Why We need to Clean House in Congress

I don't know how many times I have heard the lament of why can't they see something as simple as tax loop holes need to be closed for huge corporations that make billions, reward the top MEN with millions and pay NOTHING in taxes. I think it is about 50 times a day. The principle is simple. If you and I are working our arses off to pay our tax bill and seeing everything around us falling apart, why shouldn't they be paying SOMETHING.
And yet, that simple idea seems to not go over our Tea Party Republican's heads, it flat out bounces off their auras and never makes it to their consciousness. It is as though something that simple doesn't exist. Now, I am going to explain why this has happened and why it CANNOT BE REVERSED.
Yes, there is no hope for them nor the millions of people who bought the Tshirts, waved the signs on the street corner, burned their Medicare cards and then fell off the curb and wound up in the ER trying to figure out how to pay the bill without Medicare. The Great Tea Party  made certain there were plenty of pictures and they would be repeatedly plastered all over creation and the reason isn't because you poor cattle were so darned cute and photogenic. It's called brain washing.
Here is how it works and the experiment is over 35 years old. You can look it up. It is a famous one.
Back in the old days at the beginning of the end of segregation, the feelings about interracial dating ran very high. Getting caught with the love of your life who happened to be a few shades darker than you could get you beat to death, particularly if you were the light one, female and in the South. Light coloured African Americans were actually afraid to be seen with their darker relatives in some places.
So, a group of psychologists decided to see if they would change this core value. Yes, this ingrained learned behavior is called a core value because it is at the core of what controls your personality and behavior. They took a random group of students (nothing is random in a psychological experiment, we have every contingency covered) and identified which students were vehemently against interracial dating. Then they took a bag and filled it with white and black marbles. Everyone reached in and randomly (the bag is divided into two compartments so the selected student from the group is a plant and controls which color ball you draw just by shifting their fingers on underside of the bag.) drew a ball. If you got a white ball you had to write a short essay on the cons of interracial dating. If you got a black ball, you had write an essay on the pros of interracial dating. If you were vehemently against interracial dating, you got the black ball. If you were really pro it, you got the white ball.
A week later they tested the core values of the group again and discovered that a few of people had slightly changed their stance to a more or less tolerant view of interracial dating. They then took the vehement anti interracial daters aside and appealed to their superior intellect and took them into the experiment. They were going to see if they could influence their weaker minder associates to be more pro interracial dating then they would have a good laugh later over a couple of beers, just for fun.
How do I know all this? Research for my master thesis on femiphobia required I come up with accurate testing for core values and the first aspect of that experiment required the determination of a person's core values regarding interracial dating. It was considered to be the premier testing protocol. I used it in my experiment with some reworking though my experimentation had nothing to do with changing anyone's ideas about anything. There is no FUN in psychological experiments except for most of the researchers laughing at how easily you are manipulated. I gave people recliners in my experiment, they usually dragged the most uncomfortable chairs out of the lab they could find, but I digress.
What they now needed to do was read their essay to the group as convincingly as they possibly could. They even gave them acting tips. It was all one big joke except they were the joke. Just about every other "student" in the group was a member of the research staff playing a role, deriding them and forcing them to act better.
The results of the experiment are simple. The student vehemently opposed to interracial dating significantly changed their opinions to being more tolerant and even pro. However, the shocker was 6 months later when the most anti interracial dating subjects began to date inter racially and thought it was their idea. They had many very good reasons why they was now doing it and even refused to believe they were ever totally against it. Hey, they had the essay to prove it. They couldn't have written that essay if they really, secretly, didn't believe in the goodness of interracial dating, now could they?
None of the students in this experiment maintained their previous stances.
Let me summarize this technique and I fully admit, I have used it very successfully in my life. You take someone and just for fun, by a bribe or by tricking them, you get them to publicly make a statement that they will or will not do something that is really against their ideals and even plain logic. Then you wait and after a few weeks of people telling them what a good job they did and a few pats on the back, they build a nice house on the river Denial and move in and lock the door.
How is this used? A prime example is the constant "witnessing" required by Fundamentalist sects where you have to approach strangers and reaffirm your "faith", stand up in front of the whole group in Church and affirm your loyalty to the "faith" or sign an open pledge of no more taxes that one man is going to hold over you and later tell you what he meant by the pledge AND make certain the pledge, your signature, picture and information is plastered over the news media and the internet 24/7 just to remind you of your position.
There is no way these men can vote for anything that Grover Norquist doesn't approve as not being a "tax increase". First off, to be a politician you need an ego as big as the state you represent. Secondly, you don't need to be a rocket scientist, the opposite; man of the people, Joe 6 pack is preferred. Third, you have to believe you are always right and you MUST have been right when you signed that idiotic pledge without reading the fine print or knowing who you were signing up with for life. Any other thought creates an imbalance in the psychology of the person causing them to be at war with themselves and we all know, politicians actually sleep at night though we have no idea how. Going to war with yourself causes a psychological breakdown and psychosis, none of which are necessarily a bad thing if you want to control someone.
As to those poor people waving signs on the street corner for the tea party having no idea that the original tea party was instigated by a bunch of plantation/slave owners, who actually had more representation in the British government that average British citizen, but had found the import tax on bringing their finished cotton fabric back into the colonies was hurting their profit margin so they paid some idiots to throw perfectly good tea into the harbor to get the average tea drinking worker to join in their fight for "lower taxes on cotton...errh...tea". Does that sound familiar to you? That's why you really do need to study history. Somewhere the organizers of the Tea Party are having a really good laugh at you, because they know everything I know. The only problem is this time instead of tea, you threw the whole country, grandmom and granddad, your kids and grandkids in the harbor without a life preserver. Nice work.....someone is rolling on the floor laughing at you and I have to admit, I am having a good giggle myself.
The bottom line is, we have to get these men out of Congress because there is NO HOPE for them. They are tainted material. They cannot be SAVED. It is over for them. They will NEVER vote against anything Norquist labels a tax even something a silly as a brick wall. The odds of throwing them out of Congress...hey, buy a lotto ticket. The odds of winning are better. By the way, there is no hope for the sign wavers on the corner until the "party" doesn't need them as cannon fodder anymore. Then they go on the scrap heap with the rest of us. The only way you get admission to the Norquist Club is by blood. Money won't even buy you an introduction, but there isn't a politician out that doesn't think he and his family has a life time membership. Silly Fools. Your job is to serve. Never forget that because they won't.

