Well…just a normal sort of day yesterday, I did get to see T for a few minutes and that was nice but the rest of the day was just the boring regularity that is starting to drive me a little crazy. I need something different to happen but I don’t know what that is yet…if you have any suggestions, please let me know…my brain seem to be kind of clogged up but that’s not all of it…just can’t bring myself to spend any cash so that keeps me here…today will be better, though…I am doing the grocery run this morning and will be firing up the slow cooker for some country style ribs but don’t know what I’m making with it…..I guess I’ll just look to see what is on sale in the produce dept……I have been trying to eat more veggies and I am finding that I really like quite a few fresh ones….not much else to do today…K might be back from Florida so there may be a FF this aft…that would be a good way to start off the weekend but, as you know, weekends don’t mean a lot to those of us who aren’t working….I will have some topics for later since I do need to get going to make it to 60 for the month….of course, that’s not the only reason…I may even have something pertinent to say, you’ll never know unless you come back….
Monthly Archives: February 2011
Democracy died in Michigan yesterday…
Well….I am so outraged by the actions of the repub controlled house here in Michigan yesterday that I can barely think straight….democracy of, by and for the people died here with the passage of the emergency financial bill that would let appointed boards fire elected officials across the state. Yep, you heard it….this new set of six bills would allow non-elected boards, appointed by the governor to fire mayors, school boards, city managers and a whole host of other elected officials if the governor decides they are not toeing his cost cutting line. These thugs have nothing on the commissars of the old Soviet Union who regularly removed politicians that got out of the lock step of communism….these are the people that were elected on the guise of getting government out of the way? Well..with this legislation they can get people out of the way that don’t agree with them and yours and my votes no longer count here….where the hell is the outrage people? Where are you tea party…you who rode to election on the pages of the constitution just to tear it up once elected…if the previous governor had proposed anything of this sort and a democratic controlled legislature passed these bills, you repubs would have been out in the street with your pitchforks and torches screaming at the top of your lungs that socialism had taken over. It has here in Michigan….but more than that, it is totalitarianism; no different than any of the states in the middle east that are now in flames….and our Mubarak or Gadhafi is named Rick Snyder….
February 24th
Well…a weird day yesterday and some things happened that I really can’t share here….maybe in the future….I did take it easy for most of the day…didn’t meet up with T since she was just too busy….but that might happen today so there is something to look forward to….I am running out of food and should get some but don’t have any cash so I think I may just clean this place out first…should make for some really interesting meals but how do you put rice and noodles together? I could make chicken soup….not much to do today, as always, I just need to get creative to keep the boredom at bay….yow, this one is really choppy….so I’m going to quit here and try to shake the cobwebs out and make the brain work better….more later….
Manny is still a shill….
Well…just a short one to talk about something I read in the Detroit News by our favorite shill for the repubs, Manny Lopez. In this one, one of the things he bitches about is the media coverage of the protests across the midwest, and his rationale is that since there are only about 12% of the working population in unions, the media should not cover the protests of these “sign carrying, bullhorn toting” crowds. Oh, really Manny? You thought that coverage of events like these was just peachy when it was the tea partiers carrying the signs and toting the bullhorns, and at the time you thought it was wonderful uprising of ordinary folks “taking back their government”. What’s the difference here Manny? These are ordinary working folks trying to keep the government from taking away their right to collectively bargain and if this was happening at a tea party rally, you would be right there with them. This is just another instance where the right shows its intellectual and moral bankruptcy…funded by the Koch brothers….geez….
Why are people voting to give up their workplace voices?
Well….the attack on labor in this country continues with yesterday’s vote in the house to defund the NLRB, pushed by the repubs, of course. If you don’t know what the NLRB does shame on you, but I’ll give you a capsule here….it is the government organization that conducts union elections, but more than that, it rules whether business tactics like lockouts and intimidation of workers trying to organize are legal or not…one of the basic protections that labor has here in the US. One thing I just can’t understand is why do people keep voting for the repubs when they want to go back to the bad old days where workers were told to shut up and just cope with unfair labor practices and dangerous workplaces. I think I have to agree with some of my friends on this issue; that Americans are just getting more and more stupid as time goes on. When did people stop voting in their own economic self interest? I’m going to come back to this one in a bit…just wanted to get the idea down before I read the rest of the online papers….
this one is going to be a little disjointed because ideas are coming to me that way today….one that I did want to comment on was the Gallup poll from yesterday that showed that almost two-thirds of Americans want to retain the ability of labor to organize in both the public and private sector…this cuts across the entire political spectrum and raises another question for me: if the people that voted for the repubs don’t want this union bashing to continue, who are they doing it for? Really shows you that business is calling the shots with the repubs and the people that voted for them are just pawns in the con game they are running on the US….
