I'm With Brilliant

I've mentioned before that my friends Jay and Matt-Man host a show called "I'm With Stupid" on Blog Talk Radio.

On yesterday's show Jay and Matt took a fork off their usual road of hilarity and irreverence to help aid awareness of the horrible problem of Human Trafficking. Their guest Katherine is an activist in the fight against human trafficking and shared a lot of interesting and surprising information and experiences.

Please go to the official site of  I’M WITH STUPID   and check out today's post. There are links to 3 major organizations dealing with human trafficking. You can also listen to yesterday's show. I was honored to call in and ask Katherine some questions.

You can change - maybe even save - the life of an exploited person, often a child.

I have shared here that I grew up in an abusive and neglectful home. From as early as 8 or 9 I can remember knowing that I had to take care of myself and, as the oldest, look out for my siblings.

I found myself in many situations where I was vulnerable to those who prey on at risk children. It is a lost and empty feeling.

As humans sharing the same air we need to reach out to those most in danger.

Dear Candidate Romney

I read what you are quoted as telling a group of $50,000 a plate donors about people like me. (see bottom of post) I read it several times. I scoured the internet looking for places where someone at the closed door gathering might be offering a different recollection.


Then I came to the conclusion that you said what you said and meant what you said.

You claim you were quoted out of context – uh, there’s a video – and that your comments were not “elegantly stated”.

Not elegantly stated? Were you wearing the wrong tuxedo when you said them?

As a member of your 47% I’d like to share some thoughts and facts (those are things that are true) with you.

Go fuck yourself and the rich Daddy you rode in on.

I have worked since I was 13 years old.
I was raised by an alcoholic Father and a clinically depressed Mother.
My siblings and I were neglected and abused all of our childhood.
We went to school. We studied. We worked hard to get out.
We got out.

I have paid taxes since my very first “real” job.

When I was promoted to EVP and board member of a large international firm I paid more in taxes than many people earn in a year. I never once cheated. I never once loopholed. I had enough money to live comfortably; why shouldn’t I pay taxes.

When the once private firm where I had worked diligently for years was sold and then sold again and then cut up into pieces and decimated by a firm similar to your Bain Capital I lost my job. Hundreds of people lost their jobs.
The people who bought and sold us got very rich.
I sat in on board meetings where laws were laughed at and where intricate plans were made to get around regulations.
I regret not trying to be a whistle blower but I had a child to care for.
And the people who were taking the company apart scared me.

I was much younger then; they wouldn’t scare me today.
Today I’m scared of dying from lack of proper healthcare.
Today I'm scared of losing my home.

After losing my job I started my own business.

Yes, I started it on my own but it was on a street that was built and maintained by city road crews.
When I worked late I felt safe because there were police officers paid by the government.
That’s what President Obama meant when he said no one does it alone.

Not the bullshit you tried to spin his comments into.

As a small business owner I paid my taxes.
I insured myself and my workers.
I treated them fairly and respected their talents and their humanity.

I had healthcare insurance at $1500 a month and Disability insurance at $200 a month.
From the same insurance carrier who loved me and cared about me for the 20 years that I was a paying customer.

Then I got hurt.
Then a chronic health issue that I had managed all my life took a nasty turn.
It was hard to work and I decided to apply for some of the benefits I had been sold.

Guess what? Insurance companies don’t like keeping promises.
Four years later I am still fighting for full coverage.

I’m also still paying my bills and paying taxes.

I am not fodder for you and your richie rich pals to laugh at.

I am not a sound byte for your pathetic campaign.

Next we'll talk about how you really feel about the Palestinians and Isreal.I'll be writing again soon Mitt. Have a nice day.

From the Mother Jones website - and everywhere else in the universe.
Mitt said ...

There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it. That that's an entitlement. And the government should give it to them. And they will vote for this president no matter what…These are people who pay no income tax.

My job is is not to worry about those people. I'll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.

