I Am The 99% / WE Are The 99%

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Ariah's response to the person holding this sign is spot on. 
Click to see Ariah's post on Facebook.

I couldn't even afford college.  The "30+ hours at barely above minimum wage" thing absolutely did not work out for me.  Eventually it became a 40+ hours a week, full-time job that I had to take so that I could have health insurance and I could afford to NOT live with three other dudes.  I worked that knee-wrecking job for 10+ years.  Every three years, I'd have a nervous breakdown because our Union contract would be up for negotiation.  I was ready to strike, and often voted against ratifying contracts that I felt were absolutely unacceptible.  But, I was terrified because I was still only able to live paycheck-to-paycheck, especially if I wanted to save any money for retirement (by this time I was nearing my 30s).

After 10+ years of seeing the company (desperate to increase share holder value) constantly expect more and more work, from fewer and fewer people, and fight during contract negotiations to reduce our already minuscule "cost of living" raises and demand that we pay more out of our checks for healthcare, I had to do something.  I was in my van at work one day, at the end of a 12 hour day working in the snow and mud, and I realized that if I put in 12 hour days doing something that I loved, there's no telling how much success I could achieve.

I took the penalty and withdrew the money from my 401k.  I had a modest home recording studio.  So, I took that and my savings and opened my own recording studio business.  From there, I also started an independent record label.  So, now I own two businesses and work way more than 40 hours per week.  And, my businesses are both struggling because of this economy.

****************FULL DISCLOSURE*****************
My wife has a very good job.  She works in the healthcare industry.  But, she's one of the good guys.  She's bringing hospitals into the future.  She's implementing Electronic Medical Records, which will make healthcare safer and less expensive.  But, anyway, she's got a great job and the money she earns can pay our living expenses.  But, we're nowhere near the 1%.  We pay a shitload of taxes and we damn sure can't get any elected politicians on the phone.
*****************END DISCLOSURE*******************

My businesses, however, are still operating month-to-month.  It's very hard.  And, it's because of this god damned shitty economy!!  There aren't a lot of people these days who have a lot of money to make a record.  Hell, there aren't a lot of people these days who can afford to buy a record!  In fact, the only industries doing really well these days are those that provide necessities.  Oil.  Healthcare.  Everyone gets sick.  And, the current system makes that very expensive...  and, very profitable.  Technology.  It's 2011.  The internet is necessary.  And, people have to hustle so hard to earn a living that they're tethered to their job by technology.  Food.  Corporate farms are doing A-OK!  

I really hate to sound like some nutty conspiracy theorist, here...  But, it sure looks like keeping us all as poor as possible eliminates any sort of disposable, or as the Republicans like to say, "discretionary" income.  What this does, is it actually DESTROYS small businesses.  And, it further concentrates wealth into the hands of titans of those various "necessity" industries.  So, we're all working harder, making less money, and giving most of it to the corporations that own the politicians who make the policy that keeps things that way.  It's fucking robbery.  It's destroying communities and culture.  It's turning us against each other.  It's maddening.

From the money we have left, we have to surrender a (often) higher percentage than the millionaires and billionaires, for taxes that will then be spent embarrassingly disproportionately on things we don't even believe in, like wars for profit and bank bailouts.

I'm a small business owner.  I can see very clearly that the corporate agenda has NOTHING AT ALL to do with helping small businesses.  I know what we're up against.  A level playing field should be our demand.  WE are the 99%.

Extremists?!?!

I'm so sick of hearing about how the biggest problem in our political system is the "radicals on both sides"... This is such do-nothing, bullshit rhetoric from "journalists" and "pundits", who have a vested interest in CONFLICT. There may exist, somewhere in this world, a "radical left". But, I challenge anyone to show me where radical leftists have proposed legislation that while serving their political interests, is not in the best interest of our economy. Equating the "radical left", which has been marginalized by mainstream media for years, with the Tea Party Republicans, who are the current darlings of both the mainstream media, and the MAINSTREAM REPUBLICAN PARTY, is asinine. When people talk about how the country is really made up of Centrists, who are turned off by the bickering of the two major parties, the FACT that's always conveniently ignored, is that the current Democratic Party IS the centrist party that everyone is dreaming of.