Christian Witches

At first glance it sounds like a bad joke. At second glance it becomes a bit more sinister. By third glance you are ready to hide the Books of Shadows. Let me explain and start by saying, Wiccans first became public many, many years ago when Sybil Leek published Diary of a Witch. Her reward was a canister of mustard gas lobbed through her hotel window by a "Christian" on the first stop of her US book signing tour. It would be the final contributing factor to her death much later.
The second wave of publicity or coming out of the closet actually started in 1973 to 1976 and I was in the front lines and that is very accurate description of it. It soon became apparent that we had 4 types of people seeking immediate admission to our religion.
1. Cure everything wrong with me and my life by waving your magic wand.
2. I really hate tithing to my Christian Church so I am coming over to you for a free ride and the sex.
3. I want to get even with (fill in the blank) teach me some curses. Or better yet, do them for me.
4. People who were genuinely curious and felt a strong connection to Earth and her many facets.
Sadly, the latter group was vastly out numbered by the first 3.
Sadly, the reasons haven't changed in the past almost 40 years nor have the proportions.

It was very soon after becoming known as the Witch of Broward County (I was no means the only one nor the "highest ranking"), actually, I am a Druid but that distinction was lost somewhere, I was approached by a very few people with the prospect of could they be Christian and Wiccan. My first answer was, WHY????? This very concept was as foreign to me as my becoming a Christian.

Then I carefully explained something they should have known. Christianity, no matter what the sect, demands you believe in ONE GOD, although they say God the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost (they don't believe in ghosts) and you accept Jesus Christ as your personal savior and man's place as having dominion over earth and all its creatures.
Is it possible to get more diametrically opposed to Wicca??? Wiccans believe in multiple GODS and, gasp, Goddesses. Wicca is Matriarchal. Wicca firmly accepts that no one can "save" you but you. You are 100% responsible for your actions, no one can wipe your slate clean and you will answer for ALL of them in the next life or other life. Druids believe in a Universal Force expressed in all aspects of creation that is neither good nor bad, it simply is. In both religions, mankind has no position different, neither subsidiary nor superior, to all of the expressions of the Goddess or facets of the Universe.
No, you can't have it both ways. You can't be half baptised any more than you can be a little bit pregnant. Either you buy the whole package or you are neither.

Then the guilt trip began ending with the "what are you hiding trip". I am immune to both of those, so don't waste both our time. I have learned that anytime someone tries to guilt me into doing something for my own good, it is for their good, not mine. Within in weeks I would begin to hear rumors, that were later substantiated, that this person was either up to no good in the "coven" or they were practicing the decidedly dark aspects of magic. In many cases, Wiccans who took the guilt trip and let them into the group found their group totally broken apart within months.

I cannot help but think of the various Fundamentalist Christian Groups like the Family and Seven Mountains, that use the technique of infiltration to destroy and take over the government, business and I suspect, other religious groups. I have heard laments from good Christian folk that their churches were taken over by these people before they had a hint something was happening and they were out on the street looking in at all their hard work and sacrifice no longer Christian enough for the hierarchy. The very fact that someone wants to keep one foot in the "Christian" door indicates at least one of three things.
1. They do not want to commit to Wicca.
2. They are frightened and want to make sure they can run back to Christianity and claim they never really left. Look, I still have my cross!!!
3. They are maintaining dual citizenship while attempting to destroy one or the other.

In either case my friends, the question is whether you want to admit these people to your group. A coven is based on trust. If you do not trust each other, you cannot work effectively together in magic. Can you trust someone who is openly straddling the line or are you going to sacrifice the work you need to be doing to convince them weekly to come over to your side? A coven requires stability to function. If it becomes a revolving door you need to rename yourself a library. Without stability again, you cannot work magic. Everyone's head has to be on the same topic to work together. Five of you can't be doing a healing spell while one is trying to curse someone or is really uninterested in what is happening and just gathering information.
My mind goes back to the Golden Dawn and how they were actually trying to win a magical war for the Church of England and Christianize magic while getting rid of the "hedge witches". IS this happening again? Time will tell my friends, but I know I am not going to waste my time teaching people who have no real interest in committing to be Druids and want to have the door open to run if they think the going gets rough.

What are you eating?