February 23rd
Well…a fun day out shooting pool but can’t say it’s out in Ada anymore since the Victory club closed….went to a new place out in Cascade that was a little louder but fun….ran into a bartender that I know from years back and that was a little weird…some of the regulars from the V were there, too, which was another weird coincidence. I did win at pool even giving away 4 games and the tab was not bad….so it looks like we will be back there next week. Do feel a little crappy today but I think it’s more from not eating enough yesterday than anything else….not much to do today…might meet up with T later and that will be fun…but it’s a shorty or a drive by since she is so busy….other than that it looks like a veg day today…I will get to some topics later….gas prices are going to be one of them…they went up 40 cents a gallon yesterday and the speculators are having a field day….more later…
Hope is fading….
Well…a disheartening new twist has started to become evident in the job market over the past few days…if you haven’t heard, many companies have now made it policy to not hire anyone that is unemployed no matter what the reason for that person’s unemployment. It feels like someone just kicked me in the gut and the small glimmers of hope that the job market was improving have now been taken away….what are they thinking? I’m at a loss for words…and if you know me, that doesn’t happen very often….to quote Neil Young “the punches came fast and hard”…..
One thing that came into my head lately and that doesn’t have anything to do with the jobs thing…I guess it’s okay to protest if your are people that fox news supports…like the tea party, but anyone else that they don’t agree with are “cowards and thugs” when they protest for their own rights. I don’t know what is happening in this country…I think we’ve lost our sense of shared purpose..why can’t we progressive stand up for our rights? Why can’t we stand up to protect the gains that the working class has made over the past 80 years? Now, I understand there are abuses in some states by greedy workers that work scams to go on disability and double dip pensions, the majority of these public workers took less money to work in the public sector and should be appreciated for it.
February 22nd
Well…I did go out last night to a new place with G and it was one of these throwback lounges that I remember from my youth…updated with Keno so it was kind of fun…with the ice that was still on the roads…the old wreck was almost shaken apart and I felt bad for it….made it home, though, it was all good. Our Tuesday spot for pool just closed so Tom and I have to find a new place today…not too happy about that but that’s life, I guess. I did get my state taxes done yesterday so that will be some money coming in in a few weeks…might be able to make it through May now if things fall right but it would be better to find a job and get moving forward. Not much to do today…normal Tuesday stuff and resumes….and a few more posts that I will have for you today…there are topics that I have been thinking about that may come out today…who knows? More later….
Make no mistake, this is war…
Well….just did my state taxes and that put me in a kind of crappy mood, but I really don’t mind paying taxes to keep the society running…and this comes from an unemployed guy who is quickly going broke…so what is the excuse for the richies to not want to pay theirs? But, that’s not what this one is about….I just need to make sure you understand that the attacks on organized labor by the repubs is war, it is an attack on all of us that have tried to drag ourselves up out of poverty and have found that the only way you can stand against the moneyed interests in the US is to organize. I have some questions to ask those non-union folks who are so adamant that the unions have become greedy and unresponsive to the needs of todays economy…do you like your 40 hour workweek? Do you like your employer paid health insurance? Do you like your vacations? Do you like your pension or 401K match? Well…all of these are a result of the unions standing up for all of the workers here in the US…not just their members. All you right wing union bashers out there, do you think your companies would just give you these things out of the goodness of their hearts? If you do…you are even more delusional than you sound in the message boards. Make no mistake….emboldened by the billionaires who bought this last election for the repubs, these same repubs have been told to wage war on labor and the middle class…it’s a take no prisoners game in which all of us need to decide what side we’re on….billionaires or your neighbors and friends..geez…
February 21st
Well…did the world end yesterday? I made the mistake of listening to the weather and it appeared for a while that we were all going to die a slow, cold death. Then, I looked out at the car this morning and it’s covered with 4 inches or so of snow…another snow storm…not the winter snowpocalypse that was predicted. At least we are getting toward March and this stuff will be over soon. It was a normal sunday…no SF since K is in Florida and I didn’t really do a whole lot…the Wings won in a shootout and the Woods brothers won Daytona which was pretty cool; they were a huge team when I was growing up and the gold number 21 on the side of the car brought back some good memories. Other than that….pretty much a veg day and that was okay. Not much to do today….have to keep working on the resume so I can find some kind of work pretty soon….there should be topics for later…the Protests in Madison chould be one…and one thing struck me…they interviewed a 20 year old tea party supporter…how can that be? Are all of our youth getting that stupid that they buy into that fake organization bankrolled by the Koch brothers? I fear for this country when the ideas of 20 year olds have ossified to those of a pissed off 50 year old white guy…geez…more later…