I am FINALLY having the huge garage sale I have needed to have for years. We had way too much STUFF in here.
I need money bad, too. I should have been working on this for weeks to prep, instead of doing it all last minute like I always do - in one fell rushed sweep. I'm an idiot. Insane. Stupid. But work REALLY well under pressure. (probably out of learned necessity from being a procrastinator)
Unfortunately, this can't be just a walk out the door thing. I live on a dead end street (poetic that) off a fairly untraveled road... so my friend Jodi who lives on the main drag around here offered her yard. So this involves moving truckload after truckload over there.
I have to say? It looks fantastic around here with LESS, less everything. And? Should we have to move, I really want to be able to move fast and light.
So barring unforeseen miracles or winning a lottery I didn't play? No WWL radio tomorrow.
And I won't be around much for the next few days unless the wifi they have will reach the yard. I'm nervous, and excited... and overwhelmed right now. Even at this moment when I should be washing nick nacks and pricing stuff, I find myself indulging in typing this and nursing my morning coffee. Holy shit, batman. I am already tired from the 14 hr day on my feet yesterday, followed by 6 hrs sleep and I just got up. Whew! Someone hit me with a cattle prod already!
He ain’t out of the woods yet as the Justice Dept is eyeballing him and his legalized gambling firm known as Chase. He was also CEO, but alas, was booted from that position. From the LAT writeup:
After surviving a push to oust him as chairman, embattled JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive Jamie Dimon now faces a Justice Department probe into how the bank lost $2 billion from risky trades.
The investigation, being handled by the FBI’s financial crimes squad in New York, is still at a preliminary stage. But it adds to mounting scrutiny into the bank’s global trading business, which already is the target of inquiries by the Federal Reserve and the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Dimon continued to apologize Tuesday for the trading blunder during the company’s annual meeting, held inside a tightly secured office complex in Tampa. He faced little acrimony from an audience that included employees of the bank.
Saying you are sorry is easy. Losing $2 billion bucks isn’t…unless you are CEO and Chairman of the Board at the same time.
Well, Spring is here and the money isn't.... I've been cleaning out closets and getting stuff ready for an epic garage sale.
I took down the dog pen - 10) 10x6 panels. 3) 5x6 panels, 2) gate panels (one 5' one 10') Dismantling was the easy part. Using wire cutters to cut where they were attached to underground fencing was the hard part. That and digging the grass and dirt that grew over it out after 13 years. Then I used the truck and a strap to pull the fencing out from underground. Sold it on less than 24 hours too. All hail Facebook.
You see, they just ballooned my fucking mortgage - almost doubling my interest rate for no apparent reason other than Mike got us into an ARM. Another 300 bucks a month I cannot afford. They won't refi me because I owe 159k and the house is now worth 144-ish k. Underwater, glug, glug. They "may" be able to "restructure" me. Its Bank of America. Let me see. I am willing to pay the entire debt for a house not worth it, but you interest me out of the ballpark. I have not made one late payment, have plenty in my escrow, and have totally dug myself tooth and nail out of the debt from my husband's death by cancer. Now? I cannot and will not pay you. It takes you one to three years to get me the fuck out of here on foreclosure. I sit on my money and buy something cheaper or rent something after all that. (Or move to Costa Rica 40k richer) By then the house is worth 100k and you won't be able to sell it anyway.
You just set yourself up for a total fucking loss. Oh, wait! You want to take the loss because you have hedged it as bead debt and insured yourself for double its worth. You want foreclosures. Its a goddamned ponzi scheme. You don't mind fucking over a widow with a young son to do it. We're nothing to you.
So, I am lightening my load and getting rid of most of my possessions so I can move fast and light when the inevitable happens.
And, you know, feed myself and my kid.
Guess what? I'll be FINE, I've got this and eventually it will be you that will be screwed. Thieves and cheats never stay on top for long.
I may be wiped out at the moment, unemployed and pretty much unemployable.... but I will win.
I find myself thinking of all the guys I know now raising kids alone. Perhaps because now I am a single Mom. Its a tough job, doing both. Probably tougher for guys who haven't been taught traditionally to be good emotional communicators. Because that's what a Mom should be - a kid's go-to girl for reality checks, hugs, information and support.
