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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

How Republicans control the media and the message

Not exactly who coined the term “Liberal Media” but it has become the most believed lie in history. Richard Nixon blamed all his problems on the liberal news media as did Reagan and Bush Jr. Any time there was a negative story about republicans it was just blow off as “there goes the liberal media again” no matter how factual or damning it didn’t matter because the media “hated” conservatives.

From 1992-1994 conservative “think tanks” spent over 200 million dollars transforming the media as we know it and molding it into a more conservative group. We saw the rise of “conservative radio” which now dominates the air and even on cable news there are often more conservative views than liberal and when a negative story does break they return to the old “liberal media” witch hunt.

How did this conservative movement become so big and so powerful while “liberal” became a bad word and un-American? It started after Bill Clinton won became president and the money in the republican party came up with a new strategy, while rich democrats spend their money on issues like the environment, poverty and AIDS the conservatives went on the war path pooling their money with one single purpose - bringing the GOP to power again.

This program started small under President Ronald Reagan who used former CIA agent Walter Raymond Jr. to become the conservative propagandist. In 1982 he developed a plan to bring the media over to conservative way of thinking and harnessing the wealthy individuals on top of this the administration spend hundreds of millions of dollars helping implement this plan. This new conservative group used their money and power to help tamp down blowback on Reagan for things like Iran Contra, Beirut arms deals and more.

By the time the Clinton scandal broke the conservatives had their media in place and forced other outlets to pull right or lose the headlines, instead of asking real questions we were left with once legit news outlets reporting speculation and rumors as facts. This is when we saw the rise of Ruport Murdoch and the rebirth of conservative media.

The news media, including the “liberal” media put their weight behind George Bush in 2000 and helped him into office. Shortly after 9/11 the media believed and was the number one cheerleader for the Bush administration and he could do no wrong. This love fest helped us get into Iraq with the media in the presidents pocked no tough questions were asked and everything that was told was believed. The media finally started to turn on the president as the Iraq war went south but when negative stories like torture were reported it was a “liberal” media conspiracy.

To this day republicans still use their money to buy power and influence while relying on the message while democrats still use their money to try and make America better. When groups the GOP don’t agree with like ACORN or Planned Parenthood they immediately destroy them and often with the help of the news media. At the same time right wing groups like ALEC are writing laws and the Heritage Foundation has more power than anyone in Washington any liberal group is immediately squashed.

When America started to turn on the republicans after George Bush ruined the brand the money machine and media quickly created the Tea Party as a conservative alternative to republicans. The Koch brother alone, through their many right wing groups, invested hundreds of million of dollars to help create and promote the Tea Party while Fox News not only supported the movement but joined the Koch brothers as co-owners first promoting them on TV then holding rallies of their own.

The tea party is just one in a long line of republican incarnations we’ve went from Reagan Republicans to Christian Conservatives to Tea Party but this time something happened they were not counting on. The movement they created to help keep republicans in power started biting the hand that fed them and instead of helping the republicans they started to hurt the movement. First they ran candidates against republicans who were safe but the new Tea Party candidates couldn’t win the general elections and now that small faction has managed to shut the government down. If you notice the tea party is usually on the back seat in republican media reports and of course they still can’t be called republicans so you will see a lot of people instead call them self “Conservatives”.

It’s time for liberals and democrats to stop being afraid of being labeled “liberal” and start fighting back, instead of spending all their money fighting for the environment, poor people and good causes it’s time to create a liberal version of “heritage foundation” or a truly liberal media outlet like Fox News. When there is a huge liberal movement like the conservative movement of late 90’s then we can do more from the inside like help the environment, end wars and feed the poor. Until Democrats start to fight the liberal media lie and stop being scared of reporting the truth republicans will continue to own the story.

Hypocrisy of Republicans on Benghazi

For a year now republicans and their propaganda network have screamed Benghazi, Benghazi, Benghazi like Jan Brady crying Marsha, Marsha, Marsha and like Jan they have no evidence for their temper tantrum. They have started twitter hash tags #Benghazi and #JusticeForBenghazi4 but when you ask them what kind of justice and what was illegal you get no serious response just Fox News talking points.

There have been over a dozen investigations including multiple by republican witch hunter Darrell Issa and the only thing they have uncovered is incompetence with no cover ups or crimes. Don’t get me wrong the death of four American’s is tragic but the exploitation of those deaths by republicans borders on political at best and hypocrites at worst. Lets look at history of GOP when it comes to investigations and tragedy -

1983

April 18 - a bomb goes off killing 63 people in Beirut Lebanon including 17 Americans. The President at the time called it a “Cowardly Act” instead of investigating and dragging the republican president through the mud the democrats did the right thing and gave the president 250 million for aid to Lebanon to help keep American’s safe.

