Welfare Cattle Rancher

  Youngstown residents please read this and consider voting for the Community Bill of Rights for your family’s safety. If you’re still not convinced read this.

  This is a follow-up to last week’s blog about rancher Cliven Bundy. Bundy has been refusing to pay the federal government money he owes for grazing his cattle on government land. A lot of gun totting militia types have showed up to defend freeloading moocher Bundy. These militia types have been camping out in trailers and tents for a few weeks now. I guess that means they are unemployed freeloaders who don’t have jobs. If any of these militia folks owned the land Bundy was grazing on for free I’d bet they’d be aiming their guns at him. If these supporters actually had jobs and paid taxes they’d realize Bundy was stealing taxpayers land to make money for himself. Bundy’s family has been grazing their cattle for many years on U.S. owned land that it is leased at dirt cheap rates, well below market value. Bundy is the same as corporations who make huge profits off corporate welfare and all manner of government handouts. While Bundy and corporations reap huge profits from these government subsidies they think they are truly rugged individualists and capitalists. They loath the government and back candidates who promise to make the government smaller. They really are ungrateful bastards with a huge sense of entitlement.

  I was sure it would only be a matter of time until Cliven would show his true colors and make a racist statement. “I want to tell you one more thing I know about the Negro,” he said. Mr. Bundy recalled driving past a public-housing project in North Las Vegas, “and in front of that government house the door was usually open and the older people and the kids — and there is always at least a half a dozen people sitting on the porch — they didn’t have nothing to do. They didn’t have nothing for their kids to do. They didn’t have nothing for their young girls to do.” He added “And because they were basically on government subsidy, so now what do they do?” he asked. “They abort their young children, they put their young men in jail, because they never learned how to pick cotton. And I’ve often wondered, are they better off as slaves, picking cotton and having a family life and doing things, or are they better off under government subsidy? They didn’t get no more freedom. They got less freedom.”

  Of course many of Cliven’s right-wing militia supporters are cut from the same cloth. Jim Lordy from Kalispell, Montana is one of the armed militia people who showed up to support Bundy. Kalispell in Flathead County in northwest Montana is the home of the largest white supremacist and militia movement groups in the country. The right-wing Oath Keepers also showed up to aid Bundy. Their members are current and former U.S. military and law enforcement personnel. They were founded in 2009 as an opposition reaction to the Obama presidency, by Stewart Rhodes a former US Army paratrooper, and a former staffer of Congressman Ron Paul. Ron Paul has a history of making racist comments in his newsletters. Senator Rand Paul (Ron Paul’s son) was supporting Bundy but quickly distanced himself after Mr. Bundy’s racist remarks. Rand in the past has said he was opposed to the Civil Rights Act because he thinks businesses should be allowed to deny service to people on the basis of race.

  MSNBC’s political commentator, Pat Buchanan (considered by many to be a racist himself) explained the existence of the Oath Keepers on the alienation of white America, concluding that “America was once their country. They sense they are losing it. And they are right.” Oath Keeper militia leader and former sheriff Richard Mack said, “The greatest threat we face today is not terrorists; it is our federal government.” FOX NEWS commentator Sean Hannity has been championing John Birch Society acolyte and racist anti-Semitic militia group Posse Comitatus devotee Richard Mack. Mack like Bundy is a Mormon. Prior to 1978, Mormons regarded African-Americans as cursed by god. They reversed that racist belief when President Jimmy Carter threatened to revoke the Mormon Church’s tax-exempt status.

  I guess Bundy’s has set an example for “Negro” Americans. That is to have 14 children and get off the porch and if you’re going to get government welfare do it in a big way by stealing 600,00 acres of taxpayer owned land. Then as long as you’re rich and white armed nutbags will come to your aid. You got to love those right-wing family values.

Sean Hannity has his own history of racism.

Dangerous Oath Keeper member activity.

Ascent Junkies: “A Protest Song”

“Whoa Oh Oh Oh Oh”

“Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.” ~ George W. Bush

rom Andrew Jackson to a South Carolina congressman regarding nullification:

If one drop of blood be shed there in defiance of the laws of the United States, I will hang the first man of them I can get my hands on to the first tree I can find.

