Monthly Archives: January 2012

American Homeless Being Treated As Criminals?

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Imagine yourself with a good job, a decent hourly wage and health benefits as a perk of your employment. (Like the good old days.)  The thought of becoming homeless never occurs to you. Being homeless is always something that happens to somebody else, correct?

Now add to the above, yearly paid vacation time and sick leave. You have the job and the benefits that the homeless can never dream of.


You have money in your checking account and your savings account and there is at least a month’s wages stuck away safely for emergencies. That is far more than any homeless person could ever have, right?

Your children’s college tuition is secured by their college fund. Do you know of any homeless people with a college fund?  No?  You are lucky! Darned lucky!

You live in a modest ranch-style home on Loopy Lane and your front yard is lush and well manicured.  The dog lives happily out back and there are two cars in your garage.

You know that you are firmly established in the American Middle Class and you feel good about Life, your home, your job, your two and a half kids, the dog and everything.  You have your piece of the American Dream and it seems like nothing can ever take that away from you. You feel you, your family nor your dog will ever have to worry about being homeless.

Then one day, you discover that your workplace, the very manufacturing plant where your Dad and your Grandfather worked their entire lives and raised their families, is being closed down and your job is going to be sent overseas because “The Company Has To Remain Competitive.” (The company wants to obtain the services of people willing to work for slave wages and no benefits.)


You can’t pay the mortgage and you deplete your savings trying to do so. Then it is necessary to dip into the kid’s college fund to make ends meet and soon that is gone as well. You can’t keep up the car payments so the cars get repossessed. You can’t make the mortgage payment so the house gets foreclosed. The wife tells you that she can’t live like this anymore and leaves you, taking the kids with her. Of course, you still have to help support the kids with what little you have in your pockets because there is nothing else left.


Soon, the bank puts that yellow ribbon around your home and later, you sit under a tree and watch the strangers who bought your place at a steal moving their furniture into the premises that you once were so proud of calling “Home.”


You?  Why… you are homeless now!


You went to all those “Agencies” that you once gave your “Fair Share” to– you know the ones… the ones which were supposed to help you out if you ever needed a hand– remember them? Of course, you filled out all their paperwork in an attempt to get some assistance and you were finally told, “We haven’t got anything for you.”


So, you are now living in a box and eating out of a tin can beneath the bridge at 114th Street and, occasionally, you spend the night in a public shelter for people like you and sometimes you get lucky and have a meal at a mission work downtown somewhere. Other than that, you have to depend on the kindness of strangers as you ask whether or not they might spare a dollar. You are homeless.  You are starting to be made to feel like a bum or something, right?


Things feel a lot different now than they did when you had it made, don’t they? Those policemen who once seemed to be your jolly good friends are now following you in a cruiser and telling you to “Move Along” if you happen to fall asleep in a park under a tree or something– the same park you once paid for with your taxes when you were working, before the Right Wing greed mongers destroyed your job and you became…homeless! (Can’t repeat it enough times.)


If you are like most homeless people, you soon learn that if you get caught asking strangers for a hand out, those “Friendly” Law Enforcement Officers might just get nasty with you, put the cuffs on you and treat you to a couple nights in some filthy jails somewhere for begging and panhandling.


What?  You tried to tell them that you were once an honest, hard working taxpayer who served seven years in a combat zone in some Conservative-generated war somewhere and that you have had a streak of bad luck and you need a break?  How well did they listen to you?  Did they mace you?  Did they whack you up against the side of the head with their night stick? Did they throw you on the ground and man-handle you? 


So now, the reality of your situation sets in, right?  You suddenly realize that you can’t just sleep in a public space somewhere regardless of the fact that there are no facilities for the homeless in the place where you find yourself.  You find out that if you do get caught “Napping” in public and you are homeless, you are going to either get the living crud beat out of you or you are going to jail.


You want to know what I am talking about here?


Ask anyone connected with the Occupy Wall Street Movements.  I am sure they will be glad to detail their experiences for you.


