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Thom Hartmann has written a dozen books covering ADD / ADHD - Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder.
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You're welcome, DAnneMarc.
In 1976 I started a union job in the trucking industry. My starting pay was close to $7.50 per hour. In 1983 I had a job transfer to my company's general office in the Denver, CO area and was earning slightly less then $12.00 per hour, plus full benefits for which I paid nothing. Trucking was de-regulated in 1978 and the competition began, then in the 1980's, while i still had a job, raises were infrequent and small, especially since i was no longer union. By 1995 when my job ended due to a merger and relocation I was earning around $15.00 per hour. Then the fun began. I was 55 years old, had no personal computer use so found it difficult to return to the accounting I had done prior to entering the job in trucking. I had been a certified claims analyst at the end of my job and then found that local carriers wanted to pay me 1/2 of what I'd been earning and I laughed and refused. I need to point to that in the mid 1980's in CO the prevailing average wage was around $6.50, but I saw that go down by $1.00 per hour by the mid 90's, so when I had to look for a job, at age 55 and after 20 years of not having to hunt for work, I had a bit of a shock. I had never had a problem finding work in my life. I eventually took a job with Accountemps and bluffed my way into temporary jobs that I found quite easy, got good comments back from employers and eventually wound up with a job in 2000 making about what I'd earned in 1995, $15.00 per hour. I was a single mother who raised two daughters, who by then were grown and gone. I was lucky. Fast forward to age 63 and my move to Arkansas for future retirement in a modest gated community in the Ouachita Mountains and looking for work for a few years until I could collect SS, which I got at 65, plus Medicare. For 2 years I had no health insurance and thank God that I'm healthy person. Hardly any jobs in the area that I wouldn't have to drive 25 miles ea way to get to, if I could even get a job, then a Walmart opened near me and I applied. So, imagine my shock when they quoted $6.25 per hour starting wage in 2004 when I'd made $7.50 per hour in 1976. I opted for the over night shift to earn an additional $1.00 per hour and took Sundays because they also paid $1.00 per hour more on Sundays. When I left in 2008 I was earning around $9.60 and working part time, but by then I didn't need the job, just did it for something to do. I struggled to make it on full time pay from 2004-2006 and had to withdraw from savings to pay for the annual car insurance or anything extra and I had a very low mortgage at around $300.00 per mo, although I had a high car payment of $374.00 per mo at that time, but no other bills, other then the normal. It was just me, so I didn't understand how people who children could do it on minimum wage. This was a little long, but you can compare wages, through my story over a 30 year period. Oh and by the way, I recalled in the late 1990's that a local news station in Denver reported that a single mother with 2 children needed to earn at least $16.50. I never forgot that because it was more then I was earning at the time.
MMmmNACHOS ~ Gandhi said, "An eye for an eye, and eventually the whole world is blind." Brilliant! Just as brilliant as anything from the New Testament. Bravo for Gandhi! No truer words were ever said!!
And, thanks to you!!!
People of a certain age will remember that our popular culture (via television, books, comics, etc.) was filled with constant reminders that evil governments like the Soviet Union, Red China, Nazi Germany, etc. constantly spied on their people. Evil governments (and super-villains) all wanted to "rule the world." Now we see that the United States government spies on its own people in a way that would have made the rulers of the Communist and Nazi states envious. Obama threatens sovereign nations who dare to even THINK about giving asylum to Edward Snowden. The USA wants to rule the world - or maybe it already does. One of our major political parties is basically fascist and the other is spineless. Who is going to save the world from us?
Finally, an important topic. Thanks, Thom! Actually, there is an important reason for all this surveillance. A reason most Americans may be aware of but do not wish to address. We are all subjects of a growing Tyranny. Alex Jones to one degree or another is absolutely right. Our once 'free' government has been usurped by Corporate entities bent on the absolute oppression of We the People. Strict surveillance as well as the sowing of discord--ie. The Zimmerman Fiasco of previous topics--is symptomatic and historically characteristic of such political Tyrannies. There are no two ways about it--We The People must put a stop to the Cabal that is destroying our way of life. We are our only hope. Our Defense establishment , despite it's costs, has failed us. We must stand up, now! We must overcome the forces to divide us and unite under the same cause. If we fail, we are finished; and, so is Democracy and our American way of life.