Read more at http://littlegreenfootballs.com/page/307282_Militias_Mobilizing_to_Support#cgIlyc4fTLF3SeWD.99

from Andrew Jackson to a South Carolina congressman regarding nullification:

If one drop of blood be shed there in defiance of the laws of the United States, I will hang the first man of them I can get my hands on to the first tree I can find.

Read more at http://littlegreenfootballs.com/page/307282_Militias_Mobilizing_to_Support#cgIlyc4fTLF3SeWD.99

from Andrew Jackson to a South Carolina congressman regarding nullification:

If one drop of blood be shed there in defiance of the laws of the United States, I will hang the first man of them I can get my hands on to the first tree I can find.

Read more at http://littlegreenfootballs.com/page/307282_Militias_Mobilizing_to_Support#cgIlyc4fTLF3SeWD.99

Cowboy Wannabes, Teabaggers and White Trash

   You’ve probably heard about the U.S. government trying to round-up rancher Cliven Bundy’s cattle that have been grazing illegally on public lands in Clark County in Nevada for more than 20 years. Clive is said to owe about a million dollars for grazing his cattle which he refuses to pay. Now the Bureau of Land Management has shown up after two court orders and made an effort to remove Bundy’s cattle. To counter the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) armed militia groups from across the country have come to Nevada to join the rancher in fighting what they say is U.S. “tyranny.”

  This from far right-wing media source WND, “After a weeklong confrontation between protestors and armed agents of the Bureau of Land Management events at the Bundy ranch in Bunkerville, Nev., came to an abrupt end Saturday when the BLM suddenly threw in the towel and left.” Notice how this right-wing source doesn’t mention most of the protestors are armed? Timothy Egan of the New York Times wrote, “One of the rancher’s supporters, Richard Mack, a Tea Party leader who is in the National Rifle Association’s Hall of Fame, said he planned to use women as human shields in a violent showdown with law enforcement. “We were actually strategizing to put all the women up front,” Mack said in a radio interview. “If they were going to start shooting, it’s going to be women that are going to be televised all across the world getting shot.” I note that Mack is also a sheriff. Some real tough cowboy wannabees you have there who are going to hide behind a woman’s skirt.

  The cowboy wannabe militia claim the BLM wants the land to protect turtles, or for the water which will be used by military contractors to make weapons, or that Sen. Harry Reid wants the land for China etc. I don’t care whether these are true or crazy conspiracies. As a taxpayer I just see Bundy as a wealthy armed tax cheat that thinks taxes are for the rest of us “little people.” The armed militia defending him is just like the stupid teabaggers that are being used by wealthy1%ers like the Koch Brothers. We all know that if Bundy was a Native American, a Hispanic or armed Black Panther being set upon by a government force these militia types would join the government force to eradicate what they’d call un-American types. These militia and teabaggers were the same folks calling for the police to use force and shoot down Wall Street Occupiers.

  I’ve run into these government is a tyrant out to get me types for a few decades now. When I lived in Warren, Ohio I had one move in to a house right behind me. He was a white trash racist hillbilly. The first thing he ever said to me was, “The previous owner of my house didn’t tell me that I had (I’ll use the N word) for neighbors. The minorities in my neighborhood were good neighbors and this guy was not. He filled his small yard up with junk cars, boats and all manner of scrap metal. When city officials told him to clean up his yard he claimed big government was out to get him. I was a member of a few different organizations whose members kept mentioning a man struggling in Austintown, Ohio that was reaching out to various organizations for help. After meeting the guy I found out he was a white-trash hillbilly with acres and acres of junk cars, garbage etc. His neighbor’s houses were being overrun with rats and roaches because of this man’s junk. Austintown township trustees were suing him to clean up his yard. Instead of paying someone to haul away his trash he invested money in video equipment. We then took that equipment to monthly Austintown township meetings to videotape the terrible government bureaucracy that was “out to get him.”

  I’ve met two more guys lately that are of the same mold. They are a pair of guys that are best friends and both have a science background. Neither one has discovered the modern science of deodorant. Both have yards full of junk and are fighting with their local governments over their rights to live like pigs. Never mind the rights of their neighbors not to be infested with roaches and rats. Both of these guys are prominent in the Tea Party and big Ron Paul supporters. I have a neighbor down the road about half a mile that has the first car he ever owned. Actually, he has every car he has ever owned in the yard on blocks. His yard is stacked with all manner of junk. Out front he has a sign that states, “Keep America safe fire Obama.” I am growing weary of freeloading would be cowboys and white trash that want to turn their neighborhoods into slums. I’m tired of this scum thinking local government officials or President Obama are tyrants out to get them. When these folks destroy a neighborhood or community the fact is that they are the tyrants.