You know what is so strange about the way America is beginning to treat Her homeless people?  The strange thing about it all is that the very people who are being such A-wads right now are the very same people who can quickly find themselves homeless too.  But, they just don’t seem to want to believe that for one reason or another. (“It will never happen to me.” Yeah, right!) Idiots!


I guess we can forget things like the First and the Eighth Amendments to The Constitution if we are homeless, right? Those Amendments must apply to someone else except the homeless. It is reported that many Cities in America are getting to be downright “Mean” in their approach to the plight of the homeless. There are police sweeps being mounted that result in injury and the loss of personal property and these sweeps are reportedly getting more and more militaristic in their scope, tactics and nature. (Read the newspapers!)


Human Rights for the homeless in America are seemingly under strong attack and as far as I can tell, there are very darned few people even concerned about it.


The Ruling Elite of Conservatism– the ones who control the money and the power– they are seemingly mounting increasingly horrendous assaults on the democratic rights of both the homeless and the working class as a whole and to me, it is sickening and totally Un-American!


There is no reason in the world for anyone to ever consider making homelessness a punishable crime in the United States of America. We are the richest nation on the face of the Earth and all I ever hear is how darned “Christian” we are as a nation and… there is no excuse before God or Mankind for homeless people to be treated like common criminals.  But, I hear that this is what is happening all across this great country– from sea to shining sea and I think it is disgusting!


These homeless people are, in my humble opinion, not criminals.  They are, (Again in my opinion) victims of a system where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer and where the Middle Class and the Poor and all who work at any thing, regardless of how menial or low-paying it might be, are expected to shoulder the burden for the whole country and the whole government and I think that scenario is just pure old-fashioned horse manure!


Where are all these “Churches” that, according to Nut Bag Conservatism, are supposed to be doing their civic duty in helping people out when they get into enough trouble to see them cast into the streets with nothing but the clothes on their backs?  Where are these “Holy” instruments of God’s Salvation when one is needed to help?


Hey! I vote for Democrats because Democrats care about people. I am a Liberal because it is the Liberals and the Progressives who will forget about getting rich long enough to lend a helping hand to someone in need. Liberals help the homeless– we do not condemn them to further misery!


If Republicans take the White House in 2012, the horror story I have been telling here in this blog post will get a lot worse and that, friends, is my personal unvarnished opinion! I believe that if you are not homeless right now, you will increase your chances mightily if you make the mistake of supporting Conservatism’s agenda in 2012.


Posted by John Liming (My Political Opinions Entirely).


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Ohio Casinos Not Hiring Smokers!

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Smokers will reportedly not be hired at some new casinos being opened in Ohio.  In fact, according to the sources I have been reading, smokers won’t even be considered for employment in these places.

Smokers have, in my opinion, been discriminated against for quite some time now and Ohio is just one of the states where a non-smoking law was rammed through a few years back.

The article I have been reading was contained in the Dayton Daily News, a newspaper located in Dayton, Ohio. I am assuming that if one were to go online, one could probably read the article I am referring to here. I an not linking to the article because at the end, I found all this stuff about all rights being reserved and so on and so forth. So I am attempting to outline the smokers problem with the hiring thing right here with the information I have gleaned.

Some of the other news I have read about this smokers ban on hiring at casinos even mentioned that the patrons of these establishments will have to go outside to smoke. I am sure that will go over well with people who are used to smoking at other casinos who may not have smokers bans in effect.

I am still trying to get my head around how I might feel if I went to a casino and started spending my money there and was told that if I wanted to smoke a cigarette I would have to go outside to do it.

I am wondering whether I would bow down and just go along with that kind of treatment or if I might consider giving up either my smoking habit or my gamesmanship.

Of course, everybody has their own views about these things so I guess we will just have to wait and see what effect a smoking ban at casinos will have on the Casino Industry’s bottom line in Ohio and other states where these kinds of bans are in effect.

It has been brought to my attention that Kentucky, Indiana and West Virginia do not have statewide smokers bans. That is interesting.  I wonder if there are many casinos in those states and I wonder if those casinos will do as well or better than the ones where the smoking is going to be banned?