That is a question we have been asking a lot as of late. Neither of us may actually know. However, I can relate my experience.
I began to buy organic meat and cheese. The biggest eye opener was the hotdogs. You have always wondered what was in them. Well, my cats will not eat hot dogs. When the organic package of hot dogs was opened, they threw themselves at the refrigerator and they ATE them. We had plenty of what were all "natural" hot dogs left. They refused to touch them even after George fried them for them. Not only that but they refused to touch the grease. They lapped the grease from the organic hot dogs.
Last night I made the mistake of getting the package of organic ham out, well almost out of the refrigerator. Bat the Cat is an old cat, reaching 12 now, and he doesn't move so well. He was balanced on the refrigerator door grabbing for the ham package. I had not opened it yet. I did manage to get piece of ham out and stuff it rapidly in my mouth. I knew I had to chew and swallow fast. I ran to the bathroom and washed my hands in the smelliest soap I own. Only then did I feel safe returning to the bedroom and the sleeping Napoleon.
When I arrived at the bed, Napoleon was unconscious. He was on his back, mouth open and tongue vibrating in and out as he snores. Okay, I am safe. I started to get into bed when I saw his nostril twitch. Suddenly the entire nose was twitching and the eyes popped open. He is looking around and settles on me. I know my hands are well washed so I sit down. Next thing I know, I am French kissed by a cat. Next time, I brush my teeth.
These are the same cats that don't want anything to do with the dry cat food if it sits out for a couple of hours. I point this out because some 8 hours later I awoke to another assault on my mouth by the same cat. That will teach me to sleep with my mouth open. His name may be French but this is ridiculous.
What else have I noticed?
We have an epidemic of obesity and I am one of the casualties. I have tried everything to lose weight. Nothing helps. Nothing works. I am always hungry and snacking on something. I do try for fruit. After two days of organic meals I noticed something amazing. I AM NOT HUNGRY. I can eat a normal portioned meal and 2 hours later I DO NOT WANT A SNACK. I am not hungry. I do not wake up in the middle of the night hungry. I am chewing my food.
Why you ask is that important? Digestion and the extraction of nutrients begins in the mouth. This stuff they market as food loses its flavor in a couple of chews and you swallow and go for more of the burst of flavor just like the old chewing gum that quickly lost its flavor and the next thing you knew, you had an empty pack in your hand. The Big Food Industry just transferred that technology to your food.
Not only that, but when was the last time you were not hungry? I don't mean full, popping the buttons on your pants and uncomfortable full, I mean not hungry. Even in the state of I am going to explode if I take another bite, the desert cart still looked pretty good, didn't it? Well, that doesn't happen to me now. I truly am NOT HUNGRY. I do not want anything on that cart.
This is after 3 days of not touching their fake food and it is fake food. Real food doesn't make your body constantly crave more food. So what are you eating? Darned if I know. I am pretty darned suspicious that GMO's, genetically modified organisms, are not confined to Round Up. They may be blocking your ability to absorb the nutrients in "food" and hence the hungry switch never gets turned to off because you aren't getting anything but FAT eating it.
Let me explain. Your body is smart. It knows how much of what you need. If the food you are eating is genetically bankrupt or blocked of the real nutrients you need, you keep craving more food to try and get them. Just because it looks like an apple doesn't mean it is an apple as the many folk who bit into the wax apples when they first came out can attest.
This leads to the next step. Organic Packaging is pretty darned safe to be what it says. However, organic doesn't cover GMO's. You can be getting organically raised GMO food. We aren't going to see the  labeling of GMO's any time soon. The happy little really plump Tea Party Republicans didn't want to over burden the food industry by requiring they tell us we are eating fancy cardboard. Ever notice how our rich friends aren't part of the obesity trend. Do you really think they spend 8 hours a day in the gym and starve themselves to stay thin? Just a few things you might want to consider. Since I have been a peon in the upper 1%'s employee, I can tell you that even back then, I wondered why the bits I was allowed to eat tasted so different and I was pretty darned sure it had nothing to do with the chef. I can cook that well. I just didn't know why when I stayed with them, I wasn't hungry. I can tell you they never went through a drive through or ate at any restaurant that was a chain and laughed at the "newbie rich" that did. I guess you have to have membership in the old boys club to get the memo about where to eat and shop. You also need reservations.

No More Frankinfood!

I have been neglecting my vow to buy organic and found my energy level was hitting in the minus numbers. Thus, BJ's got in a whole line of organic lunch meat and cheeses plus fruit and a few veggies.
The first thing I bought was the smoked turkey lunch meat. It was delicious. Later that night, I thought I would eat another piece and as I got it out of the fridge, the cats attacked. I mean they attacked. They were screaming and throwing themselves at me. I just managed to get the piece in my mouth as Bat the Cat snagged a scrap hanging out of my mouth. It is a little too pricey to feed cats.
Tonight we went back. I have been feeling a change in my energy level in just one day. They had hot dogs. So, I bought them even though George was complaining we had hot dogs. When he opened them cook them, Mr. Finicky Himself, Prescious, started screaming for a hot dog. The cats WILL NOT eat hot dogs. I don't care what the brand is, they won't touch them. Prescious gulped (hey, he is close to 30 so we make allowances) his piece down. This is a cat that has refused everything but tuna for almost a year and human tuna at that.
Then we had the feast. Dear Goddess, I have not tasted a hot dog that good since I was a kid. Now I know why we have bowel problems and acid reflux. We no longer chew our food because after a couple of chews, it turns to cardboard. I savored every chomp of that dog!
I don't care what I have to give up. There will be no more Frankinfood going into me.
As soon as it gets out of the 90's, the garden gets planted and if I have to put plastic over it to protect it from the government spraying, I will. I am buying organic heirloom seeds and saving seed for next year. I already grow all our herbs, but I will be expanding it this year. I bought two old fashioned herb drying racks cheap from CollectionsInc.com.
You have no idea how well you are being poisoned and how good real food tastes. I had forgotten.

The REAL reason the upper 1% aren't getting a tax increase.

The 50 Richest Members of Congress (2011)


To determine the richest lawmakers, Roll Call adds up the minimum value of total assets reported by each Member on their annual financial disclosures and subtracts the minimum liabilities. Percent change refers to the change since last year's disclosure forms.

An asset valued at $5 million to $25 million is counted at the lesser amount, as is a liability valued at $1 million to $5 million.

You can visit previous editions of 50 Richest lists here.