Jake tells me everything. I love how open we are together. Yesterday at baseball I asked if the pretty girl who walked by and flirted with him was "the" girl. "No Mom, that's not (redacted)." He whispered, mildly blushing. Another Mom piped up, "Like he'd tell you anyway." The fact is, he does. He is so honest with me, I am blessed. I suppose it helps that when I had him, I was older, wiser, calmer than in my youth. He was also the baby they told me I would never have... but I dunno, I always saw kids as little individuals in their own right from the day they were born. Not mini-me's. Not mindless creatures to indoctrinate. I feel their opinions are worthy from the moment they can utter them. I listen.
I have to tread carefully now, as hormones lead to him having random bouts of rage and disproportionate responses. I pretty much failed my 1st real test of that.
Ciudad Juarez. 1.3 million souls across the Rio Grande from El Paso. The murder rate is supposedly down from a record of 30,000 in 2010.
I am waiting for the bus at a bus stop. I don't have cash for a taxi. It is too far to walk. There are about 24 other resigned people here waiting. It's after 6 pm, we're tired, we all want to go home. This is routine here. When the bus comes, there may not be room for all of us. So we will push and shove and some of us will still be here waiting for the next bus. Eventually, we'll all get home.
Since the narco wars started, going home has become more important. It's the only real chance of being safe. Nobody goes out here in the evening. Ever. And nobody goes out for a walk. Going out is like asking to be shot or kidnapped. Going out to a bar for a drink and to watch the futbol game is like declaring that you're a combatant on one of the four or fives sides of the War in Juarez. So getting home has some urgency. 60,000 people have already died in Mexico since the War on Drugs started. Nobody here wants to be in that statistic.
Years ago at this stop, the bus pulled in and there was a shooting. That was just at the start of the much greater wave of killings brought by the maquiladoras and the War on Drugs. When the door opened, a young man climbed up the steps to the driver to pay his fare, took out a small automatic machine gun, and shot the driver 16 times. I don't know why. I can't imagine why. Then as if the bullets had turned everyone to cement, the young man quickly made his getaway on foot. Later, nobody could provide any details at all about the shooter. Those shots were for me the opening fusillade in the War in Juarez.
I am waiting for the bus. I hope it comes soon. There is a small Toyota pickup parked across the street from the stop in the dark shade. There is something about it I don't like. The driver has mirrored sunglasses. I can see that. And there is a big man, also with sunglasses, standing in the bed. I thought he might have a big gun, a machine gun of some kind, but I can't see clearly from here what that is. What is he doing with a machine gun in daylight in Juarez? All I can see is that he's got something big and heavy.
The bus comes. It is entirely too full of other passengers to take all of us. Those who are at the front of our disorderly, disorganized line struggle and get on, then there is no room for anyone else. There's pushing and shoving, some cursing. The driver closes the door, and he leaves behind a cloud of dust and diesel exhaust and sweaty people, who will continue to wait for the bus.
At this, I look across the street. At the Toyota. The guy in the back clearly has a big machine gun. It is mounted on top of some kind of stand. It has long lines of bullets hanging from it. The truck pulls quickly out from the curb, makes a wide left turn so that it is now coming quickly toward the bus stop. At that, the man begins to shoot. I feel a bullet crush my right arm at the elbow. And in slow motion, I see the line of people to the right of me fall down one after the other. Blood is spattered everywhere, and there are pools of blood on the ground. And people are screaming and crying and dying.
There is nothing I can do. I have no idea why I have been shot. I sit on the corner of the bench, and I wait for an ambulance. Hopefully, it will come soon.
The gaysbien homotocracy and other liberal reformists across the nation are applauding Obama's recent "courageous" announcement that he now supports same-sex marriage.
As I've said before, please don't blow smoke up my ass and tell me it is a hot Puerto Rican guy named Miguel.
First, Obama claims his views on the issue have "evolved" over the years, and he now supports the right of same-sex couples to register at Pottery Barn and have their carnal couplings sanctioned by the state. Gaysbiens everywhere are predictably pissing themselves with joy over this "victory". Perhaps Obama has in fact had a change of heart.
I suspect, however, that what has "evolved" are the views of the American public, the majority of whom now support same-sex marriage: In 1996 a Gallup poll found that 27% of Americans supported same-sex marriage; last September, a CNN/ORC International poll found that 53% of Americans supported same-sex marriage, up from 44% in 2008. That is a big shift in a relatively short time.
