Quinn's so called budget...or how to make retirees homeless!

I just can't figure out why politicians keep attacking seniors...first its the tea party and republicans trying to  privatize(read banksters steal the $3.2 Trillion in trust fund) Social Security, then Paul Ryan and his carnival shell game of "vouchers", and now Governor Quinn(who's supposed to be a DEM), wants to cut senior programs and attacking state retirees pensions and health care. I know, I know, all of you have been told how good we have it and we're breaking the state...and the public believes the lie. SB1313 tore apart the security of health care for seniors, now the general assembly and the so-called "liberal" governor want to cut cost of living increases. I don't know about the rest of the world, but in the last 4 years that I've been retired, gas has gotten ridiculous, which has affected what I spend for gas, what I spend for food, you know, those luxuries of living....
Now, this is because of the rich wanting to be richer and have many of their bills subsidized by what's left of the middle class/working poor. As I've stated in past posts, Illinois is not broke, but the tax system is--we need to get rid of the retailer's discount on sales tax(for large retailers) and single sales factor, again for large corporations(mom and pop operations are exempt from this handout). But, no...the state of Illinois lawmakers are quivering and licking the feet of the Chamber of Commerce(read...stick it to the little guy) and the Chicago Commercial Club, both of which that have board members who receive 7-8 figure golden parachutes. These Monopoly men don't want any tax reform, that would mean they would have to pay their fair share, nope, let's take it out on the 80 year old secretary who's making under $25000 a year after working for 30+ years!
A couple of weeks ago, Senate Bill 1313 passed both the houses with bi-partisan votes...nice to see our so-called representatives working together to screw us! And quickly! It took all of 2 weeks to pass 1313(ok, the number is ironic...but maybe it shoulda been SB 666), no hearings, no committees, no public comments. Just screw the senior citizen. What this does is change the way retiree insurance is handled and could end up costing retirees whole bunches of money..now, the lie that's told to all is that retirees got "free" insurance...hmm....I have out of pocket expenses that total about $500-600 a month(that includes premiums I pay for my family) and I actually thought I knew the meaning of "free"...obviously, the Chamber, Commercial Club and legislature own a different dictionary than I do.
So now the latest and greatest way to screw employees is either eliminate the cost of living raise, or to cut it to less than 1.5% or to give retirees a so called choice--we can either choose between having some type of health insurance or a cost of living increase...isn't that FUCKING NICE...why do I feel that I'm Oliver saying to Sikes, "please sir, could I have a bit more gruel?" Only problem is no one is going to come and proclaim me an heir! And how does the corporate media report on this? The far right leaning Chicago Tribune had an article about how the general assembly members and governors...have made out like wall street bandits while the average state worker's pension is less than $25,000...and many get only that-no Social Security. But the Trib has been trumpeting "many" trumped up pension scandals...there was the one on 2 men that upped their pension by working for one day at a school, then the ex-representative who doubled his pension by working for Alderman Burke for a month, but not one article on the 27,000 retirees who would be severely effected by cuts to their only form of retirement income.
Now don't get me wrong, I'm sure that if we(union) were able to actually bargain, we could come up with some solutions-we have in the past, but that's not gonna happen. We are an easy target so why would our corporate legislatures allow a few facts about our pensions get in the way????  Yes, these changes would effect the general assembly members who vote on them, but not to the degree that it will state retirees...I mean, I only had one job--in a prison--for 30 years, unlike many of our part time politicians who collect $67,000 a year in salary...and another $69K(representatives) or $80K+(senators) for office "allowances", not to mention mileage and per diem...now, as I said, I worked for the Department of Corrections. I began as clerical, then went to officer and retired as a correctional counselor--I made, after 28 years about $65,000 for a full time job! They start out as $67,000 the first year for their part time job. I did not receive mileage to go to and from work and was expected to take a state vehicle if I had to travel to Springfield...so, again, why is the general assembly working to screw us out of our pensions??????
All I have to say is remember, WE VOTE and we will not be afraid to vote you out of office.

