Reality in Disguise (AKA The Wolf in Sheep's Clothing)

H/T American Thinker Blog

WTF Is Wrong With You People?

Seriously. Are you incapable of advocating for yourself? Do you have an overwhelming desire to lay your career/financial destiny in the hands of another - where you will have less control than you think you have now?

About 3 years ago, there was a union organization effort at the hospital for which I work. Being unafraid to advocate for myself and what I want out of my job, let alone no desire to pay someone else to do what I can do for free (and needing every single penny of my paycheck anyhow), and the frightful possibility of being bound by generalized "conditions" for the entire unit (which may have been good for the other however-many employees of the unit but not at all for the mere TEN of my specific department), I admit that I voted NO.

Some weeks back I got a letter in the mail from that same union (wondering how the fuck they had my address and wondering if that was a violation of my privacy, soliciting me in such a manner), reminding me that we voted that union down 3 years ago and kind of a taunting "see what you've done" attitude about how conditions have "worsened" in the intervening period.

Well, no shit, Sherlock - the whole fucking state is madly swirling around the center of the toilet bowl, Guvnir Granwhore madly cackling and flushing repeatedly. Of course, though, some people just cannot be satisfied with the fact that they still HAVE a fucking job with a statewide unemployment rate of 12%.... so let's provoke the employer and try to push that union again.

Now I have in my hands ANOTHER letter from that fucking union.... again, addressed to me at my home, and the top of my head is about to explode.

I am not a nurse, and they have their own union. I am "service" staff - lumped in with maintenance, housekeeping, cafeteria staff, (I believe) clerical, and others in our organization. My specific job concerns, duties, and working conditions have NOTHING to do with what some of those other folks' positions have to do with - being a transcriptionist who WORKS FROM HOME.

This is the letter I received, along with my own comments on the issues.

FORMING A UNION MEANS HAVING A VOICE IN HOSPITAL POLICIES

We, the members of AFSCME here in YYYYY County, want you to have what we have: dignity in our work, respect on the job, a voice in our wages, hours and working conditions. {I already have those - I have had them all along, and I needed to pay no one to "appropriate" them for me - I earned them all on my own.}

We have obtained this improved quality in our working lives and careers through AFSCME representation. Our AFSCME contracts provide us better wages, better benefits, and greater security and protection on the job than nonunion workers can expect. {Again, I already have these things, gained on my own merits.}

By forming a union, health care employees gain a voice in hospital policies and procedures. Rather than having decisions made arbitrarily without their input, they negotiate over the policies that affect their jobs, their patients, and their future. {We have regular hospital-wide "Pulse Check" meetings - where policies, procedures, etc. are laid out neatly and questions are answered - again, regularly.}

1. Scheduling systems. Around the country, hospital employees are negotiating scheduling policies and options that guarantee both flexibility and security. {Those in our department already have flexible scheduling policies, and our bosses are extremely receptive to suggestions, ideas, or concerns.}
   
2. Floating guidelines. Hospitals often use floating as a regular way to solve staffing problems, and too many healthcare employees are floated to unfamiliar areas. To protect patient care and professional standards, most healthcare union contracts include specific guidelines for when and how floating is done. {This affects me not at all, and those I know in the hospital who DO float are not located into "unfamiliar areas." Additionally, there are strict policies about an employee performing in certain positions and their qualifications to do so. So, a housekeeper will not be doing unit clerk duties - unless they are trained and qualified to do so.}
   
3. Overtime policies. (XXXXX does not have any overtime policy now.) Many hospitals are responding to the growing shortage of healthcare staff by requiring employees to work excessive amounts of mandatory overtime. Hospital employees are negotiating alternatives that will preserve the quality of patient care and recruit and retain more staff. {Someone obviously did not bother to read the policies and procedures manual, because there IS, in fact, an overtime policy - last revised 11/01/03 - which states "Although overtime is discouraged, there will be occasions when it is necessary." Discouraged. In my 8 years of working at this hospital, ONE time has our department been required to use mandatory overtime. ONE.}
   