Josh White: “One Meatball”

“Bad Depression Blues”

“Life’s hard. It’s even harder when you’re stupid.” – John Wayne

 

After a weeklong confrontation between protesters and armed agents of the Bureau of Land Management, events at the Bundy ranch in Bunkerville, Nev., came to an abrupt end Saturday when the BLM suddenly threw in the towel and left.
Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2014/04/clintonobama-cronies-behind-bundy-showdown/#HJEOK1Im3RXQdXAr.99

After a weeklong confrontation between protesters and armed agents of the Bureau of Land Management, events at the Bundy ranch in Bunkerville, Nev., came to an abrupt end Saturday when the BLM suddenly threw in the towel and left.
Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2014/04/clintonobama-cronies-behind-bundy-showdown/#HJEOK1Im3RXQdXAr.99

After a weeklong confrontation between protesters and armed agents of the Bureau of Land Management, events at the Bundy ranch in Bunkerville, Nev., came to an abrupt end Saturday when the BLM suddenly threw in the towel and left.
Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2014/04/clintonobama-cronies-behind-bundy-showdown/#HJEOK1Im3RXQdXAr.99

You Can’t Retire From Being an Activist

  I really don’t care much for sports at all. I’d like to go as far as saying football should be declared illegal. I don’t say that just because I don’t like to watch it. I say that because of the brain damage happening in football. The most recent case I’ve noticed concerns Hall of Fame quarterback Fran Tarkington. Fran was a hero who played the “people’s sport.” He is now a retired senior citizen 1%er whose main concern is making sure the wealthy don’t get any tax increases. He is now making money doing radio commercials saying he is frustrated with the liberal organization, AARP (American Association of Retired Persons).

  The AARP is an organization dedicated to enhancing quality of life for people age 50 and over. It has 40 million members and is non-partisan and does not support, oppose or give money to any candidates or political parties. The AARP’s is focused on hunger, income, housing and isolation of those over 50. Their vision is “a country that is free of poverty where no older person feels vulnerable.” That vision I suppose is way too liberal for conservatives (and football players like Fran who have suffered brain damage). That is why we now have several conservative senior citizen organizations as alternatives to AARP. The organization Tarkington is promoting is AMAC (Association of Mature American Citizens) it has various claims of anywhere from 330,000 to 1,000,000 dues-paying members. It was founded by Dan Weber a retired insurance agency owner. Weber feels our present government is now socialist and he is opposed to safety nets and any talk of social inequity. They are a Christian “family values” organization that is anti-choice, pro gun, and wants to fix Social Security by privatizing it. Their Social Security reform proposal calls for extending the retirement age. The AMAC is promoted by Townhall.com and other far right media organizations.

 Then we have ASA the Atlanta-based American Seniors Association. This organization has 60,000 members who they claim are targeting the “radical agenda” of AARP. Their main concerns are privatizing Social Security, opposing immigration reform and overhauling Medicare which they call the most abused and wasteful federal program. The ASA’s website says, “We are not some big liberal bureaucracy here to try to scare you into going along with Big Government.” ASA claims 200,000 members

  The 60 Plus Association is another right-wing alternative to AARP. This group was started by Jim Martin, a former political reporter who went on to work in the conservative movement. 60 Plus spent $3.5 million on an advertising campaign featuring singer Pat Boone that targeted Florida Sen. Bill Nelson and four other Democratic legislators, claiming their support of the health-care act would result in Medicare cuts. Nelson won his race and later was appointed chairman of the Senate Special Committee on Aging. The 60 Plus Association have been a front for the pharmaceutical industry since its beginning. About 91% of their multi-million dollar revenue comes from Big Pharma. Jim Martin, the 60 Plus President, acknowledged this in interviews saying, “I wish it was more.”

