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Money

Depending on you who talk to, either we are about to riot to the government shutdown pending or we are not.

There was a time I would lean on no but I am starting to think it is possible.

Now I find Tom Lupshu of Bunker Report very creditable when he says no to SNAP related riots and when he discusses the end of growth in todays world and when he discusses changes. (See: Government Shutdown And Food Stamp Cuts October?) yet what is missing from his report is currently something like what I will tell you next.

A personal case like mine

For seven years I worked for a company, a cooperation that was basically draining me, dehydrating me but yet it made me happy in one way only.

It paid my bills. over 40 hrs a week, nearly 12 dollars a hour, a hard thing to get in my area.

I lived just a few steps above poverty. But for the first time in years, I was in the green.

And then I got fired.

It is a "At Will" company, They don't have to tell me why.

So I went to get unemployment and nearly three weeks later, I am still awaiting the money I deserve. I paid into employment for seven years. My money. So why the wait? They want to know WHY I was kicked to the curb and until the company I work for gets off their ass and tell them, I have to wait.

But while I wait I have to look for work and do work search related tasks. A full time requirement every week.

Which to get my food stamps, I already do anyways.

Let me explain something.

I ALREADY do this. To be told I HAVE to do this to get my own money is stupid. I think after seven years if I need to take a few days to go hide and cry and deal with the shock of being kicked to the curb, I should be allowed too.

Now as for SNAP. I was working all those hours and yet because of my child, I was able to apply for food stamps. And till the day I was fired, I was allowed to only get about 20 dollars. 20?? Once I paid my bills and housing, I had no more money left for food.

Now to get any help from them, I am told to get out and look for work. Which I was already doing. I am nearly 40 with a shit load of skills. To be told to take ANY job to get off the system is almost degrading as it totally ignores my skills as well as anyone elses in my shoes.

If ANYTHING will lead to riots, it will not be a shutdown in SNAP but outrage towards a system that fucks over those who worked their asses off for nothing.

Yes I am angry.

Longshoreman

There is a issue right now on the west coast. Longshoreman are locked into a contract dispute with the Pacific Maritime Association. The mass media is reporting on the effect on grain, meat, electronics extra that are either in the backlog to be delivered or in the backlog to be exported.

So what does this mean to the low income?

I seriously think the media should be reporting on this more. The effect not just on the farmers and retailers but also on the low income. A lot of the items in places like Walmart, Dollar Tree, etc, come from china. Those on limited funds will stop there to shop. If the items are not on the shelf, they are forced to go without or pay more many somewhere else. That more money is to cover the lost income the companies will impose due to the shipping delays. Or it will cover the alterative methods to get the products to the stores. Like by air.

The effects on the rest of the economy is all known by now, like meat going bad on the docks before it reaches the store. However what ever the position one is in in this economy, be it rich or poor, the fact remains it should be more reported than it is. The fruit harvest in much of the west is coming up. Much of the fruit goes to the Far East. If the fruit can not leave the country, they orchards may not pick. No pickers will come to town. No money coming in.

Some argue that the ports should hire people who will not care what they are paid. Or complain about conditions. That is not fair. To do that kind of work takes skill, strength, determination and more. Those type of people deserve to get paid fairly and compensated for their work.

Perhaps that is the real reason the media hides the stories under articles on the size of a celebrities butt. Distraction and down playing. Why let the public really know what is going on.

This whole thing should and needs to be brought out into the open.

Oregon Employment Division breach

In the first part of October the database for the Oregon Employment Deparment was breached. Two weeks later I received a letter informing me that I was one of the affected, although it had been over 6 years since I used the WorkSource site.

I wasn't happy. Why had the state kept my info for so long and why did the media not report the breach till a week later and those affected weren't notified till after another week had passed.

Am also upset that the following article doesn't explain everything well: Oregon Employment Department notifies customers of data breach

So what all is lacking from the article?

According to the back of the form letter, one must first relog into WorkSoucre and change their password, hard to do if it has been over six years! Second call the company they are using for the credit monitoring and get their free service. Third, get a copy of their credit report, fourth sign up for another credit monitoring from one of the three big credit bureaus, and lastly sign up for credit fraud alerts via one of the three credit sites. And no...these are NOT free.