4. Career enhancement. (XXXXX lacks career enhancement policies.) By working together as a union, hospital employees have a say in the policies that affect their job satisfaction and opportunities for advancement. {Again, someone did not bother to read the handbook, because there are not one but TWO policies on the books about evaluations of progress and advancement/transfer within the organization.}
   
5. How the hospital works. Through their unions, more and more hospital employees are working in partnership with their employers and participating in decisions about how their hospitals operate. Studies show that shared decision-making in union hospitals increases productivity by up to 16 percent, raises quality standards, lowers turnover rates, and improves efficiency. One study found that union-management cooperation increase staffing levels and hospital revenues. {Again, we have regular meetings where this kind of stuff is discussed - openly and to death, IMO. There is also an entire policy on the books about "Employee Suggestions."}
   
6. Privatization. What happens to you if XXXXX contracts out your job? Have you seen jobs contracted out or privatized? Food Service? Maintenance? Housekeeping? Did you have a chance to vote on privatization of jobs? Did management share equally in the job losses? (A company called ZZZZZ is now running the Housekeeping, Environmental Services, and Food Service. With ZZZZZ employees as your bosses, whose rules apply to you? XXXXX or ZZZZZ? How long before your job is privatized, too?) {Know what? It happens - anywhere and everywhere - and this is something someone in my field has come to expect at any time - since girls in India can transcribe documents for about 2 cents per line versus the 10, 12, 15 or more cents per line we get paid here or equivalent hourly wage. However, considering our hospital just invested in a brand-new dictation system, I don't think the demise of our jobs is imminent anytime soon.}
   

We're still AFSCME. We still care about you and want to help you with your workplace challenges and issues. If you want to form a union, or if you want more information on AFSCME and Unionism, Sign the enclosed green show-of-interest card and mail it back to us.

Having addressed my PERSONAL job concerns above, I will now address the issue I have with the "show-of-interest" card enclosed with this letter.

AUTHORIZATION FOR REPRESENTATION BY THE AMERICAN FEDERATION OF STATE, COUNTY & MUNICIPAL EMPLOYEES/AFL-CIO

I hereby desire to be represented by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, AFL-CIO, and/or its appropriate affiliates as my exclusive bargaining agent in all matters affecting my wages, hours, and conditions of employment.

This card indicates a desire for the employee to turn over representation to another party ONLY - nowhere on the card does it allow you to mark "I just want information." You fill it out and sign it, you have agreed to relinquish your right to self-negotiate in any way on your own behalf should enough of your coworkers wish to do the same.

Lies and subterfuge. How much more blatant can you get? And these unions do NOT guarantee better pay and benefits in any way. My sister works at a union hospital, as "service" staff much like myself, and they lost all their paid holidays and other benefits. Sorry, but I have no desire whatsoever to have someone toying with the benefits I have and making things worse, compromising my position (what is to stop the hospital from outsourcing or privatizing MORE positions if deemed economically necessary?) - and have to PAY someone to screw me over?

NO THANK YOU.

My Thoughts

***Cross-posted at Right in a Left World***

Take it for what you will, these are my thoughts alone. I could very well be wrong (probably not, but there is a first time for everything, so we will leave the possibility open).

Joe, like most people, cannot imagine where it will all end....

I can tell you EXACTLY where it will end. As a student of history and of economics (the combination of these my passion) reaching that conclusion is only hard psychologically - who really wants to be smacked in the head with a figurative 2 x 4, right? On the other hand, morons like Rightwingfuckie (whose sole purpose in life is terrorizing people with whom he disagrees) fail to see that they are hitting themselves upside the head; but that is neither here nor there since that little prick deserves whatever brick wall he walks into face-first. So, FUCK OFF, Snarkie.

