Rick Santorum, please. Now Mitt Romney.

Okay are you all fed up with the hypocrisy in politics? First you hear people like Rick Santorum say President Obama is trying to destroy America. When President Obama tries to encourage people to go to college, Mr. Santorum has the balls to say the President is a snob ( that’s like one 400 pound person saying  you are out of shape). Why would someone think a person is a snob when they want others to better themselves? Could it be that Mr. Santorum will have to work harder because he will run into book smart people trying to take whatever job he has? The 1% hates to compete, look at the laws they have passed to make it harder to live the American dream.

Then Mr. Santorum does not like contraception and any law that allows same-sex marriage, and he talks about having a smaller government. Yet he is all for laws like the patriot act and drug testing unemployed people. Those laws right there require more government. I guess people like Mr. Santorum like smaller government when others need government, and he wants larger government when he wants to pass moral laws. He would like less laws for Wall Street , yet he is willing to pass more moral laws to control Americans.

I am very surprised that even 10 people in America would vote for this person. To me he is as scary as the Taliban but he tries to act like and talk like he is Gods right hand man.

You can say that hypocrisy is on the other side of the fence as well. The other side wants more regulation for banks, but less for drugs. They say the are for protection of the environment, yet we are drilling more now in America then we every have in the past.

I guess my point is, if you look at politics today , they are all alike but with different words coming out of their mouth. I guess that’s why Santorum has the definition he has when you do a search of his name.

UPDATED 2/28/2012 ; I just heard Mitt Romney talk. He has said in the past it’s not the government’s job to creat jobs. That it is the economies job, and the market system. Today he said President Obama has done nothing to fix the economy, and that he would creat jobs in America. He can not have it both ways. Now which way is it Mr. Romney? He also said he will restore the Keystone pipeline. If I am correct, that oil will go in the pipeline from Canada onto boats right to China. America gets none of the oil, China has bout it already. He has the people who listen to him thinking the oil is for America. WAKE UP AMERICA!!!!

Running to clear my mind or feel the pain.

Today on my day off from my part-time job I went for a nice 3 mile “run”. It was the first time running in 4-5 months and I can tell. I am going to get back in the swing of things so I get back in shape for the summer road races ( I love the atmosphere of the road races ).

While I was jogging a lot of thoughts was running in my head. Like the encounter I had with a person who has been at the job longer then me and what he said. Every time I start to show my real abilities at a job, those above me start to feel threatened because they see that I am much smarter than they are and a harder worker. That is why most of the time I dumb down my abilities so that I will not get harassed by people with more pull.

This is what happened ( I will not give full details because I can’t). I was following the SOP and It was making this person work harder than they wanted to. He later tried to tell me not to follow the SOP. I will not do that because I almost feel as though I am being set up by this person.

Also I was looking at my paycheck and It boggles my mind that I get  paid less working then when I was on unemployment. If you listen to the news and the politicians, everything is getting better and employment is improving. Just look at the facts and numbers they say. The facts have a lot of hidden messages that they are unwilling to talk about and quite frankly, those not hurting do not want to hear the truth.

Yes the numbers are going down. Why are they going down? Well people are falling off of the books because the jobs are not out there. Those who find work , end up finding work like me. There are just part-time jobs that pay $300.00 a week or less.  I am part of the reason the numbers look better now than in the past. Washington and the media will make you think people like me are making over $30,000 a year and living nicely. The part they leave out is how much I bring home and it is under $300.00 per week , and I drive 80 miles a day for this job and pay close to $4.00 a gallon of gas.

I am not whining or complaining. I am stating facts. I am always seeing the bright side of things. I have my health, the ability to say what I want to say , have the type of friends and family I enjoy, and run in pain because I am out of shape.

This country has a very long way to go to get back in shape. Maybe the corporations and politicians need to go on some runs with me so they can think, or feel my pain. They sure in the heck are not seeing the truth behind the blurred facts or listening to the underemployed or unemployed.