Oct 23 - after ignoring calls to remove Americans from a dangerous Lebanon another attack came on US interests leading to the death of 241 more Americans in Beirut. In response to this attack America stood down while the French ran bombing missions against the people believed behind the attack. America did not respond to the deaths of over 300 Americans except with strong words and finally pulled all Americans out of Lebanon in a few months.

So we had 1 attack costing 17 lives then after being warned of the danger Americans were left in place and another 241 were needlessly murdered while the President stood by and watched. No retaliation, no going after the terrorists who committed this act just cutting and running while the murderers walk free.

Congressional investigations - ZERO

　

2001-2008

Jan 22 2002 India = 5 deaths

Jun 14 2002 Karachi = 12 deaths

Oct 12 2002 Bali = 202 dead including 7 Americans

Feb 28 2002 Karachi (AGAIN) = 2 dead

July 30 s004 Uzbekistan = 2 dead

March 2 2006 Karachi (3^rd time) = US Diplomat David Foy killed

Sept 12 2006 Damascus = 4 dead

Jan 12 2007 Grenade

March 18 2008 Sana’a = 19 dead

July 9 2008 Istanbul = 3 Dead

Sept 17 2008 Sana’a (again) = 16 dead including 2 Americans

11 embassy attacks, multiple deaths and ZERO investigations

　

So before President Obama an embassy attack was a horrific event and the dead were mourned, now it’s a crime and someone must be held accountable. What makes Obama different than President Reagan and Bush?




Facts VS Republican Talking Points

The last 4 years we have listened to republican talking points tearing down President Barack Obama while trying to make the claim that he is the worst president ever, lets look at some of those talking points and the facts that they ignore.

　

1 - Obama is the “Food Stamp President”

Yes it is a fact that there are a record 44 million people on food stamp, or an increase of 13 million since he took office but there has been few changes to the program and most of the new recipients are now on in because of a 2008 recession that cost America millions of jobs and has not fully recovered yet. Aside from that there are other facts ignored

Food Stamps from inception until 2001 = 17.5 Million

Food Stamps when President Bush left office = 33 million (an increase of 15.5 million)

Food Stamp use now = 44 million (an increase of 11 million)

So not only has President Obama not increased the program at a record pace but hasn’t even been the president who expanded it the most.

　

　

　

2 - Obama has increased the debt faster than all presidents before him combined

Debt is at 17 trillion dollars lets look at how rapid it was increased 1^st

Reagan Start 848 billion (from every president before him)

Reagan end 2.7 trillion

Increase 218%

Bush Start 5.7 trillion

Bush Left 10.6 Trillion

Increase 86%

Obama Start 10.6

Obama current 16.75

Increase of 60%

Now those numbers are deceptive when you figure in the surplus that President Bush was left when he took office, the CBO projected the Clinton surplus would pay off the debt by 2010 so instead of a zero debt it was actually 10 trillion, you could actually pin the whole 10 trillion on president Bush. Also when Obama took office the deficit was 1 trillion a year so if he didn’t add a single penny the debt would currently be over 15 trillion from just continuing the Bush policies from 2008. What you really have to look at is the deficit and that in fact has decreased twice in the last 30 years - first under President Bill Clinton and now under President Obama who has cut the yearly deficit by 50% from over 1 trillion a year to about 600 billion.

　

　

3 - Obama has failed economic policies

Lets just look at the facts again of just the last 2 president

Bush took office in a small recession, he cut taxes to stimulate job growth and instituted typical conservative polices and he did end the recession after 33 months of job losses and by the time he left office added an average of 20,000 jobs a month.

Obama passed his version of a jobs bill with the stimulus package and ended a much deeper recession in 11 months and has since averaged over 100,000 jobs created a month in the private sector. But why is unemployment still high? The job growth is slow and I will not argue with that but considering that we went from losing 800,000 jobs a month to gaining 160,000 that’s almost a million jobs a month increase and while the private sector has been adding the public sector (or government jobs) has been decreases with a loss of over 1,000,000 public sector jobs since Obama took office.

So both ideas end recessions but facts and history again prove that tax cuts do it much slower and add more to the debt, when you give rich more of their own money they don’t invest it in employees but in themselves.

　

4. Republicans are for small government and Democrats for big

This is simple by looking at last 30 years

Reagan - averaged public sector jobs per year in office increase 25,000

Clinton - Average Public sector jobs per year in office - 42,000 (that’s right negative)

Bush Jr. - Average public sector jobs per year in office increase 5,000

Obama - has lost over 1,000,000 public sector jobs since taking office

　

History has shown if you like the talking point of smaller government and less debt you vote republican but if you really support smaller government and less debt you vote democrat. Then again these are facts which often can not penetrate the bubble that many conservatives live in.

