The American Dream was just a Dream.

Remember when hard work and perseverance were all you needed to "make it" in America?
That was before the Ultra Monster Pirana of Uncontrolled, Unregulated, Unfettered, Un F-ing Believable, Un-American Pseudo (Vampire) Capitalism took over.

Now it doesn't matter what you do to try to get ahead. The dice are loaded. The table is rigged. And you're the rube. Smile.
It used to be easy to understand, only the poor and desperate stole from others. Now it's the Corporate business plan. And it works! For them. For us, not so much.

Good for you. You get up early in the morning so you can take your time and get on the road to beat the ridiculous traffic. Guess what? Now the rich guy can pay to get in a lane that he can go fast in and make it where he's going in time. He just negated all of your planning and hard work. It's okay. He's rich. You're screwed. Welcome to the new economy!

The airport is where this is most apparent. Stand in line to go through TSA security check? Check!
It's the American way to do stupid stuff (that's stuff with an sh...) when they've told you to be paranoid. Billions of dollars go to the companies that make the scanning and screening machines that are used to humiliate us and make us feel like we're less-than-human. These machines are the modern day equivalent of a scarecrow. Or one of those owl sculpture that are supposed to scare away birds and other pests. Basically, just to make the general public feel good. They do nothing to protect us, and I can prove it.

They have a new system that can be used by the rich to circumvent these long lines and delays. Just pay the toll, and breeze right through and past the line. The good news is, terrorists would never pay to get through in this manner, so, no problem here. Just shut up and wait in line, loser!

The airport is where you can find another little piece of inequity. In the parking garage, If you call (write, e-mail, whatever. I suppose if I were rich I'd know how) ahead and pay the price you can get preferred parking in the deck where you used to have to drive up and down and down and up and hither and yon. No more. If you want to avoid that work that is part and parcel of a normal existence, you can pay to NOT be treated equally. Hooray!!

I'll bet you can think of lots of examples where the normal everyday, play by the rules consumer gets outbid by the upper echelons, and made to feel less-than.

We've got to stand-up. Let's face it, we've got more practice than they do, because we have to actually wait in those lines. Stand up for your rights! Stand up for the merit that should be afforded by the hard-work that used to be the backbone of the American Way. Stop all this pay to win. Make your voice heard! Join a union. Join a party. Join a club. Join, join, join. We are stronger TOGETHER.

We just gotta change things or we will be ground under by the 1%.
Baby Steps...

Old King Coal. Not so merry.

Coal miners have been around for a awhile. 

Mining is dirty, dangerous work, that doesn't take a lot of education, just mostly muscle and courage. And a desire to take care of your family.
Especially in rural areas where the coal is found, West Virginia, Kentucky and Missouri, to name just a few. Miners generally have a pretty tough life, filthy, back-breaking work, for long hours. As long as the employer can legally require, that's how many hours a coal miner will work.

I just drove through Ludlow, Colorado where an abomination against humanity took place a while back. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludlow_Massacre)

Fortunately, thanks to the unions and the incredible war-like struggles that they went through to get the miners a living-wage and some protections, the miners can enjoy a somewhat normal standard of living. A liveable standard, even though these mines tend to be in horrible, back-woods locations where the boom-town economies inflate all the costs that the miners incur. Many of these miners have worked the mines for generations, so much so that it's the only existence that they've ever known, or that they can even contemplate. The job is so ingrained with the life and the culture, that the miners, not only put up with the horrible conditions that the employers thrust upon them, they defend it against all logic and against their own well-being.
The nation should be getting off coal. And petroleum. And Natural gas.

It's obvious. Coal is a dirty source of fuel and mining kills miners through bad and unsafe practices and disease. There are natural, renewable sources of power generation that we can transition into, and these miners can, with very little adaptation, be transitioned into without the loss of any income. These types of energy can, and will, be in the same rural locations where these workers now live. But there's a catch. Isn't there always? The fossil fuel energy companies have powerful and deep-pocketed lobbies that won't allow that to happen.

Workers need to be educated in these things. (another reason that the rich and the corporations are dead-set against any public education) The Politicians and the corporations aren't your friends. They fought against your rights every step of the way and killed countless miners who only wanted to make life better for their families.

Let's get out there and help these people, because by helping them, we help ourselves.
The best way to get even with the Robber Borons, is to make what they stole from us, and our planet, worthless.
Let's do it.
Baby steps...

It works if YOU work it.

This is exactly the way representative, participatory democracy should work. It's a little slow, admittedly, but the more we participate, the better and faster it will become.

