Disgusting!

[a nameless entity]

Oh yes, I am going to be watching this TV show on PBS in one hour. The same sort of thing is going on up here in Canada, especially here in the Northern Branch of the Rust Belt,Ontario.

Need to Know: Help Wanted
In its latest edition of "Help Wanted," coinciding with the release of the monthly jobs report, Need to Know revisits northern Ohio for an updated look at how many Americans WITH jobs are struggling to make ends meet because of the difficult economy. The show profiles: a teacher who was fired, then rehired at half-pay, and is now trying to avoid foreclosure; a factory worker with health problems who spent nearly a year and half without work before being rehired without benefits and for significantly less money; and a married couple who started their own contracting business but have little work and can't secure loans despite a very high credit rating. The couple suffered an additional setback recently when the wife had to undergo back surgery, further depleting their savings.
Duration: 00:26:46 CC STEREO

Here is the web page where you can watch the video:

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/need-to-know/

[Scify]

That how thing are here. I got raise this year after two year not have one.It $25 a month about calbe went almost $10 and power bill went up $10 ( now they talk raise it more).My sister help me out so I gave her $3 so that leave me $2.So my raise $2 after bills.

[a nameless entity]

I definitely hear you Scify.

Here's a short article. What's interesting, sad, dismaying, and etc about this short article is the numbers. And the article only mentions numbers for the auto industry, not all the others that have gone through the same thing.

I don't usually look at the reader's comments about news articles, but this time I did. There were some valid questions asked.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/story/2 ... eused.html

[a nameless entity]

This series is doing yet another show on this theme, and I decided to tell you all about it once again.

People are trapped in the poverty cycle and there is no way to get out any more, because most of the good paying jobs no longer exist. As we all know they were sent overseas, and will probably never return.

We are also all well aware of the policy of big box stores such as WalMart that pay their employees a pittance while they vacuum up billions out of the economy; assisting their workers who are suffering not by giving them a raise, or paying them a living wage, but by helping them to apply for food stamps instead. And if the employees unionize, the company would rather go to the immense trouble and expense of closing that store rather then giving people a break.

So this kind of attitude by the powers that be is why we have the situations detailed in tonight's show:

July 27, 2012 at 8:30 PM
Need to Know
RAY SUAREZ ANCHORS. In Need to Know's ongoing series "Hard Choices," we take an in-depth look at the difficult spending decisions facing the working poor. The show profiles one Newark, NJ family, who keeps a monthly financial diary detailing its expenditures, including the additional costs incurred by living in a poor neighborhood and by not using banking services available to them. Anchor Ray Suarez interviews Rachel Schneider of the Center for Financial Services Innovation and a lead investigator for the U.S. Financial Diaries Project. The "American Voices" essay is by Mae Watson Grote, founder and executive director of the Financial Clinic, which services the working poor.
Duration: 00:26:46 CC STEREO
http://www.pbs.org/needtoknow

Please remember that the exact same things are going on here in Canada too. I am not criticizing the USA; my target is the powers that be who allow this kind of suffering just so that they can further enrich themselves.

[Hermskii]

Taxing the imports and exports fairly will fix a big part of it and then reducing / removing taxes for companies that want to come home again will fix another huge part of it.

Getting rid of the damn "ILLEGAL ALIENS" could be the fastest and best thing we could do. Yeah, get rid of 20,000,000 people that aren't supposed to be here at all and watch and see how quickly our medical goes down, taxes would go down since we aren't feeding every one of them and giving them free medical care and education. Our kids grades and safety would improve. My auto insurance would drop and suddenly at least 10,000,000 jobs would become available. Let's do try this my way and when it fails then call me wrong.

All of these other countries in Europe are failing all over the place and behold they run themselves exactly how Obama is trying to run the US. We need a hard core radical conservative in office.

[a nameless entity]

I wish it was that simple.

The plain fact of the matter is that everything in the world is now being run by a few handfuls of oligarchs who own or otherwise control everything. They have no empathy with ordinary folks. It's all about money and power for themselves. They like things just the way they are. If you try to fix something and it would hurt them somehow, you won't be allowed to succeed. They pull all the strings. It costs big money to get elected, so they own all of the politicians. Through their lobbyists they write all of the laws for the politicians. They own the corporations and the banks. They have killed or let die most of the trustworthy news outlets. Soon everything will be as in Rupert Murdoch's empire. Newspapers, radio, internet, and TV that spout nothing but trash talk, propaganda, and biased reporting. They have control. They do what they want, when they want.