Todd Kincannon and todays republican party

Remember when republicans would only say in private or at dinners with their rich donors things that most people wouldn’t say in public but we all knew they really believed. Turns out there is a republican who doesn’t have a censor button and that would be South Carolina’s very own Todd Kincannon who is the former director of the South Carolina republican party, a lawyer and the as it turns out a racist women hating republican - but really is there any other kind these days. Lets take a look at some of the wonderful things this man (and I use that term loosely) has said.

　

February 4, 2013 during the Super Bowl in New Orleans

“This Super Bowl sucks more dick than adult Trayvon Martin would have for drug money”

“It hasn’t been this dark in the Superdome since all those poors occupied it during Hurricane Katrina”

　

Attacking Michael Prysner -an Iraq war veteran who came home disabled and now speaks out against the war

“What do you get when you combine asshattery and jizzwhistlery with a side of douchebagery? Why you get Mike Prysner”

Then after calling him a “cocksucker” he went further

“You are an Iraq war Vet? Shame you didn’t come home in a body bag”

“I wish the Iraqis had better aim with his ass, Yes I hope if that guy is ever in combat again the enemy splatters his brains JFK - Style, he deserves it”

　

This is after he called Nancy Pelosi a “Cunt” in November

The sad thing is that these aren’t even shocking anymore, the republicans have went so extreme that they say and do anything they feel and thanks to the big money behind them buying elections and the election process itself being rigged with redistricting and voter suppression laws they know there is no chance of them losing their jobs. The media ignores these stories because there’s so many and it’s not even news anymore, if the media did their job instead of worrying about profits they would report these stories and shine the light on what is really going on.

There is no room in civilized American society for people like this let alone making them leaders.

Republicans war on America - Divide and Conquer

The last two election and any time someone even suggests that the rich aren’t paying their fair share and the poor are suffering republicans scream “Class Warfare”. Talk about regulating Wall Street and holding bankers accountable for their actions “Class Warfare”. It’s funny, iron and sad that republicans use this type of language and even sadder that people believe them. When President Obama proposed a tax increase on the top 1% of people in America I don’t know how many republicans I heard say “He is dividing the country”, hell they have a 24 our propaganda network who pushed the storyline.

We can’t have “Class Warfare” according to the republicans but lets look at the warfare they support and promote -

　

Union Warfare - Republicans paint unions as evil and what’s wrong with America, they attack teachers, police and firemen as well as other labor unions for their pension and healthcare which is ironic since these same politicians pension and healthcare are 100x better than any teacher and it’s funded by taxpayer money. They cry about tenure and pensions hurting the economy while they rig the elections by redistricting and voter ID laws to make sure they keep their own tenure in congress and the senate and while a teacher may cost 30,000 a year a politician costs 180,000 a year. We can attack the unions, teachers, firefighters and police but don’t ask the politicians or their rich backers to sacrifice one penny.

　

War on “Takers” - You often her republicans cry that 47% of people don’t pay taxes, first this is a flat out lie because while they may not pay extra taxes they still pay

Fica Tax

State Tax

Sales Tax

Gas Tax

Property Tax

Payroll Tax

The 47% who are “takers” include single mothers who work 40 hours a week at min. wage jobs often without healthcare or benefits and also includes senior citizens who worked their whole life and of course it includes military personal fighting in war zones to give republicans the freedom to lie. Oh and did I mention there are thousands of people who make more than 1,000,000.00 a year who pay no taxes and in fact get a refund? Those damn slackers getting shot at in Iraq and Afghanistan, it’s time they pair their fair share and stop sponging off patriotic rich according to the GOP.

　

Fetal Warfare - Texas is just the most recent states that has declared war on a women’s uterus, their goal is to take away a women’s right to choose and force them to be a slave to the fetus for 9 months no matter the danger. If your 10 year old daughter is raped by an uncle don’t even think about destroying that evidence, who cares that the girl had to live through the act of rape (I guess at that age her body hasn’t learned to shut it down yet) but now she has to be reminded for 9 months what happened and bear the child of the person who did this to her. They often use religion as a background for this belief which would be ok but after being sued for wrongful death of a fetus recently the church argued that a fetus isn’t a living human being.

