The stories behind the food stamps

February 12, 2014 by eagle

I was thinking about my post on food stamps, and thought I’d add a little depth to the folks behind the faces–

I mentioned in this post about the man getting only $16 a month in food stamps. He’s in a wheelchair, not too much older than me. He was a fire fighter, once, and then was paralyzed in a hunting accident.

Another lady limps with one leg as she had a stroke. Her left arm is basically useless–some mobility to it but not much. She, too, isn’t too much older than me. She had been married once and had children from that union. She had once suggested that her husband look into a security business. He did. He now lives quite well while she lives in poverty with a small income from disability.

An older African American gentleman once played in a jazz band in Chicago during the 50s and 60s (and probably longer, but that’s what I heard about). He had his picture in the paper once. Now he lives in public housing, unable to afford a better place.

A younger gal is a student nurse who somehow ended up here from Hawaii. She’s in public housing and on food stamps until she gets her degree.

Another gal my age used to work for a national grocery chain. She stood on concrete floors for eight hours every day for years…..it took a toll on her back and knees and now she is on disability and food stamps.

I just wanted to put a face on the folks on food stamps so people understand.

You never know the story until you walk a mile in their shoes…

Starving in America **edited

February 11, 2014 by eagle

Politicker has this up on Jerry Nadler speaking out on the republican plan of decreasing the surplus population–through even more cuts to food stamps..in a Depression…oh, wait, we’re not supposed to call it a Depression…my bad.

I’ve debated back and forth whether to write about my situation with the state. Like so many people on food stamps, it’s humiliating to have to beg for food. It’s humiliating to go to job interviews and not get that call, even though the interviewers seem to like you….then you are called lazy and unmotivated by these republican (and some Democrats) jackasses….so they’re going to “help you” not be lazy and unmotivated…

Briefly, I did get them reinstated…BUT the state pulled a number out of its arse that isn’t even reflecting of what I am bringing home.

Gah, this is hard talking about, but here goes: I made a total of $520.00 since September. The average of those months is $130.00 per month…before taxes. The state has done some fuzzy math and now deemed me making $260.00 + what my son gives me. I told them that he only helps me out if I don’t make enough to cover my supplements and vitamins (which keep me healthy until I can get this horrible poison out) and my gas and the basics like laundry detergent, soap, shampoo, etc. I really hate having to ask him for money, so if he does help out, it’s never over $100, unless the car needs work or some emergency comes up. He signed a paper stating such.

So…they decided that he helps me out *every* month, regardless, which is a lie.

Even with all the false money that I don’t have coming in, the total they have assigned is…$360.00 per month.

And they cut my food stamps because apparently I’m living high on the hog at their false total of $360. Yep.

This does not take into account taxes taken out, gas to get back and forth to work, and the weather, which has impaired my ability to work. They don’t take into account that the car needs tires, a transmission fluid change, and other maintenance just so I can make it to work. Doesn’t matter to them.

According to them, I’m making $360, with no taxes to pay and no other expenditures.

$143 is all they will give me for an entire month’s worth of groceries. And now they want to cut that even more. They spend more than that on a month’s worth of coffee.

Oh, and what was that about the automatic pay raises of Congress? You can’t “make it” on $100,000 per year?

Mitt Romney and his cronies, gutting jobs while raking in the cash….and looking the other way while people go hungry.

My post on being lazy and unmotivated here.

My other posts on food stamps here, here, and here.

My piece on the media slamming the poor ..I should note that I also saw the South Bend station doing the exact.same.thing within months after this piece aired.

So…you can’t find a job, you’ve got food stamps that don’t last a month, and you’re not supposed to beg for money…vicious, heartless, and punitive.

And when the sociopaths talk about wanting to cut food stamps because of fraud, they neglect to mention the program is one of the best run with only a 3% error rate!

Meanwhile, they look the other way at rampant fraud with the Dept. of Defense….and the welfare queens of McDonald’s and Walmart.

**edited to add: I just want to make it plain that this is not a pity post. Like I said in the previous post, we don’t want your stinking charity. We want jobs with livable wages.

