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Do beggars work?

By on December 14, 2011 in Culture, Economy, Personal

There’s a fellow who has taken up shop right outside of a.Starbucks that I frequent. I see him and his dog there every day, in all temperatures and weather conditions. He holds the same sign saying, “Any kindness helps.”

I’ve taken to giving him coffee and a snack now and then. I bought a box of Milk Bone dog biscuits on discount and today I gave a few of them to his dog.

People sneer at guys like him. He’s younger than I am but I don’t know his story. He might be mentally ill, legitimately out of a job and on the streets, or he could be a meth head.

I can’t tell from the limited contact I have with him but he doesn’t turn down food or coffee so he’s not deeply addicted to anything. If he was, he’d demand cash. I’ve seen that kind of street begging before.

So let’s ask the question in the title of this post right here: do beggars work? This guy shows up every day and stays for hours in all kinds of weather. He doesn’t hassle anyone and he takes anything he’s given.

Does he have a job? Is this it?

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Fox outraged at the poor having access to coffee

By on December 3, 2011 in Bad Taste Theater, Culture, Economy, Food, Impotent Modern Media, Politics, Television

Another typical FOX affiliate hatchet-job on the poor, this story is much smoke with little heat.

While we can all agree that supplemental food income should be restricted from $5 coffee beverages, NO WHERE does FOX quantify this practice.

FOX12 in Oregon? How many people spend $5 of their small food income on these drinks? Do you have a number? Is it in the hundreds? Thousands? Is it six?

What FOX really wants is for its under-brained viewers to equate ability with action. Just because poor people CAN waste $5 of their food budget on these drinks doesn’t mean they DO.

Food stamps are for boring, inexpensive things — like bread and milk and apples. The subsidized tokens certainly aren’t for buying expensive coffee beverages that come in cheerful holiday cups.

via Food stamps for Starbucks? Outrage ensues | Seattle’s Big Blog – seattlepi.com.

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The Greatest Commission

By on November 25, 2011 in Business As Usual, Culture, Economy, Eternal Truth, Friday Night Funny, Religion

NPCV* Mark 16:15-16

15) And he said unto them, Go ye into all the stores, and buy new  possessions for every creature.
16)  He that buyeth on his credit card shall be saved; but he that buyeth not shall be damned.

 

It started on Thanksgiving, when Los Angeles authorities say 20 people at a local Walmart store suffered minor injuries when a woman used pepper spray to gain a “competitive” shopping advantage shortly after the store opened.

via Earlier deals, longer hours woo Friday shoppers – Yahoo! News.

 

*NPCV: New Panzo Capitalist Version

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America today: shopping “equally as important” as Constitutionally protected assembly and speech

By on November 23, 2011 in Business As Usual, Crime and Punishment, Culture, Economy, Police

According the Seattle Police Department, exerising the rights thousands of Americans have died to protect is equally as important as a corporately contrived ritual of excess.

The warning to evil doers that breaking laws will not be tolerated is laughable, considering most of the evil in this country is carried out high above the streets in executive board room that the police will never enter.

http://spdblotter.seattle.gov/2011/11/23/message-to-shoppers-demonstrators/

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NEWSFLASH! Pepper spray doesn’t hurt!

By on November 20, 2011 in Banks, Business As Usual, Crime and Punishment, Culture, Economy, Impotent Modern Media, Military, Police, Politics, Scumbag System, Television

Pepper spray does not hurt, it “creates compliance”. The U.S.A. does not torture, it “intensely interrogates”. Pizza is not bread, cheese and tomato sauce, it’s a “vegetable”. Bank credit cards aren’t traps designed to suck as much cash out of your pocket as possible ion the form of interest and fees, they’re “smart money”. Freedom is slavery. War is peace. Ignorance is strength.

Orwell was right.