I wonder what I would do if I were a smoker? Would I avoid the places where I felt I was being treated as a second class citizen?

I also understand from what I have been reading that smokers aren’t the only ones included in this ban on hiring at the mentioned casinos. I have read that people who chew tobacco or use nicotine patches are among the group who will not be considered for employment at these places as well.

I don’t have these kinds of issues to deal with.  I stopped smoking three years ago and I have never personally been inside a Casino this side of Reno.

Posted by John Liming (My Opinions)

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Conservatism Hates Liberal Success!

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Yes, it would be nice to finally see some degree of fairness from some Extreme Right Wing Conservatives but we can all rest assured that the hatefulness, the anger, the dishonesty and the vitriol will continue because, in my opinion, that is the nature of the Beast.

There is no doubt in my mind that  the hypocrisy of  some of the more Extreme Obama haters among those immersed in the Conservatives  persuasion will continue unabated because now that the primary debates on which they pin their hopes for dominance  have proven to be such a debacle and some of  their candidates so inept, their frustrations and angry sense of self-realization of their cause as the “Cause Of Empty Promises” will be fanned into even higher flames if that be possible.


I am sure that as the elections approach, too many Far Rightist Conservatives  will all continue to  rail about how ineffective Obama has been as a President and how Anti-Christian and Evil the Liberals are even though statistics show plainly that there is plenty of measurable  positive progress being made because of the President’s policies and actions.

I love the fact that even their own party can’t seem to stand the sound or sight of many  of those “Candied-Dates” that hope to wrest the Presidency from the hands of “Obama” in 2012. (Or so it seems to me, anyway).

As far as I can tell, the Far Right Wing Radical Religious Extreme among the Conservatives  have never been more beautifully at odds with themselves as they have been all through the current clown show and I think it is wonderful!  Thank you, God! 

It has been wonderfully refreshing to see some good old fashioned Liberal honesty in government being justified by results. 

I once thought that honesty in government was a thing of the remote past; especially since living through that eight awful years  that we endured around the time that 9/11  and it’s aftermath changed everything forever. The years where Freedoms were lost and Rights diminished in the name of National Security.
 

Those who are swimming in the murky waters of  politics with the more extreme Conservatives love to rant about the bias of the “Liberal” Media but I am darned glad we have the “Liberal” (Mainstream) Media to bring us our look at the world as it really is and not as some bunch of nut bags want to paint it because they can’t face reality.


Has anyone heard that there is a lot of investigating going on in the good old United Kingdom in regards to one of Conservatism’s bastions of “News and Information?”

I am  on pins and needles to see how all that turns out, aren’t you? As the Scriptures tell us, “There is nothing hidden that shall not be revealed.” What will all this mean for the future of politics? Can’t wait! (Of course, there is always the chance that it will amount to nothing at all.) Yeah, right!


While American Extreme Conservatives, who seem unable to convince the population of their fantasies through brilliance, try to persuade with the use of BS, the good old “Biased” Liberal (Mainstream, thank you) Media goes on it’s merry way telling the “Real” World the Real Truth and I think that is a good thing!

Fortunately, I believe there is evidence that the “Rest Of The World” (The masses outside the boundaries of the fantasy world of the extreme Conservatives) know and understand what is real and what is not and I don’t think the Extreme Conservatives can quite get through to them no matter how hard they try.

I imagine that is a source of infinite irritation and frustration for them and may be why they never seem to get any better.  Maybe that is the reason they seem to be getting angrier and angrier as time goes by.


Obama’s agenda for the nation is working and I believe the backward baseball capped beer bellies cannot stand it.  I think there must be a lot of gnashing of teeth and rending of garments going on down there in some of those  hidden hollows today, don’t you?

Oh how they would love to see Obama and the present Administration fail! How they could strut and crow and say, “I told you so” if that were to transpire. 