　

　

War on Poverty - Yes this has been around for a long time but the last 30 years republicans have fought on the wrong side. Since Reagan the GOP has adopted a “People are poor because they’re lazy and choose to be so why help them” attitude. They got a taste of victory with the welfare reform act of the 90’s and now want to not only win another battle but end the ware completely. Recently with the sequestration they have forced poor people without insurance to delay or even end their cancer treatments, ended meals on wheels for millions of Americans and forced millions of children to go hungry at school by cutting the funding for their meals. After getting that and seeing there is not much outrage or coverage by the corporate media they have decided to take another stop and cut 20 billion more in food stamps, instead of asking other to pay more they cut from the most vulnerable among us. They say “we want people to be able to stand on their own” which would be a good idea but they turn around and make it harder for college or higher education and cut funding for K-12 education while cutting taxes for the people who bought them their job.

　

War on Immigrants - this one is the worst, they have turned it into an actual war and not just talk. They have proposed billion in funding to militarize the border and make their defense contractors richer. Newsflash to republicans - unless you are 100% native American you were an illegal immigrant at some time. Republicans act like Mexicans are sneaking in to America and planning on stealing our land, raping our women and murdering our children - you know like the old white men did to the Native Americans when they arrived in the new world.

You can not question anything the wealthy do or you are dividing America but it’s 100% ok to go after teachers, unions, fireman, soldiers, veterans, women, blacks, Hispanics and of course poor people of any color, race or religion. Next time a republican yells “class warfare” or “You’re dividing America” ask them their stance on Abortion, “Takers”, Food Stamps, Education, Immigration then point out they are a hypocrite. America is being divided and there is “warfare” but it’s the republicans leading the charge and with the help of their propaganda network they are winning until America wakes up and starts to fight back. By keeping the populace poor, uneducated and divided they can finish turning America into the plutocracy they always envisioned.

Republican War on Clean Air and Water

I keep hearing republicans get upset when you point out they really want “dirty air and water”, they say that’s a nice liberal talking point. It’s not a talking point, it’s fact and their voting record proves it. Since 2011 congressional republicans have voted over 300 times on bills that favor corporations while doing harm to the environment including

130 Votes weakening the EPA

54 Votes weakening the Dept. of Energy

125 Votes lower pollution standards

55 votes to repeal clean energy

45 votes to promote more drilling esp. offshore

　

Clean Air act

This was passed in the 1970’s and signed into law by Richard Nixon, it has reduced pollution by over 50% while helping keep many pollution related illnesses under control. This congress has waged a war on this act trying to gut it, even trying to repeal the Health Based Standards meaning that corporations would now be allowed to pollute and knowing make people sick if it was best for business. That’s right they would now do a “Cost Benefits Analysis” to decide if it was in the best interest of corporations to give people cancer.

They also voted to repeal the regulation of mercury release and block the regulation on emissions from incinerator and power plants and finally to stop regulations on the release of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen - these ALONE prove they want dirtier air and water if it means more profits for corporations.

Independent studies have shown these attacks on the EPA will lead to

34,000 deaths

15,000 heart attacks

400,000 cases of asthma

280 Billion a year in added healthcare costs.

　

Clean Water Act

Passed in 1972 the goal of this act was to improve the abysmal water quality in many streams and rivers so that rivers like the one in Ohio would no longer be so polluted that they would catch fire. This act has reduced pollution by over 70%.

Despite all these benefit’s the GOP voted to strip the EPA of authority to set water quality standards or enforce the standards already set on discharge limits. They blocked funding that allows the EPA to protect swamps and run off water and even voted to repeal the restrictions on dumping pesticides into rivers and lakes.

To say they don’t want dirty water and air is a bold face lie and their voting record proves they do. They care more about corporate profits then their own children’s health but then again the pollution doesn’t really effect them as you never see oil rigs or drilling on their multi acre estate and they can drink bottled water and bill it to taxpayers as an expense. When they could not get away with stripping environmental protections away they did the next best thing and voted to cut EPA funding by over 5 billion dollars or over 40% of their budget. These are just a small portion of the over 300 anti-environment laws republicans have tried to pass so next time anyone like Sean Hannity or any republican tells you that they care about the environment just tell them to “prove it” because you can prove your argument since we know how republicans voted.
To me when you do a cost benefits analysis of profits over health - Health wins every time but sadly to republicans profits always win.

Why republicans are wrong on private sector vs public sector

How long have we been hearing the same old talking points by republicans, here is a look at some of the common talking points and the facts that prove them wrong.

1. Private sector can do it better and cheaper than the government

There are so many examples of this not being true, from private prisons costing more money and being less safe to the public but I’ll just stick with one, private military contractors vs. the military.

