the voting machines was lead by strong republican supporters and the Supreme Court was very conservative and with the help of these two new allies the former Governor took the White House.

Everything was in place and with funding form these corporations and a few people in the right place the plan was set, there was an attack on America and the perfect patsy was found in Osama Bin Laden and his small group of American hating extremists. America now had its new enemy and these corporations now had their new wars, after realizing the profits in war their attention quickly turned to expanding the battlefield and their profits. The thinner the military was stretched the more these companies would be called on and the more their stocks would increase and their profits would skyrocket.

So if 9/11 was an inside job my theory is it wasn't by our government but was an inside job by corporate America and the war profiteers who have gotten rich beyond their wildest dreams. Do I think this is what happened? No, but do I think these companies are evil and greedy enough to have done something like this? Hell Yes.

9/11 was a tragic day, the 4,000 dead Americans in Iraq were a wast of American lives and the companies that profited off all this death are a disgrace.