It will end in revolution, and not a bloodless one, either. There will be significant loss of life, starting with the elderly, the disabled, and any children unable to fend for themselves. The core population that remains will riot for food, and those unable to hunt and gather will starve. They will die with outstretched hand, waiting for the government to put something in it, pat them on the head, and tell them a happily-ever-after bedtime story.

Barack Obama will not make the end of his first term; he will resign due to health reasons. It has been a nightmare, really, watching the life being sucked out of the man this past year, and rather horrifying to see tics writhe across his face. Then we will be stuck with President Asstard, who could not beat his way out of a wet paper sack. We should expect continued grasping and clawing for power by Hillary Clinton, as well as Nancy Pelosi (IMO, the more dangerous of the two).

The corruption of Congress will catch up to the offenders and we will see them start to drop like flies; prayerfully, many will find themselves sitting in prison where they belong. Parties as we know them will cease to exist. The judiciary has as little respect for the Constitution as the other two branches of our government, and We The People will demand restoration of the liberties, rights, and freedoms guaranteed to us within that document - merely to be protected by the government and not endowed by it, contrary to their belief.

The Dollar will fail, Wall Street will implode, and the Federal Reserve with its unsustainable fiat monetary system will collapse. We will resort to barter, become reliant upon ourselves, and extend charity to each other where needed - not for political gain or appearances but because it is the right thing to do. This will be a worldwide phenomenon.

Washington will burn. I am not trying to spin this with a racial bias, but I believe many of these changes will be effected at the hands of Black America - not because they are "susceptible" or "prone" to violence but because they have been promised so much and will be hurt the worst. We must support them in their endeavors, as it will be the only way TRUE equality will ever be achieved.

In the end, we will be a smaller nation - in population, in demographics, in politics, and perhaps even in geography; but in the end, we will be a closer nation, one that has learned the lessons of the past, screamed "enough" to abuse of power, and taken back those God-granted liberties the government of the last century has had no right usurping.

We will prevail, the American spirit impossible to quash, and we will once again remember what it means to be PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN. We have a right to be free, but freedom comes with a price tag. When a person is given something for nothing, they have little appreciation for it; but something earned through sweat, blood, and tears is cherished and treasured.

Our freedom was paid for at terrible expense. Some 25,000 to 50,000 Americans sacrificed their lives in the Revolutionary War as a down payment on protecting that right. Many more have made that sacrifice on our behalf in the years since, to ensure its continued protection. Turning our backs on it now - by not appreciating it or by demeaning it and undermining the core values of the Constitution those individuals had sworn to uphold and protect - is telling them they gave their lives in vain. So many of us in this day and age have no real point of reference, not having paid that price out of our own pockets. Therefore, it is just like that object given for nothing, with little appreciation for it and what it represents: A legacy to pass on from generation to generation.

Lee Green Wood Lyrics

Yes, Michigan!

I remember an old theme song from my youth, "Yes, Michigan! The feeling's forever." God's Country, I call it, for the riveting beauty that is (in particular) Michigan's upper and northern lower peninsulas. Mountains, waterfalls, rock formations, vast tracts of forests and picturesque lakes and rivers, each sight and scene is breathtakingly beautiful. I have lived here my entire life, and here I shall remain until I pass from this existence. If someone wants me out of here, they will have to drag my cold, dead carcass out with a John Deere tractor.

Unfortunately, lately it seems a lot has been sucked out of the place.

Continuing the trend of the past several years, Michigan leads the nation in one statistic that carries no pride of ownership: The highest unemployment rate in the nation. As of December 2008, Michigan has toppled the scale at an astounding 10.6% statewide, 11.1% in the Detroit/Livonia area. You know Detroit - home of The Big Three. Just over a year ago in November 2007, our statewide unemployment rate was 7.7% - a 2.9% increase in 13 months' time. Our "governor" projects that the February data will be worse. Historically, the state's highest unemployment rate in November 1982 at 16.9% comes in second only to West Virginia's March 1983 18.2% (table does not indicate date range of data collected). I was but 10 years old and really do not remember much from back then, other than my dad being laid off for a really long time.