When we invaded Iraq we saw the explosion of private contractors, no coincidently a large portion of the money went to the firm that was run by the vice president. These contracts were being paid for things that our military used to handle like setting up bases, laundry, cooking and even security but unlike our military these soldiers for hire were immune from many laws including murder. Army sergeants would earn up to 200.00 per day in Iraq while their private sector counterparts cost taxpayers about 1,200.00 per day. When the military vehicles break down they have to be fixed but when contractors cars break down and in some cases just get a flat tire they abandon them and bill the taxpayers for a new one. Former high ranking Halliburton employees came forward that American taxpayers are being billed 45$ for each case of Coke and 100$ for each bag of laundry washed and pad an astounding 1 million dollars to house 100 Halliburton employees for 3 months in a luxury hotel as our brave men and women stayed in tents. The worst part is unlike our military these contracts are not liable for anything they do wrong including all the American soldiers who died in the shower because KBR used faulty wiring to save money while billing taxpayers for premium.

2. Government needs to stop picking winners and losers

We heard this when the story broke about Solyndra going bankrupt, yes the taxpayers lost 500 million dollars but what they neglect to point out is that the money going to green energy companies is a loan they have to pay back while the money going to fossil fuel companies is a subsidy that never needs to be paid back. Oil companies received over 8 billion dollars in subsidies last year alone and have been receiving government handouts and bailouts for over 100 years. You often hear republicans saying we need to end the loans for green energy companies but they refuse to even consider ending all the tax breaks for oil and gas companies.

While most green energy companies rise and fall on their own the fossil fuel companies have been helped out by government spending and inventions. The big thing in today’s oil and gas industry is fracking, it’s a controversial process that pumps poison into the ground to break the rocks so that oil and gas is released. It’s innovative and took years and millions if not billions of dollars to perfect but cost the private sector no time or money since it was invented, funded and perfected by the United States Government at taxpayer expense starting in the 1970’s so why aren’t we asking for that money back?

3. Private Sector Healthcare is way to go

This is the big lie, there are no facts to back this up only scare tactics. Every country in the world that has Universal healthcare pays a lot less then we do in America and sometimes ½ as much. The care is no worse then it is here and when you hear “why do people from Canada come to America” the answer is simple, because they can afford to. What they don’t tell you is that most of these people are coming for elective surgery that they can get in Canada and other countries but have a longer wait. What they don’t tell you is that when you’re feeling sick in Canada you can go to the doctor and get treated meaning that your cancer can be diagnosed early and treated before it becomes fatal.

Most of America’s insurance is spent on end of life care, something that could have been prevented if you were diagnosed and treated on time. You also don’t hear a lot of stories about people who choose to die because they didn’t want to leave their family homeless or bankrupt in Canada like you do here in America. More then 20,000 people die each year because they can’t afford to see a doctor or are denied life saving care by their insurance company. It’s a myth that the hospital has to cure your illness, there are plenty of stories about people who were left to die after the insurance companies denied their care, and having gone through this can tell you it puts a whole new light on the insurance and medical industry and anyone who watched someone die from a treatable disease to save private insurance money will tell you how horrible it is.

　

Yes there are some things the private sector can do better then the government but there are a lot of things the government can do better, faster and cheaper. If we had gutted the government like today’s republican party we would never have gotten the internet or several medications that have saved people lives. I find it ironic that people making 180,000.00 a year like congressmen and senators would say that the government can’t create jobs or wealth when to most people that much money IS wealth. These same people call someone down on their luck who may need food or medical assistance as “takers” while they will be receiving a government pension and healthcare for the rest of their lives.

How to Spot a Conservative

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Why Republican investigations are a complete sham and a witch hunt

It would be funny the fake outrage at these ginned up scandals being placed on President Obama if so many people didn’t believe everything the corporate media told them. Yes some are a big deal but the same party who is holding witch hunts now had no problem with them when it was a republican in the White House doing the exact same thing. Here’s a look at some of the “Obama Scandals”

　

Fast and Furious -

Tthe republicans claim that they knew nothing about gun running but in fact several of them including the lead investigator Darrell Issa voted for the program and again to fund the program. Why didn’t they call themselves to ask why they voted for the program and claimed they knew nothing about it. Nothing could be linked back to Obama so this quickly went away.

DOJ scandal

This one is simple, the republicans are giving up investigating this already and it’s being kept alive by Fox because one of their own was looked into. Republicans know that they can not link anything to Obama that the justice department does because they run independent of the White House. The DOJ keeps the president out of the loop in case the investigation leads back to the White House, the real scandal would have been if the President had known this was going on.

IRS targeting “Conservatives”

Yes this is a scandal if that’s what happened, how quickly republicans and conservative media forget that for 8 years George Bush used the IRS, CIA, FBI and Department of Justice to attack, investigate and harm anyone person or group that spoke out against him especially about the Iraq war or his war on terror. There was several accusations made that this was going on and republicans held no hearings because they wouldn’t investigate their own for the same thing. For 8 years liberal groups were audited, investigated by the CIA and FBI or worse if they were against the president, not to mention the right wing smear machine ruining the lives of Valerie Plame and The Dixie Chicks for not worshipping at the alter of the GOP.

