Then I stumbled upon this:
work work work
So what the hell is this obsession with work all of a sudden? The economy stagnant. Unemployment levels are getting progressively worse, with the jobs pool shrinking - and yet we've got the Government - instead of doing things that might help create jobs are just being complete dicks...
telling GPs to tell long-term jobless to find work and that's not enough they want to stop GPs being able to write sick notes... because a panel of assessors are going to be much more able to tell with just a cursory glance and a few questions if someone is able to work or not... even though it turns out they're entirely wrong 40% of the time (the error rate is very possibly a lot higher as many people just can't face or are incapable of enduring the appeal process - and quite a few people out of hopelessness and despair kill themselves. [I imagine the more sociopathic elements of our Govt. see that as a welcome saving on state provision - except they'd never be caught saying it out loud knowing it would electoral poison.]
Then I stumbled upon this:
Then I stumbled upon this:
sorry
UC Davis chancellor sorry for pepper spray incident
UC Davis spokeswoman Claudia Morain denied Katehi had instructed police to use force in removing tents last week. "There was a concern that letting them remain and letting the number grow could be a health hazard. The whole idea was to end it peaceably," she said.---yeah, it's funny how protesters now keep being classed as a 'health hazard' - if memory serves Nazi propaganda used to say the same thing about the jews... they even made 'cute' little newsreel films about that featuring rats and vermin and likening them to jews in the ghetto.
"Ohhhh you dirty protesters - you're unsanitary - have a face-full of pepper spray - it's just like disinfectant."
Stop targeting this imaginary army of long-term sick | John Harris
Stop targeting this imaginary army of long-term sick | John Harris | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk
"The sickness absence review will only lead to incapacitated people limply tramping the streets looking for non-existent jobs."
There is something altogether a bit authoritarian about all of this... first the faceless assessment panels, then next we'll have gulags , work camps and yes, even death camps before long. Not that people aren't already killing themselves out of poverty and desperation.
"The sickness absence review will only lead to incapacitated people limply tramping the streets looking for non-existent jobs."
There is something altogether a bit authoritarian about all of this... first the faceless assessment panels, then next we'll have gulags , work camps and yes, even death camps before long. Not that people aren't already killing themselves out of poverty and desperation.
Telegraph: Taxpayer to take on mortgage risks of first-time buyers
Taxpayers will underwrite mortgages totalling hundreds of millions of pounds under plans to “unblock” the housing market and revive the flagging economy.
Mmmmm - what a good idea. Let's see, it just needs a catchy phrase to promote it - how about a 'sub-prime mortgage'? Yes, that's good. And a private (of course) company to run the scheme - there's a lot of experts in this sort of field looking for work at the moment - pass me that US company phone book - yes, Fannie Mae. Excellent. Nothing could possibly go wrong.
popcorn maker
at last i got myself a popcorn maker - I've wanted a popcorn maker for
years. I wanted one even more so after recently trying to make proper popcorn in a
pan - which now has burnt bits on the bottom I can't get rid of. [And whatever happened to Brillo pads? I haven't been able t find any.]
Anyway - my first attempt resulted in lots of burning and smoke - I had no idea how
much popcorn would come out of the thing - so my plastic container filled up really quickly and there was a log jam (corn
jam?) - and burning - le sigh. However... practice makes perfect... and I guess smoke -
lots and lots of smoke...
Why Are Bankers Still Being Treated As Beltway Royalty?
Why? maybe because they now fund the politicians?
Arianna Huffington: Why Are Bankers Still Being Treated As Beltway Royalty?
Arianna Huffington: Why Are Bankers Still Being Treated As Beltway Royalty?
Occupy Times Square
"I am going to start my life as an adult in debt and that's not fair," student Nathaniel Brown told Reuters Television. "Millions of teenagers across the country are going to start their futures in debt, while all of these corporations are getting money fed all the time and none of us can get any."
Oh really? And what has our own Govt. decided it's a good idea to do from next year? Allow the Universities to treble tuition fees. Gosh, that's sensible - that's not going to have an impact on whether kids go to University or not at all.
Occupy Times Square: Occupy Wall Street Protesters Swarm Midtown (PHOTOS)
Oh really? And what has our own Govt. decided it's a good idea to do from next year? Allow the Universities to treble tuition fees. Gosh, that's sensible - that's not going to have an impact on whether kids go to University or not at all.
Occupy Times Square: Occupy Wall Street Protesters Swarm Midtown (PHOTOS)
Oh Oliver - you litter bug
The Daily Mirror spotted the Minister dumping his read paper work all over the place and the story has just taken off. The BBC - the Guardian - It's like bloody amateur hour, these clowns shouldn't be allowed to hold public office - look at the utter contempt he shows his constituents by doing this . As if it wasn't bad enough with his previous reported remark on not wanting poor families from Sheffield going on flights to foreign holidays.
Vile man.
Vile man.