Senator Elizabeth Warren is a Democrat, as is Senator Patty Murray!
Why can't we Progressives and Democratic Socialists infiltrate the Democratic Party the same way the billionaires are using the Teabaggers to infiltrate the Republican Party?
Has it ever occurred to anyone that the private for profit NSA employees and the non profit law enforcement employees not only spy on us, but are also actually spying on each other? Whether it's just them buying a bag of weed or maybe even driving home drunk from happy hour consistently, the time and place are pretty much on record if they used their car and or phone. Think of the internal blackmail possibilities. Talk about a likely to happen breach in the public trust and security!
Oh no! Don't fool yourselves. There is a game of genocide occurring in the black community but it isn't by the hands of average white people; but, it is by the influence of powerful white people. Ask yourself why the demonstrations by move to amend were not covered on TV and this nonsense is? Because this is more important? Don't be a fool. If anything is covered by the commercial media to death that should send up a flag that it is merely corporate puppetry. There is nothing demonstrated in the streets that benefit you or I that gets covered anymore. Simple fact! If you see it, chances are it's a trick. These Dream Defenders are nothing more than the minority version of the tea party.
Today, in my home town, two black men and one 8 year old girl were gunned down in the streets for no reason. In addition two black women were rushed to the hospital with gunshot wounds. There is no motive and no suspects; however, chances are the gunmen were black. From this point on there will be no more media coverage. Case closed. Every day where I live it is the same tired old song as usual. Routinely we hear the gunshots in the middle of the night. We hear the sirens and the helicopters circling and we silently pray no one got hurt, this time. This is where the genocide is happening. This is where the outrage needs to be focused on. If you keep falling for the media side shows you miss the real news and the real tragedy. Marching in the streets for Trayvon Martin? Who is going to march for that little 8 year old girl? The morning news didn't even release the names of these victims. Just more faceless, nameless black statistics. How can it be possible that Trayvon Martin could be more innocent than that 8 year old girl?
93% of 9,000 is 8,370 victims of black on black crime a year. The media fixates for almost a year on 1 out of the 630 other cases--like blacks are only killed by whites for racist reasons. There are no other social reasons for black homicides other than racist white people racially profiling innocent black people. Really! I suppose that is just fine. Lets seek justice for the other 629 victims as well; and, to hell with the other 8,370, right? It's just fine if black people kill black people. That's the way it's supposed to be. It's just fine if they call each other 'Nigah' too, right? None of my business. "Just don't let no Cracker have a piece of our action! We kill each other just fine without your help!" And the real holocaust goes on, unaddressed. Keep following your media masters and see where it gets you. If you haven't noticed, the media is not your friend, my friend.
How exactly was George Zimmerman being "reasonably cautious and prudent" considering the fact that he pursued Martin? He told the police that the Martin was a "suspect". This stand your ground law is absurd. If he was truly worried about the threat from this teen then why did he pursue?
Living on minimum wage can give you a good picture of what it's like for seniors living on only the Social Security they worked and paid for. In my grandmother's day it was tight, but she got along well. She was able to get into senior housing. Lets hope the powers that be will keep their hands off the benefits we have earned.
In Washington state the minimum is quite a bit higher, but many employers don't employ full time, or have a habit of hiring for a probationary or training period, then laying off to avoid paying benefits.
It may be necessary to boycott some of the companies that cause or back anti-labor/worker issues, and many issues. We can speak loudly with a lack of patronage and be heard more powerfully than just marching in the streets.
One of the requirements of a dictatorship is the ability to spy on the citizens. A second requirement is to keep secrets from the citizens.
Anything the military wants to keep as secret must be made available to all citizens after some legally determined time period. I think three months for Secret, 6 months for anything rated higher would be appropriate.
Deliberations of cabinet meetings or discussions of alternative policy decisions by the President should be made public after the President is out of office 6 months and no longer. This includes diplomatic negotiations.