Benghazi -

This is tragic and no matter how hard the GOP pushes or how often Fox gives false information they can not link it back to Hilary Clinton or Barack Obama and it’s driving them crazy. While it is tragic that this happened it’s not the first time including 200 Americans being killed in Lebanon and left to die under Reagan or several embassy attacks under Bush with 9 dead Americans and several foreign workers. None of those were investigated or blamed on anyone so what makes this president different then the 40+ before him?

I would have no problem with congressional investigations if

1. There were standards and the same thing investigated when a democrat did them would have been investigated when republicans did them. If Obama had authorized torture or destroyed emails, videos and other evidence after a federal judge ordered him not to he would have been impeached while Bush DID do those things and didn’t get investigated by republicans.

2. Darrell Issa was not in charge of ethics, the man has a shady past including car theft and is main suspect in his factory burning down so he could collect the huge insurance policy he had just taken out weeks before the fire. When the criminal is the judge you have to consider if it’s a fair hearing or not.

3. Republicans go on Fox and say things like “I have no proof but” or “I have a feeling” or my favorite “Obama knew I just can’t prove it yet”. This is before the investigations even started, the fact that they go in knowing what they want the outcome to be and dig, dig, dig until they try and find that outcome shows it’s corrupt to the core and 100% political. If they were honest they would go in with an open mind, ask questions then draw a conclusion and NOT go win with a conclusion then try to find the facts to verify their delusions.

　

　

How the Government helped banks screw hard working Americans out of their homes AGAIN

My parents bought a house in 2002, they were talked into taking out a mortgage in 2007 for 40,000.00 and figured they could use the money to pay off all their other bills. It wasn’t long before their 200.00 payment went up and after my father had his stroke leaving him mentally and physically disabled they fell behind. In 2009 HSBC Beneficial started their foreclosure and send a letter saying they need 5500.00 in full to stop the process. I saw the notice and wired them the money they requested (to their lawyer who was handling the case now). We didn’t hear anything and about 3 weeks later the money was returned to me in 11 cashiers checks for 500 each.

I called them and the lawyer told me that since they sent the notice that the total owed at time I sent payment was 5535.00 with interest and since it wasn’t full amount they couldn’t take it and would have to foreclose on the house. I contacted HSBC and they told me the lawyer had no right to refuse that and they would stop the foreclosure if I sent them the money. When my mother was diagnosed with cancer on St. Patrick’s day 2012 I took over paying their bills and was shocked to see their mortgage payments are now 706.00 a month on a 30 year mortgage for 40,000.00 and after 5 years of payment they still owed more on the mortgage than original balance.

I did my best to keep up but currently we are 4 payments behind with no hope or money to catch up. We got a letter from the independent foreclosure review saying we would be awarded a settlement for the banks actions from 2009-2010 and after seeing the chart we should fall in the 2,000.00 payment which would be enough to keep their home since we spent so much time and money making it handicap read for both them.

Now here is where the fun begins, I called Rust Consulting to see if my payment was sent out on April 12^th and they told me no. I then asked the lady if my 2,000.00 payment would go out anytime soon so I could use it to pay up the mortgage and keep us in the house and she said “I don’t know the date and can’t tell you the amount but can tell you it’s a lot less than that”. So we are getting the shaft and only getting the 300.00 check so I looked at how they decided this and that’s where it gets interesting.

The decision on which group you fall in and how much you receive was made by the bank that held your mortgage at the time, the same one who ripped you off those years. I thought this was odd so did a little more digging and the person who was in charge of this settlement left the OCC and is now at a high paying job with one of the banks. So that leaves us with the 6 billion in aid to troubled homeowners that the banks were supposed to put up and again the home owners were given the shaft by the big banks.

Turns out the banks don’t have to do anything until 2015 and that billions they were supposed to pay will only be a few million dollars. The banks got to write their own punishment again and the loophole is if they modify a 500,000.00 mortgage by reducing the mortgage 1.00 they get credit for the whole mortgage. That’s right if they knock 1.00 off your 500.000 dollar mortgage they get credit for the whole 500.00 against their fine while you get the shaft.

With both parents disabled and over 65 their only income is social security and w/ me not being able to work because they need 24/7 care that leaves us no choice but to walk away from our home over 2,000.00. While the bank gets loopholes to screw us again we get to live in our car but it’s ok because they will be sending us a 300.00 check for our troubles, as soon as they get around to it.