1 Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) $294.21 Million

2 Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) $220.40 Million

3 Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) $193.07 Million

4 Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) $81.63 Million

5 Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) $76.30 Million

6 Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.) $65.91 Million

7 Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) $55.07 Million

8 Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) $52.93* Million

9 Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) $45.39 Million

10 Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-Fla.) $44.21 Million

11 Rep. Jim Renacci (R-Ohio) $35.87* Million

12 Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) $35.20 Million

13 Rep. Rick Berg (R-N.D.) $21.60* Million

14 Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) $21.18 Million

15 Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-N.J.) $20.35 Million

16 Sen. James Risch (R-Idaho) $19.78 Million

17 Rep. Gary Miller (R-Calif.) $17.45 Million

18 Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) $17.00 Million

19 Rep. Kenny Marchant (R-Texas) $16.45 Million

20 Rep. Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.) $15.46 Million

21 Rep. Mike Kelly (R-Pa.) $11.90* Million

22 Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.) $11.60 Million

23 Rep. Richard Hanna (R-N.Y.) $10.89** Million

24 Rep. Scott Rigell (R-Va.) $10.69* Million

25 Rep. Diane Black (R-Tenn.) $10.63* Million

26 Rep. Tom Petri (R-Wis.) $10.60 Million

27 Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) $10.38 Million

28 Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) $10.35 Million

29 Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) $10.28 Million

30 Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) $10.14 Million

31 Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) $9.88 Million

32 Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) $9.84 Million

33 Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.) $9.43 Million

34 Rep. Nan Hayworth (R-N.Y.) $9.35* Million

35 Rep. Shelley Berkley (D-Nev.) $9.29 Million

36 Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.) $9.23 Million

37 Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) $8.53 Million

38 Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-Texas) $8.51* Million

39 Rep. John Campbell (R-Calif.) $8.44 Million

40 Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) $8.18* Million

41 Rep. Steve Pearce (R-N.M.) $8.03* Million

42 Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.) $7.94* Million

43 Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.) $7.93 Million

44 Rep. Bill Flores (R-Texas) $7.71* Million

45 Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) $7.41 Million

46 Sen. Kay Hagan (D-N.C.) $7.06 Million

47 Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) $6.56 Million

48 Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) $6.47 Million

49 Rep. Randy Neugebauer (R-Texas) $6.21 Million

50 Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) $6.00 Million



* Indicates a freshman Member of Congress. Roll Call did not calculate percent change from forms filed as candidates.

** Member has not yet filed a disclosure form this year. The number here is based on the last available data, a disclosure form filed last year when he was a candidate for Congress. This information will be updated.

A Suess Joke/poem

Dr. Seuss 2012: I do not like this Uncle Boner, I do not like his Budget scare. I do not like these dirty crooks, or how they lie and cook the books. I do not like when Congress steals, I do not like their secret deals. I do not like this Boner speaker, I do not like this 'No WE CAN'T..I do not like these Budget Cuts, I'm smart, I know the RICH aren't hurt. I do not like their smug replies, when I complain about their lies. I do not like this kind of hype. I do not like it. nope, nope, nope!!!

by Janice Scott-Reeder

New Old Economy Joke

Feel free to pass it on.

The economy is so bad that I got a pre-declined credit card in the mail but Bush gave the CEO's of the Bank a two billion dollar per person bonus with TARP and my tax dollars. CEO's are now playing miniature golf. They bought the miniature golf course so their kids wouldn't have to play with the middle class riff-raff.  Exxon-Mobil laid off 25 Congressmen and just bought the whole Republican Tea Party at a discount. Angelina Jolie adopted a child from America, since it is now a 3rd world nation. Motel Six won't leave the light on anymore, they were attracting upper class homeless. A picture is now only worth 200 words and was further downgraded by FOX news to remove all truth. They renamed Heaven "Wall Street", sold fake mortgages on the gold bricks and upped the entrance requirements to having a net worth of at least 2 million dollars in liquid assets. It's in the bible, just ask Palen and Bachman. Finally, I called the Suicide Hotline and I got a call center in Pakistan and when I told them I was suicidal, they got all excited, and asked if I could drive a truck. I said no, gas is too expensive since the Arab's dropped theoil prices and the Oil companies didn't have to pay taxes any more.

The greatest unused resouce...

As I hit 60, I noticed I became one of the invisible people, relegated to the retirement area and considered senile. As it happens, I am neither retired nor senile and I have the doctor's report to prove it. So there!!
We are at a crisis in this country. The only way to get more jobs is to get more money into the economy. If we cut government spending, we cut the jobs created by that spending and no matter how much the Tea Party wants you to believe it, it will not create private sector jobs. The private sector is just going to farm those jobs out to India, China and the rest, just like they did our jobs and caused this cute little Depression. Anyone with two firing neurons in their brain should have figured out that neither business nor the rich intend to help us.
Local tax revenue went down the toilet with property values. That has created a huge deficit in needed services.
We are in expensive wars on three fronts and if we bring our troops home, we bring them home to no jobs. Keep in mind, most of these troops are reservists that will be returned to the private sector the moment they are brought home.
Every time we cut the Pentagon's spending, the huge multinational corporations that supply them, simply use it as an excuse to close American factories while happily profiting on the remaining Defense Spending Contracts using overseas labor and factories.
So, what do we do?
Well, first off, let's just forget the old big government is bad government. No one but the government is going to do anything for us, if we can kick them out of their lethargy and imaginary world.
Instead of bringing our troops home to no jobs, let's bring them home to repair our infrastructure. It is a miracle we don't hear of bridges collapsing every day or is it because they just got washed away in the last flash flood. It doesn't look like we own a levee in this country that will hold. Our roads are so bad it's a miracle any of us have tires left. There is plenty of work and the government owns the roads so let's fix them. All those paychecks will immediately return to local business for food and shelter and not take a quick trip to the Cayman Islands like they do when the rich folk get their hands on them. Heck, I think most of our currency is now bilingual. Some of it only saw the USA when it was printed.
Step two, we have a huge population of elderly that are capable of working a few hours a day or week for money. Let's put them back to work. One place they are sorely needed is the school system. we need to educate our children beyond passing a standardized test. Let's use them as tutors. Most of us actually remember how to read and write and do math. These skills tend to be very useful in life, a lot more useful than filling in the little bubble with a number two pencil.
I have even thought of a use for the dreaded Condo Commandos and they are going to love it. Most schools had to give up their "Resource Officer" who was an off duty cop. Can you imagine some kid trying to get something past one of those eagle eyed Condo Commandos? The halls would be safe by sundown. Those kids would be marching to a really different drummer. Bullies, hey meet what you grow up to be and they have the power.
Seniors make great teachers' aides. We remember how to schedule, organize and pick out the kids that need help that the teacher just doesn't have time to do. Not only that, but kids need interaction with us old folks, some of whom are in their second childhood. Those displaced executives took all the greeter jobs at Walmart and you can sit down in a classroom.
We make great information people in government offices as we not only know where every restroom is but all the best gossip. Put us at the front desk and I guarantee, efefficiency will improve because no wants to everyone to know what they are doing and we are the best broadcast system in the USA. No more hiding around the coffee machine. That becomes our territory.
There are even some old ladies that would gladly help out with day care. Most of us even know how to cook. We make great servers and you will eat your broccoli.
Being well past the romance stage, we aren't preoccupied with finding a date. There is no need to drug test us, because we are taking drugs, loads of them, so live with it. We can't afford the illegal ones. We may not be able to hear well, but we shout well. So, let's use that resource. We might even tell those kiddies some stories about how to survive the Great Depression. I'm sure that information will come in handy later in their lives.