It doesn't take a Harvard law school graduate and former editor of the Harvard Law Review with a multimillion PR machine to tell which way the wind blows.
Nevermind that neither Obama nor his Office have the power to do a damn thing on this issue. Liberals and "progressives" are once again falling for a tired tactic out of President Pretty Word's playbook: Make progressive-sounding proclamations on issues about which he doesn't have to actually DO anything in order to gain progressive "street creds" to fire up his "base"...the "base" starts to be the change they hope to believe in will work this time...get elected and then transfer wealth to the top .001%, make Bush look like an amateur in war spending and war crimes, all the while mocking his "base".
When it comes to matters the Dali Obama could fix with an executive decree though, one "progressives" are supposed to care about, he has made matters worse. Yeah, I am harping on immigration again and the fact that Obama is responsible for more migrant deaths and deportations than Bush. Hey Obie, how about courageously doing something about this bullshit:
I suppose ACTUALLY helping us spics doesn't pack the same political punch as announcing your views on an issue you couldn't really impact even if you wanted to do so.
Fucker.
(note: I'm a proud queer who does not support the assimilationist agenda of the "mainstream" gay rights movement including marriage "equality")
Listen to Diane Gee with Ben Manski live on WWL Radio Friday, May 11th at 6pm EDT!
Listen live by clicking the link icon below:
Jill Stein is vying for the nomination as the Green Party's Candidate for President in the 2012 election along with Roseanne Barr and Kent Mesplay. Tonight her campaign manager, Ben Manski joins us to speak about Dr. Stein's platform and why we should give her our support.
Ben Manski is a political powerhouse in his own right. (or left, so to speak)
Ben Manski is an attorney and pro-democracy advocate. He is the executive director of the Liberty Tree Foundation, a think-tank and organizing center he founded in 2004, as well as principal attorney at Manski Law, LLC, and an associate fellow with the Institute for Policy Studies.
As a member of the Wisconsin Green Party, he served as co-chair of the Green Party of the United States from 2001 through 2004. Manski also served as the Wisconsin representative on the Green Party Diversity Committee, and is a former chair of the GPUS Coordinated Campaign Committee. In December 2011, Manski was announced as the campaign manager of Jill Stein, candidate for President of the United States.
The New Green Deal includes:
First, we will guarantee the economic rights of all Americans, beginning with the right to a job at a living wage for every American willing and able to work.
Second, we will transition to a sustainable, green economy for the 21st century, by adopting green technologies and sustainable production.
Third, we will reboot and reprogram the financial sector so that it serves everyday people and our communities, and not the other way around.
Fourth, we will protect these gains by expanding and strengthening our democracy so that our government and our economy finally serve We the People.
The call in number is 646-929-1264 to join the conversation!
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Miss the show? The podcasts are available at the link above, or at the Wild Wild Left
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The WaPo did a front page expose on Mittens yesterday about his acts of bullying gay kids, fucking w/a blind teacher and other disturbing things during his prep school days. We aren’t just talking about a little, harmless name-calling type bullying ..I don’t consider name-calling harmless btw, its verbal abuse..we are talking major bullying in at least one case. From the WaPo writeup:
A few days later, Friedemann entered Stevens Hall off the school’s collegiate quad to find Romney marching out of his own room ahead of a prep school posse shouting about their plan to cut Lauber’s hair. Friedemann followed them to a nearby room where they came upon Lauber, tackled him and pinned him to the ground. As Lauber, his eyes filling with tears, screamed for help, Romney repeatedly clipped his hair with a pair of scissors.
The incident was recalled similarly by five students, who gave their accounts independently of one another. Four of them — Friedemann, now a dentist; Phillip Maxwell, a lawyer; Thomas Buford, a retired prosecutor; and David Seed, a retired principal — spoke on the record. Another former student who witnessed the incident asked not to be identified. The men have differing political affiliations, although they mostly lean Democratic. Buford volunteered for Barack Obama’s campaign in 2008. Seed, a registered independent, has served as a Republican county chairman in Michigan. All of them said that politics in no way colored their recollections.
“It happened very quickly, and to this day it troubles me,” said Buford, the school’s wrestling champion, who said he joined Romney in restraining Lauber. Buford subsequently apologized to Lauber, who was “terrified,” he said. “What a senseless, stupid, idiotic thing to do.”
“It was a hack job,” recalled Maxwell, a childhood friend of Romney who was in the dorm room when the incident occurred. “It was vicious.”