Mom's Day

mothering comes in all sizes and shapes and ages and genders
nurturing is something anyone with a pure heart and a good soul can do

all over the nation today priests and reverends and ministers will take advantage of this day to preach about the sanctity of marriage
they will be un-god like
they will criticize our President for finally listening to his heart and his children

shame on them

Biology is the least of what makes someone a mother.  ~Oprah Winfrey

All of us have moments in our lives that test our courage. Taking children into a house with a white carpet is one of them. ~ Erma Bombeck

To nourish children and raise them against odds is any time, any place, more valuable than to fix bolts in cars or design nuclear weapons. -- Marilyn French

Making the decision to have a child – it’s momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body .-Elizabeth Stone

Your kids require you most of all to love them for who they are, not to spend your whole time trying to correct them.  ― Bill Ayers



And On We Go ...

The Cadaver Speaks Again

In late 2009 I did  this post  about how Karl Lagerfeld was "disgusted" by curvy women and was planning to fight any effort to include them in fashion shows.

Over 2 years later and Karl continues to forget to just lie down and shut the fuck up.

In a recent interview he discussed today's music scene; given that he knows nothing about music Karl decided to call Adele "too fat" and wonder out loud about what body parts of newcomer Lana Del Rey might be fake or enhanced. Two exceptionally talented young women - both in their early 20s - being discussed like so many pounds of chopped meat.

I really hate this sorry skeletal sac of ...

He's creative director for Chanel. From everything I have ever read about Coco Chanel I'm assuming that Lagerfeld would, at best, annoy her.

Adele responded to Lagerfeld's insults ...

I don’t make music for eyes, I make music for ears.

I've never wanted to look like models on the cover of magazines. I represent the majority of women and I'm very proud of that.

I'm really looking forward to Adele's performance at this Sunday's Grammys. Her first since throat surgery 6 months ago.

As for Karl - I wonder how much he hates himself. I wonder if once being fat turned him into the dark shadow he is today.

 He looks happier fat

Apparently fat Karl worked tirelessly to get cotton balls the right to legally marry


Just as I was about to publish I read that Lagerfeld has apologized. Bullshit. Just like the Republican candidates he says what he means, reveals his true self and then tries to weasel out.

"Democracy Isn't Always Convenient"

... the protester tells the man in the expensive overcoat as he whines about needing to show ID to get onto Wall Street.

"Be grateful that you have jobs and can send your kids to a private school" another protester tells a parent who accuses him of being "a terrorist against children".

A small group of children needed to walk along a narrow barricade path early yesterday morning as Occupy Wall Street's Day of Action began. I'm sorry if any one of those children was frightened. One child was interviewed by CBS News and said "it was like a parade and it was very crowded, it was like a scary parade".  Then he laughed and showed off his painting. I don't think the scars will last a lifetime.

Perhaps the parents of children who go to Prep School at 4 need to explain things clearly and calmly so that their children don't always expect the world to go the way they plan.

I'm not at all surprised by the reactions of Wall Street suits. To get anywhere in that world you need to let your soul dry up. I am disappointed by young Moms who bitch about needing to walk an extra block around barricades or whine about drum music. I think there's a group in between the 1% and the 99% (sounds like Yogi Berra logic) who is so afraid of looking at the world around them. They're closer to the top than most and can almost see the golden glow. They don't want anyone to breathe too hard and topple the tower.

I worry for and about those people. I feel a time will come to take sides. I don't think they're prepared.

Some scenes from the Day of Action.

 this 87 year old woman needed to ask police to stop pushing her

 labor unions joined the afternoon protest

 witnesses say this young man was standing near someone who threw a bottle and several cops threw him to the ground and beat him and kicked him in the head

 cops in street clothes infiltrated the crowds to start scuffles and then arrest people
I remember this tactic from my VietNam war protest days

 how many cops does it take to arrest a man in a funny hat?

a member of the press was taking photos of the group when he was thrown to the ground by several cops

Mayor Bloomberg better start concerning himself with the people of NYC instead of the tourists. Maybe he could open a clinic for poor children with the money he wants to spend redecorating Times Square once again.

Every single member of the NYPD needs to do a check of his/her own pulse. As a group they operate as a secret society yet as individuals many of them struggle just as the protesters do.

Speaking of abuse of power - Joe Paterno sold his home to his wife for $1. Expecting law suits Joe Pa? Sandusky is out on what is called a Personal Recognisance bond, which means he didn't put up a penny to secure his freedom. The judge who arranged this, without the DA present, is on the board of Sandusky's so called children's charity.

Wake Up America and Stay Awake.