Americas Return to a Slave Nation

For 100 years after Abe Lincoln freed the slaves America has built a strong middle class and lifted people of all races out of poverty. Strong unions helped pass many pro worker laws and regulations that insured that hard working people were treated fair and paid for their services. This worked well until the 1980’s when Ronald Reagan rode into power, since then the corporations and republican party has worked non stop to turn America back into a slave nation.

The 1960’s and 70’s saw strong work forces and people making a good living working hard, factories were flourishing and people were living well even with one parent staying at home raising the family. Then came the 1980’s and corporate America installed a puppet in the White House and slowly began the genocide of the middle class, it was not done all at once but over time and slow so no one would notice.

1. Destroy the Unions and weaken labor - this has been done the last 30 years and republicans have spent millions on slandering unions in hopes of turning public opinion against them and making Americans forget all the great things they have done for America. Then came “Right to Work State” laws that allowed company workers to work in union plants and enjoy all the perks of the unions but not have to pay the benefits. This led to a rapid decline in membership from around 25% in the 1980’s to about 10% today.

2. Convince people that attacking the rich was a mistake because this was America and if they work hard and play by the rules they could be one of those rich people. This again is all talk as America ranks near the bottom in class mobility behind most industrialized nations. Like with many things in the GOP plan it has more to do with marketing than actual facts. Since the 1980’s peoples incomes have stayed the same while the rich have increased their wealth at record levels.

3. Put people into debt - With the “new” economy a college degree is a must, so most Americans have to get loans to attend even the cheapest university. After graduation that starts your corporate life with about 100,000.00 in debt and it only gets worse from there. Then you need a car and a roof over your head costing a large chunk of your income, add in health care costs and it barely leaves people any money and causes them to live paycheck to paycheck.

4. Cut the safety nets - Right now Medicare and Social Security allow seniors to retire and enjoy their golden years, this is the white whale of the republican party. If they can sever these safety nets then people will not be able to retire and will be forced to slave away until they are put in a grave.

With these steps the GOP master plan of returning America to a slave nation was underway, now all they had to do was get rid of all those pesky pro worker laws that unions got passed. Over the last 10 years you have seen a massive attack on those laws including a recent attempt to do away with overtime pay for people who worked more than 40 hours a week. There was even a recent attempt to justify corporations giving people cancer or other diseases if their “cost benefits” shows that it’s best for America.

This is why you will see republican fight to the death over things like Healthcare for all and raising the minimum wage, they are afraid if you save money and don’t need the health care you may not need to keep that job you don’t like. Millions of Americans stay in low paying jobs they do not like so their family can have healthcare even if it means they need to find a 2^nd or 3^rd job to put food on the table. This is also why the scream about the “takers” and “welfare state” because they don’t like the idea of people getting assistance and not having to rely on their corporate masters.

While Lincoln freed the African American from slaves Reagan and the GOP has spent 30 years trying to return to what they would call the “glory days” and allow corporations to control Americans. As long as they can keep us sick, uneducated and poor they can run every aspect of our lives and the day that people wake up and demand fair treatment for their hard work it will keep getting worse until the day we find ourselves working for food and needing a loan to see the doctor. We need to return to the days of strong unions and workers rights and stop watching the rich get richer and the poor hard working Americans being driven to an early grave. They want us to work until the day we die, sadly we hang on because in America no one can afford to die anymore because it will just leave their family and loved ones with more debt to pay for the funeral.

When you see or hear of republican laws being passed that they say will “create jobs” and help the “job creators” take a hard look at them and see what they really do. I’m betting it puts the working class further into death or danger while helping the rich get richer. When you hear them say “it’s about jobs” point out that it really isn’t but it’s about income. Slaves had jobs and unless we wake up we will all become slaves and that’s what republicans want the end outcome to be.

Who Really Ran up the Debt?

While I could make a case that most of debt run up today on defense is due to the failed policies of Ronald Reagan I’ll just stick with the facts we know and can prove.

　

Bill Clinton left office in 2001 with four years of surplus and the debt was projected to be paid off by 2009. So if Bush would have done nothing we would not only be debt free but have a huge surplus right now. When you say Bush added 5 trillion to the debt and Obama 6 trillion that is a flat out lie.

Bush - He did add 5 trillion in new debt but when you take into account that the debt was projected to be paid off when he left office you can add the original 5 trillion in debt to his total. Instead of having a nation debt paid off in 2009 it was 10 trillion dollars. Add onto that 10 trillion that by just continuing the spending from 2008 we would have added an additional 4 trillion to the debt so that’s a total of 14 TRILLION that can be linked to the policies of President Bush.

