Justifying Murder

  First off congradulations to the Mac for graduating college!

  A few days ago I turned my car radio to WHKZ (1440 AM) Warren, Ohio. The host was Pastor Ernie Sanders broadcasting from the Cleveland area. Ernie was preaching about his worship of guns and spewing hate for government, the “entitled, “Islam, gays, public schools, unions, how Barack HUSSEIN Obama is a communist, Muslim, foreign-born anti-Christ etc. Pastor Ernie was condemning all liberals and all things liberal to Hell and talking about how God was on his side. To me hate-filled preachers like Ernie believe they represent “Christian values.” According to Ernie liberals like me have an opinion of Christ that makes us Hell bound. I believe that Jesus would not have believed in “Trickle down economics” where more is given to the wealthy at harm to our poorest. I also believe Jesus would not be against programs that help the elderly, poor and the sick. I believe Jesus would have thought Obamacare didn’t go far enough. Pastor Ernie can condemn me to Hell if he wants for the truth is I wouldn’t want to live in his vision of Heaven. I do thank Pastor Ernie and a woman’s bumper sticker for helping me write the following poem.

Justifying Murder

The God of the Bible says “Don’t kill.”

One of the Ten Commandments

 states “Thou shalt not kill.

The first mass murderer of the Bible is God himself,

 starting with flooding the Earth and killing all

but those aboard Noah’s Ark.

The LORD rained down burning sulfur

killing those in Sodom and Gomorrah.

Exodus 2:29-30 At midnight the Lord

 struck down all the firstborn

in Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh,

who sat on the throne,

to the firstborn of the prisoner,

who was in the dungeon, and the

firstborn of all the livestock as well.

In Exodus 14:24-28 God destroys the Pharaoh’s army.

Exodus 19:12 God states whoever commits the act

of touching Mt. Sinai must die for this victimless crime.

Exodus 31:15 commands those who work on Sunday

 must be put to death another victimless crime.

We hear In Exodus 32: “Thus says the Lord God,

“‘Put every man his sword by his side,

 slay every man his brother,

his companion and neighbor.”

 In Exodus 32:27-28, 35 God has 3000 people killed

 for the victimless crime of worshipping a golden calf,

and then he throws in a plague for good measure.

This murderous God initially wanted to kill

them all, but a calmer headed Moses talked him out of it.

The entire Book of Leviticus is filled with rules

and the violation of many of them like

priests letting their hair become “unkempt”,

adultery, cursing parents, bestiality, prostitution,

are all subject to the pain of death.

Deuteronomy 13:1-5 Prophets for other religions must be killed.

Deuteronomy 13:6-9 (Your brother, your children, your wife, or

your closest friend must be killed if they commit the victimless

crime of suggesting religious exploration.

Deuteronomy 13:12-15 Entire towns must be murdered

if their inhabitants have committed

the victimless crime of adopting another religion.

Deuteronomy 17:2-5 Anyone found guilty

of worshipping other gods or celestial objects

must be stoned to death.

Deuteronomy 21:18-21 A “stubborn and rebellious son” must die.

Deuteronomy 22:20-21 If a girl commits premarital sex, she must die.

Deuteronomy 25:11 If your wife touches your private parts

during a public dispute, you must cut off her hand.

Talk about the ultimate victimless crime;

I think most men like it when their wife

touches their  private parts.

I could go on and on about the Bible

and its book after book of

boastful tales of hatred and murder by God.

I think about all this because an elderly woman

 just stole the parking spot I very patiently waited for.

I believe the God of the Bible would say

I was justified in stoning her to death.

I note she has a bumper sticker

 that says God is pro-life.

I take it she is not a Christian.

  My pick for local buffoon of the week is a second week in a row winner, Warren Tribune Community Columnist Martha Yoder. Ms. Yoder once again is singing high praises for fracking. Yoder said, “Our country’s dependence on foreign oil will be lessened by increased domestic energy production.” I guess Ms. Yoder missed an article in the rag she works for saying much of Ohio’s natural gas will be going to Asia and India.  The truth is the oil from Utica drilling in Ohio is smaller than expected. Utica drilling is mostly getting natural gas which is worth much less than the oil and already in great abundance in the U.S. Yoder talks about the greatest benefit being the creation of jobs in our area that sorely needs them. She believes this because  she attended a career fair that was put on by the Regional Chamber featuring about 30 energy industry related companies and educational institutions. If Yoder would have done some investigation about other areas of the country that were promised lots of area jobs she have found out about the lies about local jobs. I’m sure Martha “Fracking” Yoder will continue to be a corporate stooge and give me plenty more reasons to name her local buffoon of the week.

  National buffoon of the week is teabagger libertarian radio host Adam Kokesh. See why here.

Andy Gross: “10 More Gallons”

Fraser McArter: “Sorry State of the Union Blues”

Local Musician: Tim Drummond

“I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” ~ Mahatma Gandhi

David Vs. Goliath Rematch

  The truth is most of the time David does not beat Goliath. This was the case in our local elections this past Tuesday. The citizen-organized anti-fracking charter amendment for Youngstown, Ohio was defeated 57 percent to 43 percent.  The David in this case is the backers of the charter amendment, the Community Bill of Rights Committee. They had gotten the required number of signatures to get the issue on the ballot. The charter’s supporters were able to get the local media to hear the nightmare stories of residents from Weathersfield Township’s Westwood Mobile Home Park in Lordstown, Ohio. These residents live within a few hundred feet of an expansive drilling site in nearby Lordstown. They told of the burdens of living near a drilling site, things such as the noise, fumes, vibrations and bright lights that flood their property each night. Such warnings along with 13 earthquakes in 2011 by a local injection well used to dispose of the brine wastewater, a fracking by-product and the dumping of hundreds of thousands of gallons of fracking waste into the Mahoning River by a local company were not enough to convince voters of the dangers of fracking in Youngstown.