False Heroes

I wrote the post below Sunday night and then decided not to share it. I am reluctant to add to the darkness of the world.. Yet I keep coming back to it.
I am a survivor of childhood sexual abuse. Of violence and neglect. So was my sister. She killed herself when she was 25.

As the days after the revelation of crimes against children unfold I find so very little real concern for the victims. So little true awareness of how this changes and molds and contaminates a young life and how hard it is to survive this.

So I share my feelings with you – unchanged since Sunday except now I’m angrier.

It seems fitting to follow a post about real heroes with one about fake icons.

I didn’t think I had anything to say about the horror of child abuse by Penn State assistant coach Jerry Sandusky but as this weekend progressed and I got more information and saw the absurdity of the Paterno worship I truly thought my head would explode.

First of all the media needs to stop calling this a “sex scandal”. Consenting adults were not discovered screwing under the bleachers. Children were brutally attacked.

It might be a scandal to the powers that be at the university but it is a crime to anyone with a brain cell. A crime left unreported. A crime allowed to continue for years. I guess Penn State got its play book from the Catholic Church.

When I first heard about this I thought the graduate student coach mentioned had heard about an attack. No, he saw an attack happening and did nothing. This giant athletic man could do nothing to stop a man twice his age and in seemingly typical fat sloppy ex-player shape from attacking a child?

He’s been programmed well.

No one went to the police. Ever. Not the President of the university. Not any of the athletic directors. Not the man who saw an attack.

And not the man who so many are now mourning for and dedicating last games to and holding vigils for.

In the crowd at Penn State’s last football game I saw this sign

"Two of my favorite 'J's' in life: Jesus and Joe Pa."

Seriously?

I think these students are old enough to stop and think about their heroes. I think they’re old enough to get over the notion that one man has the power to make them sports idols or real men.

Even better they need to get over the belief that being a sports idol makes you a real man.

This young woman gets it.

Yet she felt she had to wear sunglasses and a hat and not give out her name.

Perhaps she should be a hero.

Or this young couple.

“Child abuse casts a shadow the length of a lifetime”

~ Herbert Ward

Recognize!

Do the kids still say that? Nothing more pitiful than a big ole middle aged white woman talking hip hop but hell, it's part of my charm.

Verizon workers have decided to go back to work under their current contract while negotiions between the unions and Verizon resume under what I hope is better circumstances.

I saw my son smile this morning for the first time in weeks.
Right now he and Hope are out in the yard looking at bugs and flowers - one of their favorite things to do together early in the morning.

THANK YOU to the Verizon workers who stayed solid and committed through long days of picketing and worrying about their families.

THANK YOU to NJ Citizen Action a group that always does its best for the community. They kept the awareness out there and they sent members to picket lines to support the workers. My son spent a day picketing with a woman from NJCA who he said reminded him so much of me. Clearly she must have been wonderful.

THANK YOU to you. Each of you who read the past few posts and sent support and comfort. Comments where you shared you own financial concerns or mentioned that you thought of my son when you passed picket lines in your own area. As always our community of blog/real friends is there when needed.

THANK YOU to Mother Nature for pouring down rain and flooding manholes and ripping down wires. Although the storms caused a lot of grief for commuters and residents they also provided a real life lesson for fat ass management who had to leave their big ass desk chairs and try to keep a network running. This burst the bubble of bullshit about how the landline workers aren't necessary. The whole fucking thing depends on them asshats!

F**K YOU to Verizon Wireless managers. Not the workers who had no choice but to cross lines for the crappy hourly wages they need but the store managers and the regional managers who called the police for every little move a picketing worker made. You fuckers will need a union one day. Just because wireless is showing the big numbers right now don't feel so secure and superior. Upper management will step on your heads one day.

F**K YOU to those who said the workers should just be happy to have jobs. That is NOT what America is supposed to be about. Take crap and smile? Let the few rule the many? Get your selfish heads out of your clogged up asses and have the balls to fight the real enemy.

And ...

Big

Giant

Collosal

F**K YOU to Ivan Seidenberg and Lowell McAdam - the top 2 at Verizon. You miserable filthy slimy bastards. You are so out of touch you don't understand how your own network functions and what it needs.

F**K the over $100,000 a day the two of you make. It's positively pornographic to see you pieces of trash sitting in the private jet.

Ivan tries to explain what a conduit box is. Bigger than a bread box?