Occupy NATO...or Living in a Police State

I'm sure that most people know that NATO is meeting in Chicago and if you've turned on to either the local broadcast news or the corporate media, you've been told that only a couple of thousand have shown up to protest, and most of the photos and media stream seem to show a bunch of white "punk" type kids--long hair, dreadlocks, tattoos, you know the type, the white version of "other--be afraid". My husband just loves listening to WGN(I put them just under Fox Noise for right wing propaganda) and watching that was almost comical to see the news people falling all over the dogma of "cops are wonderful, protesters are lying little whiny brats." At one point, the camera spied two black protesters, smiling, gesturing  and talking to the police line and the commentator was talking about how the men were antagonizing the police...of course he said they were doing that BEFORE the camera was turned on them, but it wasn't like the camera was close to them...the shot was taken off of a building or stand so I doubt if the men even knew they were on TV(plus...didn't they know they were at the wrong place? I mean they were black! There weren't supposed to be anyone but white over privileged brats!)
BUT, listen to Democracy Now on Free Speech TV(channel 9415 on Dish) and you receive a much different picture of the protesters: the nurses rally actually included nurses? The Anti war protest had people of all ages(and not all of them had tattoos or piercings), all colors, from poor to well off.
One of the most interesting pieces was the over 40 impassioned speeches from vets who "returned' their medals. Now, the local news(this time CBS) had shown a couple of vets throwing their medals in a direction and then did about 4 minutes on how many of these young men and women probably didn't understand how they would feel later in life about this...just like the Viet Nam Vets who did this and then wished they hadn't(only problem? Not many of them felt bad either). From this news piece, it certainly wasn't reporting, you would assume there were maybe 5 or 10 20-somethings that did something rash. That was not even close. The truth about these men and women was more powerful. They were not only in for 1 tour, but many...most of them were not 20, but 30/40, some with over 10 years of service and all upset over how our government has been neglectful in their duties with PTSD, traumatic brain injury and other injuries; the lies they were told while serving(Iraqi liberation, WMD's); the sexually assaulted women of the Military Forces. Maggie Martin, I was a sergeant in the Army. I did two tours in Iraq. No amount of medals, ribbons or flags can cover the amount of human suffering caused by these wars. We don't want this garbage(the medals). We want our human rights! We want our right to heal."  A Marine corp veteran, Vince Emanuele, stated he was giving his medals back: "First and foremost, ...for the people of Iraq and Afghanistan. Second, ... four our real forefathers. I'm talking about the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee...Black Panthers, civil rights unions, unions, our socialist brothers and sisters and our ecology brothers and sisters. And lastly and most importantly, our enemies are not 7,000 miles from home. They sit in boardrooms. They are CEO's. They are bankers. They are hedge fund managers. They do not live 7,000 miles from home. Our enemies are right here and we look at them every day! They are not the men and women who are standing on this police line. They are the millionaires and billionaires who control this planet and we've had enough of it! So they can take their medals back!"  Lance Corporal Scott Olson(enlisted 2005, 2006-Iraq and 2008) also threw his medals(4-global war on terror, operation Iraqi Freedom, National Defence, Good Conduct) toward the fence of the NATO Summit--he's the gentleman that was severely injured in Occupy Oakland when he was struck with a beanbag round from police and Amy Goodman also
interviewed him.

Then there was the van that hit a young woman and had a protester that was stuck on the front of the hood of the van. Now the police stated that the officer that was driving had been hit by a protester and had a concussion, but its not like this can be proven...and, when was he struck? When he was running over the young woman(who did end up in the hospital)? Then there was the man who had been hit with a billy club in the teeth when he tried to help a woman who had fallen & couldn't get up quick enough for the police, who were hitting her in the legs, back and abdomen yelling at her to stand up. There wasn't anything like that spoken on corporate media.

Also, police detained by gunpoint 3 independent media who were live streaming from the march--one was from change.org -- when the cops attacked his van--there were 3 people
in the van, the cops ordered them out of the car, cuffed them, and began attacking
their equipment(banging the hard drives, cameras, lenses, etc. on each other, on the ground)...so much for the real 4th estate. Oh, then the cops left and told one of the men
 they had been looking for a similar car...when the reporter pointed out they were in a 99 Lexus with out of state plates, the cop just smiled. Sure, no harassment by police...and I'm the twin of Angelina Jolie!

Reiner Braun, German Peace Activist..protested at NATO because he states the bogeyman(Russia) is no longer...NATO spends over $1T annually for war that could be used to construct rather than destruct. Kay McVay, retired nurse, was there both for the Nurse's Rally(Friday) and the anti-war rally. There were also Chicago activists protesting against Emmanuel's mental health closures, home care providers who haven't been paid by state/county/cit, child care providers not paid by city, much of this because the politicians re-appropriated much of this money to pay for the extra security for NATO at the loss of the neighborhoods that need support most.

Alleged bomb makers that had undercover police officers who were the actual ones with the plans of "bombing"...can we say "entrapment"? Let's just stir up prejudice against the protesters by the very old infiltrate and denigrate.

Tom Morrell, performed at the Nurses rally and also at the antiwar rally. He's been very involved in social justice movements for the last couple of years, specially in Wisconsin. He had started with songs he wrote specifically for veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Little known fact? He and President Obama were both staying at the Sheraton---among other things they share--both have Kenyan fathers and white American mothers, both attended Harvard at the same time.

