that 2naSalit had the link. Linkless people should realize this is a serious place with serious and truthful discussions.



(cali is the master of links)

yes INDEED

I remember seeing an Alternet when I first got my computer back in the 90's...I think it was on IRC, or mIRC. My kids spent time there and so did I.

I tried getting IRC now but forgot how... It was terrible, people were, well, different, and many were certifiable I am sure. And because there was such a crowd, the thing would break away and it was hard to get back on again....Is mIRC still on? It listed so many "nets" . . .

http://www.truth-out.org/buzzflash/commentary/capitalism-unchained-the-six-step-process-to-wipe-out-the-poor-half-of-the-us

I have about twenty news site links in my bookmarks, back when I read all of them every day I would occasionally want to use an article as a reference and forget which of those sites I found it when returning for the link. I found that the BuzFlash site (an aggregate) helped as I was often able to find it there faster than rebrowsing the list of sites. I suspect that something similar had happened to you, especially since a lot of the site names are similar in concept but not actual words.

Good article, thanks for bringing it to our attention, it confirms in writing what many of us already know all too well.

I've seen most, if not all, of those tactics playing out for a few years now. Especially the fees, fines and the criminalization of the poor and working classes. You wouldn't believe how much money my town charges people for small things, like expired inspection stickers. I know multiple people who now can't drive and have warrants. All because they couldn't afford a new sticker (but they still had to drive to get to work because you know an hourly, min. wage job doesn't pay if they're not there) and now they've got over $1000 in fines on top of that. These folks are barely keeping a roof over their heads and some of them don't even eat dinner every night because they'd rather feed their kids. They are not bad people, but according to the law, they deserve to be in jail.

Some first world nation, huh?

That's what the Nazi's called them. Unfortunately that is what many, if not most, in the GOP see as the lower classes. They don't need the following.

People who are:
* Low income
* Living on social security
* Homeless
* People who cannot afford medical insurance.
* People who cannot afford medicine.
* People who cannot afford... (plug in any luxury you wish here)
* People who work hard for a living

The deal is. If all the above listed so-called useless eaters died. The 1% would likely, too. There'd be nobody to open their limousine door for them. They'd likely die of exposure waiting. TRAPPED! Like rats!

Who really are the useless eaters?

Well, it isn't the people opening the doors. That's for sure.

Who would care for their kids, their pets, their lawns? Who would clean their clothes, their homes, and who would cook for them? I guess they would keep a few "lucky ones" around to do the heavy lifting.

They'd repeal all the Constitutional amendments up to at least Amendment XIII of December 6, 1865. There are fair few who would repeal them all and replace the first ten with the Ten Commandments (of which they are incessantly barking about).

That's why it is so damned scary for them to have any kind of power.

Wives really don't get all the respect they deserve. I hate seeing my mom bust her ass while my dad just watches tv. Maybe that's why marriage just isn't for me, lol.

I'm a girl. umm, I don't think we have any girl smilies.

My dad wasn't a layabout, but he didn't help with the dishes, even his own when it wasn't a family meal. So why should I put away anyone's dirty dishes? Sucked.

Ever read "I Want a Wife" by Julia Brady? I make sure my students read it every semester. It's published on the internet--just Google it. Short essay, but makes the point extremely well.



Cher

Sorry, no idea why that made me so exited. I read it a few years ago in college. I take it you're an English professor?

At a recent meeting for welfare requalification, everyone in the room was told that they were all being investigated for welfare fraud. The State had the money to watch us in our houses and follow us. The State had the money to send people to interview our neighbors.

Yet, the State only had the money to give non-disabled welfare recipients $336/months for 3 months out of the year...as a loan...in an area where gentrification was sending ROOM rent up into the $1k area. These were people who were not being allocated money for basic necessities: if they earned any, it would come out of the $336 rent money. These were people whose cases were being assigned to caseworkers who would constantly frak things up - and mistakes default to assistance being cut off and the hassle of appealing devolves to the person who wants assistance. Whenever these people would get the form to report any work they did, they would only get a couple days turn around time to return all "documentation" of whatever they did: assuming they had time to pursued documenting stuff and access to a copy machine, etc. All money for copies and stamps was to come out of the pocket of the welfare recipient who, again, received no subsidy for basic necessities.

So, this room full of people in Oakland were being placed in an impossible situation. The only way to avoid homelessness and to pay for basic necessities in this situation would be prostitution, petty crime, under-the-table work...all things this pack of "fraud investigators" was going to set out to catch.