Of late, we have been blazing trails through the history books. Being the laughingstock of the nation during the Presidential primary elections was not enough humiliation for this state's residents to endure. Shortly after that spectacle arising out of gross stupidity, we were treated to Congressman John Dingell pushing for an additional 50-cent tax hike per gallon of gas - at a time when most of us already could not afford to fill up our vehicles. Last summer, I asked what was next, after an expanded state sales tax and a retroactive increase in state income tax. I did not have to wait long to find out the answer to a question I knew better than to ask.

Now, our governor wants to change the state gas tax. In addition to the 6% state sales tax, she wishes to implement a (likely) 16% tax per gallon instead of the flat 19-cents-per-gallon tax we pay currently. However, Governor Granholm "insists that the plan is not a tax hike." Looking at the comments left on the article, I found this and was rather stunned:

Today = .19 per gallon flat At the 16%, $2 per gallon = .32 per gallon added on... Last year, $4.50 per gallon = .72 per gallon. so if gas prices rise back to 4.50, like they did in the fall of 2008, we will actually pay $5.22 per gallon when we actually did pay $4.69 per gallon. On an average 18 gallon tank, that difference would be $9.54 more per fill-up. How is that not a tax hike. The only time her plan makes sense and is in our favor is when the price drops below $1.20 per gallon. When is the last time that has happened? This will KILL the already smothered Michigan economy. Jenny, YOU are the weakest link...

Late last September, we took an overnight camping trip down to southwest lower Michigan to take the kids trick-or-treating at one of the state parks. We stopped for gas on the way home, and this was what the pump read when the guy who filled up before us pulled out - and this was even before gas hit almost $5 a gallon:


Using this example, this man's 24.685 gallons of gas cost him $92.85 (yeah, I know the numbers are blurry - sorry): $3.76 per gallon. Had the tax been 16% rather than the flat $0.19 per gallon, his tank of gas would have cost $102.20 - a difference of $9.35.

Surely there is no tax hike there, right Jenny?

On top of that, despite President Obama's recent "challenge" with regards to higher education, Granholm "proposes to cut need-based funding," which helps students pay college tuition - while asking colleges and universities to freeze tuition rates. Along with a 5.8% funding cut ($18.8 million), more students would be able to participate in these programs - more students competing for fewer funds. I fail to see the logic in that move; as more students become unable to pay their tuition bills with fewer dollars available, does it not seem likely more would end up dropping out due to inability to pay - especially when considered in conjunction with the unemployment rate and those students, therefore, unable to work their way through school?

Barack Obama has it right - while Granholm truly is proving herself to be "the weakest link": (emphasis mine)

"Right now, three-quarters of the fastest-growing occupations require more than a high school diploma," Obama said. "And yet, just over half of our citizens have that level of education. We have one of the highest high school dropout rates of any industrialized nation. And half of the students who begin college never finish."

"This is a prescription for economic decline, because we know the countries that out-teach us today will out-compete us tomorrow. That is why it will be the goal of this administration to ensure that every child has access to a complete and competitive education—from the day they are born to the day they begin a career."

Perhaps even scarier is the realization that our education system's decline has worsened since 2003 - the year she entered office: (emphasis mine)

University officials lay much of the blame for higher prices on the penny-wise, pound-foolish attitude in Lansing — with good reason. Michigan has the dubious distinction of being the only state in the country to spend less on higher education in 2008 than it did in 2003, a per-student cut of $2,852, according to state universities. That says a lot to us about the priorities and the foresight of Michigan’s political leaders.