  The Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber formed a coalition of business, labor and community leaders who support the oil and gas industry in the Mahoning Valley and spoke out opposing the charter amendment. This group is the Goliath in our story and named the Mahoning Valley Coalition for Job Growth and Investment. Here are the members of that group. The ones I am not surprised to see as members are Tom Humphries, President & CEO of the Regional Chamber, Laura and Paul Lyden, Vice President of Lyden Oil, Jean Gaetano, Executive Administrator at V&M Star, Butch Taylor and Tim Manion of Plumbers & Pipefitters Local 396 and Tracey Winbush, Radio talk show host, of Tracey and Friends. They all have something to gain from fracking except Tom Humphries and Tracey Winbush who are a couple of corporate tools who just like being on the wrong side of every issue. The ones I am saddened to see on the list besides Pipefitters Local 396 are Dave Betras, Chairman of the Mahoning County Democrats and Father Greg Maturi the Pastor at St. Dominic Church, Youngstown. The Plumbers and Pipefitters Local 396 spent $58,300 in their effort to defeat the issue. Backers of the charter amendment, Community Bill of Rights Committee, spent $1,415 over the reporting cycle and had $3,043 to spend in the week leading to Election Day. In this era of “money talks” Goliath usually has the money and so, as in this case he gets the win.

  I can’t say what the defeat of the Youngstown charter amendment means better than commenter Cubbies at Vindy.com. Cubbies: “It’s a sad day when the deep pockets of the gas/oil industry were able once again to convince the media and Joe Public to buy another pig in the poke by convincing them that jobs and money will come to the poor in Y-town by supporting fracking. When the money rolls in to help the poor and clean up Youngstown’s blight, please wake me up. I’m not expecting a wake-up call.” Then we have Enigma who said, “Capitalism always wins out over consumer and employee protection. Just ask Bangladesh.” When the story of the troubles the Weathersfield Township’s Westwood Mobile Home Park was having with fracking appeared in the Warren Tribune I noted what a commenter to Trib.com said. Youngstownsteelman said: “Temporary inconveniences to secure our nation’s energy needs. Suck it up. ” Conservatives like youngstownsteelman actually fell for that meeting our nation’s energy independence oil & gas corporation B.S. The truth is this gas is going to Asia and India. Meeting our nation’s energy needs indeed.

  The local buffoon of the week is Warren Tribune Community Columnist Martha Yoder. Ms. Yoder wrote a column entitled, “Fracking, all it’s cracked up to be.” Yoder points out one of the most widely used common chemicals for hydraulic fracturing is guar gum, which is actually found in ice cream. She conveniently left out the other 749 chemicals. Twenty-nine of those chemicals are known cancer causing carcinogens and thirty-seven percent have been identified as endocrinedisruptors. Exposure to endocrinedisrupting chemicals has been implicated in cancers of the breast, prostate, pituitary, testicle, and ovary. Recognized carcinogens are used in one of every three hydraulic fracturing operations across the nation—according to industry self-reporting. The number one most used fracturing chemical is methanol which is highly toxic to humans. Other chemicals are ethylene glycol which is used in antifreeze, mercury, lead, uranium, hydrochloric acid, formaldehyde, benzene, diesel fuel, hydrogen fluoride, sulfuric acid, naphthalene, crystalline silica etc. Perhaps Ms.Yoder would suggest Handel’s Ice Cream start selling ice cream flavors like; Uranium Raisin Rum, Mercury Maple, Benzeneberry, Formaldehyde Fudge Ripple, Lemonylead, Methanol Mint, and Diesel Fuel Mocha Almond. They could be marketed as the conservative anti-environmentalist gas well huggers flavors to die for.

  The biggest local losers of the week are the 82% of registered Trumbull County voters and 83% of registered Mahoning County voters that decided to leave the election up to 16-17% of their fellow voters. I guess David only defeats Goliath in the Bible. I had someone tell me the election showed that God was on the side of the fracking companies. This is exactly what I thought I’d hear from this guy who only worships money. My God sent warning about the dangers of frackering in the form of 13 earthquakes and thousands of gallons of fracking waste to pollute the Mahoning River. In the end 57% of the voters didn’t heed his warning and 83% of the registered voters were too stupid or lazy to vote. At least that is the way I see it. I want to thank the Community Bill of Rights Committee, Frackfree Mahoning Valley and all of the fractivists in our community for being the Davids. In the long run I believe you will be shown to be right but I hope our community does not pay a big toll for the lesson.

Happy Mothers Day!

Grass: “Frack Off”

ben-ulric: “Fracking Blues”

“Nature shrinks as capital grows. The growth of the market cannot solve the very crisis it creates.”
― Vandana Shiva, Soil Not Oil: Environmental Justice in an Age of Climate Crisis

Making a List

 

  I ran into someone who asked me why I picked on the editor of the Warren Tribune, WKBN’s Dan Rivers and the cast of the “Traci and Friends” radio show so much? I have said many times that my main goal is a better world for my children. To get that better world we have to remember the saying, “If you want a better world start with your own backyard.” That is what I am doing by pointing out the constant lies by people in our local media. These local media liars manipulate those in our community and hinder real and necessary change.  I won’t apologize or ease up on these media hacks until they become part of the solution instead of the problem.

  That being said let me start with the area buffoon of the week award. That award goes to Stick’s one of the cast of liars over at WSOM’s radio talk show “Tracey and Friends.” The other day Stick’s said, “The poor in our country have it a lot better off than the poor in other countries.” I’m singling Sticks out but all the “Friends” have said this at one time or another. The “Friends” are just that part of the middle-class that can be expected to say such things because they are defenders of the wealthy. Such people are called, conservatives and do the dirty work and bidding of the rich powers that be. Some of these conservatives are editors and radio show hosts and pick up paychecks to bash the poor and defend the wealthy. These people in the media call the wealthy a new name, “job creators.” Never mind that these “job creators” get corporate welfare from taxpayers and mostly create jobs in China.