Of course, exactly the opposite is happening. The policies implemented by our President and his Administration are working out and doing what they were intended to do and the propaganda machine of the opposition is working overtime to try and hornswoggle the American Public into believing something that simply is not true.

Is this why there has been so much obstructionism from the far Right?  Have some of them actually been wishing for the government to fail so they can worm their way into power and look like saviors with their proven failed policies? Is that what they have been after all this time? Is that where the concept of “No” comes from on that side of the fence?


America may yet get to the point where even a lot of our Extremest Conservatives  will come to like the taste of a particular flavor of a popular powdered drink mix because the Obama agenda is working and those who are committed to making sure he is a one term president seem to be virtually soiling themselves in unrestrained anger over his successes.


I think a lot of  Conservatives  who are so adverse to Liberals still don’t get the fact that America sees through their smoke and mirror routine and their days of influence in high places may be soon severely moderated by the will of the American Voting Public.


Hoo Hah!


I’m lovin’ it! Lovin’ it!


Posted by John Liming (My Political Opinions–all of it!)

Picture: Wikimedia Commons (Public Domain)




The Amazing American Voting Mystery!

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For a couple of hundred years now, it seems that American Voters have gotten it right in the choices they have made during their election process.

The reason I say that is the country is still here, still functioning and somehow still continuing to be the most powerful player on the world stage.


I mean, there are all these seemingly vicious battles between ideologies during every election cycle but the Nation makes a choice and the choice always seems to work out.

There has to be something to the idea that a higher power is at work on the American Political Scene.


In my opinion, mere people could not pull off such a complex mystery and make it work on their own.

There are millions of voters from all kinds of ethnic and ideological backgrounds that make up America and somehow all this comes together to elect public officials who, even though they may seem to be constantly at each other’s throats— the Democracy tends to remain intact and working for the good of the country.  Go figure!


You cannot always accuse the majority of American Voters of being “Hip” to the political issues that confront them.

I would be willing to bet that if someone goes out into the streets and questions a bunch of complete strangers on the details of political issues facing America, it would soon become apparent that most who are confronted in this manner will either not have an inkling of what is being talked about or their knowledge will be severely limited on the issues.


It hasn’t been too long since I observed an experiment where a person asked a dozen or more strangers such mundane questions as “Who is the Vice President of The United States?”

You would be absolutely amazed at the number of people who were asked this simple question who scratched their heads, hemmed and hawed and stumbled and mumbled– and either gave no answer or were totally wrong in what they said.


It is frightening to me when I think about how many people are so under- educated about who the candidates for offices are or what their positions on issues are or— even what the issues themselves are about.

Is it that people are so concerned with the ordinary details and challenges of their everyday lives that they simply do not educate themselves to the political aspects that confront them? Is there some kind of national attention deficit when it comes to all things political?


I have heard that most voting decisions tend to be made within minutes of a person casting their ballots and usually those decisions are made on some “Gut” feeling inside the voter or is based on something that the voter heard from “Someone Else” or from something called  ”The News.”

I have often thought that because of this phenomenon, Americans might be playing a sort of gambler’s  game with their national politics and somehow have had a lot of luck so far.


My obvious question then becomes, “Will the luck last?”  My other question is, “Is it luck at all or does some kind of Divine Providence actually work within the fabric of our national interests?

I am of the opinion that it is the “Media” who has the most influence over who gets elected and how issues are decided in America.


But the question then becomes, “Which Media has the most influence and why is that so?”

Is it simply a matter of who makes the most noise about the issues and the candidates?


Is there something to the idea that money is the deciding factor in all this?

Another question might be, “Does anyone actually know where they stand on issues and candidates and does it matter?”


The whole mystery is very interesting to me and I am personally grateful that America continues to hum along with all the blessings and advantages inherent in our great social experiment.

I would absolutely hate to have to admit that ignorance rules in America. I don’t want to believe that for a minute.


I also hate to think that all our success as a nation has been simply a matter of being in the right place at the right time or some kind of dumb luck.  