All seventeen Security agencies should be disbanded. The CIA economic evaluations of other countries are about the only accurate information it has developed since its creation!
"there is no justifiable reason for the federal government to monitor our phone and internet activity"
Unfortunately for American citizens, "justifiable" is defined by the government . Thoughts are twisted, half, or in this government's usage, ¼ truths used attempting to lend some substance to their constant lies about everything. The people for so long now have bought into their rhetoric and have completely ignored the governments criminal behaior. Why Hartman still supports this administration which has outBushed Bush in every way, is beyond my small mind. His support with the others progressives who also still support Obama, ensures the repetition of the status quo. Democrat or Republican makes not one iota of difference. Both parties and the support they receive from congress, from the media, from the talk show hosts, etc. ensures the a long lasting criminal police state, which is in firm control, now.
There has to appear another choice besides a republican and/or a democrat. This system is BROKEN at every level. Judicially, economically, militarily, politically, etc. Any trust garnered by the federal government from Americans, has to be from entranced civilians or from those few who have been rewarded greatly by participating in this American debacle.
Great bodily harm? I have come out of the garden with greater bodily harm than it looked from the pictures of the defendant "right after" the incodent!
Guy has like 100 lbs on the kid. There is no possible way that he could have been in any danger of great bodily harm. Oh... perception... Nevermind, I am going to get out of murder for being an idiot. I thought ignorance was not an excuse for breaking the law. I dont even want to type that fools name.
Here is the text if you want to copy and paste:
Old legal instruction-["The Defendant cannon justify the use of force likely to cause death or great bodily harm unless he used every treasonable means within his power and consistent with his own safety to avoid the danger before resorting to that force. The fact that the defendant was wrongfully attacked cannot justify his use of force likely to cause death or great bodily harm if by retreating he could have avoided the need to use that force."]
New legal instruction-["The danger facing the defendant need not have been actual; however to justify the use of deadly force, the appearance of danger must have been so real that a reasonably cautions and prudent person under the same circumstances would have believed that the danger could be avoided only through the use of that force. Based on appearances, the defendant must have actually believed that the danger was real. The defendant had no duty to retreat and had the right to stand his ground and meet force with force, including deadly force, if he reasonably believed that it was necessary to do so to prevent death or great bodily harm to himself."]
At he end of 2012, I thought the two major issues I had to devote myself to were getting money out of politics (Move to Amend) and fighting climate change (350.org), and while I am and have been active in both, I now see that NSA and police-state spying, the war on whistleblowers, the gutting of our civil liberties, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, and--once again--the big banks taking enormous risks are all problems we need to fight just as much as the two I originally had my sights set on.
Why didn't I vote for Jill Stein? Oh well, there's always 2016!
I have an idea...until all this spying on American citizens has ended, all public and elected officials who condone or agree with spying on American citizens should be forced to wear a cow bell around their necks.
In the meantime, I'll just let a peice of cloth or paper or whatever, hang down over my license plate.
And take up drone shooting as a hobby.
Anybody know what frequencies those drones operate on? It might be more fun to just jam their signals.
Maybe McDonald's could garner more support by outlining a budget with $4500/hour as the rate --- that's what their CEO "earns".
Still blameing it on the colour of your skin huh? "Poor black man can't get a fair break" BULLSHIT!
No one, regardless of the colour of their race (cracker, nigger, spick, chinc, kike, etc. to be real and politically incorrect), gets a break if they are uneducated, lazy, sag their pants and can't speak in a manner that is understandable. I am a 41 year old cracker and I work along side both blacks,(excuse me "African Americans") and Mexicans...(3 blacks and 5 Mexicans), all of them are educated, clean, hardworking and can communicate on a level of educated clearity, and not a one of them share in your racist self hatred. Yes all of us agree that Zimmerman got away with murder, but we also agree that Treyvon is somewhat responsable for his own demise. He wasn't traped, or backed into a corner, he had options, either surender and allow the situation to difuse itself, or run like hell. Instead he decided to confront his aggressor.