Another Journalism FAIL

In this article in the Washington Examiner, the author (hack), Christopher Taylor goes to work defending BIG OIL.  He starts, hilariously, by quoting President Obama who called for congress to  "take immediate action to eliminate unwarranted tax breaks for the oil and gas industry and use the dollars to invest in clean energy."  The next sentence is where it gets hilarious.  

"Usually these tax breaks are referred to as 'subsidies' by the press and Democrats who point the finger of blame for high gas prices at oil companies."

"USUALLY"?!?!?   Usually, except in the speech he quoted, and the line he used to start his piece.   Jeez...   

Another HACK piece to be sure.

Most Republicans are Tasteless, Tacky Assholes

"The Pima County (Arizona) Republican Party's decision to raffle off a Glock 23 .40-caliber handgun has generated some sharp criticism because not only is Pima County part of Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' district, but also because the gun used in January to kill six people and wound 13 others, including Giffords, was a Glock."

Now, if you are a Republican, I'm not saying that you're definitely an asshole.  But, you're definitely surrounded by them. 

The Truth About Jobs in Texas

Oof....

Working Poor

Excellent NYTimes piece on "New Resentment of the Poor"
Y'know...  these poor people who receive the "Earned Income Tax Credit" aren't the mythological "lazy, poor-by-choice" unicorns that Republicans imagine them to be.  They're WORKING POOR.  To get the tax credit, you have to be working.  

So, maybe instead of being enraged that these poor souls "don't pay any income tax", maybe the Republicans should be enraged that all of the "job creators" whose loopholes and tax cuts they'll risk the entire world economy to protect, AREN'T PAYING THESE WORKING POOR A LIVING WAGE!!!!

What's equally enraging is the number of people who aren't wealthy who go to bat for these assholes.  It's just amazing how easily these Republicans can convince poor people to hate other poor people.

Journalism FAILURES

Aww, man....   You'd have to be a pretty sick fucker to even imagine all of the horrid things that I wish would happen to Dick Cheney.  He's the result of what happens when a slimy bastard gets everything he wants his whole life, and somehow manages to never be questioned or called out for the shitty things he's said or done.

The former VP is currently doing publicity for his new book.  I saw a clip from an NBC interview, where the interviewer seemed quite proud of herself to have asked Cheney if he still supports the decision to water board (torture) SUSPECTED terrorists.  He said, "yes".  No apologies.  She then reminded him that he's one of very few people left in the world who still view water boarding as a legitimate interrogation technique.  She thought she stuck it to him.  But, he stubbornly stuck to his guns.

After that, the clip I was watching ended.  I can only assume that from there, it went on to another topic.  What I can't figure out is, why isn't there one fucking "journalist" who's smart enough to ask the appropriate follow up question:

Mr. Cheney, if the Taliban were using water boarding to interrogate captured U.S. troops, would you still consider it a legitimate interrogation technique?

It's so frustrating that he's never asked this question.  He manages to survive every interview with his smug self-righteousness intact.   And, it's because journalists aren't intellectuals anymore.  They're pretty faces, suckling at the teat of whatever corporation signs their checks.  Heaven forbid they ask a tough question and the next time Cheney writes a book, he only grants interviews to Faux"News"...

Give me one question, and I could bring that crusty, evil bastard to his knees.  I'd crush his seldom-challenged, logically deficient philosophy in a single question.  And, I wouldn't even need "enhanced" interrogation techniques to do it.  All it takes is the balls to ask a tough question.  

It's too bad that Obama is so content on "moving forward" and not "looking to the past" (except for economic policy, war policy, etc...)   This is the kind of question that would no doubt be asked if torture and potential Bush Administration WAR CRIMES were being investigated by Congress.  And, I bet that Cheney's attempt to answer this question would be one of the most famous moments of any Congressional hearing ever.

Cheney will die before anyone (who actually gets to interview him) ever gets the courage to call him out on this bullshit.  It's just too bad that Hell doesn't really exist.  Cheney's gonna get off easy.