There is surely a living American Spirit that has the power of the collective mind of our country and I think it is this Spirit that causes the positive outcomes that we have experienced for all these years. It is a mystery far above human intellectualism as far as I am concerned and I am grateful that it is there for us.

Posted by John Liming (My Opinion)

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Has Indiana Forsaken Democracy?

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It has been reported that despite public polls showing strong opposition to a “Right To Work” Law, such a law was passed in the state of Indiana without debate recently and opponents are said to be crying “Foul” about it.

In explaining what a “Right To Work” Law really is, some observers have noted that these laws prevent workers from negotiating for benefits, wages and safety issues as a group (As in a unionized setting) and can lead to individual workers with issues being fired without recourse if they level their complaints.


Some people have expressed the concern that those in Right To Work States won’t be able to draw unemployment compensation in the event of a layoff and others say that in a Right To Work State, the level of worker wages and benefits are much lower than in non Right To Work States.


It has also been reported that in a Right To Work State, anyone can be hired to work side by side with unionized workers, receive the same benefits and protections afforded by any union with which they may be associated and not be required to pay union dues in return for such benefits and protections. These workers have often been referred to by their unionized counterparts as “Free Riders.”

Some other people have reportedly suggested that Right To Work Laws are regressive, are a form of dangerous deregulation and do nothing to protect worker’s rights, help the economy or do anything to address the high unemployment rates being experienced in America today.

Is a Right To Work Law in the future for where you live? 


Posted by John Liming (My Opinion)


Read More:

http://blog.aflcio.org/2012/01/25/breaking-indiana-house-passes-rtw/ 

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Abortion Takes A Back Seat!

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Abortion, Gay Marriage and Family and Moral Values seem to have been hidden in a side show lately at the political circus I like to refer to as “Conservatism.”

I am guessing that the record massive unemployment rate, the ever-growing budgetary woes of the nation and the states and the record rate of impoverishment of larger portions of our citizenry have kind of outstripped all those old “Moral” arguments—for the time being, anyhow.


If anyone has been paying attention, the most recent Conservative political events (Those debates) seem to have been more of a verbal boxing match between would-be candidates than they have been used as a platform for some kind of moralizing.  I find that unusual!

As I have listened to these “Cream Of The Crop” representatives of the ideology I call “Conservatism,” argue back and forth and accuse each other of all kinds of things, I have often asked, “When are they going to get off the personal attack bandwagon and start talking about the things needed to help America?”


Early on, I did hear some mention of “Gawd, Gee-Zuss and The Bible” as all this was first beginning but I guess the religious base either wasn’t all that interested this time around or they have lost the clout they once enjoyed with their increasingly loud and transparent messages of hypocrisy.

“Abortion” seems to have gotten lost in the melee along with Gay Marriage and the “Imm-ee-grint” concerns that played such a large role in the past although it has been hinted (More than once already) that some smattering of “Racism” might have made an appearance this time around.

You want to know what I think?


I think it would be a good thing if the forthcoming National Convention for the combatants would miraculously produce a candidate they could all live with.  Stranger things have happened.


Somehow I get the idea that the Right and the Far Right and The Radical Right aren’t all that enamored of  the results they have realized in their current selection process. I don’t really know where my feelings on this matter come from, but from what I have heard some of them saying on television and everywhere, many of them seem to be still undecided about who they want to run for”Prez-ee-dunt.”

They have spent all this time and all that money and it seems they are still undecided. How is that for the definition of effective leadership? What does that say about how things would be if they were to somehow actually get the reins of power again? (Can someone say, “Confusion, Uncertainty, Disorganized Dis-array?”)


I do believe that the longer they can wait before they spring a candidate on the American People and the less time that candidate is exposed to the voters, the less chance there is for people to get to know that candidate and the better his or her chance of winning The White House will be.

There is no way I can know if that is what they have in mind, but in my opinion that would be one heck of a great tactical move if they could pull it off– just keep America confused and maybe America will vote them into power again. Brilliant!

So, while the “Performance” goes on in the “Primaries” the concerns about abortion seem to have kind of faded into the Never lands and the Bible Wavers are becoming more and more muted in their usually very vocal and indignant outbursts.