Talking Points for the "Occupy Wall Street" Protesters - October 10, 2011
Hussman Funds - Weekly Market Comment: Talking Points for the "Occupy Wall Street" Protesters - October 10, 2011
The Market Has Spoken: Austerity Is Bad for Business
How do feel about a Trillion Dollar coin? Imagine going to buy a morning newspaper or a coffee with that.
The Market Has Spoken: Austerity Is Bad for Business
How do feel about a Trillion Dollar coin? Imagine going to buy a morning newspaper or a coffee with that.
UK unemployment total reaches 17-year high
It's amazing. I mean I guess people must fall for this blatant propaganda otherwise they wouldn't keep doing it. For the past 18 months the coalition has been blaming the country's economic woes variously on Gordon Brown, the snow, the Royal Wedding and now it's US and the EU.
An oft repeated cliché has been 'the mess Labour left us in' blithely ignoring the fact that Gordon Brown faced with the near global financial melt down and credit cruch had to put in emergency measures to stop the country going bankrupt. And his measures were working - there was growth, even the deficit wasn't as much as they feared- etc. Osbourne gets in, with only the one single idea - cut spending, and the economy flat-lines and the excuses start flowing thick and fast.
Why's that then? Oh, you can tell the Tories just thought we were in for just a normal recession - a bit of a blip and soon things would be back to normal - the housing bubble would continue, and the private sector would have their choice of newly unemployed and desperate people they could employ at new bargain low rates etc.
Turns out they've misread the situation completely... and they're starting to make little squeaks about how bad things are... but you can tell it hasn't really hit home yet. The last thirty years of the Milton Friedman school of economics is over, it achieved it's aim of making the rich a lot richer (which is why there's been many vested interests in keeping it going for as long as it has - since money buys power and influence and even more money buys even more power and more influence) but now it's got nowhere else to go. It won - and everyone except the super rich lost. Except - they're now about to lose too - because ordinary people are finally waking up and they're not going to take it any more. There is not going to be 'business as usual' for much longer - and our complacent, out-of-touch politicians are still asleep at the wheel.
BBC News - UK unemployment total reaches 17-year high
An oft repeated cliché has been 'the mess Labour left us in' blithely ignoring the fact that Gordon Brown faced with the near global financial melt down and credit cruch had to put in emergency measures to stop the country going bankrupt. And his measures were working - there was growth, even the deficit wasn't as much as they feared- etc. Osbourne gets in, with only the one single idea - cut spending, and the economy flat-lines and the excuses start flowing thick and fast.
Why's that then? Oh, you can tell the Tories just thought we were in for just a normal recession - a bit of a blip and soon things would be back to normal - the housing bubble would continue, and the private sector would have their choice of newly unemployed and desperate people they could employ at new bargain low rates etc.
Turns out they've misread the situation completely... and they're starting to make little squeaks about how bad things are... but you can tell it hasn't really hit home yet. The last thirty years of the Milton Friedman school of economics is over, it achieved it's aim of making the rich a lot richer (which is why there's been many vested interests in keeping it going for as long as it has - since money buys power and influence and even more money buys even more power and more influence) but now it's got nowhere else to go. It won - and everyone except the super rich lost. Except - they're now about to lose too - because ordinary people are finally waking up and they're not going to take it any more. There is not going to be 'business as usual' for much longer - and our complacent, out-of-touch politicians are still asleep at the wheel.
BBC News - UK unemployment total reaches 17-year high
Road-building plan takes us back to the last Tory government | George Monbiot
It seems that the door to new roads has swung open again. The Conservatives have long had an interest in getting people off public transport and into cars. Public transport is often unionised. It pools resources and encourages social mixing and collective action. Car driving, by contrast, isolates us from other people and encourages us to see society – pedestrians, bicycles, other cars, speed limits, traffic calming – as an obstacle. The car drives us to the right. It is a powerful but overlooked agent of political change.Road-building plan takes us back to the last Tory government | George Monbiot
I'll take this as proof that the Tories haven't a single new idea in their heads - they just want to carry on what Thatcher started in the Eighties. They'll be re-inventing the Poll Tax soon mark my words.
UK could introduce 'fat tax',
Er...
UK could introduce 'fat tax', says David Cameron | Politics | guardian.co.uk
"Cameron said drastic action was needed to prevent health costs soaring and life expectancy falling."But both the Conservatives and Labour keep claiming people are living longer and because of that they need to raise the retirement age and get people to pay more into their pensions to get a lot less out in payments - but now here's Cameron is contradicting that by saying life expectancy is going down... (or is that only amongst poor people - and it's the rich people who are living longer?) and we need to tax people more to stop that... Er... they just want more money off us for nothing - that's the real motivation isn't it? This is BS. On and btw - more and more food scientists keep coming up with new research saying saturated fats aren't anywhere as near bad for us as we thought.
UK could introduce 'fat tax', says David Cameron | Politics | guardian.co.uk
Wall Street protest movement spreads
Wall Street protest movement spreads to cities across US, Canada and Europe | World news | The Guardian:
[And what has our wonderful coalition Govt. done with regard to Tuition fees? Allowed them to triple and thinks it's OK that graduates will be saddled with a massive sudent loan debt for what will prove to be for the rest of their lives.]