  The American Family Association (AFA) urged its supporters to call the AARP and cancel their memberships and join the American Seniors Association (ASA). Just 15 percent of the people who called AARP to cancel membership were actually even members. Perhaps, a touch of senioritis? The American family Association is a fundamentalist Christian organization founded in Tupelo, Mississippi. They are an anti-union, anti any religion except Christianity and anti-gay organization that owns 200 radio stations. The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has listed them as a hate group for the “propagation of known falsehoods” and the use of “demonizing propaganda” against the LGBT community.

  Generation America, a conservative Texas-based group started by a restaurant entrepreneur claims former game show host Chuck Woolery as a spokesman. The above senior organizations and many more exist to promote conservative American values over really caring about seniors. Even when you become elderly these organizations that represent big pharma and the 1% are not through trying to divide and weaken you along partisan lines. You might be retired but these corporate owned conservative organizations are not going to retire from attacking your earned benefits.

  The GOP loved the AARP when that organization backed President G W Bush’s 2003 Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement and Modernization Act, which created Medicare Part D. The GOP ended their love affair in 2009 when the AARP supported President Obama’s initiative for U.S. health care reform. It is funny that anyone would consider AARP liberal when they have many conservative corporate sponsors like; Walmart, Pepsi and Proctor & Gamble. The GOP will never cease trying to either destroy Social Security or handing it over to Wall Street. We now have all these conservative organizations opposing the AARP because it is the one organization that can be counted on to protect Social Security.

Social Security is Under Attack

Robert Wyatt: “At Last I Am Free”

“A Beautiful War”

“Old age ain’t no place for sissies.” ~ Bette Davis

 

Long-Term Health or Short-Term Greed?

  Every time I think we need a third-party I am reminded we need a Democrat president. That is because we can’t let another Republican be elected president and appoint Supreme Court justices. The conservative 5 to 4 majority we now have on the court is giving the country away to wealthy corporations. Then again I ashamed of Democrats when I see ones like Youngstown Mayor John McNally and Mahoning County Democratic Party Chairman David Betras. I say that about them because they are members of the Mahoning Valley Coalition on Job Growth and Investment. That organization is a front for Tom Humphries, president and CEO of the Youngstown-Warren Regional Chamber. The Regional Chamber is the organization that was all for busting public sector unions in Ohio. The Regional Chambers around the country are no friend of labor. Here in the Valley they claim they are all about bringing us jobs in the fracking (“fracking” is short for “hydraulic fracturing,” a process whereby fluid is injected underground at high pressure to fracture rock and release oil or gas trapped inside the formation) industry. They are just tools of the oil & gas industry. They have no regard to damages to our land, air or water that fracking could cause. We can’t have enough oil & gas industry caused earthquakes to get the chamber’s head out of the ass end of the energy companies.

  I think religious leaders should install in their parishioners a sense of humans as God’s caretakers for his planet, Earth. In that aspect shame on New Bethel Church Pastor Rev. Kenneth Simon who has gotten in bed with these environmental wreckers of God’s gift of a home for us and our children. Much like the loan sharks in the temple in Jesus’ time Pastor Simon let the Mahoning Valley Coalition on Job Growth and Investment. (in which he is a member) into his church for a press conference. Shame also to Plumbers and Pipefitters Local 396 Business Agent Butch Taylor, and Jaladah Aslam, staff representative for AFSCME Ohio Council 8 for being members of the Mahoning Valley Coalition on Job Growth and Investment. They have let union members everywhere down by being in an organization with union busters like the Regional Chamber.

  Thanks to all those “fracktivists” from FrackFree Mahoning Valley for getting the Community Bill of Rights charter amendment slated for the city’s May 6 primary. The charter would ban the practice of hydraulic fracturing and deep well injection in the city. The Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that when it comes to oil & gas workers, “Last year, 138 workers were killed on the job — an increase of more than 100 percent since 2009. In fact, the fatality rate among oil and gas workers is now nearly eight times higher than the all-industry rate of 3.2 deaths for every 100,000 workers.” That should be something for Butch Taylor and Jalah Aslam to think about if they really cared about their union brothers and sisters.

  Here’s hoping the voters in Youngstown vote yes on the Community Bill of Rights. That will show they’re invested in putting the long-term health of their city before the short-term greed of the Mahoning Valley Coalition on Job Growth and Investment.

Fracking gone wrong: finding a better way.

Ry Cooder: “How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live?”

“The Very Thing That Makes Her Rich”

“For greed all nature is too little.” – Seneca