Assuming that they don't kill us all by destroying the biosphere (a very real possibility when you look at aerial photographs of what they are doing with the tar sands in Alberta, and the coal fields of West Virginia where they hack off entire mountain tops to get at the coal seams, -and realize that these two examples are being repeated all over the world!) then what we will end up with is a new global feudal system, with a handful of lords and ladies at the top, and everyone else a serf down at the bottom.

I predict that the next step will be to gradually replace the failing school systems we now have with so called "schools" that will teach "practical" skills to our children. They will be of the types that now exist in India and Pakistan that are really just a front for child labour sweat shops.

And YES, I am coming to believe that all of these completely corrupt and broken systems (financial, political, economic, etc.) bedeviling us are not just happening on their own, but are all being planned or at least encouraged to happen. Why? Because that is what they want. To be Kings. And Dukes and Duchesses, in control of everything. On a global scale. Why? Because they can.

[a nameless entity]

Well it seems I have finally caught up to George Carlin. Apparently he figured out all this stuff a few years ago. Someone posted this video on YouTube to grind an axe, but it is one that needs grinding, IMO.

[Hermskii]

Yep. I have to agree with a whole lot of that. I have to because of "Illegal Aliens" and let me explain this.

Republicans had full control of everything and didn't lock down the borders or remove the things that draw them here because they were lobbied not to for low wages and higher profit margins.

The democrats had full control of everything before to and did nothing because they want the votes of all of these people who want to have the government pay for their existence.

I am the middle-man who is actually paying for all of this being I'm not the man at the top pulling strings and I'm not the man at the bottom getting anything for free. I'm in the middle. The middle-man.

George got it pretty right alright but at least he was closer to the top and enjoyed a lot more things than most of us ever will. Some would say he wasn't grateful for what he worked for and earned.

[Terraniux]

[a nameless entity]

I am the middle-man who is actually paying for all of this

I'm not the man at the top pulling strings and I'm not the man at the bottom getting anything for free. I'm in the middle. The middle-man.

George got it pretty right alright but at least he was closer to the top and enjoyed a lot more things than most of us ever will. Some would say he wasn't grateful for what he worked for and earned.

The family profiled in the latest episode of "Need to Know" are stuck in the middle as well. They are trying to "move up" in the world, but their lack of sufficient funds due to low paying jobs and unemployment coupled with being disqualified for help with medical bills and other programs for the poor leaves them in a nasty hole.
It was true that they were not economizing as well as they could, but they were close.

I started to talk about what they were going through, but deleted it. Watch the episode if you can, instead. (If someone has to feel guilty about spending $1.50 one time during a month on a cup of coffee, then something is very wrong with the system. )

As far as George Carlin's attitude goes, if you watch some of the other videos that come up after the one in this thread is finished, you'll get a better idea of where his head was. Certainly his disgust with the way things are became very strong towards the end of his life, and may have overshadowed his other feelings.

*************
Nice find there, Terraniux. That senator sums up nicely what is going on in the whole world, as well as the USA. One wonders if the owners will ever be satisfied. Just how many cars, vacation homes, and etc do they need? They already have power. Don't they understand that after a certain point that it all becomes just an idea? What difference if you have 10 or 100 Billion in the bank? It's more than you can ever use for yourself. And "power" is illusory. If things ever get to the point where they "make all of the rules", people will just learn how to go through the motions and pretend to obey, while they live their real lives in the underground.

[Dragon]

WOW!! Some heavy chit going eh

[Helen]

I wish it was that simple.

The plain fact of the matter is that everything in the world is now being run by a few handfuls of oligarchs who own or otherwise control everything. They have no empathy with ordinary folks. It's all about money and power for themselves. They like things just the way they are. If you try to fix something and it would hurt them somehow, you won't be allowed to succeed. They pull all the strings. It costs big money to get elected, so they own all of the politicians. Through their lobbyists they write all of the laws for the politicians. They own the corporations and the banks. They have killed or let die most of the trustworthy news outlets. Soon everything will be as in Rupert Murdoch's empire. Newspapers, radio, internet, and TV that spout nothing but trash talk, propaganda, and biased reporting. They have control. They do what they want, when they want.

Assuming that they don't kill us all by destroying the biosphere (a very real possibility when you look at aerial photographs of what they are doing with the tar sands in Alberta, and the coal fields of West Virginia where they hack off entire mountain tops to get at the coal seams, -and realize that these two examples are being repeated all over the world!) then what we will end up with is a new global feudal system, with a handful of lords and ladies at the top, and everyone else a serf down at the bottom.

I predict that the next step will be to gradually replace the failing school systems we now have with so called "schools" that will teach "practical" skills to our children. They will be of the types that now exist in India and Pakistan that are really just a front for child labour sweat shops.