Everyone get out and run so you can think freely like I do. Everyone needs to pull their pants up and fix what is wrong with this country.

Pay it Forward.

Today is the start of a new challenge for everyone. How about getting out of your comfort zone and try new things. Get away from your computer, your ” smart phone” , the T.V. and see what the out doors looks and smells like. Join a fitness club, jog in the park , enter in road races. Too many people sit around and talk about the ” good old days” , instead of still living the good old days. The days of the past everyone was out doors talking to people face to face , running around playing sports or having fun at parks or fitness centers. Talk is very cheap ( look at our elected officials).

Go outside and talk to someone you know you have nothing in common with. By the end of the conversation you may have done something, like make a new friend or learn something from that person. We as a country need to stop being sheltered up physically and mentally. One thing we all can agree on is that these Tea Party and Occupy movements has people talking . Now instead of just talking ( text or chat rooms) get outside and see what other humans look and act like. Let us all be kind to each other and not argue over petty crap. A great talker is an even better listener.

So while you are at the gym getting your workout on or at a park, turn to another human and talk to them. When you are in that road race you are going to join, talk to the other runners and listen to how they think about subjects. We are the ones that will change this country , not the politicians or the corporations. Do not count on them to make this a better place, they are only concerned about their inner circle. Todays better tomorrow starts with your attitude and get outside and have fun and meet new people.

Pay it forward by making life better for those around you.

99% VS. 1%

With this occupy movement going on, you hear people talking about the 1% VS. the 99%. What really is the 1% or 99% anyway ? So many people relate these terms just to money wealth alone. I would add another angle to the terms. To me the term 1% has at least two elements involved, money and the right connections.

If you have X amount of money and can influence a government (local or federal) to pass any kind of law to fit your needs or your companies needs, then you’re in the 1%. If you have X amount of money yet you do not have any connections to have laws passed, then you are not in the 1%. Look at the entertainment and athletic industries for instance. You take the actors/actresses and musicians and athletes. Do they make a good amount of money ? Yes they do. Can they have laws passed to help their own gains ? I think not.

Now let’s take the movie executives and the owners of sports teams. They have great wealth and have connections to have laws passed to help their own gain. They have local governments give them tax breaks to build new facilities when they can pay for it themselves. They have all kinds of tax exempt laws in their favor, or they also get revenue sharing and so on. This also goes for big corporations. They get tax breaks to build in towns or cities, yet they make enough money to pay for it themselves.

Do you get tax breaks to build your home in cities ? No you end up paying more or covering their (1%) tax cuts. Personal wealth does not alone make you the 1%. It’s almost like the ones who do fall into the 1% act like the mafia. They are little chickens who have others do their dirty work. The 1% hitmen are the government officials who pass laws to help them out.

When someone who is in the 1% says , ” don’t blame wall street , blame Washington”. They are right to say that to a point. It was Wall street who puts the pressure on their buddies to pass the laws. It is the spineless people in Washington who cave and have the laws passed. These laws only help Wall street, that is why we are ion the mess we are in. The laws are to discourage competition , because the top brass are punks and are afraid of the mom and pop stores.

All of this in this blog post is my opinion, these are not facts. I promote personal wealth, we all need to live and have chances . The 1% have made both almost impossible any more with the laws .

QUOTE OF THE DAY ; Action may not always bring happiness, but there is no happiness without action. ( Benjamin Disraeli ).

14,000,000 X 20 = 280,000,000 Affected . The Kevin Bacon Theory.

When 1 person gets laid off, in my opinion it affects more than just that person. I think some people tend to think it only has an impact on the unemployed. When someone is unemployed it affects at least 20 people in at least 2 ways. Those ways are emotionally and financially.

Let’s start with the emotionally way first. The unemployed person is so stressed out it affects the family and friends because those close to that person worry about his or hers future. Some of those worries may turn into arguments due to displaced anger. The worries can lead to building huge walls around that person due to fear. They may need to go talk to a professional if their worries gets too deep, and they have no money to pay.

