the union of  state and county and city employees that Scott Walker is trying to bust.

For 6 years I worked as a “part-time hourly” (in quotes because that designation is important, it’s what local schools use to keep high skill employees from benefits and union memebership. It’s the Walmart class of  government employees) computer lab administrator for a local community college.. I loved that job. I loved the students, the instructors. I loved that my job didn’t feel like some soul-sucking exercise in corporate suckitude. I loved it enough that I took a $5 an hour paycut to go from doing what I do in  the private sector to teaching what I do in the public sector. I was not eligible for any benefits, not health care or pension. I wan’t eligible for unemployment insurance because of my classification. If I worked over 18 hours a week I was subject to immediate termination. I went through a year where the school administration flately refused to follow federal guidelines for when paychecks are to be issued, and because I was one of the not-so-rare little snowflakes who didn’t have union representation, the state labor board couldn’t do anything about it unless I hired a private attorney.

The last year I worked there, I finally qualified for memebership in AFSCME. It didn’t get me heathcare or a pension. But it did get me my paychecks in a timely fashion. Once I had union membership I didn’t have a single late or missing check. I was informed in advance when paycheck dates would be weird because of scheduling. My few dollars a paycheck in union membership worked better than a year of legal threats at ensuring my basic employee rights were upheld.

And that is what they are trying to kill. Public workers don’t make a ton of money, tjhey make less than they would in the private sphere. But we do it because we love the work and the stability. For a lot of us, that is worth the loss in compensation.
But without unions to keep us from the most avarice of  politicians, we suffer, and so do the students and citizens who we work for every single day.

We’re having pork ribs, roasty potatoes with dill and paprika and
sauted brussel sprouts. But i made too much. oh tragedy. Anyone want
some?

—
The trouble with being poor is that it takes up all of your time.
Willem de Kooning

Bob Herbert has a piece up at NY Times called ‘absorbing the pain’
that’s a decent exercise in emapathising with the hardships of the
great recession. Herbert is great, but if I read one more snide
liberal comment about us dumb poor folks voting against our own best
interest, I’m going to shove a literal shit sandwich in person’s face.
As someone at corrente noted, voters voted against the party supplying
unending war and corporate croniyism in 2006, and 2008, and 2010.
there is no party that represents the best interest of the bottom 80%,
there is just the shit sandwich, shit sandwich with pickle choice. We
keep firing the people who brought us to this low point, only to have
the jobs filled by people whose major philosophical difference is in
what color ink to use to sign the legislation that fucks us all over.
IOW, Mr. Handwringing Liberal Douchenozzle, you are voting against
your own self-interest everytime you vote straight dem, so kindly shut
your sanctimonious pie hole.

—
The trouble with being poor is that it takes up all of your time.
Willem de Kooning

Up in the shared items section is a link about a little discussed
provision in the WI kill the unions bill would remove legislative
control over medicaid rules and hand it to Wisconsin’s douchebag in
charge, i mean governor.
But i’m sure he just has te best interests of the Koch family, I mean
state citizens, in mind.

—
The trouble with being poor is that it takes up all of your time.
Willem de Kooning

Let’s see if I can stop snort-laughing long enough to type this. i
just got an email asking if I know any good organizers to help with
Obama’s summer bullshitting for America campaign. Perhaps the reaal
reason Obama can’t be assed to do anything for the disemployed is that
he needs to be sure his maurading hoardes are available for unpaid
election drudgery and not encumbered by things that provide paychecks.
Btw, I am soooo looking forward to a fresh round of rape threats,
stalking, etc etc from the Obots because i refuse to suck their
audacious cocks.

—
The trouble with being poor is that it takes up all of your time.
Willem de Kooning

In just a few weeks my darling boy child will be 16
(holyfuckingshit16howthehelldidthathappen?!!!!?!!) When he was a wee
tiny thing I taught him to pee standing up. Now he’s developed the
beggings of a neckbeard and it’s time to teach him to shave. Standing
to pee is fairly straight forward, but shaving ones face (especially
one that is in the midst of teenage hormonal eruptions) is less so. So
peeps, male identified peeps, peeps with face shaving experience, what
do I need to know so I can help the Kid.

—
The trouble with being poor is that it takes up all of your time.
Willem de Kooning

for all the love and revision the ‘great communicator’ is getting, how
come no one has noticed that the north africcan dictators that are
falling have all been in power for about 30 years. i wonder what was
going on 30 years ago that helped these brutal, greedy, murderous
douchebags take power? couldn’t have been our own brutal, greedy,
murderous douchebag, could it?

—
The trouble with being poor is that it takes up all of your time.
Willem de Kooning

It hasn’t made the national news, but there have been multiple
protests here recently over the police killing of a native american
wood carver. the DA has decided not to prosecute the murderous cop and
last night the police pepper sprayed the protesters. (i’m feeling a
wee bit guilty for not having been there as i have protest medic
training, including how to treat for pepper spray and tear gas. if you
want to do something productive, learn to be a protest medic). there
have also been multiple incidents of officers kicking people who are
subdued on the ground while hurling racial slurs. there was a
community meeting recently for people to air the grievences against
the SPD where the police were not invited because citizens rightly
fear police retaliation for speaking out publicly. Minorities (and
anyone who doesn’t pass as middle class or better) in the city don’t
look on the police as defenders of law and order but as potential
terrorizers and possible murderers, because they are.

—
The trouble with being poor is that it takes up all of your time.
Willem de Kooning

You don’t have to be a conspiracy theorist to see it. The financial
‘crisis’ (which is really just a deepening of the poverty and
struggles of the bottom 80%) is making possible the fearmongering
required to put us peasants into a feudal system, but now we bow and
scrape to corporate masters rather than noble lords. The ‘nobody could
have predicted’ crews are lying sacks of shit. It was predicted and
exploited. defunding schools, roads, police, fire, social welfare,
social security, from cities and towns to the federal level is on
purpose. it is not the only solution to difficult times. It is the
desired outcome of kleptocrats, banksters, left and right politicians
and the buffer class they reward for keeping us rabble in line.
Austerity is not ‘necessary sacrifice’ but the end goal.

—
The trouble with being poor is that it takes up all of your time.
Willem de Kooning

i’m about to first world whinge. yes, i know that in the mountains of
crap, from housing to food to blah blah blah, internet access is a
relatively small problem.
but fuckity fuck fuck. i just spent several hours getting the damn run
around in a clearwire store. virgin fucking mobile still hasn’t
refunded me for the service i paid for and couldn’t use. i would love
to just call qwest and get good old dsl, but in our temporary digs i’m
not allowed to and i’d just have to pay for 2 rounds of pricey
installation charges.
sure, i could go to an internet cafe. but i am in constant pain,
everyday. getting there would be painful, then sitting properly in
hard chairs would do me in. (i told you all, first world whingey, i
whine like a baby)
So i’m tired and hurty and took 5 busses and walked multiple blocks
with nothing to show for it and now i am going to curl up with my
hotwater bottle and pout because i am stuck reading the intertubes on
my phone for the forseeable future.

—
The trouble with being poor is that it takes up all of your time.
Willem de Kooning