Don't get me wrong what happend to Trevon is infact a tragidy and I am all for demanding that the Stand Your Ground Law be reformend so that it more clearly defines what is considered to be threatining, aand establishes limits when a person is within their legal right to protect themselves and/or their property. Not that any such reform is going to stop "criminals" from breaking the law, but it would certainly help resolve the abuse of a law that in its current state pretty much allows anyone to shot someone for no good reason other than being scared, annoyed, incompetant etc.
As Gandhi often said; "An eye for an eye and soon the whole world is blind".
I'm much more concerned about winning control of congress in 2014 then about who we elect as president of this nation in 2016."Good Government" is responsive to the people rather moneyed special interests and corporate profits.
Of course the people must step-up our voice and our actions. I agree, let's get started now. Everyone can find at least one person who needs to get registered to vote. Find them, take the to registration office. Commit to transportation on election day, stay in touch with others of like mind. We can also work to educate the public concerning the differences, those of us who call our selves progressive, have allowed corporate powers to use in a matter that hinders a united approach. They use the divide and conquer ploy effectively only as long as the people allow them to use such tactics.
Control on both chambers after 2014, should propel numerous good prospects for the Presidency to the forefront.
No D'marc, those examples illustrates the reasons exactly why T. Martin case should not be trival in your eyes or anyone elses.
To the point of Toms blog; welcome to the wild west folks, the most extreme have taken control. Learn/relearn your quick draw from childhood, and don't leave your side arm at home no matter here you're going, be it school, shopping, the court house or the capital building. That's your only chance.
When did America become so scare of shadows on the wall? Fools, you're just another act in this theater of the obsurd called Corparate America.
The only person defending a criminal in this scenario is you. You bend over backwards to try to turn Trayvon into a villain and Zimmerman into the thug.
Black people are not being treated with equal dignity in this country. We are killed by police and civilians and our deaths are less likely to be punished by the criminal (in)justice system.
We are more likely to be targeted by police, more likely to be arrested rather than let go, more likely to be charged if arrested, more likely to be convicted if charged, and are sentenced to longer terms if convicted. And then these statistics are used as an excuse to mistreat the entire community based on skewed statistics. If you look primarily on one community for criminals you're more likely to find criminals from that community.
Electing a black man into the White House hadn't changed any of that.
And now you have the nerve to think we're not supposed to protest? What are people supposed to do to get their grievances addressed? Go home sit back and hope the people who put the system into place that disadvantages and disrespects us will change it?
There's a phrase I use for people who make such idiotic comments from their position of privilege without irony. How very white of you.
Society in general DANNEMARC, (which includes you and me), is ignorant. That being said I don't see peoples reaction to the Zimmerman/Martin case as not being intouch, more so I think many people from all walks of life are fed up with shit like this and our courts failing to convict those who truely have commited violent crimes. We seem to be able to convicted people of simple possesion of a controled substance at a very high rate. I read Judge James P. Grays book Americas Failed Drug Laws, and in it he sites that upwards of 90+ percent of all drug charges end in conviction and are sentenced to 3 or more years incarceration. Yet there are more people today that like to get high, then before our Government declaired a War on Drugs and implimented a Zero Tolerance Policy...Theres a somthin funny a happenen here!!!
Our prison population is over 2%(2.8% to be exact) of our gross national population, and of those doing prison time more than 30% are drug charges. Further more, more than 2/3 of those doing time are convicted for non violent crimes and non sex related crimes. I am not saying that we should not hold people whoes actions disrupt and breech the law. But allowing a person to walk away from murder while we hard nose those who commit nonviolent crime...Something just ain't right!
And you are right DANNEMARC, issues such as our Government breeching our Civil Liberties, i.e. the 1st & 4th Ammendment should take presidence...But, and this is a HUGE BUT, the only thing Americans are good at is sitting on their fat lazy asses blogging about all the injustices in the world. At least those who feel passionate about the Zimmerman Martin case are physically protesting & petitioning the government to change an arbitrary law. The petition I signed was requesting that the "Stand Your Grown Law" not be abolished, insted it calls for more clear definition limiting what constitutes a threat of ones life. I personally feel, and agree with you, that both Zimmermann and Martin are both at fault for assuming and overreacting, but I also feel that Zimmerman was the one who first escalated the situation by overstepping the definition of a Neighborhood Watchman, which is only to Observe and Report, not persue, confront, detain, and/or apprehend. Zimmerman is the one who without rational reason put his life and Treyvons life indanger the minute he took matters into his own hands by stepping out of his vehicle and persuing Treyvon. He should have been convicted of manslaughter...CASE CLOSED.