Obama - when he took office the debt was 10 trillion, by doing nothing it would be over 14 trillion dollars today just by keeping the policies that were in place when he was sworn in. today it stands at 16 trillion meaning he has added to the debt but only to the tune of 2 trillion. When he came into office the deficit was over 1 trillion dollars a year and this year due to spending cuts and a stronger economy it will only be 750 billion meaning he has actually slowed down the growth of debt and cut the deficit.

So using facts it can be argued that

President Bush is responsible for 14 Trillion

President Obama is responsible for 2 Trillion

The Real American Story

We hear how you can be anything you want in America and that may be true from people who can afford to get the education they need or from foreigners who are used to third world countries but the truth is that there is no “American Dream”. Most stories end like the one you are about to read and while it hasn’t been written there is no happy ending.

　

Background

Ruth and Robert had worked their whole lives and played by the rules, they never asked for or received a “handout”. Robert joined the military and served during the Korean War, sorry “conflict” as we would later find out it wasn’t a war. After getting out he married the women he loved and went to work in a powdered metal plant. Things were good and we were living the dream until the 80’s. After Ronald Reagan became president things started to change and you could no longer take care of a family with one income, with the prices of everything rising and incomes flat not most families needed both parents working full time jobs just to live the life they were used to. Ruth got a job at the same powered metal plant as her husband until he retired in 2001 at the age of 63 and having put in over 20 years of hard labor. In 2004 he went in for routine surgery and due to a medical issue came out disabled both mentally and physically. Ruth took up extra shifts and was working 60 hours a week or more until she went into the hospital on March 17^th 2012 and was diagnosed with colon cancer. Again thanks to a screw up by the doctors and hospital she spent 8 months in the hospital and now is permanently disabled and can no longer work.

In 2001 Ruth inherited an estate with 2 houses, 2 cars and about 200,000.00 in cash. While the estate was at the lawyers office the secretary spent the 200,000.00 in cash. When ordered to pay it back she wrote out checks for 165,000 which bounced so she was taken to court for the bad checks. The court ruled in Ruth’s favor and the women was given 7 years probation and ordered to pay back the money 150.00 a month. While there was no money and the it was being held up in court the bills on the homes and cars still needed paid so one of the houses was sold and a mortgage taken out on the other one.

Today

Today they both need constant care and need help doing the things most people take for granted like getting in and out of bed or going to the bathroom, Ruth has a colostomy bag which needs constant care. They went from living on their own and bringing in over 5,000.00 a month to needing assistance and living on their social security which is about 2,000.00 a month and while their income has cut in more than half their bills have only gotten bigger. After living over 60 years independently they finally bit the bullet and asked for some help just to find all the doors closed because they own a home and make too much money.

Asking for Help

First we applied for help with the veterans office and were denied because Robert wasn’t active during “war time” since Korea was considered a police action and not a war.

We applied to the welfare office for any assistance and got help for Robert with his prescription drugs and to pay a home care worker 3 hours a day to take care of him, this lasted about 3 years until Ruth had to apply for assistance. The inheritance Ruth had fought 10 years for was settled in 2011 and she officially inherited the cam which she gave to her son but could not put in his name because of the mortgage. The welfare office notified her that because of the camp she does not qualify for any assistance and because it wasn’t reported for Robert he would be dropped from any help himself (even though the camp was not owned when Robert filled out the paperwork). On top of that they still have the option of going after Ruth and Robert for any assistance he has received from them.

So now we are still paying all the bills that were paid when they made over 5,000.00 a month but have the added price of over 20 prescription between them which will no longer be subsidies through the welfare office and monthly doctors appointments and the threat of having the home care worker terminated. This has made me realize that working hard and playing by the rules doesn’t pay in America, you think your life is great but one sickness can take it all away from you. I often here politicians say America is the greatest country in the world but I say we could be but are far from it. Until people lose the threat of being homeless or having to choose between food on the table or pills in the cabinet we will always be a second rate country. You can not call yourself a great nation and turn your back on citizens who helped build and defend it while coddling and sucking at the tit of corporations and big business. When I hear people cry “ I build this” it pisses me off, without the generations who came before you who won our independence, built the road and bridges you wouldn’t have anything.

Instead of bragging about what you have and what you think you built how about helping all the men and women who worked themselves sick and are now suffering or the men and women in uniform who put their lives on the line day in and day out so you can buy a new plane or hire a new maid. Remember while you’re receiving a free dinner or drinks at a club because you’re rich or famous all the people who will go without food and children who will go to school hungry or sick because their parents can not afford to feed them or allow them to stay home. If you judge a country by it’s poorest and most vulnerable than America is far from the greatest country in the world and until people wake up and see that America is no longer “we the people” but currently “we the rich and powerful” nothing will