  Mother Theresa said, “It’s not how much we give but how much love we put into giving” and “Give, but give until it hurts.”  Should we do something of a Christian nature like Mother Theresa suggested?  Instead we could use Stick’s logic and save money. I’ll think about that the next time I park at the Covelli Center and a homeless man wonders out from under the bridge. When he asks if I can spare some change I’ll have a new answer for him. I’ll say something that will bring him more joy than any amount of money I can give him. I’ll tell him, “You might be poor and homeless but you have it better off than the poor and homeless in other countries.” I’m sure he’ll feel so blessed he will run back under the bridge to share this joyous message with the other homeless. It seems like a cold, callous, cheap and soulless thing to say to me. Then again maybe I’m wrong as the crew at “Tracey and Friends” like to claim they are “real Christians” doing the work of God. I guess we have a different God and Bible. My Bible doesn’t have all the gay bashing in it that their Bible does. I guess I have that liberal Bible version where Jesus said many things about helping the poor such as the short and sweet,  “Proverb 22: “Happy is the generous man, the one who feeds the poor.”

  Conservatives love to portray the poor as a bunch of leeches getting welfare and living large off our tax dollars. These same conservatives will never mention corporate welfare that goes to the greedy and not the needy. Social welfare is such a tiny part of the budget it is not worth talking about. What is more interesting is asking how the poor get by (even with social safety nets). I would have to say without Mrs. E working that on my wages I would easily be considered poor. With the both of us working it still seems hard to get by every month. We certainly don’t live large at all and when you get older like us you realize you can do without a lot of things. What we can’t do without are the constant monthly unexpected expenses to fix our home and automobiles.

  We have two cars that we bought used, one is 7 years old and the one I drive is 13 years old. Our house is fairly small and over 50 years old. With an old home and old cars problems constantly pop up. These bills to maintain and insure cars and a house really limit us from putting much money away for retirement. Add to that loans we are paying off for our two kids college education. My father didn’t retire until he was 82. I am convinced and accepting of the fact I will be in the same boat if I live that long. I have an acre to mow and my 17-year-old riding mower had the transmission die last year. To get it fixed was going to cost more than I purchased the mower for. The last several years I kept the mower running by jerry-rigging it with baling wire and duct tape. I’m sure that is probably what poor people do also and it wasn’t really a safe thing to do. We really had to shuffle some expenses and shop very wisely to get a new mower.

  A few months ago I had to put all new tires on both cars as they were getting thread bare and dangerous to drive on. Have you priced these size 16 and 17 inch tires? I paid more for tires than I use to pay for a decent used car. It made me wonder how bad are the tires on poor people’s cars and how could they afford new ones. I see ads on Craig’s List for used tires for sale and I guess that is the answer. Mrs. E is terrified of driving in the rain and I can’t imagine how nervous she’d be driving on used tires. A few months back I had to get brakes put on both cars in the same month. Do you ever think about how poor people can’t afford to maintain their car’s tires, brakes and suspensions? Did you ever think about how their not being able to afford those things puts all of us on the highways in danger? Do you think poor people have money to pay for car insurance?

  None of the electric windows on my 13-year-old car have been able to go down for over a year now. We do what a lot of people do we put it on the list of things that need repaired when we have the money. It was certainly on the bottom of the list in the winter but now that it’s summer I think having windows that open should move up the repair list. I’d say especially since the electric sunroof won’t open and the air conditioning barely works. I’m not very mechanical but I can MacGyver up some temporary fixes which unfortunately have to last longer than they should. The rubber around my car door is ripped and the wind was howling in. I tried to buy a new seal but the only thing available was a kit for all four doors that was in the hundreds of dollars. I couldn’t afford that so I got out the liquid rubber and super glue and made my own section of seal.

  A few months ago I was driving to work and my brakes went out on me as I was going down a steep hill. I had to use my emergency brake, some prayers and downshift the transmission to stop. I knew the brakes were recently new but I remembered that the mechanic who installed them told me my brake lines were really rusty. I had budgeted for the brakes but had no extra money to pay for new brake lines at that time. I now realized that was coming back to haunt me as I drove about two-miles and left the car at a brake shop and got a ride to work. The shop repaired the line that rusted through and the lines to the other three wheels. It was a couple of hundred dollars and I was lucky I had a charge card. We have a charge card which we only use in times of emergency. I contemplate how many poor people have or can even qualify for charge cards and wonder what they do in times of emergency. If I was poor I would have had another solution to a rusty brake line. I would have looked to see which brake line was leaking brake fluid and pinched it closed with a pair of pliers and drove just having the other three brakes working. It would have been my only solution and how risky is that for me and everyone else on the road?

  Then there are all the problems people have with their homes. This month I had squirrels in my fireplace staring at me. I had to spend $450 to get caps and screens installed on my chimney. I had to spend another $150 to capture and relocate the squirrels. It was either that or let squirrels stay in my house and eat the wiring and possibly cause a fire. During the winter it was over $1,000 for a new furnace motor.  Last summer was $6,000 to shingle my roof and another $1,000 for windows as I had water coming in around them. If I didn’t fix the windows and roof I was looking at getting mold in my house. My kitchen is the original 50 year-old one, I need cabinets, carpet, doors, flooring, siding, a new drive, gutters, plumbing updates, a new electrical box and my basement is leaking. Those are just the things I know about and who knows what monthly surprises I will face. Last month I spent two days trying to unclog a garbage disposal before I paid a plumber to come. I’m stuck with this house as I could never afford to get this place in proper shape to sell. Like most other Americans the high price of gasoline has really cut into our paychecks. I’d love to own a hybrid car that gets three-times the mileage on a gallon of gas that our old beaters get. A new car is so far down our list of things we need that it would have to jump up to even see the bottom.