That is what angered me. If their so called free monitoring wasn't going to be enough, they should have admitted that. I am now going to be out some money using TransUnion and Equifax to have security freezes and Fraud Alerts on my credit. What the form doesn't say either is contacting ones various banks after all this to inform them before they attempt to look at your score, as they just might do if you call them and want your credit card payments reduced or apply for a loan. The letter also doesn't say one should alert the IRS, FTC, and other such government companies AHEAD of any possible id theft. Helps to cover your rear end.

The State of Oregon should be doing more.

Entitlements

I believe there is a heavy case of entitlement personality disorder in this town I live in.

Today I was out shopping and people were above their usual rudeness. Example when asked one person why they left their cart out in the parking lot instead of taking it to a corral, the person responded with:

"Why should I do their job?"

However the big pinch of the day was at Dollar Tree where I witnessed the following. The customer is putting her items on the belt and telling the cashier to check the lids, although she already was. The cashier jokily explained that the lids were often loosen by people who actually sell the liquids and leave only half a bottle behind. to this the customer said:

"I work with the homeless and a dollar saved is a dollar earned"

At this point I had to bite my tongue, it is still stealing.

Then the customer was trying to use the belt area to dump her money out. Only it was still going. She demanded the cashier stop it. Turns out the money was triggering it to go. Then when picking up her bags "You need to double bag this."

It was a big of napkins! Seriously?! She made the cashier double every bag and triple bag the napkins. All the time saying this like "You should have someone here bagging for you"

The cashier responded with "I had to send her on a break. We were slow and state law requires a ten minute break."

I could go on with this example but you get the idea. Also seen today in many places, a woman arguing over her gift card that no longer worked, wanting her money back. Gift cards themselves say that they can not be exchanged for cash. I listened to a man scream, yes scream, at a cashier wanting to exchange a dollar for quarters when he couldn't open his till because he was ringing up a customer. A worker had to get off a ladder to help a elderly woman pick up something and another shopper grabbed the ladder and used it themselves to get something down. I saw security drag someone out of a stock room and heard just this part: "We told only employees are allowed in there." I watched a man demand a second cashier when he was not only the next on in line but the customer in front of him was already paying. on that same vein, a saw a woman try to stop a cashier while she was working to tell her she needed a another cashier and then spend several minutes telling her how to do her job.

I could go on.

If this is the retail world before Halloween then I'm not shopping at all in November or December.
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My opinion, YOU the customer are NOT entitled to be rude. YOU are NOT entitled to have the rules and law bent around your world, your life. Deal with it.

Jodi Arias

I am disgusted by the media trashing of Jodi Arias. If she smiles, she is evil. If she frowns, she is evil. I just don't get it.

My thoughts on the case.

She didn't plan to kill Travis.

There I said it. On this. On my internet troll free blog. Yes comments are still disabled. Forever!

Travis did use her. He treated her like a object. Did he deserve to die, of course not but she didn't want to kill him.

However right now her fate has been decided by a jury and all that is left is her sentencing. Does she live or die? I chose life.

That is all I want to say today, or maybe ever, about the subject.

Food Fight

Do you know what you are eating?



This is all true. GMOS are everywhere. And many food companies that appear to be rivals are actually owned by the same company, which makes it hard to separate out true food. (Explained more here: GMO Free USA) But what does one do if one is poor and those cheap, high in GMO foods are all there is??

I wish I knew. I tried to find a way and haven't succeeded yet. Framers Markets are very limited in my area and often the local farmers charge above and beyond my budget when purchased from them directly. If you are like me, in the same boat, doesn't despair if you, like me, end up buying a GMO food or starve to death.

IT WILL GET BETTER!

How? Isn't that what the horrible Monsanto and others want?

Yes that is what they want. However NEVER EVER let that stop you from fighting for more affordable organic food. Never let that stop you from explaining to farmers that if you only have a few bucks to your name, that there has to be a way to buy fresh food from them. Bargain, deal, barter...you get the idea. In my area the only way to get the council to extend the farmers market to more than a few days a year is to get the local growers to understand the need to beg more fresh foods to more people.

Till the fight grows and those that are against GMOS win, there will be too many poor people in my town given money for places like Dollar Tree for food, instead of the farms.

And once again, many foods in stores are all the same....