“He was just easy pickin’s,” said Friedemann, then the student prefect, or student authority leader of Stevens Hall, expressing remorse about his failure to stop it.
The incident transpired in a flash, and Friedemann said Romney then led his cheering schoolmates back to his bay-windowed room in Stevens Hall.
Friedemann, guilt ridden, made a point of not talking about it with his friend and waited to see what form of discipline would befall Romney at the famously strict institution. Nothing happened.
"Look at her, bitch thinks she's better than anybody else, lookin' like a whitegirl. Thinks her shit don't stink, probly".
Why can't I be dark, like Ramona?
"Scholarship huh. Well of course, teacher's think she's white. Don't need no college anyway, any job would think she's an American and hire her. She got it made".
It isn't fair. Mom was dark.
"Your sister's so beautiful! It's hard to believe you two are related....Hey I didn't mean nothin', you look, you know, exotic or something. But your sister could be Spanish!"
Why does Luisa get to be light? It's so easy for her.
"Poor thing, Ramona's always outside and she's so dark already...oh mi hija, of course it's not your fault! You're beautiful, so exotic looking".
I look like Dad. Why do I have to be dark like Mom.
Crossing herself, she began her bedtime prayers.
"Blessed Virgin, please keep dad and mom safe. Thank you for our house. Please help me to understand better in school. Please help Ramona to understand I'm sorry I'm so light, and to love me".
Crossing herself, she began her bedtime prayers.
"Holy Mother, please watch over mom and dad. Please help dad to keep his job. Please let it be that I grow lighter as I get older, just a little bit".
Devotions done, the sisters eyes meet in the darkened room, conflict and love and emotions more complicated swirling within, familial and ancestral bonds interwoven, connected from birth to the present time and on into the future, on into eternity.
The beautiful painting 'For Those who Pray' is by San Francisco artist Carina Lomeli. Her website is located here.
Ms Lomeli is also an admin, artist, teacher and organizer at POOR Magazine.
That another teabagger won last night and a felon in TX took almost 40% of the Democratic vote in West VA tells us a lot.
People aren’t thinking in the voting booth, they are pissed and voting with their emotions. But who can blame them really?
Is this wrong? I don’t know, but it sure has hell can’t be good for us ,as teabaggers refuse to compromise and any idiot that voted for the felon in West VA doesn’t have two brain cells to rub together or they are sending Obama a message. You tell me which is correct. The felon isn’t a racist but something tells me those who voted for him are.
I am at the point where I just don’t know any more. The D’s are assholes and pussies and the GOP is run by rightwing extremists who refuse to compromise or offer solutions that make a scintilla of sense for our nation.
Europe has shown us that austerity doesn’t work, yet its all the GOP pushes here.They refuse to look for bi-partisan answers to our economic problems.
The Democratic Party doesn’t seem to have the balls to go after the extremists in the GOP, so why waste a vote for them?
I had a long conversation with a Black Panther on the phone the other day. He had been to Occupy Detroit, and like me was stunned by the demographics. White kids mostly, with a hella lot of free time. Their passion was admirable, we concluded, but as always they ended up alienating a 95% Black City by trying to run things. We talked of steering them towards a supportive role, rather than a controlling one - and both admitted that they probably couldn't even conceive how it looked to the Black Community. Like just more white bosses.
I wrote a FB parable this morning, after watching a few days of a one woman show on the Occupy Detroit page. It was all "I did, I need, I want, I'm gonna" and worse, "I DECIDED." Now a lot of other white liberaloids are in awe of this woman; perhaps rightly so. She is committed to trying to make things happen. Via Twitter she managed to snag Public Enemy for a free concert in the fall. Twitter, yeah. Which she now calls "By my own hard work." Its a "LOOK AT ME" fest.
In the meantime? They occupy some little park, have their marches of a hundred or less, and people are still starving and becoming homeless by the droves in Detroit. People of color who have nothing in common with the Occupiers. Because ultimately, Occupy isn't doing jack-shit for them.
I can't see this movement as anything but dead.
Parable time:
***
A white girls walks into a bar, full of black people. "Look," she says, "I have brought you this wonderful person to entertain you - AND - I'm buying the first round!"
The people cheered.
Next she noticed some pool players. "I need someone to organize a pool league." Then she turns and says, "I also think we need to rename the bar, and I need one of you to sweep it now."