  I really hate having to spend my retirement funds just to maintain an old house and two old cars. What must the poor feel like to have to live with many of the problems we can at least pay for? Our poorest workers on minimum wage have the corporate owned media attack them any time they mention raising the minimum wage. The IUE union workers at Delphi in the past voted for a second tier of workers making less money. On their next contract the workers voted for a third tier. The UAW has now gone along with auto corporations and approved a second tier making half as much as the first tier at auto plants. You’ve heard it said that our kids probably won’t have it as good as we did. When our workers and unions vote to allow the next generation of workers to be paid less and have less benefits it’s easy to see we have met the enemy and he is us. Did workers on these fist tiers think people making less on second and third tiers would pay any less than them for rent, gasoline, utilities, cars, groceries or on surprise expenses that pop up every month? These tiers should actually be spelled, “tears” because that is what they are for the younger generation of workers.

  I’ve heard people complain that people on welfare seem to dress very well.  I guess people would be happier to see the poor dirty and in rags. I had someone I know who is poor and frequently homeless tell me he goes to thrift stores for all his clothes. He looked very presentable the last time I saw him and said he had spent less than $10.00 total on the shirt, pants and shoes he was wearing. I believe him because I have been thrift store shopping myself for a few years now. We are all finding ways to get by and we all have our lists of things that need fixed. The things on the top of the list needing fixed are those that might cause us the most harm if not repaired. If we look at our nation the thing causing us the most harm is an economic system that only benefits a tiny minority at the top. The defenders of this system will tell you, “Our nation’s people have it better off that the people of other nations.” You can run around with your finger in the air yelling, “We’re number one” if you want to fall for that B.S. If you open your eyes and look around you will see the rich are getting richer and poor are getting poorer. Those of us in the vanishing working and middle-class aren’t even on the powers that be’s list of things to repair and improve. They are all about maintaining the present Status quo and the only change you’ll get from them is pocket change. While you accept the pocket change they will ridicule you calling you a deadbeat and say, “You poor in our country have it better off than the poor in other countries.”

  Paid media goons like the “Friends” defend the “entitled” rich Status quo and spread lies against the poor because it is their job. Greed mongering buffoons like Sticks are content to call themselves Christians and ease their consciences about ignoring the poor by elevating the status of our nation’s poor vs. the poor of the world. Poor is poor and all the poor of the world are our brothers and sisters and deserve our help. If we put helping the poor of every nation at the top of our lists of most important things we’d be on our way to a better world!

  National brain-dead politician of the week is New Hampshire State Senator Stella Tremlay see why here. What kind of voters elect such imbeciles?

The ongoing assault against the 99%.

On May 7th Vote Yes on the Youngstown Community Bil of Rights.

George Jones RIP April 26, 2013.

George Jones: “Wild Irish Rose”

“Small Time Laboring Man”

“Poverty is the worst form of violence.” ~ Gandhi

A Fragile Economic System

  Just the other day there was a fake tweet on the Twitter account of the Associated Press. It said there had been an attack on the White House that injured President Obama. Within two minutes the Dow Jones industrial average fell more than 100 points. “And it wasn’t just the stock market. It was the bond market and commodity market and everything,” said Joseph Saluzzi, co-head of the equity-trading firm Themis Trading. In February, hackers infiltrated the Twitter accounts of Burger King and Jeep, spreading false posts that each company had been sold to a rival. These hackers are exposing how vulnerable and volatile the markets have become. Add in bank failures and the fact that the first thing the Bush administration told us to do after 9/11 happened was to go shopping and you can see we really have a weak economic system.

  Did you know it now costs 1.26 cents to mint a penny and 7.7 cents to mint a nickel? Does that make any sense (pun intended) to anyone? The national average bank interest rate in the U.S. for savings accounts is only .21 percent. You would feel like a fool trying to teach your children that they should bank their paper route money so they can watch it grow in the bank. In the ongoing class war the wealthiest in our nation want to continue to control our economic system. If this frail pathetic economic system is something they think is worth fighting for I say we let them have it. We need to keep our money in our pockets and sit back and watch the powers that be greedily cannibalized one another.

  The problem is we are being dragged into this fragile economic system. The corporations in this system have replaced our pensions with 401K retirement funds involving us in their economic system. Workers and unions around the country should be fighting for worker owned businesses and co-ops that put workers and the environment before greed. Instead unions are setting up lower tiers for the next generation of workers and pushing workers to take concessions. Workers who stand up to a company and turn down bad contracts are being chastised by fellow workers. Look no further for this example than at the GE plant in Warren, Ohio. Workers were asked for many concessions with no guarantee the plant wouldn’t move in a year anyway. The workers turned down the contract and the ones who voted for it started attacking their brother and sister workers who voted against it. The local corporate owned media were more than happy to interview the angry workers who voted for the contract. These workers would have worked for anything and voted yes on a blank contract. Such workers with no fight and self-worth are exactly the kind of workforce corporations long for. If you add in conservative politicians and business chambers that are willing to weaken corporate regulations and let them pollute then we can have Third World sweatshops coming back to the USA. It certainly isn’t the “American Dream” but it is the “Corporate Dream.”

  Every ten years there is talk of raising the minimum wage and you’d think by the outcry that the country was going to sink into the sea like Atlantis if it were raised. We should be talking about how jobs should pay a livable wage and put the idea of a minimum wage in a 100 year-old tomb where the idea belongs. Conservatives tell us that if businesses have to pay higher wages they will just charge consumers higher prices. Most of the U.S. shoe companies went overseas years ago to sweatshops for lower wage workers. I have yet to see those lower wages translate into the drop in the price for any shoes I’ve bought. The attacks against raising the minimum wage are just the bottom rung of the class warfare being waged against our poorest workers. I want to talk more about what it means to be the working poor next week.