And YES, I am coming to believe that all of these completely corrupt and broken systems (financial, political, economic, etc.) bedeviling us are not just happening on their own, but are all being planned or at least encouraged to happen. Why? Because that is what they want. To be Kings. And Dukes and Duchesses, in control of everything. On a global scale. Why? Because they can.

Agreed.

[Hermskii]

Sure you agree King Helen! Pffft! LOL.

[a nameless entity]

More proof that George Carlin was right all along. Is there no end to their perfidy?

Moyers & Company: Suppressing The Vote
The fight against voter fraud is a solution in search of a problem -- documented instances of voter fraud these days are surprisingly few. Nevertheless, since the 2010 midterm elections, new election laws passed by Republican-dominated legislatures in 14 states have sought to limit voter registration or require photo IDs in order to vote -- identification that for many is too expensive or otherwise difficult to obtain. Such laws, according to a recent report from the Brennan Center for Justice "will make it harder for hundreds of thousands of poor Americans to vote." That's why some say the real goal isn't about fighting voter fraud; it's about enabling voter suppression. This week on Moyers & Company (check local listings), Bill talks to Keesha Gaskins, an attorney and co-author of that report, and Michael Waldman, president of the Brennan Center for Justice, about modern efforts to keep minorities and the poor in particular from exercising one of the most fundamental American rights. "When these votes come under attack by this level of partisan gamesmanship, it's completely inappropriate and antithetical to our history," Gaskins tells Bill. "This is a very real political issue, but beyond that, this is a real issue of real Americans being able to access and be self-determinative in how we're governed."

Also on the program, Bill talks with Anthony Baxter, director of You've Been Trumped! an upcoming documentary about Donald Trump's aggressive efforts to build "the greatest golf course in the world" along ancient sand dunes on the coast of Scotland. A veteran journalist, Baxter says what Trump and even local media are hailing an economic boon is actually a disaster threatening the environment and callously disrupting peoples' lives - a perfect example of capitalism run amuck, and how the rest of us pay the price. "It seems to me there's one rule for the super-rich and one rule for everybody else," Baxter says. "And the 99 percent of people in the world are tired and fed up of having money and power riding roughshod over their lives and our planet... Our planet, I don't think, can afford these kinds of decisions."
Duration: 00:56:46 TVG CC STEREO
http://www.BillMoyers.com

[a nameless entity]

Here's even more proof that the conspiracy theorists are correct. Watch this PBS program a.s.a.p. Here is an outfit that hides in plain sight, and is subverting the democratic process at the State level in the USA. They're getting their own agenda into place, and directing lots of public money to themselves at the same time.

I wonder what the equivalent organization is in Canada. There no doubt is one, as the same kind of things have been happening up here for years also. The provincial level Liberal government that I voted for has now come on board, and is acting to take away the collective bargaining rights of public employees. Which is the first step in taking away everyone's rights, it seems.

Moyers & Company: United States of Alec
This week on Moyers & Company (check local listings), "United States of ALEC", an unprecedented in-depth television report on the most influential corporate-funded political force most of us have never heard of - ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council. A national consortium of state politicians and powerful corporations, ALEC presents itself as a "nonpartisan public-private partnership". But behind that mantra lies a vast network of corporate lobbying and political action aimed to increase corporate profits at public expense. Using interviews, documents, and personal accounts, the episode explores ALEC's self-serving machine at work, acting in a way one Wisconsin politician describes as "a corporate dating service for lonely legislators and corporate special interests." In state houses around the country, hundreds of pieces of boilerplate ALEC legislation are proposed or enacted that would, among other things, dilute collective bargaining rights, make it harder for some Americans to vote, and limit corporate liability for harm caused to consumers -- each accomplished without the public ever knowing who's behind it. "All of us here are very familiar with ALEC and the influence that ALEC has with many of the [legislative] members," said Arizona State Senator Steve Farley. "Corporations have the right to present their arguments, but they don't have the right to do it secretly." "United States of ALEC" is a collaboration between Okapi Productions (the filmmakers Tom Casciato and Kathleen Hughes) and the Schumann Media Center, headed by Bill Moyers, which supports independent journalism and public watchdogs such as the Center for Media and Democracy, whose investigators are featured in the report. Also appearing on the Moyers & Company broadcast is Kathleen Hall Jamieson, the director of the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg Public Policy Center and founder of FactCheck.org, who talks about deception and truth in the 2012 campaign. United States of ALEC. Next on Moyers & Company.
Duration: 00:56:46 TVG CC STEREO
http://www.BillMoyers.com

Edit:
It does all seem to come back to what George Carlin had to say in this video clip from 2005. Too bad he died in 2008, probably just before everything went to hell. I would love to have heard what he would have had to say about everything that has happened since then.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acLW1vFO ... re=related