The cherry on top is Obama C&T, which will have the effect of "sinking" Michigan. I fear it will not be long before we suffer what I had expressed concern about previously:

The future of Michigan is a large question mark. With few jobs, sky-high unemployment rate, increases in state income and sales tax this past year, and state leaders pointing fingers at the Bush administration while taking no responsibility for ANYTHING, she has entered dark times. An Obama Presidency would surely push us into crisis, our economy beyond salvage. What happens to an unsalvageable limb compromising the overall health of the body? It is amputated, sacrificed to save the life. Sit here in my seat for a moment, and imagine the terror felt at the image of a financial or political "amputation" of the Great Lakes State.

I am afraid. Very afraid.

Upper Tahquamenon Falls - Michigan's upper peninsula

Second Civil War

Oh, this is a good flick. If you've not seen it, I highly recommend it. Besides a stellar cast including James Earl Jones (who is, like, the AWESOMEST actor in the history of the universe), it has a story line that just does not quit - making you think about the future of America and whether we are headed for a Second Civil War. (FYI: If you've never heard of it, this is an HBO original movie.)

I fear that is exactly where we are heading, with a number of political and social avenues merging to a central core and ultimately bringing the citizens of this country to insurrection. While I believe our form of government as envisioned by our Founding Fathers is superior, it has become bastardized and bears no semblance whatsoever to that vision.

I read this article earlier today and it brought me full circle in my thinking. Although this article, on the surface, targets healthcare reform and the FDA, it also takes a deeper poke at the corruption and abuse of power on multiple levels of government: (Emphasis mine)

“FDA reform legislation is not about Democrats vs. Republicans. It’s about the wealthy elite vs. the People. Not surprisingly, the People have once again been screwed by the representatives they foolishly voted into office. If anything, this event proves that U.S. lawmakers have no interest in protecting America’s future. They are only interested in the next election, the next career move or the next power play. In a nation devastated by degenerative disease and intoxicated by the chemicals being pushed to manage those diseases, there is no longer anyone left in power with enough sanity to reason with. The President is clinically insane, the FDA is criminally insane, and the Congress is for sale, cheap! The country has become an absurdity, where lawmakers actually bicker about how much bribery and corruption should be allowed in the FDA drug approval decision process rather than simply agreeing to ban all bribery and conflicts of interest, which is what sane lawmakers would do.

Stand back and watch the bonfire

Over the last few months, I have come to the conclusion that it is no longer worth attempting to stop American’s self-destruction at the hands of Big Pharma, corrupt politicians and greedy fractional reserve bankers. America is destroying itself, and there is no one left who’s willing to stand up and try to stop it (except, perhaps, for a few individuals like Rep. Ron Paul, but he’s effectively censored by the powers that be).

My advice to readers is to start thinking very seriously about getting out of America. What’s coming over the next 5 - 25 years will not be pretty, and I now believe the collapse of America as we know it today is inevitable. The 2008 elections will change nothing, as either party will only deliver a different form of tyranny in the end. America has devolved into a modern mirror image of the Roman Empire in its last dying days — steeped in corruption, abandoning its citizens, arrogant beyond all reason, oblivious to the world around it and wholly committed to destroying itself from within.

Congress has become a circus, and the U.S. government, through agencies like the FDA, has become the leading threat to its own people. The nation is steeped in irreversible debt, diseased, terrified, bankrupt and addicted to oil that’s running out. On top of that, thanks to Bush-contrived military imperialism, it has alienated every other nation in the world and has now become the most-hated nation on the planet. (If you don’t believe me, just travel outside the U.S. and ask practically anybody you meet. Everybody hates the U.S.) It is now only a question of how long the current crippled facade of political power will last.

The passage of this FDA reform law is merely one more sign of how thoroughly committed the U.S. Congress is to creating a future of death, disease and bankruptcy for the American people. You gotta give ‘em kudos on consistency, however. At least the lawmakers are predictable.

Welcome to the United States of Big Pharma.”