  A new award this week is “Dumbest Local Criminal of the Week.” First up is convicted drug trafficker Stanley Reed Jr. of Warren, Ohio. He was sentenced to four years in prison and was then patted down by deputies before being taken to Trumbull County Jail. He was discovered to have near $5,000 and suspected cocaine the size of a baseball. Stanley only earns the runner-up because of an even dumber criminal. That would be Dennis J. Griffing who was caught putting money in a newspaper coin box to buy one Warren Tribune Chronicle and stealing 15 copies. He admitted stealing 15 to 20 newspapers from various machines over the last year. He had been suspected so the Trumbull County Sheriff’s Office set up a stakeout at Griffing’s home and followed him catching him in the act. Other stakeouts have taken place at various newspaper boxes in the Warren area. I applaud the 97 arrests of drug dealers recently in Warren by area police agencies but I question the use of manpower to bring down a newspaper thief. At best Griffing will get a misdemeanor charge of theft.  I think Griffing could plead insanity because after all the rag he was stealing was the Warren Tribune Chronicle. The “Trib’s” editor Frank Robinson hates unions and public sector workers so he must really be angry that Mr. Griffing is a city employee. If I was a police detective my first suspect would have been a pet store owner who needed bird-cage lining.

I have a message to Editor Robinson from my neighbors in Vienna, Ohio. “Quit telling us what to do with our tax money.” Vienna had their wealthiest resident die awhile back and got a large settlement of taxes on his estate. It was held up awhile because of a battle with Warren, Ohio who tried to claim the deceased as a resident. Editor Frank has made several suggestions since the windfall about what Vienna should do with the money. I’m sure his next editorial on the subject will suggest the money go to getting each Vienna resident a lifetime subscription to the Warren Tribune Chronicle. Let me state one more time Editor Frank, MYOB it is not your money.

  I see where Tracey Winbush the host of “Tracey and Friends” on WSOM radio was going to be a speaker at a forum concerning among other things the Youngstown. Ohio Community Bill of Rights.   Tracey was going to be speaking in support of fracking. Tracey ended up being a no-show at the event and I’m not surprised. That is because on the radio Tracey can control the conversation but it would be a different ballgame at a debate. On the radio Tracey yells over those with opposing views. You hear her shouting, ‘Whoooo, hey, stop, yo, yo, hold on, hold on, listen, listen, whooo, yo, stop, stop, hold up, yo, whooo, hey, hey.” If she pulled that crap at a debate people would laugh in her face. I will hence forth refer to her as “Tracey No Show Winbush.” Then again maybe she didn’t show as her check from the gas company didn’t arrive. As a unionist I have to say I am ashamed of the Pipe Fitters Union that wants to put jobs before the community’s safety. They have been the ones putting up money for ads attacking the Youngstown, Ohio Community Bill of Rights. I suggest the Pipe Fitters Union spend some of that time and money doing some research about the dangers of horizontal hydraulic fracturing. Here is a very good source of fracking information: “People’s Virtual Library” A Project of the Northeast Ohio Affiliated Occupations. 

401Ks are a Disaster.

Talib Kweli: “Beautiful Struggle”

“Get By”

Area band: Punk Willie

“The difference between try and triumph is a little umph.”  ~Author Unknown

Better Than the Welcoming Arms of Lady Liberty

  Last week I mentioned a list of great singer/songwriters who wrote songs that really matter and yet they never made it big. To add insult to injury something happened this week to further slap talented singer/songwriters who never made it in the face. Aerosmith’s Steve Perry and Joe Perry will be inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in June and will receive the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers’ Founders Award next week. These two have written such meaningless turds as “Dude Looks Like a Lady” and “Love in an Elevator.” Aerosmith are just a third-rate Rolling Stones. They really aren’t needed as the ‘Stones” have been third-rate Rolling Stones for a least the last 30 years. All this proves there is not much justice in this world.

  This weeks national buffoon of the week is Kentucky Senator Rand Paul. Rand went to at the historically black college Howard University to help with  the Republican Party’s outreach to the African-American community effort. It seems odd the GOP would want Rand to try to appeal to black voters as he has said he would have voted against the civil Rights Act of 1964. Rand also spoke about how it was the Republican party of Lincoln that ended slavery. He expected then to forget the GOP’s Southern Strategy of 1968 that set out to gain Southern white conservative voters by appealing to racism against African-Americans. John Steward’s Daily Show did an excellent piece on Rand Paul at Howard here.

  That brings me to the local buffoons of the week winners. That would be constant winners Tracey and Jeff from the “Tracey and Friends” radio show at WSOM. Tracey and Jeff are two African-Americans who are proud to be members of the GOP. They have not only bought the GOP’s revisionist history they try to sell that spin every day on their show.  I really am getting tired of picking on the “Friends” every week but someone needs to acknowledge how hard they work at being the best local buffoons.

  I think it is time for a poem so here is my latest:

Better Than the Welcoming Arms of Lady Liberty

 Reality shows like Jersey Shore,

the Real World, the Bad Girls Club,

Celebrity Rehab, the Kardashians,

Paris Hilton and the Real Housewife’s

of Orange County, New York or,

Beverly Hills, Atlanta, New Jersey

 or Mob Wives all set even lower standards

of what it takes to be a skank in this country.

This entices would be skanks

from around the world

to step up their skankiness

come to the U.S. and dance proactively

at a LA bar and have lecherous strangers drink

Yegermeister shots off their belly button piercings.

The skanks gets shit faced drunk and head

to the nearest reality TV producer to get

one of these trashy shows for themselves.

On their way to the producers they will star

in a Taxicab Confessions HBO show segment.

They will all have the background

to end up on MTV’s 16 and Pregnant

or end up on Maury Povich’s Show

with a dozen men getting tested

to see who is the babies daddy.