After years of cajoling the White House, the solar panels are back on the White House. The lord and savior of the republican/oligarchic party Ronnie RayGunz spent time, energy and presumably money to remove the solar panels that had been installed by Carter. Had those panels been allowed to remain, who can say where research and development might have taken us by now in the renewable energy industry?
Filthy, polluted water-under-the-bridge.

Bill McKibbon and his group 350.org and their fans have turned the Obama administration around on this one aspect of the argument. Good on 'em!
The Keystone XL Pipeline has coughed it's last disgusting tarry-oily death knell, since The Truth is almost always more powerful than what the Koch's want.

Obama is playing the long-game and in order to do it, he MUST have the grass-roots (you and me) help him. All of this hard work is designed to be a sort of political ju-jitsu, in order to make these changes look natural and organic. And it's working. The bonus is that it also makes all the greedy corporations and politicians look like idiots. I LOVE that.
Keep it up!
Baby Steps...

Try Love for a "Change."

It's all become clear to me now.
Rich white men are doing something that they've always done.
They are trying to control others.
All others.
They pine for the old days when you could maximize your profits by using slaves.
Wow, slavery was great! Free work, and all you had to do was try and make sure that your slaves didn't die, but if they did, eh, get another one.
Oh, bliss! Oh, profits!
And the slaves were "different," they were not men.
They were less than men. That made it easier on their consciences (those who had consciences).
They even looked different, to make it even easier. They were black.

"Hey, remember that one magic grifter book that we've convinced everyone was written by God? What if we could find something in that that explains why these guys are less than men. Look at this. Mark of Ham. Works for me. We can sell this to the rubes. Tell them it's God's will. I bet this book will come in handy later. Let's build some buildings and use brainwashing, conditioning and threats and really pound our dogma into all of the people. If they don't believe us, they'll go to this really horrible place FOREVER, and experience pain and suffering like they can't even imagine, but we'll help them imagine it."

They will ALWAYS resent that the institution of slavery was abolished and they will do anything to get back to those principles.
They hate the blacks for no longer being slaves, and expecting to be treated equally and with justice.
They hate the liberals for helping to bring down slavery and expecting to have everyone treated equally and with justice.
They hate unions, because they fight for equality and justice for the workers (who, by golly, should be slaves and not get wages).
They hate immigrants for getting here AFTER slavery.
They LOVE free-trade agreements, because they allow us to ship jobs to places where the pay for workers is just barely above slavery.
They hate women, because, just like slaves, they have had the gall to believe that they deserve equality and justice.
They hate the middle class because they want a share of the money. Not gonna happen. "It's OUR money."

The best way to keep blacks down? Poverty and taking away the right to vote by using the magic grifter book, that says whatever we want it to say.
The best way to keep immigrants down? Poverty and taking away the right to vote by using the magic grifter book, that says whatever we want it to say..
The best way to keep women down? Use their bodies against them by using the magic grifter book, that says whatever we want it to say.

How do they do it?
Buy the government.
Buy the media.
Keep us scared, keep us down.
Turn us against each other.
Give us bread and circuses.

Time to stand up and fight.
Don't believe them.
Demand the truth.
Demand equality.
And start loving each other. It disrupts their plan.
I love you.
Peace.

Baby Steps...

Wha....???

Did you happen to see this?
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2011/09/memphis_teacher.php

To put this in terms of Urban Homesteading: “Oh, for plucks sake!” (a chicken reference)

You hear about bad teachers sometimes. Something should be done about them.

You hear about bad students. Do something about them also. Maybe get them good teachers.

You hear about people fined and jailed for gardens. That’s right. I said GARDENS.

You know, plants and flowers and vegetables. That kind of garden.

Now, this. It is pretty apparent that local governments don’t have enough important work to do. I guess in these communities there must be no crime and 100% employment. The schools must be great, and the streets clean. The hospitals cheap and efficient and everyone gets along like a happy crowd at a rave where the water has been spiked with ecstasy.

Bullcompost, bullcompost, bullcompost!

This is community!

This is Education!

This is Science!

This is farming!

This is food justice!

This is giving students a purpose!

This is what we should ALL be doing.

Memphis oughta’ re-think why people percieve the South as backwards.
This should be REQUIRED not criminalized.

Baby Steps...

Medican"t

This is really sad.
I just listened to my wife on the phone, talking to a friend who is a UK citizen that lives in Canada. She was trying to explain to her friend how our healthcare system works. It was the most frustrating and stupid conversation, with her friend continually saying, "Really? That's stupid. Can't you just go to any doctor whenever you need to?" "You pay HOW much?" "Oh, my god, that's barbaric!"

At least if you can afford it, we get a much higher quality of healthcare.<snark>
Baby Steps...