The people looked confused and frowned.
Then she said, "Next, I'm going to the bar next door to organize that, who wants to come with me, and help pay my way?"
The people said, "Fuck that shit!"
The girl said, "But look at all the good things I am doing for you! Why is no one coming."
The people said, "Yeah, the entertainment was great, and thanks for the round of drinks, but we were here long before you got here, and we will be here long after you leave. We already had a pool league, had you asked, and we already have a cleaning team.
You never asked. One favor does not make us your loyal subjects. Now, get on out of our bar, and go boss someone else around."
***
Moral of the Story: There is no I in Occupy. And black people (rightly) get really sick of well-intended white liberaloids trying to "save" them by bossing them.
Ask not what your hood can do for you, ask the HOOD what it needs from you.
Retired Captain Ray Lewis - who served for 24 years in Philadelphia's police force - has become an iconic figure within the Occupy movement. In both New York and Philadelphia, Lewis has legally donned his uniform on a regular basis during Occupy protests.
He's worn it while belting out mic checks at Zuccotti Park and marching on Wall Street. He's worn it while holding sharp-tongued signs and chanting with Occupiers before financial institutions in Manhattan and Philadelphia.
Retired Captain Ray Lewis, in uniform, outside Zuccotti Park in 2011.
Listen to Diane Gee with Michael Parenti live on WWL Radio Friday, May 4th at 6pm EDT!
Listen live by clicking the link icon below:
Tonight I have the honor of speaking to another of our generations brightest and best, the genius of Michael Parenti.
A true visionary, Parenti has been working tirelessly for decades to break the paradigm of political orthodoxy and bring us to a clearer vision of the realities we face under Capitalism and Empire.
Michael Parenti received his Ph.D. in political science from Yale University. He has taught at a number of colleges and universities, in the United States and abroad. He now serves on the advisory boards of Independent Progressive Politics Network, Education Without Borders, and the Jasenovic Foundation; as well as the advisory editorial boards of New Political Science and Nature, Society and Thought. He also served for some 12 years as a judge for Project Censored.
Author of 24 books, we will be speaking about his latest, "The Face of Imperialism" and how it applies to our conditions at present.
Michael is an amazing man, my problem will be mining his wonderful mind for everything I need to know in an hour-long format!!
Please Join us!
The call in number is 646-929-1264 to join the conversation!
Tip: In order to comment in the show's companion chat, you must create a BTR account, its free and only takes seconds. Chat is monitored during the show, so make yourself heard.
Miss the show? The podcasts are available at the link above, or at the Wild Wild Left
Join Wild Wild Left Radio every Friday at 6pm ET, with Hostess and Producer Diane Gee to guide you through Current Events taken from a Wildly Left Prospective....
WWL Radio: Bringing you controversial, cutting edge, revolutionary, "out there where the buses don't run" LEFT perspective since January of 2009!
"The world belongs to humanity, not this leader, that leader, kings or religious leaders. . . . Each country belongs essentially to their own people." Dalai Lama
At times, something seemingly insignificant, when thought about deeply, reveals truths that the establishment seeks to keep hidden, the most important of which is the real purpose of a nation's existence. Most Americans, for instance, believe that America exists for their benefit and they expect the nation's institutions to serve their needs. But astute observers know that history proves otherwise even though the Constitution clearly states what the nation was established to do.
"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."
Notice that the phrases, "promote business" and "protect property" do not appear in this paragraph, but "promote the general Welfare" does.
In fact the Constitution to this day contains nothing about Capitalism or any other economic ideology. The document is completely neutral as Justice Holmes, dissenting in Lochner v New York writes:
"[A] Constitution is not intended to embody a particular economic theory, whether of paternalism and the organic relation of the citizen to the state or of laissez faire. It is made for people of fundamentally differing views, and the accident of our finding certain opinions natural and familiar, or novel, and even shocking, ought not to conclude our judgment upon the question whether statutes embodying them conflict with the Constitution of the United States."
Nevertheless, the Supreme Court has enshrined laissez-faire Capitalism in constitutional law for much of its history, and Justice Powell made it quite clear in his writing that he considered that to be the Court's primary function.
Diane Gee's Wild, Wild Left is a Multi-authored collaboration of the Best and the Brightest moving the World to a Sane & Equitable Future for the World!
Join in!
The WaPo did a 