Other websites publicising the protests have also become hugely popular. One, named wearethe99percent, in reference to the statistic that 1% of the US population owns a third of the wealth, posts pictures of people holding handwritten messages daily.
One said: "Last year, my 60-year-old mother was evicted. This year I graduated with my master's. I am unemployed with over $120,000 in student loans. I no longer believe the American Dream is for me because … We are the 99 per cent."
Another person holds up a sign which reads: "When you're young, you're told you can be anything, I'm sick of being fed lies. I graduated with a BA in 2009 and I've been searching for a job ever since. My generation is lost, depressed, in debt, struggling. We are taking unpaid internships and temporary contracts with no health insurance in desperation. We will forever be living at our parent's house."
Scrap NHS reforms, doctors tell Lords
Experts including 40 directors of public health say government's health and social care bill will cause 'irreparable harm'
Oh, wait a minute - I thought the Govt. had had a pause to listen to the consultants and the Doctors and everybody. Turns out - they paused but didn't do any listening whatsoever. Well, golly, that's a turn up for the books. Who woulda thunk it. I mean someone might look at this whole situation and think it's purely ideologically driven and that the Tories want to carve up the NHS and sell off the profitable bits to their mates - the pharmaceutical companies and what not... the ones that out of the goodness of their selfless big hearts donate so much money to Tory party funds...
Oh, wait a minute - I thought the Govt. had had a pause to listen to the consultants and the Doctors and everybody. Turns out - they paused but didn't do any listening whatsoever. Well, golly, that's a turn up for the books. Who woulda thunk it. I mean someone might look at this whole situation and think it's purely ideologically driven and that the Tories want to carve up the NHS and sell off the profitable bits to their mates - the pharmaceutical companies and what not... the ones that out of the goodness of their selfless big hearts donate so much money to Tory party funds...
A voice of reason amid the madness
"I hear all this, 'well, this is class warfare, this is whatever'. No. There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own. Nobody. You built a factory out there? Good for you. But I want to be clear:
You moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for; you hired workers the rest of us paid to educate; you were safe in your factory because of police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid for. You didn't have to worry that marauding bands would come and seize everything at your factory, and hire someone to protect against this, because of the work the rest of us did."
- Elizabeth Warren
A voice of reason amid the madness
You moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for; you hired workers the rest of us paid to educate; you were safe in your factory because of police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid for. You didn't have to worry that marauding bands would come and seize everything at your factory, and hire someone to protect against this, because of the work the rest of us did."
- Elizabeth Warren
A voice of reason amid the madness
There’s another deficit that David Cameron has to deal with - Telegraph
"In December, I disclosed the fear at a senior level of government that the reform of the Employment and Support Allowance (which replaced Incapacity Benefit and Income Support paid on incapacity grounds in 2008) might have terrible consequences. “It is quite possible,” one source said to me, “that there will be cases of suicide.” A report published by the Work and Pensions Select Committee last week was critical of the Work Capability Assessment introduced in 2008 and embraced by the Coalition. Overseen by Atos, a French private company, the new system has – as predicted – produced some very grim cases, including at least one death of a former claimant who was cleared for work. "
By the by there have been more suicides since and few people that have ended up homeless and on the streets now.
Yet there's not been a word of concern from any Tory MP that I know of.
Odd that.
There’s another deficit that David Cameron has to deal with - Telegraph
By the by there have been more suicides since and few people that have ended up homeless and on the streets now.
Yet there's not been a word of concern from any Tory MP that I know of.
Odd that.
There’s another deficit that David Cameron has to deal with - Telegraph
Apparently - there's a law against slavery - dintcha know
I was under the impression slavery was illegal anyway - but there's a new law in compliance with the European Human Rights act...
Here it is:
http://www.justice.gov.uk/publications/docs/circular-07-2010-coroners-justice-act-section-71.pdf
Except right up front it lays out some get-out clauses:
"Those exceptions are work done in the course of lawful detention, military service, emergencies or life threatening situations and work or service which forms part of normal civic obligations."
I'm guessing by "service which forms part of normal civic obligations" - they mean Workfare.
So there you have it - they practically admit Workfare is slavery but as it's 'part of normal civic obligations' - it's A-OK.
21st Century Feudal Britain here we come.
Here it is:
http://www.justice.gov.uk/publications/docs/circular-07-2010-coroners-justice-act-section-71.pdf
Except right up front it lays out some get-out clauses:
"Those exceptions are work done in the course of lawful detention, military service, emergencies or life threatening situations and work or service which forms part of normal civic obligations."
I'm guessing by "service which forms part of normal civic obligations" - they mean Workfare.
So there you have it - they practically admit Workfare is slavery but as it's 'part of normal civic obligations' - it's A-OK.
21st Century Feudal Britain here we come.
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