To this I would add, United States of Big Pharma, Big Banking, Big Industry, and Big Pork-Barrel Spending Without Accountability. Just imagine our tots learning to spell THAT one in school.

The embers are being stirred and it’s only a matter of time before the fires begin to rage. No matter what term you prefer, whether it be uprising, revolt, insurrection, or revolution, we can see the smoke and we all know that where there’s smoke, there’s fire.

How Long Are We Safe?

Sometimes you just have to stop and wonder.

Verichip

This remarkable device appears to have its origins in providing health care professionals a means of accessing a patient's medical information in a manner that was never before possible. For example: You are in a horrible accident and unconscious, transported to the emergency room for attention - unable to communicate to staff the fact that you have an allergy to a certain medication or that you have a particularly noteworthy bit of medical history that may alter the course of treatment you would receive. VIOLA! Verichip technology allows the staff to scan you and bring up that information, no matter what hospital in what city in what state you happen to be. They treat you accordingly and you make a speedy recovery and do not die because they gave you something you should not have been given.

There are financial institutions interested in this technology as well. Store your bank account information in a handy-dandy chip in your hand, swipe your hand on the scanner, and it deducts your purchases directly from your account. You never have worry about someone stealing your purse or wallet again (just that they might cut off your fucking hand and steal that). You can shop anywhere Verichip is accepted, just look for the logo.

HOWEVER, as with any new and wonderful technology, someone has to come along and tamper with it, try to figure out a way to 1) Turn a huge profit from it, and 2) Use it as a means to monitor the public: Where you go, what you do, where you shop, what restaurants you eat at, and all manner of customer preference data - you name it, they will track it.

THEN THE GOVERNMENT STEPS IN AND TAKES OVER, claiming they need it as an anti-terrorism measure, a way to track and prevent terrorist activities. You can bet every person in America will be implanted and they will be snooping on everyone implanted, and implantation will be a requirement from birth. Privacy will become a thing of the past, and Democracy and Justice will evolve to have ever more ominous meanings. There will be no protection from those pretending to be acting in our best interests when they are truly acting in their own - the political "elite." It will be a grasping effort made by a failing bastardization of our system of government that wants absolute power over and total control of its citizenry, ready to penalize activities that may in reality be benign but twisted so as to appear to be evil. Again, it will be required to be implanted and will, of course, be provided to us at our own expense, under the guise of being "for our own good."

I have a hard time making the stretch some religious folks are making, the mark of the Devil and all that, but I do not know everything (yet).

There are other ways to keep an eye on what people are doing and/or curtailing privacy, some of which many people do not even know about, like the fact that RFID tags in New US notes explode when you try to microwave them and that there are RFID tags on electronic equipment.

Maybe it is just me, but this seems like a huge step in the direction of living in a police state, a step towards undermining the Constitution of the United States and Bill of Rights, a means to the end of society as we know it (it will take a while to do that, but we are already well on our way to fucking it up royally).

How Much More. . .

Must we take, as American citizens, with businesses packing up and fleeing the country, leaving us with no jobs by which to support an ever-increasing tax load and national debt, let alone a means to survive?

How long before politicians realize that, through continued pushing of companies leading them to relocate to other nations, eventually there will be no one left to pay taxes and, in turn, THEIR paychecks? They have already decimated our capacity to support ourselves through manufacturing, ensured our children a future of involuntary servitude, and given away the mineral rights to huge sections of American soil to foreign interests to cover our debts.

Yet another company leaves the country: Hershey is leaving Oakdale.

The Gross National Debt

I take great interest in this subject, as a taxpayer and as a parent whose children will pay the price for a government that forces its citizens to operate within a balanced budget but cannot do the same for itself.

For more information, check out Is the U.S. Already Bankrupt?

I think it is high time we start putting out foot down where our pols are concerned, force them to preserve the best interests of their constituents and this country rather than their own or Big Business'. Without us, they have no hope for maintaining their status quo.