The money issue is another aspect of hurting at least 20 people around the unemployed. When you collect unemployment, you have to make cutbacks. The cutbacks you make affect those people because they are getting less money, like the utility companies, the gas stations , the restaurants, the grocery stores, and so on . Then you cut back on money for your children, they can not go to the movies or go to hardly any activities at the school that cost money. Then you have family or friends who may help you out at times, that takes money out of their pockets and they spend less at places they patronized. This is a huge domino effect.

So the only people it may not affect are the rich (1%) because they have no feelings for the unemployed ( they are the ones who decide to lay off), and we do not shop at the same stores as they do. So next time you see someone asking for change on the corner or know of someone unemployed remember the number 280,000,000 . That number is the bare minimum that is affected right now. We can do better !!!

If you think the occupy is shrinking in numbers because of the weather, and of the number of people at the sites, think again. This is about getting the United States fixed and strong like it once was before a lot of the jobs have been disbursed due to greed.

QUOTE OF THE DAY ; Sometimes you just have to trust your intuition . (William Gates, Microsoft )

From A Land Of Makers And Providers To A Land Of Consumers And Beggars.

From watching the occupy on the internet and from listening to what people have to say, something has donned on me. There are so many problems in this country, and so many different points of views. I keep hearing how do we fix the issues ? To me the big issue has been that America use to be a land of makers and givers ( self-reliant also ), now we are a land of consumers and beggars ( because most of us are unemployed or underemployed).

Now people ask how do we fix this? The wealthy and those who have not fallen off of the employment wagon say there is no problem. Those that say that either have no heart or do not care about fellow humans or are undereducated.  This how I would fix it.  I would tax or charge corporations fees for sending jobs to other countries, instead of giving tax beaks for shipping jobs overseas like they are getting now. I would also make it a law that the C.E.O.’s can not own stock, that way they do not make decisions for their own gains. Instead of bonuses for the management I would implement a law that would only allow profit-sharing for all the workers, from the janitor to the president. Do not think this is wealth distribution, heck it’s the people under management who make the companies the goods to sell for profit.

The decisions made by the upper management are not because they “answer” to the share holders. They could care less about anyone who owns less than 15% of the shares. They only answer to themselves and the board of directors. If they were concerned about you or me, they would not give them such huge paychecks after they lay off 20% of the workers. They would not stop on the dividends , they would raise them and cut their own paychecks.

You hear some C.E.O.’s say they have to export jobs to compete with other countries. I find that a lame excuse . Does China export their manufacturing jobs to other countries? Think about it, they are taking all of the manufacturing jobs and keeping them in their country. People say that anyone can become a C.E.O. of a company. I say that they are off base on that one also. Now low-end jobs are either shipped to other countries or they are eliminated all together, so moving up the chain is not there any more.

Once the jobs come back home, we as a country will be a land of providers , makers , and givers. That is the dream I would like to have, not the nightmare we are all living now.

QUOTE OF THE DAY ; Keep changing, because when you’re through changing – you’re through. (Bert-Olaf Svanholm).

It’s not where you live , but how you live.

So many times I see these cars go zipping past me like they are being chased by someone. But then I see what direction they are headed and the type of car they are driving. Most of th cars are of the B.M.W. type and they are headed to the area of town that have $500,000 homes or higher.

The drivers have this look on their face like they are frightened because they are in an area that does not meet their standard of income ( poor folk ). I bet they got this idea that because they are in my part of town, that we are crooks or we give a crap about them. Let me clarify one thing, we got our own problems and don’t give a hoot about your tight wad butt. Just because people live in rich areas does not mean they are saints or in a crimeless area.

