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HEAT WAVE! Depression Droughts & Drug Testing Welfare Bums
We're having our second high of 100 today. Another expected tomorrow. Gasp. I'm hiding inside nearly all day of course– again. That's what I do on a hot day– hide. My left side is seriously aching and has for the last couple of days– first I assumed it was from the high humidity, but now that's clearing out and I'm still all ouchy. ~sigh~
I've been in this sort of suspended state of cynical disbelief. The last 9 months have been absolutely astonishing, weather-wise– and only NOW do the scientists step up and say, “Uh… yeah… this is what global warming (or weirding) looks like. Its really bad. It'll get worse. Seems to be happening more quickly and more severely than expected. So– like, that's bad and stuff.”
Thanks guys. A little late, aren't you? I mean in declaring it absolutely for sure– which, let's face it, is what the common lowest denominator segment of the U.S. population requires to think their way through the well-greased corporate propaganda machine! Nice work. Good job. You should be proud of yourselves. Only when the truth is baking us all to death do we as a society allow ourselves to collectively agree on the harsh truth. Color me disgusted already.
I've been reading on various sites that quote some guy as saying the difference between a Recession and a Depression is one severe, widespread drought. DING! And we have a winner! The economy is the towering behemoth of lies and one more pressure could be the trigger that collapses this fraudulent house of cards. I'm continuously astonished that we've made it this long since October 2008's crash. Almost nothing got fixed. Almost no one got blamed. The bullshit ride continues. And– oh, look! Food and fuel prices are about to go through the roof! Yayville.
Its as if I can hear the ticking of a time bomb about to blow– but I can't see the clock so I don't know when. But circumstances are lining up to add on the pressure. The United States supplies so much corn and wheat to not only ourselves but other parts of the world– and prices are going to go nuts. We won't feel it too much for maybe another month or so (though I've noticed prices already creeping up higher) but then the cost of groceries and gas will take a bite out of our asses.
I'm so glad– SO glad!- that Gerick and I are both so secure at this time. Had we both been working $10.00 an hour jobs like we were in Ohio, he full time and I part time, we would be seriously struggling. Ohio, among other states, is really cracking down on their welfare programs, including food stamps/nutritional assistance. The way the programs were run in the mid 2000s during the housing boom was bad enough. I lost 13 pounds, as I recall vividly, from hunger. I suppose I should be glad I had a little extra padding, eh? NOW the requirements are more strict, and the amount you get is less. Gerick sends his mother, who is retired on Social Security and lives very modestly- a little money every month to pay bills so she can buy enough food. And here prices are set to go way up– you think food stamps will reflect that given state budget issues? I'm thinking NOT. Food pantries can't get enough food to make up the difference.
That right there is a recipe for some serious problems, folks.
We're low middle class now, but it wasn't so long ago I was poor. And I remember not being able to buy enough food. The food we did buy was cheap– think high calories, low nutrition. When people can't even afford that– there will be reactions. I mean, politicians keep going on and on about the beleaguered middle class– who are no doubt hurting, but its like talking about the poor has become verboten. When did that happen? THOSE DAMNED POOR! – is the attitude now. Its become trendy to blame poor people for everything– when they have the least amount of power. It fucking scares me to see people jumping on to the bandwagons the corporate sponsored campaigns come up with. Like…
Test those welfare cheats for drugs, even though it will cost the state more money than it saves– because GUESS WHAT!?!? Turns out poor people are too poor to be the ones buying and consuming all those drugs. They might be desperate enough for money to deliver it, sell it, run protections rackets around it and so forth– but they can't take as many as middle class people. Of course there are drug abusers who are both poor and desperate, but not many of them receive welfare benefits because they're too disorganized to get their shit together (seriously, I know that part to be true… you ever live around druggies?) And anyway– most drugs leave your system within HOURS, or at most, DAYS– and there has to be a head's up to get a test. The ONLY drug that you can get caught for is one of the least offensive: cannabis. And even there, most people who get tested can find ways around it– you can flush your system at the same time you take blockers. So a more expensive test is needed with testers who give a shit to make such a program work.
Okay society– time to let you in on a little secret: Even people whose only job is to catch people abusing drugs through piss tests don't really care that much. They do their required checks, but many times its the most boring job in the world and the people who administer them aren't keen to catch anyone. The labs like the business, naturally– and the “test the welfare bums” campaign was not grass roots, it was started by the PR firms hired by LABS. The labs know how many people are likely to get “caught” — very, very few. That's the deep, dark secret about the drug test industry. I know this because I used to give oral stat drug tests (which don't work, by the way– anyone threatens you with an oral stat, relax!) and I had long conversations with piss test people because I had to associate with them on behalf of our temp agency, and they confessed their end of things wasn't much better than an oral stat. Some false positives that got people fired and a few THC catches and that's about all they could do. They actually knew that if they got a positive for narcotics it was almost 80% likely that it was from a glitch– but they weren't telling the public that!
But there is this MYTH in the American psyche, that's been pretty much planted there, that IF people on public assistance got drug tested, a whole bunch of those assholes would get kicked off the public dole, which would save taxpayers untold millions of dollars. Wow! Solve 2 problems in one shot! GENIUS! Right?
In actuality, its a expensive program put in place to harass poor people, and hand off all that taxpayer money to already crazy rich pharmaceutical industries!! This has been verified by the fact that several states have instituted this program, and they hardly kick anyone off welfare, but the program itself is costing their states millions. They're losing money to a myth cooked up by rich people wanting to be richer. And guess what, America? You fell for it. Hook, line and sinker you sucked that lie right quick, didn't you?
That's just ONE example I could name of how poor people, many of whom work and get public assistance because their jobs just don't pay enough to live on– just like we did! — are vilified and treated as scapegoats for issues and problems that they aren't responsible for. Someone posted one of those “teach those welfare bums a thing or two” picture memes on Facebook and I got really offended personally. I had reasoned arguments, as I've outlined here– but having had to jump through stupid hoops just to get food is one of the reasons I went hungry. I forgot to dot an i or cross a t or something and then had to jump through another hoop or lose my benefits and I couldn't deal with it anymore and let them drop me, which is how I lost 13 pounds the hard way! It was humiliating. I don't mind working unpaid jobs to help earn my benefits, but I had serious panic attack issues in certain situations, and physical limitations in others– and the only “volunteer” jobs they had would either hurt my body or I'd freak out in front of people and I wasn't up for either situation. And I know I'm not alone. A lot of poor people don't have the means to PROVE they can't do certain things, and then they get accused of fraud, as I did. Yet the actual frauds are nearly impossible to catch because they make sure they have what it takes to jump through said hoops.
Point being – you better believe a lot of struggling people are resenting the way things are working right now. For now, the bought off media is getting working class almost-poor people to turn against the poor people they're about to become– but that won't last forever. As more and more formerly middle class people realize they are among THOSE DAMNED POOR PEOPLE– attitudes might shift rather abruptly.
2012-08-23 15:13:43
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