Elizabeth Warren, et al, come out against XL Pipeline

February 11, 2014 by eagle

Well, I’m glad that these folks have come out against the XL Pipeline.

This is, essentially, a rebellion by 22 progressive congressional Democrats against the Clinton-Obama effort to provide a market for the Kochs’ oil. The letter was actually written by Representative Henry Waxman and Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, and co-signed by senators Barbara Boxer, Ed Markey, Dick Durbin, Jeff Merkley, and Elizabeth Warren; and Representatives John Conyers, Jr., Barbara Lee, Raúl M. Grijalva, Rush Holt, Louise M. Slaughter, Jerrold Nadler, Judy Chu, Peter DeFazio, Anna G. Eshoo, Sam Farr, Peter Welch, Alan Lowenthal, Mark Pocan, and Steve Cohen.

Note how deeply involved Hillary Clinton is in XL– how Paul Elliott, a former staff member, is a lobbyist for TransCanada, along with David Goldwyn.

Secretary Clinton’s State Department allowed the environmental impact statement on the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline to be performed by a petroleum industry contractor that was chosen by the company that was proposing to build and own the pipeline, TransCanada. That contractor had no climatologist, and the resulting report failed even at its basic job of estimating the number of degrees by which the Earth’s climate would be additionally heated if the pipeline is built and operated. Its report ignored that question and instead evaluated the impact that climate change would have on the pipeline, which was estimated to be none.

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Be sure to click on this link about the March, 2013, XL Pipeline “environmental report” as a hoax.

[…] Therefore, the reason no calculation was done of the XL pipeline’s global-warming impact appears to be that no one who was involved in the study had any climatological expertise or interest.

[…]

But be that as it may: it is by now clear that the State Department’s Draft “Environmental Impact Statement” on XL is neither by the State Department, nor does it address the pipeline’s impact on global warming, nor was anyone who had expertise on global warming even involved in its preparation. The report is thus a triple-hoax, so that to call it fraudulent would put the matter mildly.

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Note that the Obama Administration is trying to force the EU to purchase the Koch Brothers’ dirty oil. Unreal.

Additionally, I don’t see it mentioned in the article, but I have a huge concern about the petcoke byproduct of this dirty oil that will make its way to Whiting, Indiana. This is devastating to our environment and the people breathing this toxic garbage. It seems to me that Indiana has become the garbage can of the Kochs and others who have nowhere else to dump this stuff. Like I said before, they should start dumping this stuff on the Koch’s lawn, and see how long it takes them to change their minds about the petcoke (haha, I first typed “petchoke”…really, more accurately describes its affects on the lungs of people).

Pipeline rupture report of 2009 buried

February 4, 2014 by eagle

Warrior Publications has this up on a report of yet another pipeline rupture that was buried since 2009. Accidentally, of course…/snark

Nathan Lemphers says “it’s hard to guess intentions” as to why this report was buried….

…yeah, I’m not buying it, either, that it was an “oversight” that the damning report was never to see sunlight. There are too many incidents of the oil industry interfering with freedom of the press and freedom of speech for it to be unintentional.

Let’s not forget the Arkansas oil spill that we wouldn’t have heard about, if it were up to the mainstream media. Or the massive devastation of the Gulf that BP tried to hide (and unfortunately, did a pretty good job of interfering with photographers and having dead dolphins carted away before they could document them.)

The tide was turned against the Vietnam war through the media…once one sees how devastating it is, it makes it harder to look the other way.

…and so it is with the devastating effects of the energy companies on the environment….hard to look the other way once one sees how devastating it is to the Earth and to the wildlife.

Neil Young’s song and the accompanying video haunt me–it shows in stark contrast how beautiful this Earth truly is until the oil and gas companies move in…

Ed Shultz (MSNBC) has now two nights in a row yelled into the screen about how we should be in favor of the XL pipeline for *cough* safety reasons. Um-hmmm…

You know, I might have believed him if he wasn’t leaving out one important factor of tar sands: pet coke. Pet coke being the highly toxic byproduct of tar sands….which they want to dump in my already toxic state…

He is adamant that the “oil is going to come out, anyway” so it might as well be us, because if China or anyone else does it, well, it’s just not going to be as environmentally friendly.