Yes my neck of the woods is rough , but in the rich part of town there are many crooks. They do steal in a subtle way, they will not pay taxes, they will lay you off and send your job overseas ( and say they are patriotic ). Or they have work done to their yard or house and then refuse to pay in full because they are dissatisfied ( so they say ). All of this is done out of greed. How much more money does a person need to live ?

In my neck of the woods people will steal, rob right out in the open and not be subtle about it. Most of the time it’s done out of survival because of the unemployment rate due to the folk farther west ( who drive real fast in my neighborhood out of fear ).

Both ways of doing the stealing are way wrong . It’s not where you live but how you live. There are a lot of law-abiding people in my town who just want to be left alone and be happy .  Just like how there are happy law-abiding people to the west of my town. But us poor folk don’t drive fast to leave your town. We drive the speed limit, if we don’t the cops in the rich town will jack with yah. I know because I have been pulled over and questioned because of the car I drive. I don’t ” fit in” is what the cops tell me. So you tell me , who should be more afraid when not in their neighborhood ? The rich who drive like a bat out of hell , or the poor who just wanna get home?

It’s not where you live , but how you live.

QUOTE OF THE DAY ; Most of us are so busy doing what we think we have to do , that we do not think about what we really want to do .  ( Robert Percival ).

Play ball and watch T.V. shows after the game.

How many of you watch sporting events ? How many have watched an interview for a pregame ? The coach that says we are going to stick with what got us here wins 95% of the time . Right ? How many times do you see a sports team that keeps changing their game plan or strategy and they keep losing? I would say over 80% of the teams that keep losing do a lot of last-minute game changes .

That is how I am seeing this job market, and so are a bunch of my friends ( we all have the losing coach who has no idea what he is doing ). The stories I hear no matter where the person lives sounds so much like what any person is going through. Just like yesterday, I had to take a 4 hour test. The test was a hurdle I was told I had to jump just to maybe have a chance at my first interview. I took the test, and after I was done I was told , ” you did not need to take the test , it is not a requirement anymore. ” I was also told to redo my Resume for the fourth time in the last month.

There was others in this test room saying they have been told 5 different stories as what they need to do to get into a class. They acted like they were mad and to good for the run around . They lived in the Mission Hills District ( old money , hand me down homes ) of Kansas City, homes in that area cost one million or better. They are not used to having to claw and struggle like this, I could tell by their attitude towards the ” system”. People in my economic system or jobless situation are used to the ” game changers”. We are always told to adjust and adapt.

I have friends who live on the west coast who are going through the same thing. They will do whats asked of them , and then when they do it, they are told they wasted their time because it was not required anymore.

This is why the working poor, jobless, and people trying to transition are losing . The American economy is hurting from these game changing rules as well. The powers that be ( whether head hunters or employers ) , keep changing the game plan and no one wins. If these decision makers were to be coaches of a sports team, they would be 1-30 , and in the soup line with me or you.  It is time the job market gets winning coaches so we all win in the end. Because there are more then enough ball players who want to play ball.

It is evident that the  coaches of the job market will be changing the game plan every hour on the hour. So the only way we can deal with this is act like a leaf blowing in the wind. We just need to be free and go where the wind blows and hope we land in a nice shaded area so we don’t get burned by the sun ( end up homeless because we did not land that job ).

The only people unwilling to change with us are the ones making up the rules as the game goes on, and they act like we are the difficult ones. But we grin and go along, hoping we get the career or job we want.

Lets all of us hope we are in a game with a winning coach who sticks with the game plan that got him to the championship game ( stop changing the system for job seekers ). That way America wins and the team we are with wins and carries the trophy home ( land that job ).

Shows I recommend to watch to forget about this crazy world : Family Guy , American Dad, South Park, The Office , Parks and Recreation , The Daily Show with John Stewart , The Colbert Report.. All of these shows make me laugh.

QUOTE OF THE DAY ;If you won’t be better tomorrow then you were today , then what do you need tomorrow for ? ( Rabbi Nahman of Bratslav ).