 

Charles J. Kelly, a former Baltimore Police Department lieutenant who wrote the department’s use of force guidelines, said pepper spray is a “compliance tool” that can be used on subjects who do not resist, and is preferable to simply lifting protesters.
“When you start picking up human bodies, you risk hurting them,” Kelly said.

via Nation & World | UC Davis officers in pepper spray incident placed on leave | Seattle Times Newspaper.

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How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love the OWS Protests

By on November 12, 2011 in Banks, Culture, Economy, Politics, Scumbag System

From the moment Matt steps to the plate, this one is going over the wall.

We’re all born wanting the freedom to imagine a better and more beautiful future. But modern America has become a place so drearily confining and predictable that it chokes the life out of that built-in desire. Everything from our pop culture to our economy to our politics feels oppressive and unresponsive. We see 10 million commercials a day, and every day is the same life-killing chase for money, money and more money; the only thing that changes from minute to minute is that every tick of the clock brings with it another space-age vendor dreaming up some new way to try to sell you something or reach into your pocket. The relentless sameness of the two-party political system is beginning to feel like a Jacob’s Ladder nightmare with no end; we’re entering another turn on the four-year merry-go-round, and the thought of having to try to get excited about yet another minor quadrennial shift in the direction of one or the other pole of alienating corporate full-of-shitness is enough to make anyone want to smash his own hand flat with a hammer.

via How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love the OWS Protests | Politics News | Rolling Stone.

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Washington State making $22 per hour on slave prison labor while unemployed told “no way”

By on November 5, 2011 in Business As Usual, Culture, Economy, Scumbag System

This is how capitalism works in America.

The State of Washington is getting paid good money — $22 per hour per worker — to provide prison labor in Washington’s apple orchards. But experienced farm workers, willing and eager to pick apples for decent pay, are being told they must work for minimum wage… or else take a hike.

via Pickers seeking ‘prison pay’ turned away | The Stand.


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Most unemployed cut off from benefits

By on November 5, 2011 in Banks, Business As Usual, Culture, Economy, Politics, Republican, Scumbag System, Tea Party Loons

So the long-term unemployed are being completely screwed by not only big business but the Republican majority in Congress that won’t do a thing to help them.

But who will Republicans help? Well, their rich banker friends, that’s who! As seen in this CNN story from 2010, the bankers backing Republicans in Congress are doing juuuuuust fine: Big banks mint money again: $18.7 billion

Occupy Wall Street chant: Banks got bailed out, we got sold out.

Why can’t Conservatives see this? They can’t all be that stupid, can they? Is it wanton ignorance, then? Conveniently ignoring the problem while they drive their 2.5 children to mall to buy more superfluous stuff? Do they just hate the poor and unemployed?

 

The jobs crisis has left so many people out of work for so long that most of America’s unemployed are no longer receiving unemployment benefits.

Early last year, 75 percent were receiving checks. The figure is now 48 percent — a shift that points to a growing crisis of long-term unemployment. Nearly one-third of America’s 14 million unemployed have had no job for a year or more.

via Most of the unemployed no longer receive benefits.


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Join the military: get your fat-ass wife in shape for free!

By on November 3, 2011 in Culture, Economy, Military, Tea Party Loons

Over a decade taxpayers have spent $363 million dollars on the fat spouses of America’s military men and (hardly) women.

Is this free-ride past Jenny Craig part of the bloat that the Tea Party wants to get rid of? Or is the fact that military wives are getting free tummy tucks sacrosanct in this authority-worshiping culture?

 

Video: Millions spent on weight loss surgery for military… | www.kirotv.com.


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Dear Banks, As I stuff this letter: P.S. I love you

By on October 29, 2011 in Banks, Economy, Lyrics Spoof, Music, Politics, Scumbag System, Social, Twitter

As I stuff this letter
send my love to you
remember that I’ll always
dislike most of what you do
Treasure these few words ’till you surrender
and change your ways forever
P.S. I love you
You, you, you

This kind of creative non-violence is just the kind of thing that generates lots of negative branding, and makes companies crazy.

via Keep Wall Street Occupied. Send Them Your Love Letters « Shoq Value.

 

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