a Suggestion for all working age Floridians

Where's the Soup Kitchen?

I know most of you are loath to take me seriously, but this time I suggest you do. Take 750.00 and put it in a savings account. No matter what happens, do not touch the money. Maintain a working laptop computer even if it is an old one. Buy one land line phone and have it ready. Go through all the social media web sites and don't just set your home page to private, but you might want to delete them all together, particularly if you like to play games at home or post pictures. Do not go near a web site that has alcohol, drugs, health information or children's pictures on it.

Here is why.

In June, Governor Scott in a plan to make Florida more corporation friendly, signed a law restructuring Unemployment Benefits and lowing the cost of unemployment compensation for businesses (the big ones anyway). The money to make up the difference between the cost of the program and income from businesses has got to come from somewhere and since it is funded solely via money from corporations, it has to come from denying claims. Less money means there have to be fewer claims.

Attorney Rita Pitassi of Boca Raton has seen her caseload quadruple (4 x's, 400% increase) in the last few months because people whose claims shouldn't be denied are being denied. The appeal process is "cumbersome and intimidating".  Now you know the real reason those employment figures look like there are jobs being filled when all you see around you are layoffs. People are simply being kicked off the unemployment roles, they are not getting jobs.

The first thing you need to know is that an employer has one full year from your date of termination to contest your claim or in other words, to build a case against you once you are terminated. The new law allows the employer to use evidence of activities that occur off the job. Hence, you had better delete those Facebook Pages really fast. If you play games, they can claim you were addicted to games and wasted time on the job even if you never played on the job. Hey, most of these games are available on your phone and if not, others are. Embarrassing pictures from that party with beer mug in your hand? Now you have a Drinking Problem. Make sure your friends aren't tagging you in  pictures when they post them. Then again, with face recognition software, the point is probably moot. They can find you anywhere on the web. You can bet your sweet little internet page they will be using professionals to investigate you. So, you might want to get off the internet social sites completely. You also want to be very careful of pictures taken at events on cell phone cameras and up loaded because of that pesky face recognition software. Remember, the original purpose of computers was to process huge amounts of information really, really fast. They do it really, really well.

Now $500.00 of that $750.00 is for a lawyer. When your claim is denied, you will need a lawyer to fight it and that is the minimum fee. There will be no free legal help because that budget has been slashed to nothing and you can't do it yourself. The people who will be hearing your claim will be keeping their jobs only by denying your claim. The state can then demand all the money you have received from unemployment compensation back and after a year, that will be a minimum of $12,000.00.

The Laptop is to file in the form in the first place and every 2 weeks there after and to apply for jobs. You are not going to be able to maintain that expensive Uverse or Cable after your job is gone and DSL is expensive. The way the state web site continues to crash, dial up will not be an option for filing your biweekly claim, Why should they upgrade the site when the system needs you to fail to save money??? You are not going to be able to fill out pages of job search information on your fancy cell phone without a single error which will cause your claim to be denied. Yes friends, all it takes is one little error or typo on your online form and your benefits instantly disappear, now. You need a highspeed connection and the library limits your time on the computer. If the state site crashes in the middle of your submission, you will not have time to start over and have to get in the back of the line. Huge numbers of people submit their applications on the same day. Imagine that line! You are going to need spending money, for some coffee at least, to buy internet time at a local hotspot and you are going to need a WiFi enabled laptop. You also need something to keep detailed records of every job application and what happened with that application as every week 500 people are randomly selected for an "eligibility review" that can go back to the first day you were approved for benefits. Initially you have to undergo a skills assessment, on line, which can take an hour to fill out depending on your typing speed and computer savy. Hint: whatever you do don't say you will consider part time employment even if your kids are starving. That will get your benefits terminated instantly and you may discover you get a bill in the mail for the benefits you have already used for food. Questions on the review according to Sunday's Money Section of the Sun Sentinel include:
What is the lowest wage you are willing to accept?
How many miles one way are you willing to commute?
They are trick questions because you might be willing to work for minimum wage down the street but be willing to travel 30 miles one way for a really good job. Remember gas prices....
No, I do not know the right answer to these questions.

Now for the purpose of the additional $250.00. You are going to need that for your transport and drug test to get on welfare right after the state denies your claim. There is no system in place to return the money to you and even if it is instantly credited to your debit card when you pass, the question is going to be: how long will it take to get results and the card? Remember, you are applying. You don't have a card yet. I know how fast the test can be done, but how fast will it be done, the results submitted to the state and the state acknowledging them and then returning the money to you after they send you your little debit card, probably by snail mail. Considering their jobs depend on not paying benefits, my guess would be: really, really slowly.