In the end it won’t be any of the 12

and she will be asked for a new list

and soon come back and do part two

with the same results leading to part 3.

The slowly vanishing nomadic Tofa

a Turkic tribe that lives in Russia

have the ability to mimic sounds of the environment

they can imitate almost any animal’s voice

enabling them to be great hunters.

In the USA a family of hillbillies

invented a wooden duck call and are now

millionaires with a current reality TV show.

Hillbillies unlike the Tofa tribe

are not a vanishing people

as they now are popping up

in reality TV shows on every channel.

Swamp People is now in its fourth season.

Louisiana swampbillies hunt alligators for a living.

It has set viewer records for the History Channel.

In Zimbabwe in 2005 the number one cause of death

in humans where wildlife was involved

– was crocodiles killing 13 people.

When a show has become very popular

and producers can’t think of anything new

it quickly leads to  a spinoff which sent us

from Swamp Hunters to Outback Hunter

which hunts crocodile in Australia.

Just because the media like to milk popular things to death

there has been two mobile app game tie ins with Swamp People.

A fisherman landed a reality TV show making sport

of fishing for river monster size fish around the globe.

In parts all around the world people fish for food

hoping they won’t be the food of these monster fish.

A group of Reality TV stars have been avoiding

getting real jobs by being Bigfoot hunters.

People keep tuning in to see bigfoot captured

even though no one on the show has seen

neither hide nor hair of him

for two years and counting.

The TV show, Storage Wars

proves many people in the USA

are so wealthy they own extra stuff

and pay to put these items in storage.

These are possessions they end up needing so little

they are forgotten about and are put up for auction.

People in other countries wish they had a house

that was as nice and large as the storage unit.

All their extra things in life would fit

in a grocery bag let alone a locker.

The Big Brother show has a dozen people live

in a big comfortable home for three months.

They then set about backstabbing one another

and vote off each other for a chance to win

half a million dollars in prize money.

The Real Housewives of several U.S. locations

have excess martinis for lunch and cat fight each other

over the pettiest crap you could ever imagine.

It’s amazing that many of these women are mothers.

How do such shrews ever attract a man to marry them?

Thank God most of these women have enough money

to hire help to raise their children as these Housewives

have a lot of growing up to do themselves.

Meanwhile, in East Africa reality it’s rare

for a child to have both a mother and father.

Men live on average to 40 and women to 42.

You are fortunate to still be alive at 6 years-old.

Most children have already died by AIDS,

malaria, dysentery, starvation or malnutrition.

The most lucrative job is casket making.

There is so much death about that businesses

refuse to give their employees more

then one day a month off for funerals.

East African women don’t have the time

to drink and squabble at country clubs.

They are busy watching their children die.

Big Brother TV has half a million dollars

in prize money for being more of a slime

than other obnoxious aholes in the same house.

This while 12 million people are in dire need of food,

clean water, and basic sanitation in East Africa.

I don’t oppose immigration but those that do

should immediately shut down these TV shows.

How else you going to keep them down on the

plains, deserts, jungles and rain forests

once they’ve seen U.S. Reality TV?

Dear Aerosmith this is what real songwriting sounds like: Graham Parker:“Syphilis and Religion” 

“The Tree Martini Lunch”

“Did Everybody Just Get Old”

“But sometimes, talent isn’t worth shit. There are tons of talentless people out there making zillions of dollars. And unfortunately, an equal number of brilliant artists whose name and voices you’ll never hear. – Paul Hudson”

Life During Class Wartime

  The film, “Searching for Sugar Man” won the Oscar for best documentary feature at the 85th annual Academy Awards. It is the Cinderella story of Rodriguez, a singer/songwriter from Detroit who moved a generation of young people in South Africa 40 years ago. He never sold more than a handful of albums in the U.S. and didn’t know until recently that he was bigger than Elvis in South Africa. He’s a humble and hard-working man who is trying to make his hometown of Detroit a better place. He ran for councilman and mayor without getting elected. I urge you to see this movie that is available on Pay-Per-View on your cable. The movie made me think about all the musician I love that I thought would really hit it big in the U. S. musicians like; Mike Stout, Anne Feeney, Terry Reid, Root Boy Slim, Tonio K, The Remains, Gang of Four, The Alarm, Graham Parker, New Model Army, The Flamin Groovies, The Dictators, Greg Brown, Wayne Kramer, Syd Barrett, Nick Drake, Swamp Dogg, Kevin Coyne, John Cale, Robert Wyatt, Shawn Phillips, Eno etc. I think it’s sad that these musicians didn’t make it big not just for themselves but for the public who missed out on some really great music. I’m sure you have your favorites who didn’t make it big and the film will refresh your memory about your list of should be stars. The film also made me realize it is a loss to all of us when people like Rodriguez who truly love their hometown are not elected to office. This is a must see movie and a long overdue tribute to Rodriguez who embodies the “working-class hero” tag. See a preview here.

   I saw a documentary on PBS recently that I also high recommend. It’s called “As Goes Janesville” and is about the future of our middles class. The film recently won awards at the Milwaukee Film Festival and Columbia Gorge International Film Festival. The story follows what happened to three workers who lost their job at when Janesville, Wisconsin’s 100 year-old GM plant closed. It also tells the story of local business leaders who want to throw corporate welfare at any business (proven or not) that is willing to locate in Janesville. The local business leaders formed a regional chamber type of group called, “Rock County 5.0″ to promote the area to business interests. One of the businesses they sought to attract with $9 million in corporate welfare was Shine Medical. The city manager, Eric Levitt, was critical of the town’s giveaway to Shine Medical who promised 125 jobs. Mr. Levitt doubted Shine because they didn’t have a product to bring to market. That didn’t matter as in the end Janesville council voted to give Shine Medical the money.