Maybe it is because America has gotten tired of hearing the same old Conservative saw over and over again.


Maybe putting food on the family table is more important to some folks.


I have heard some in the bowels of that pit of opposition saying that it is the responsibility of government to insure the safety of what they refer to as “Innocent Lives” (The unborn who are supposed to be fully functionally and viably human at any stage of development.)


When I hear that, I am tempted to believe that I am hearing Somebody on the Right Side of the aisle  actually proposing a role for “Government.” That does not make sense to me because I always thought that the Right, The Far Right and The Radical Religious Right were, at least mostly all agreed that “Government Has Got To Go.”

It is kind of like the old argument from that side of the fence that Government needs to be shrunk (To the smallest size possible) while The Military must be expanded to be so big and so strong that no one would ever consider challenging it’s might.


Has no one ever considered that would be virtually impossible to have a really big and strong Military without the money and the Government organization and structure  to back it up? In my opinion there is simply no way to build a modern comfortable house for a family using nothing but mud and straw. By the same token, there is no way to have a really effective fighting force if one is thinking of equipping them with bows and arrows.

But, as I have come to believe,  that is the mind set of  some of those geniuses– big ideas and nothing to back them up.

So, for now– as the Republicans try to get their heads together on who they want to run for the office of the Presidency, the old “Abortion” thing seems to have been put on the back burner for awhile.


I have never, in my entire life, encountered a situation where some large group of people were so concerned with preserving innocent life from conception to the grave and yet, at the same time, been so favorable of both the death penalty for crimes and of sending our American Sons and Daughters into multiple potentially lethal wars.


To me that is kind of crazy and is one of the main reasons that I never ever vote for anything or anyone with the odor of Conservatism anywhere near.

Posted by John Liming (My Opinion)

The Right Wing Leads The Way!

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The Right Wing has had control of The United States House Of Representatives for quite some time now and have exerted quite a bit of influence on national politics. (In case no one has noticed.)
I have watched this state of affairs go from The Speaker of The House looking into television cameras and asking the question that seems to be on every one’s mind, “Where are the jobs?” to almost everyone else asking, “Where Are The Jobs?”
Then I have observed many on the side of Conservatism working hard to either ignore or defeat completely the Jobs Bill introduced by The President.
As far as I can tell, there are many Republicans who, in spite of the fact that there is a Jobs Bill awaiting passage, are still complaining that there has been no movement on the Jobs issue from The White House. 
When I hear that (And I hear it often) I am utterly amazed.
All the while all this struggle to overcome the effects of the great Recession has been going on, it comes to my attention that two main items may have become the priorities of Conservatism: (1) Getting the words, “In God We Trust” emblazoned on every surface that will receive it and (2) Making sure that Obama is a one-term President.
There are other agenda items that have reportedly been discussed on that side of the fence including getting rid of the Affordable Health care Act so that seniors can see the donut hole opened again on their prescription costs and so that insurance companies can once more start rejecting applicants on the basis of “Pre-Existing Conditions.”
That would be a good move forward, would it not?
I understand that getting a statue of President Gerald Ford installed in the Capitol is high on the list also.
I simply cannot wait!
So now we have had a Presidential primary in which the victor is reported to have called for “Bold New Ideas” for America.
I wonder if those bold new ideas for America really do involve making poor school kids into janitors?
Getting rid of all the restrictive laws, rules and regulations that protect Americans from all kinds of threats and hazards might be part of those bold new ideas if I have been hearing what the candidates have been saying all these months.
Yes, Conservatism has done a bang up job of leading so far (In my opinion) and I am sure it will continue it’s most admirable pattern in the future if the American Voter is dumb enough to give it the means and the power.
I think Conservatism can’t wait to lead us all into that Elysian paradise where no one lives except  the very wealthy being served in their every whim by everyone else and all of it being done in The Name of Gawd!
Posted by John Liming (My Political Opinions)
Picture Is A Public Doomain Image From Wikimedia Commons