Jesse Jackson Jr. went through the history of NATO, why it began(cold war), why it's really not needed any longer and why we can't afford to be the sheriff of the world, specially when we can't take care of our own people.
Now, I am willing to say that there are probably 10% of the police who take their cute scary "stormtroopers" costumes to heart and think they're robo-cop, much like the protesters have their 10% of anarchists and troublemakers, but way too often, we are not informed of both sides having their time of "behaving badly"...its only the ones that tow the corporate master's rule that are allowed explanations and that, also is just wrong and we should not stand for it.

Differences between the right wing's SAHM and real SAHM's

A couple of weeks ago, there was the big non-issue in the corporate media on how the Democratic Party did not respect stay at home mothers because of the remark of one woman who said, truthfully, that Ann Romney hadn't worked a day in her life and was not a good receptor of how real moms(or at least middle class/poor families) felt about the economy...big fake hysterics from rich people went on and on and on. During this time, I was watching a real stay at home mom's life completely fall apart:
I met Claire when our kids played soccer together, at least 15 years ago. She was, for the most part, a blue collar stay at home mom--John, her husband, was a truck driver, her oldest child was just starting elementary school and she was happy being, "Mom". Both Claire and John came from similar backgrounds, high school education, John was a veteran and used the GI Bill to buy their home. They lived in a decent, but changing neighborhood where cops and teachers and the like lived, knew the neighbors and had cookouts and garage sales during the summer. Then illness slipped into the fabric of their lives.
John's issues began with carpal tunnel syndrome--kind of hard to drive a truck when you can't use your hands. He came back from that but then it was his back. He ended up having 2 or 3 surgeries on his back over 10 years and still lived in pain. He was also diagnosed with cancer and went through treatment for that. during one of his hospital stays(I think it was his second back surgery), the wrong medication was given to him and he almost died. Oh, and he was diagnosed with mental health issues also(like no one saw THAT coming with all of the stress of illness).
During this time, Claire would help with the bills by finding jobs, but she didn't have any training so her jobs consisted of server, cleaning and basic service jobs. In 2007, she herself, ended up in the hospital with back surgery which curtailed her ability to work again, along with a chronic lung disease. Not that she could anyway, she was John's nurse...by 2009, John couldn't take a shower by himself due to his inability of steadying himself, couldn't really do much for himself due to him forgetting what he had done or hadn't done, someone had to be home with him all the time and the kids had their own lives so Claire took over taking care of her husband. In 2009, they were finally approved to receive SSI(after being disapproved twice) so at least they had $1100 coming in monthly that could be depended on.
But $1100 doesn't go very far in these days, the mortgage was under $800, but it still took over half of the money coming in. They did receive food stamps...until their daughter found a full time job...in retail(yep, making all of $9 for 4 people). There's water, electricity, heating, phone...the phone was the first to go. Around Christmas of 2011, they received the foreclosure notice from the bank.
In January, Claire found an apartment for John and her and their 18 year old son. The rent was under $600 monthly and included heat and water so she felt ok about being able to keep it up. Since John couldn't help much with moving, Claire, the kids and 1 or 2 friends did the moving. One morning, Claire and her son went back to the old house to get another load, came back to the apartment and found John hanging, in a bedroom closet. And the nightmare is now only beginning...
Within a couple of weeks, Claire had nothing...no house, no car, no money. She was able to get a death benefit from Social Security of under $300, but she's 9 years too young to collect widow's benefits, although the woman who helped us also put in a claim under her disabilities and told her that if she's denied the first time, check and see why and what wasn't filed correctly. Nice thing about long term government employees...they'll usually try to help people that come in with substantive claims.
We also went to the Department of Human Services(Public Aid), but all she could receive is $200 in food stamps--no medical card, no cash. Oh, and she is basically homeless. She stayed with us for about a week and is living with friends, but she has nothing to get an apartment with.
So, this is the way that blue collar stay at home moms are treated...husband dies, she's just thrown out to the wolves because in the past 30+ years, the republicons and right wing have been tearing apart the social safety net to make sure that Americans don't have to suffer this way...John and Claire paid their taxes, unlike many of the Republicons, including the Mittster, worked for their lifestyle which was taken away by illness, not becasue of addiction, not because of being lazy, not because of being a minority(this is a white family), but because the breadwinner became chronically ill. This could happen to anyone, much easier than to happen than our American fantasy of becoming the next millionaire. This is your life, Middle Class America..when illness happens. Ann Romney and her ilk knows nothing of this terror, although many of the women she "speaks for" think about this terror on a daily basis.

My Apologies

I've had another rough time...I had to put one of my dogs down...and it was my fault that it happened. I've also had a couple of more deaths, been working at my temp job, one grandson's wedding(and I even DANCED!!!) and being busy with trying to make sure I have something to live on(thank  you Illinois legislature for fucking me). But its time to get back to business.....