   Janesville’s business leaders like the governor are out to take away worker’s rights and bust unions. They are offering tax incentives, cheap vacant building and a labor force that with the help of the governor will have their unions destroyed and be willing to work for low wages. In the film you see Diane Hendricks the co-chair of 5.0 meeting with Gov. Walker. She greeted him saying, “Any chance we’ll ever get to be a completely red state and work on these unions and become a right-to-work state?” Hendricks continued. “What can we do to help you?” Walkers said, “Well, we’re going to start in a couple of weeks with our budget adjustment bill. The first step is we’re going to deal with collective bargaining for all public employee unions, because you use divide and conquer.” I know this is how conservatives think about working people but I was surprised to hear them say it in front of a camera. The next year Gov. Walker needed money to fight against a recall to get rid of him as governor. Diane Hendricks donated half million dollars to help Gov. Walker fight the recall and he remained governor.

  Mary Willmer-Sheedy of M&I Bank is also a member of Rock County 5.0. You will see by her comments that 5.0 isn’t really a community group out to better Janesville resident’s lives. You’ll see they are politically driven right-wingers out to break unions, lower wages for workers and destroy the middle-class. A member of Forward Janesville an organization of area businesses made an interesting statement. He said this to companies they were trying to entice to locate in Janesville, “The fact that so many people are out of work is a benefit because you can pay them less.” This film will show you about the class war going on in this country. If you are middle-class and this film doesn’t outrage you then you’re already a fatality in this war. It really is us against them and I urge all you us’s to see this film. Here is trailer for the film.

  Remember this prank showing that Governors like Scott Walker answer to the Koch brothers? In this call Walker admits he’d trick Democrat legislatures and shows he’d not be above planting troublemakers among those protesting him.

  This week’s award for biggest area lying spreaders of B.S. is of course the “Tracey and Friends” radio show at WSOM. As if the Friends crew isn’t crazy enough now they listen to caller’s paranoid dreams. A caller said she dreamt she was escorted out of the mall with others and put on a bus with dark windows. The bus riders were taken to a warehouse where they were implanted with a micro chip. The Friends crew interrupted and said the implant is the mark of the beast (Satan). The Friends expressed that this implanting was going to be part of Obamacare but was discovered and taken out. As usual the Friends are spreading lies that they will never fact check if it meets their hate filled mindset. Here are the facts disproving their B.S.

  Biggest national hate monger scumbags of the week are Sean Hannity and Michelle Malkin. You can see why here as they defend a violent coach who abuses his players. Sean Hannity said, “My father hit me with a belt, I turned out OK!” No, Sean there is nothing OK about you. Hannity and Malkin like to get off on being politically incorrect. Being politically correct essentially means using some common sense and manners. Sean nor Michelle has any commons sense or manners. No one takes Malkin serious after she wrote a book that said that Japanese Americans enjoyed being interned during WWII. Malkin hates immigrants and anchor babies (children born to immigrants in the United States). That is odd as her parents are immigrants from the Philippines and she is an anchor baby. Her own hypocrisy, self-hatred and revisionist history writing supporting Japanese internment during WWII has made her popular with white supremacy nativist types. Here is a typical example of Hannity in action doing his usual spin on the facts.

  I have been proud to feature on my blog some of the musicians I listed above as musicians that should have been big in the U.S. I will continue to do in the future.

  The Lenny Bruce of the Blues, Root Boy Slim and the Sex Change Band: “Hey Mr. President”

  also: “Rich White Republican”

  Local band: Tongue in Groove

  “The opposite of poverty is not wealth….the opposite of poverty is justice” ~Bryan Stevenson

For the Best Solution Do Nothing

 

  I recently ran into someone who told me I need to suggest ways to fix the problems I address in my blog. After talking for some time we agreed that the simplest most common sense solutions have the best chance of working. I told him that quite often the best answer to a problem is simply to do nothing. I told him I had addressed just that solution about four years ago in a post and would reprint it here.

  From October 2009 here is: For the Best Solution Do Nothing

  One of my FW’s (fellow workers) mentioned that the gas station nearest work was selling gas for only $2.88 per. gallon. It’s a shame that we are to the point we think paying under $3.00 a gallon is a bargain. I replied, “I don’t buy Shell gas.” One FW replied, “OK what’s wrong with Shell?” I replied, “I don’t like how they have destroyed Nigeria by aiding the corrupt government that runs the country. I also don’t like that Shell has dug mass graves with their equipment to bury indigenous people who the corrupt government has killed for trying to stop Shell from taking their lands.” Shell also has a horrible environmental record in Nigeria. See boycott info: Shell info

  Info on turmoil and corruption in Nigeria: Vanity Fair

  One of my fellow FW’s said, “I don’t care what a company does as long as its product is the cheapest. “I came back with, “Some people go to church on Sunday and pray for a better world when they made decisions all week-long that contributed to the injustices and destruction of the world.” I thought of a few of my present and former FW’s who actually have sent their kids to Christian schools to supposedly get better moral values. Yet the same parents don’t give a good Hannity (my word for shit) what values the companies who make the products they use have as long as they’re cheap. Sounds like a waste of money on that Christian school when the kids come home to parents who don’t care about standing up for a more moral and just world.

  I also have a beef with fellow FW’s who pick up their check from Public Education while they put their kids in private schools. This is a hypocrisy George H. Bush brought up when he ran for president. Bush talked about the NEA teacher’s union and made fun of how 30% of its members had kids in private schools yet the NEA was fighting against school vouchers. I wasn’t working in Public Education at the time and thought Bush was full of Hannity. I have been ashamed to now learn that Bush may have even been a little light when he said 30%. I am puzzled why my FW’s in Public Education don’t see this hypocrisy as detrimental to their job in Public Education.