You have created a new world with the last election of the Tea Party. You had better get ready to live in it because things will never be the way they were ever again. You are now guilty until you can prove you are innocent and they have the money, the people and the technology on their side.

The Last Picture Show

Many years ago when I was working in a psychiatric office and being cheated out of 60 grand a year, I had a particularly rough week. I dealt with chronic pain patients, for whom there was no hope, and drug addicts, most of whom read like a top of the list cast for politics, medicine and corporate America in SoFl. I actually managed to help the chronic pain patients, a lot of which were workman's compensation cases. Companies are not big on safety. Then one of the workman's comp injured drunks (a normal qualification in the construction trade) in an effort to keep his benefits as he had 3 kids, claimed in court under oath that the reason he stopped coming to therapy was I had forced him to remain in a chair when he was in extreme pain to finish the session. The exact opposite had occured. I had tried to stop the session numerous times because he was in pain. However, I was not called into court or questioned and was suspended from working with workman's compensation clients with no review: nothing. No one in the office even bothered to tell me what had happened. I found out through another patient upset their therapy had been cancelled.
So, as I sat in my professor's office, I was not only pretty down, but I just didn't feel like I could finish the week. Here I was, working full time to pay for my graduate courses and going to college full time to get the degree so I could get a better certification to help my clients. I was just plain tired. Some nights I just fell into bed too tired to kill myself. But I managed to get up every morning and start again. I was having a really hard time coming up with a reason not to quit and go back into a higher paying field like advertising.
My professor took out his wallet and said he wanted to show me something. He put a hundred dollars on the desk and then he showed me a picture of what had to be the most beautiful baby I have ever seen. Now, I have to admit, I do not think human babies are cute. I think they are down right ugly little red faced prunes that should have bags over their heads, but that's just me. This kid was gorgeous. She had curly blond hair, huge blue eyes and a toothless smile that lit up the whole photograph. He said, "This is my daughter." The next picture she as about 6 years old, dressed up like a little nurse (her mother was a nurse) and all smiles, ready to tackle the world. The next picture she was graduating from elementary school and once again, all smiles and eager to explore the new world. The next picture she was getting an award from future scientists in her best dress, all smiles but now tinged with a touch of ambition. Then there was a picture of her in her cheer leading uniform. The next picture, she was in cap and gown graduating from high school with honors. She had a full scholarship to an ivy league university I won't name as I am sure they would sue me but let's just say, you don't get in there without a 4.0 average, great clubs and community service.
The final picture he flipped to was a filthy under wieght woman with an obvious heroine junkie hanging on her like he owned her. "Who is that?" I asked
He looked sadly at me. "My daughter. She sleeps on the floor of a filthy efficiency apartment she shares with 3 men. I am going to take that $100.00 and buy her another microwave because someone stole hers. I know she will just sell it and buy drugs."
"Then why buy her one?" I knew he made less money in a month than I made in a week and half.
"Because I keep hoping one day I will see the girl in all those other pictures," he sadly answered. "I don't know where or if we went wrong. We followed all the best advice in raising our kids. They got out of high school with brilliant futures in front of them. She is an addict and my son has been going to college for 10 years and doesn't even have a BA."
I had known this man's parents. I knew him for going on 25 years. He had treated a list of people that read like the who's who of literature, politics, psychiatry and religion. I would sit for hours just listening to the stories. He was not a bad person and nor was his wife.
Then he looked at me and said, "No child writes down under what they want to grow up to be: drug addict. No one wakes up one morning and says - I think I'll get addicted to drugs today. You and I do this for all the parents, grandparents, brothers, sisters and friends, who like me, want to see that brilliant, smiling child they raised instead of the addict that now inhabits their body. We know that as long as there is life, the drug has not won. We are the only thing they can barely trust. We don't know what went wrong, but we are learning the skills to fix the problem. That's why we do it and that's why you are getting up and going to work. You did nothing wrong and any judge that will take the word of an addict as truth in court is an idiot and if you will give me his name, I will call him and tell him that. You are one of the few talented, good ones. You are needed." 
With that I went off to work and my clients raised so much Hell at Workman's Compensation, I was reinstated a few weeks later.
I have never forgotten his words. "No one gets up one morning and decides to be an addict." I saw people addicted to drugs they were given by doctors who really didn't know they were addicting people to drugs. The drug company rep said it was safe. Some doctors did it to keep the patient, and his fat insurance policy, coming back every week.
Some people became addicts because they were in excruciating pain and just wanted to be able to walk to the bathroom by themselves.
Some people tried that drug because they lived in the "projects" and between the wailing babies, fighting couples, gun fire and police force that wouldn't even come into the boundaries of Liberty City, they gave up and drugs were cheaper than alcohol. They just wanted an hour of peace. You have no idea how many times I heard that one sentence.
And some, like his daughter only committed one sin. She fell in love with an addict. Oh, she didn't know he was an addict. She came from a sheltered home where her parents worked to protect her from the world. When he said, "try this. It won't hurt you and you'll feel better." She committed the second sin of trust. An ivy league university is a pressure cooker demanding your attention to classes 24/7. People crack in them because the counseling services are underfunded but the football team is worshiped. She had the gene, the genetic predisposition to addiction. All it took was one dose and she was hooked. I bet the addict was really disappointed when he found out how much a professor makes.
Now, let me destroy one myth for you as the vice squad used to come to me for readings. Addicts are not pushers. Pushers know what their product does and they are not taking it. Addicts are used as mules to carry the drugs to the customer and the money to the pusher. One cop said it was like sweeping a floor. You round up every addict delivering drugs one day and the next day you get to sweep a new batch up because the pusher has an unlimited supply of mules. Once the police department could confiscate the property the drugs were found on whether the owners of the property had anything to do with the actual crime, it became a very profitable floor sweeping with all sorts of nifty toys for management to play with and sell to their friends at auction. That was the day, they lost all interest in ever arresting the real pushers and stopping the drug trade. It was just a profitable an enterprise on both ends. Unfortunately the toll on the innocent in middle was astronomical but hey, you should be familiar with that.
You get drug tested for minimum wage at a crappy job and the CEO making the 2 million dollar bonuses at the top never gets drug tested and take it from someone who has worked in the penthouse office, is snorting a line on his thousand dollar desk pad several times a day. He even has a private bar in the office stocked with more net worth booze than you make in a year. One of those crystal glasses is your weekly salary. But you are peeing in a cup with someone watching....Yup, you are real bright.
Pass some more laws to get the poor people drug tested and make them pay for it. Some day, you will be the poor person without a job and I bet you aren't going to find it very funny or fair.