All roads lead to the absurd here. In a recent article an Oakland pastor talked about the black community suffering from PTSD: they are so cowed by police violence that they do not protest, much less rebel. But how can anyone take this for long? I predict it's only a matter of time before people succumb to the madness of it all and just start lighting matches and burn Oakland down.

Keith Carson is the County of Alameda Supervisor in charge of General Assistance Welfare. This is his mess.

Ps. As someone who is disabled, my situation is slightly better in that I'm not subject to the 3 month limit. My situation is so stressful, though, that I don't understand how people under the 3 month circumstance survive at all.

Just last month I watched a woman, with a very small baby, sneak jars of baby food into her purse. She looked tired and thin and her infant's clothes were stained so I didn't say anything to the staff. I doubt she had the money for bail and I just couldn't do it. IIRC, the new budget deal cuts funding to W.I.C. This shouldn't be happening in America. We give the military more tanks and jets (even when they never asked for them) but we cut food aid to mothers and children? This doesn't make any sense.

about how a cop didn't arrest a homeless woman who shoplifted eggs to help feed her children, but bought the eggs and facilitated arrangements for her family to stay in a hotel for a couple of nights instead.

Yet for every feelgood case like that, how many women were caught shoplifting and arrested? In how many cases was it the son/brother/husband who was arrested...and who is now being pipelined into the prison/labor complex?

people into the prison system. Cheap labor that can't quit! Plus, all the little worker bees on the outside have to compete with those lower paid prisoners, so if they ask for a raise, they just might be out of a job.

I really lost my cookies when I found out that prisoners had lost their lives fighting fires in California. I wonder how pressured they were to do that job.

What were those guys paid? Was it $2 a week or a day? Either way, that's got to be the modern day equivalent of slavery.

I just don't have much hope for humanity anymore. The whole system is just so fucked up. Money seems to be our God now and this greed is killing us and our planet.

It was the first I'd ever heard of this slavery.

But later my Dept. of Rehab counselor told me all of his office furniture was made by prison slave labor. And he seemed to rue it.

One agenda item I keep trying to bring to the fore: the race to the bottom of the welfare system. Welfare is handled county by county - by counties that want to save money. No one wants to invite neighboring poor to migrate to their county, so they try to tweak their assistance lower. They never want assistance to become an "alternative" to work, so assistance is deliberately made unlivable. But if people have no work, that means the unlivable system drives them toward homelessness.

The current system is a nightmare in which people have to cheat survive (primarily through prostitution and petty crime), and this situation automatically makes people on welfare wards/slaves of the State. The homeless people go into shelters where they undergo "behavior modification" and go into "job programs" that may consist of semi-slavery conditions. The ones that resorted to crime to keep their housing risk getting caught by the police: they do prison slave labor.

This is why it's laughable when the GOP talks about withholding welfare as enabling people to "live the American dream". Lowering assistance resources doesn't change people's need. It just forces them into more "alternative" attempts at survival, such as criminal activity. The GOP engage in magical thinking when they act is if taking away welfare creates jobs: this only creates more competition for the lowest end jobs, enabling highly exploitative employers to offer even worse terms.

Also the GOP attack on welfare is an attack on women. The GOP want to make sure people can't turn to the State when they are in need, because they want people to be forced to become dependent on private individuals. Who are the most likely to need assistance first? Women with children. Who are private individuals most likely to accept as dependents? Women they can use as sexual chattel. The abstract "taxpayer" will be relieved, and the powerful private individual will subsidize a harem instead. Poor men may be able to sell their loyalty as private soldiers, just as in the feudal era, but most will be disposable as the article mentions.

Using Children as Hostages

Employers far too often get away with outrageous behavior like wage theft, low pay, no raises, suppressing union activity, poor working conditions, and the the like because workers are afraid to speak up. Why? Because they have to feed their kids. Can't do that without a job. So their kids are basically hostages.

Both men and women will hesitate to act "irresponsibly" (by, say, quitting a bad job) if they have to think of their spouse.

As each of these come into realization...

1. Deplete Their Wealth
2. Strip Away Their Income
3. Take Away Their Homes
4. Hit Them with Fines, Fees, and Fleecings
5. Criminalize Them
6. Let Their Children Suffer

... the people would naturally turn to DC and to their federal/state/local government for answers; a government that would have to grow in size and scope in order to service all these needs and remedy all these problems. A government to which they would feel indebted.

So if those effected choose to vote, which party is saying those services would be there in their time of need?