  I truly believe parents and grandparents all would like to see a better world for their children, grandchildren, and the next generation. The world is fraught with problems pertaining to social justice, sweatshops, racism, misogyny, poverty, the environment, human rights, respect, dignity, etc. I’m sure most people are overwhelmed in their daily life just trying to earn a living and get by to feel they can spend any time being an activist on even one of these issues. Mother Theresa told us we should “just do what’s in front of you.” Even if people did as little as that, just working on an issue that confronts them daily, it would make a better world. What if I told you how you could take a role in fighting for all the social justice issues I mentioned above without even lifting a finger? As a matter of fact, not lifting a finger, not moving a muscle, being an armchair activist as it were is exactly what is called for.

  It’s not really about doing anything it’s about doing nothing. By that nothing I mean we can make major changes by holding corporations accountable. The easiest and best way to do that is by closing our wallets and purses to their anti-human, anti-environmental agendas. The sound they most fear is the silence those wallets and purses make when they don’t open. Nothing in a capitalist society speaks louder than the silent sound of wallets not opening.

  I have spoken out in my workplace about the evils of WalMart and Sam’s Club. Both of them don’t pay livable wages, seldom promote women (when they do they pay them less than men), they use Third World sweatshops, use child labor, pollute, are anti-union and get millions in corporate welfare. They are on the wrong side of just about every issue you can imagine. Because as I’ve said I work in Public Education I brought to work information like the following about WalMart trying to wipe out public education. Folks I work with said, I know WalMart is evil but I have to go to Sam’s Club. It’s as if going to Sam’s is some kind of religious experience. Don’t take my word for how evil WalMart is; take the word of The Methodist Church and 30 religious, labor, consumer, and human rights groups that have urged WalMart to improve the company’s social and environmental performance. The groups organized by the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, said it feared the company’s strategic vision to achieve success in the marketplace comes without an ethical standard.

  The first and only time I went in a WalMart was over thirty years ago as I accompanied a friend who entered the new store in Hermitage, PA. What I saw inside the front door made me turn around and leave and never come back. The terror that drove me from their store was the Wal-Mart greeter. It was Louie who had been a boss at a grocery store I worked in while attending YSU. He was the vilest, lecherous, evilest boss I have ever worked for in my life (and that’s saying a lot). This was a man who actually made fun of and imitated a handicapped employee at the grocery store. Here it was decades later and this boss was now a senior citizen and a greeter at WalMart. I imagine he probably kicks canes out of the hand of elderly women and disconnects the batteries on the scooter buggies while the handicapped ride them in WalMart. I knew very little at that time about WalMart. What I realized though was that if they actually had Louie out front representing their store they truly were “Satan’s store.”

  As for Sam’s Club I’m not shopping anywhere that I have to pay an annual membership to. That just sounds plain dumb to me. I tend to buy from small stores in my community and buy things at second-hand stores so I believe we do have alternatives to companies that are not good world citizens. Truly, do those products we buy at soulless corporations give us so much comfort and pleasure that we will pay such a high moral cost for them? When we buy gas at Shell and enter WalMarts and Sam’s Clubs with our children, we are telling our kids we think little of the world they will inherit. In the end, we must ask ourselves: do we want bargains or values?

  My local hero this week is Lynn Anderson who went on WKBN radio’s Dan Rivers’ show and  addressed the problems of fracking. When I heard Lynn was going on I was worried for her. That is because Dan believes corporations are sacred beings and he can be quite rabid in defending them. Lynn had a rabies shot before hand and had her facts down and was prepared. Lynn did a great job pointing out damages that have occurred around the country by the type of chemical fracking that has existed about the last five years. The downside is that Dan’s conservative audience is highly allergic to facts. When the callers phoned in they stated things that just weren’t true and missed most of Lynn’s facts. Paul Lyden of the Lyden Oil Company was one of the callers. He also runs a weekly show on WKBN touting fracking. Paul’s family has been in the oil business for 90 years so he has an agenda. He is not really interested in alternative energy like wind and solar because oil and gas puts money in his pocket. Lynn also has an agenda which is keeping our valley safe which puts no money in her pockets.

  Lynn and other activists have managed to get an issue on the ballot concerning whether fracking should be allowed in Youngstown. These activists are saying fracking in a community should be up to the residents. Mr. Rivers (who does not live in Youngstown) and most of the people who phoned in have a problem with democracy because they don’t believe people should be allowed to vote on such issues in their community. Lynn said she didn’t want to chase away jobs in the oil and gas industry. She said that if a community accepts fracking the process should be made as safe as possible to protect everyone who lives there. She called for the latest safety equipment, for telling the public what chemicals are being used and for the end of exempting gas & oil companies from the Clean Air and Water Act.

  Dan had Lynn and the other guests leave before the last hour of his show. That was so that he and his callers could take pot shots at Lynn and the other environmentalists without them being there to use facts to fight back. Mr. Lyden made the stupidest attack on Lynn and those that accompanied her on the show. He said she was a hypocrite if she drove a car to the show or was wearing any oil based clothing. Lynn Anderson never called for the end of the oil and gas industry only that it be as safe as possible and that we not export our gas and oil to places like China. Mr. Lyden being outraged over her saying that only tells me that it is an unsafe industry and that he has no problem with our oil and gas being exported as long as he is making a buck. Mr. Lyden who gets rich off of the oil & gas industry and dismisses alternative energy is a hypocrite because he called himself an environmentalist. I was trying to keep from choking when I heard him say he was an environmentalist. The next thing I heard was Dan Rivers agree and say he also was an environmentalist. Mrs. E then had to give be several hard hits to my back to keep me from choking to death. My attempted murderers Paul Lyden and Dan Rivers win the area buffoons of the week award.

  Local Musician: David Mayfield Parade: “I Just Might Pray”

  “What Do You Call It”

  “The best angle from which to approach any problem is the try-angle.”  ~Author Unknown