Many years ago I lived in a small Banana Republic......

And I might point out it came with the best of intentions. First you over throw a vile, pedophile of a dictator whose second in command makes the Marquis de Sade look like a fluffy bunny . Then you try to institute democracy. In a country with a 89% illiteracy rate and years under a dictatorship to where most of the people remember nothing else, instituting a democracy is impossible. No one knew that. But in the process, I learned how a dictatorship and a totalitarian government comes into being. It is an interesting, slow, insidious process.

I bet you thought it happened over night. Nope. Someone might take over in a coup overnight, but you don't get the people to willing submit that quickly. It takes time. Let me give you what I learned along with some parallels you are not going to like, but hey, that's your problem now. You are at Step 5.

The first step is to get people to willing give up their freedom for protection. You need to convince them of either an enemy (in this island nation's world, it was a nearby island that might invade at any moment) to focus on or general lawlessness. Now, in this case, no one ever bothered to ask why this nation would invade or how exactly they would get there. Since they were relatively unknown to the island's people, they just assumed they were all blood thirsty villains. Parallel: 9/11 The actions of a small group of people are magnified into the invasion of 3 separate countries and in the process serves as the biggest recruitment drive in the Taliban's history. They had trouble getting people to notice them before that point much let alone, join.

Once people become used to searches (airport and private security), surveillance (traffic cameras: in the name of safety) and invasion of their privacy (all communications in the workplace being monitored) in the name of security, you move on to step 2. Step 2 is convincing people they will be punished for the actions of a few. This starts innocently with something like drug testing to get a job.

Now you might have said, whoa, I don't want to be working with druggies. Let me ask you, do you need to take a breath-a-lizer test each morning on the job? No. That's because alcohol is an "accepted" drug and yet it impairs a person just as successfully as pot or any number of drugs. Not only that, but if the person can produce a prescription for the "drug" they can have the job whereas the person without the prescription can't have the job. Are you beginning to see how really silly this whole thing is? You are getting no security or added safety, just a forfeiture of your rights and false sense of security and safety (which may prove to be a lot more dangerous). The person next to you can have a coffee mug full of whiskey they are chugging and be gainfully employed whereas the person who smoked a joint at home in his off hours last week is denied a job and welfare. Yes, it is that simple.

Step 3 is getting the people to do the work for you. You get them to inform on each other. The first step is allowing anonymous complaints. Most municipalities are already doing that. Anyone can call building and zoning and claim your grass is a half an inch too high and a city inspector has to come out to your house and investigate the complaint. Since no one knows who filed the complaint, fear and suspicion abound. You don't want to know your neighbors because one of them is causing you all manner of problems and I guarantee, after the inspector drives all the way out to your property, he/she is going to find something, somewhere wrong and it may not even be on your property. Most corporations permit anonymous whistle blowing as long as it isn't about their activities.

Step 4 is plain and simple fear. Now you don't trust those demons from the other country and your next door neighbors and really don't trust the guy in the cubicle next to you. You are in a permanent state of stress and you are now isolated. Isolated people have no power. They can't organize because they are afraid of each other.