As for your FBI refrences...FUCK the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT! Those bureaucracies are nothing more than a waste of tax payers money.
Ahhhh Global...Your arrogant "life is cheap" ideology is a threat to society....BANG!!!
I'm just standing my ground. :)
Oh my god, a black man is shot down in America with no justice forthcoming. Shocking, simply shocking. Yes! Right here in River City USA. Get out the Seventy-six Trombones. And we can have a big parade.
As one that passes for white ,because after all there are very damn few in this country are as white as they think they are, I for one knew from the beginning how this was going to play out. I've seen it happen seemingly a thousand times through out my life. Black man dies, no one comes to account for the terrible deed. And it happens every single day, heck probably every single hour of every single day in America. Even when the foul deed is captured on video the black man pays in the worst way. People jump on the band wagon and join the parade.........for about two blocks, then the ice cream palor comes into view. Yeah, who needs to be in the hot sweaty street grousing about something that after all doesn't anything to do with you personally? And yeah, you're not a bigot or a racist, didn't you prove that by joining the parade?
I like many had hoped for some accounting in this case, but it was a hope against all available past evidence. I knew from the beginning how this would turn out.
And I can see how the next act will play out as well.
I hope I'm wrong.
An article (maybe simply a transcript) of Thom's rant on Libertarinism being the velvet glove on the control of racism would be thus applicable. i feel the editors of Corinthian would find it irresistible.
Travon Martin was a 17 year old kid. We were all 17 once, we made it...he didn't. 17 year olds are big, they can be mistaken for men. They act like children acting like what they think men act like. They talk and act bigger than their age.
George Zimmerman is a man. A Wife, a house, and a gun.
The only who can speak to what actually happened has the most to lose so his testimony should be considered self serving. With that in mind we still have George's phone calls to the police that night. Travon's girlfriends memory of the last phone call he made. The calls of the neighbors concerned about the person screaming. The police report and the video of George as he entered the police station. And...a dead 17 year old.
Working backwards, at the station George walked without help into the station from the car, separating from the officers at one point. You can see his face and head. Even if cleaned, no bandages. No gloves on the officers in this 'post AIDS world'. rubber gloves or even leather are pretty standard nowadays when dealing with an injured person. And George was in plain clothes. Nothing to indicate authority.
The phone calls, they are evidence of a person screaming for help in the background until they are stopped suddenly by the gunshot. When you are fighting as aggressor or victim your muscles land lungs are working together. You can grunt but not scream, and it was a steady scream only broken for the breath needed for the next scream, which is what you hear. Not a scream of someone fighting or getting punched or beating your head into the ground. When children ride over bumpy roads they sing a steady tone so they can hear every bump as it disrupts that tone. Listen to that scream again. A man with a gun is strangely brave, willing to walk into danger because they are the danger.
Travon was found face down by police. If this fight took place and Travon was on top of George when he was shot there should be blood on George's clothes from Travons wound. Can't see any in the video. After being shot Travon is about 120 pounds of dead weight Collapsing on George which George must shove off. Not being much bigger he could have pushed him off but then Travon would have been found on his back.
Travons phone call to his girlfriend was one of comfort. I see many people grab their phone after stepping off a train or bus. Eager to connect with a voice to make that walk not seem so lonely. Your comfort is reflected in your language, we all speak differently amoung friends. Calling the stranger a derogatory name seems common, George was also condescending in his description of Travon to police.
In George's call he spoke about a 'they', plural. He didn't see just one person. He saw a problem that he percieves with this 'they', represented that day by Travon Martin. Ignoring a directive to not go after this person he followed and ultimately shot that person. Dead.
We tend to hear what we want to hear and see what pleases. Recognize that the only one who can't lie can't speak for himself either.