I say let them. It will be blood on their hands, not ours.

Better yet, leave the oil in the Earth where it belongs. As the Sierra Club stated, if the XL is not built, then there is high probability that the tar sands will remain in the Earth.

Additionally, I thought it was disingenuous of Ed Shultz not to mention the Mi’kmaq or other First Nations of Canada whom have rights to the lands that are being destroyed.

Not a peep. That speaks volumes!

And it also speaks to why MSNBC and Ed Shultz are still trying to convince people, almost on a daily basis, that Hillary Clinton is the front runner for the 2016 presidential race. Hillary Clinton is all for the XL.

Lastly, Ed and his backers would still like to downplay how devastating XL would be on the environment.

He says we “have to” have XL in order to turn on our lights…and other scare tactics.

I don’t think we have *even* begun to truly use our brain cells to discover sustainable ways of creating energy.

…and Ed, we can always light a candle instead of cursing the dark…

Putting an “X” on XL and Enbridge Pipelines

February 3, 2014 by eagle

Idle No More has put up links to several folks speaking out against XL and Enbridge Pipelines:

Honor the Earth:

Rise Up Mother Earth:

Note how they characterize Mother Earth as crying–Earth isn’t a big ball of dirt, but a living, breathing organism.

Here’s a list of nationwide vigils.

The Black Snake will face mounting opposition.

What did Big Oil know and when did they know it. Jack Gerard, head of the American Petroleum Institute, thought the pipeline was dangerous to the environment…bwahahahahaha *snort* /just a little joke there, folks

Finally, Democracy Now! featured the XL in a debate with an industry insider and Friends of the Earth:

http://www.democracynow.org/2014/2/3/debate_state_dept_moves_keystone_xl

http://www.democracynow.org/2014/2/3/environmental_groups_shocked_by_reports_of

And this on Enbridge’s infamous 2010 Kalamazoo spill, with cleanup still not done.

http://www.democracynow.org/2014/2/3/michigan_activists_face_up_to_2

ALEC hard at work in Indiana; HB1321

February 1, 2014 by eagle

Diane Ravitch has this up on the destructive policies designed to push for charter schools that will ultimately mean the demise of public schools through siphoning funding away.

By the way, HB1320, has passed. By the legiscan link, it’s hard to tell whether it passed in the legislature or just the committee. Either way, it doesn’t look good.

Update: Indiana HB1320

January 28, 2014 by eagle

Update on this post on the power grab/information grab by Pence and his henchmen.

I found this summary of the bill– as you can see, it does not outline what information is being gathered. It does not say who is receiving this information. It does not outline how this benefits children and education. And why does the state need to provide backup when schools routinely backup their own records??

As I wrote on Diane’s blog–

It looks like Gates has his dirty little fingers in this–gathering more information for…what? or perhaps I should say…who? What kind of information are they gathering? Who will benefit from gathering this information?

The bill does not tell us. Highly suspicious.

I also found this excellent blog by Doug Martin (you might recall he posted on firedoglake).

If passed into law, HB1320 will probably hand another $3.7 million of our tax dollars to a private company which will sell off personal and confidential information of students and families to companies out to market their products and agenda to them.

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This new move is not a new one. In fact, HB1320 was probably inspired by a model bill drafted for various states by the American Legislative Exchange Council, the corporate sponsored bill-mill behind the scenes in Indiana and across the country bringing us school privatization, attacks on the postal service and unions, and the infamous Stand Your Ground Law.

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Yep. This has the smell of ALEC all over it.

Sunshine on my shoulders…

January 27, 2014 by eagle

…makes me happy…

(this song was on my mind when I named this blog, fyi 🙂

We were treated to another spectacular cloud rainbow...

…this time, however, I was able to get a little bit of it captured with my cell camera. It was almost directly in line with our front door:

It’s a little hard to distinguish, but the little patch that looks white is actually the splash of rainbow. The sun was not cooperating. I was trying to block the lens from glare, but alas…

Anyway, I think the sun’s rays are pretty spectacular, too.