And, there is a Step 5 and you really aren't going to like this one. You are already being bodily searched and Xrayed at every opportunity to make certain grandma doesn't have a bomb in her diaper. You submit to drug testing just to make a dollar or get that welfare check you need (of course you have to be able to afford the drug testing in the first place but that is beside the point and have transportation to get to the doctor and the lab.) just to feed your kid. You are scared to death to let anything in your yard or house look different from everyone else's because your neighbors are watching and turning you in to the authorities. You are being monitored and fined by traffic cameras with no due process or even a human involved. You have a GPS in your phone telling anyone who hacks into the system where you are 24/7. Your purchases are tracked by "frequent buyer cards" and even your credit card company. And then to add insult to injury, you send your kids to school where they discover a quick and cheap way to get back at mommy and daddy for not letting them stay up late. They drop by the couselors' office (the door is always open and the counselor is friendly and youthful and understands) and they tell them you are not "patriotic enough". Maybe you forgot your flag lapel pin that week. It doesn't matter, you just bought yourself a quick trip to the local detention facility without doing anything and guess what, you are ALONE. No one is coming to help you. You may be the person who turned them in. You may be a plant in the Condo. You may be the problem at work. You are the druggie even if you never took an aspirin in your life. You are now the enemy and they will vilify and stone you to death to prove their patriotism. STEP 5 IS A REAL BITCH AND SHE'S RABID.
Guess what friends! You are already there and you welcomed it. Test those mythical welfare druggies so they don't get OUR MONEY.
Let's all forget they paid taxes, too.
Let's all forget there are laws in place to deal with them right now.
Let's all forget that the real welfare cheats aren't druggies because it takes a clear head to run a scam now-a-days with computers cross checking everything.
And while we are at it, let's all forget that Reagan emptied the mental hospitals so the insurance companies didn't have to pay for people getting the care they needed. Let's all forget he made it impossible to get the needed medications because if you were out of the hospital you obviously were functional and now couldn't get the money to buy your meds. Of course, you got out the door because you were clear headed on the meds you now can't afford.
Let's all forget the thousands of veterans who arrived home from Viet Nam addicted to drugs and now get thrown off the welfare roles. There is no help available for rehab unless you can afford Betty Ford. Try that on Welfare.
 Let's all forget the thousand of veterans coming home each year in pain who wind up self medicating because they are forced to take an honourable discharge in place of a medical discharge or they can die in a VA hospital. Those are the choices. Agent Orange wasn't dangerous so we sprayed our troops with it. It doesn't cause neurological damage and pain. The government told us so.
They pulled that one on my father in the Korean War. Florida so aggravated his asthma during basic training, he was suffocating. So my mother got a call from his VA room mates to come and get him while she could. She rode a train, by herself, to Tampa where she found him unable to get out of bed and the CO sitting there with a clipboard. Either he signed the papers for an honourable discharge or they let him die in that filthy bed, no air conditioning and mosquitoes by the thousands. The men in the ward took up a collection to pay for his ticket to PA on the train and they managed to get him in a sleeper car so the conductor wouldn't think he had TB and throw them off. Oh yes, my friends, our country treats its veterans really well. So plaster that yellow ribbon on your profile because you support our troops as long as they are overseas.....when they get home, well they are the filthy druggies in the woods without jobs and medical care you want shipped off so you don't have to look at them.
Don't forget, I used to treat them. I know.
Now, they can't get a job and they are going off the welfare rolls really fast with drug testing. But, it's so easy to hate those druggies that are robbing us blind and forget they are people, with real stories and once they had real lives just like you and me. That is, before they grew horns and became disposable.

Let me humbly suggest you look carefully in the mirror each morning because you never know when you are going to be next. Drug tests aren't fool proof. They produce, gasp, FALSE POSITIVES. Once you get one, you are labeled forever. It will propagate through every government system. It won't matter how many times or years you test negative. That ONE POSITIVE is on your record, forever. And by-the-way, I will be laughing my cute little ass off. Hey, 10 years working in a psychiatric office, I know all about those false positives. They are more common than you think and could be as simple as the muffin you ate for breakfast last week. It's a common flavoring in cereal, bread and cookies.
I got a false positive at Walmart because my body temperature in a toasty 96 degrees which trips the urine test because my urine is just as cold. I had to get a blood test. I guarantee you, the government isn't going to give you a blood test to prove your innocence. If I hadn't had a sterling resume with Fortune 500 companies on it, medical experience and two degrees (and been willing to work for minimum wage), I wouldn't have gotten that blood test, either.
So, keep thinking about those welfare druggies and the 50% of the prison population that is druggies (the other half is illegal immigrants) and waving that flag and those little signs, because your turn is coming up sooner than you think.
How much do you trust the government? They are the testers.....

The Anti Immigration Propaganda's Hidden Agenda

You thought it was all out in the open. People strolling across our borders, taking our jobs and ruining our economy. They should all be rounded up and placed in concentration camps or shot. Heck, they can even get driver's licenses and buy our houses. They attend our schools and use up our resources.
Funny how no one ever mentioned that to do any of these things you need a little thing like a Social Security Number or a Green Card.
Someone please tell me how destitute Americans can't get medical care and yet those immigrants are supposed to be lounging in our best hospitals getting pedicures. The bottom line here is they can't. It is a manufactured "crisis" just like all the others: the "Deficit", the oh, just fill in the blank.
The only job an illegal immigrant can hope for is washing some rich guys toilets, picking vegetables or fruit, cutting grass or working at Walmart. Hey, it was on FOX so it must be true about Walmart.

Point number two would be: how easy do you think it is to cross the border? Two sides of the country are bordered by water, three if you include the Rio Grande River. That means Big River for you Latinaphobes who are afraid learning a few words in Spanish might forever taint your DNA. I lived in Texas on the Rio Grande and regularly traveled to and fro from Mexico when I was 5 years old, that was 55 years ago. It wasn't easy to get into the US then. It is even harder now. Why do you think all those people die every year abandoned in the desert locked in trucks and vans? If you could just stroll across the border, they wouldn't be spending their life savings to some coyote to kill them in the desert or cramming into a rickety boat and sailing across dangerous seas to Florida. Then there is the Canadian border. We don't seem to have a lot of  Canadians fleeing from that socialist state to join us. The main danger seems to be our elders trying to sneak across from this side to join Canada. Maybe THEY need a few more road blocks. and fences.

So why are we being made to believe immigrants are stealing into the country in the dead of night to take our jobs, homes, women and children? Well, it has to do with a huge Australian corporation called Serko which has its roots in RCA  who was bought by GE (who pays no taxes) and is run by a Pentecostal Christian releasing a new gospel record to a store near you.
Serko is the world's largest supplier of prisons and detention facilities and thing you really don't want to know about or you may not sleep tonight. In an America only too glad to pass off prison management to the private sector (or management of anything to the private sector), Serko is the private sector. But prisons, even those with the beds placed in the toilets to increase "efficiency and profit" and a high "suicide rate among teenagers" aren't as profitable as detention facilities for an already docile group of people who have no rights, even to a lawyer: our demonic immigrants. They are much less trouble than people who really are criminals and violent to boot. Heck, these people can't even speak English.

So when you wake up to how you are being led by the nose down to the handbasket and stuffed in it, call me but my guess is you will be enjoying one of those beds in the toilet of a detention facility first. After all, can you prove right this moment you are a US citizen. Perhaps you had better get that birth certificate tattooed on the part of your anatomy you think with most of the time. But, you know, that might be fake, too....can you prove it's real? Seriously, can you?