Lowell laments the size of his dick


And on we go ...

If You Can't Say Something Nice Then Just Tell The Truth

I haven't posted all week because I have been just plain foul. In a mood that could kill puppies and wither gardens with a slight glance.

And you know me - if I can't be the spiritual equivalent of Mother Teresa and Jesus then I'm just not me.

hehehehehehehehehe - I crack myself up.

It hurts my heart to see how tired and tense my son is. He has been at the picket lines 12 to 16 hours a day, everyday, since the CWA strike against Verizon began. He shuttles workers from one picketing location to another, he picks up workers at rail connections to bring them into lower Manhattan, he collects signs and leaflets at CWA offices and distributes them to sites and then he joins his crew on Canal Street.

This is one of CWA's latest ads ...

Click HERE to sign the solidarity petition


I asked Hope what a grumpy mood looked like ...

Then I asked her what a Nana mood looked like ...

Thank goodness and light and the universe for hope and Hope.

And on we go.

I Am A Union Mom

My son, a member of the Communication Workers of America  along with his brothers and sisters of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers went on strike at midnight this past Sunday. Verizon is asking for huge concessions from over 45,000 union workers by misrepresenting the decline of landline business and dismissing the contribution these workers have made to building the company and to keeping it going. They compare themselves to non-union providers who pop up and disappear on a daily basis and claim they need workers to give back so they can remain competitive.

Verizon has posted close to 20 billion dollars of profit over the past few years. One of their executives earns $49,000 a day. A day. Many workers don't make that in a year yet they are being asked to pay for their healthcare coverage. For an average family that coverage could cost $1200 a month. A win for Verizon and a win for a giant health care corporation - screw the workers.

Salary concessions could bring pay scales back to 1960s rates. This while the CEO earns $18 million a year excluding his perks and bonuses.

The attack on working people in this country goes on. I have heard many people say that the unions should simply be happy to have jobs in this economy and that they are selfish for striking.

Yet again this country gets angry with the wrong people. We blame immigrants and tenants and workers while putting up with the greed and corruption of corporations and Congress and the small percentage of our population that controls the vast majority of wealth and power.

As the banner at the CWA website says ...

If You're Not Angry, You're Not Paying Attention

May I add - get angry at the real villains not the ones that are easy to blame.

My niece captured this off the screen when NY1 News was airing the picketing at Verizon HQ
That's my son in the middle

At the Verizon store on Canal Street

My son is wearing the red cap at the front of the group

Later that day at the same store. Barricades were put up to keep the picket line away from the store. They may not be able to see them but they can still hear them.

More soon ...

America Needs More Walks

Walks are good. Walks are healthy. Walks take us to new areas. Walks bring new perspective.

One of my favorite walks is the Perp Walk.

Historically the perp walk has been reserved for organized crime ...

I think it's time to expand the walk.

Wouldn't these two look wonderful shackled together (they might enjoy it) as they were led to the paddy wagon. Rebekah could always cover Rupert's face with her hair.

Allegedly Rebekah has had more than 200 death threats from employees of the paper she managed to destroy after it had been in business for 168 years. 200!? Sounds low to me.

Perhaps she and Rupert need Witness Protection. They could relocate to Reno as Carrot Top and Droopy Dog.

Even at his advanced age Rupert has just graduated from the Droopy Dog/Joe Lieberman School of Oh Poor Me

Another field just ripe with Perp Walk Pickins is ...

As wonderful as it is to see folks out protesting I would much rather see more of ...

Of course he's out of court on his own reconnaissance. You need to be poor or dark skinned in order to get a room in jail.

Scary at the edge. Ordinary Americans don't have the glass, we just hang on from sheer force of will. I'd wish for this motherfucker to fall but he'd just land on a mom of three working two jobs.

During a recent joint session of Congress it occurred to me how easy it would be to get a good perp walk going ...

They're already all lined up and separated by party. My suggestion would be to get the Republicans processed first - I imagine there would be so much more paperwork for them.

As angry as I am with the disproportionate balance of wealth and power I really can't condone violence so I think pies in the face are a healthy alternative. It humiliates the douchebag, it makes for good comedy and nobody gets hurt.

Plus think of all the dry cleaners who could profit from laundering the Chanel suits of rich young wives - that would create more jobs than not taxing the rich ever has.