Yes, President Bill Clinton.

Someone shared this with me on facebook. I wanted to share it here in it's entirety. These are not my words but they very well could have been.

I leave this for you to peruse.

Mervyn Marcano

12 hrs · 

Yes, President Bill Clinton.

This movement unapologetically fights for drug dealers. Our brothers & sisters. Our mothers & fathers. Our cousins and friends. Us, too. Those you would cast off as murderous gangsters. The superpredators.

They were thrown away into prisons meant to strip them of their dignity as you pandered to the fears of white working-class voters. You told them they would be safer and a bit more free, distracting them from their own poverty. You even sold some of us that same story.

We lost a generation. If they came back, they came back broken. And we still haven't figured out how to make them whole when they come home. So they keep going back.

You, however, gained another term. Your friends got rich off the sweet chattel of prison labor and cell occupancy rate increases.

When the dust of your efforts began to settle, more white voters decided they wanted our neighborhoods. They wanted our homes. They followed you into the Harlems of our cities. And more of your banker friends got richer--- this time, by packaging our legacies as luxury condos and lofts. Our renaissance for your renewal.

Yes, Bill. We fight for our kin. Because we believe in the power of redemption and restoration. We have witnessed it with our own eyes, much to your chagrin. Because we know the ills of crushing poverty. Because we are the children of social programs that punish need, all the while masquerading as the laces of those ever-elusive boots we are to pull ourselves up with.

No saxophone in Harlem can erase this truth. Since Arkansas you have mastered the art of dismantling the social safety net with the blessing of those it serves. Kudos to you, Machiavelli would be proud, but let's not play pretend now.

Y'all see us now, so you belittle us from your podium. You talk down to us at your private fundraisers. We remember that rageful twinge in your eye from 2008, too. When you just didn't understand why the Blacks weren't listening.

We're listening now. In fact, all we've done is repeat what you and Hillary have said. ‪#‎samegame‬ ‪#‎differentcampaign‬

I don't know what happens in November. But know this. We are your superpredators. And we haunt. ‪#‎blacklivesmatter‬ ‪#‎blackghostshaunt‬

Just a short blog post to relate something special that happened last night. Well it actually started last Christmas eve. Last night was just the culmination of what started back on Dec24th.

I have to work to supplement my Social Security as a lot of my fellow seniors do. I work at a small rural convenient store in southern Indiana, one of those nice little stores where you know just about everyone who walks through the door. You get to know their habits, likes and dislikes and any gossip going around. We have a crowd of folks who come in and socialize in our dinning room for hours on end. All that's missing is a cracker barrel and a potbellied stove

I was working at the store Christmas Eve when a young lady came in. She walked around the store, it was busy but there was something about her, the way she seemed to be waiting for something, so I noticed her from time to time around the store. When the traffic died down she came up to the counter and purchased something small, I don't remember what it was, and her change was 10 dollars and coin. When I went to give her the change she pushed it back to me and just asked me to "find someone who really needs it", then she left. I was speechless, nothing like that had ever happened to me before. I waited all that night to be able to help someone but nothing seemed to rise to occasion that I had imagined this lady had in mind, so I put it in an envelope and saved it.

Last night a lady came in the store. She had 20 dollars in cash and bought some gas. After she filled up she came back in and bought some snacks for some children she had in the van. She was making a trip with 4 children in her van. One little boy came in with me and he was a cute little handful. The lady came up to the register and had about 9 dollars in drinks and things for the kids but her card wasn't working and she was at her wits end. She had promised the children a snack and she'd put all her cash in the gas tank. As I looked across the counter, into this ladies eyes I saw that this was the time. So I took the money the lady had given me Christmas Eve and paid for her things. It was a good ending to a very frustrating week.

Pay it forward!

Wow it's been a while

My last blog entry was 2013. My how time flies. At any rate I don't plan on letting time pass like that again.
So much has happened and so little time this evening to catch up but I promise I'll be back soon.

At any rate I just wanted to share something I wrote on my facebook page to explain my thoughts on why I can really not, in good conscience vote for Hillary Clinton even though I have voted straight ticket Democrat for as long as I can remember.

At any rate, (I've said that a lot haven't I?) Here's what I said.

 Let me put this in as brief an explanation as I can because I plan to go out and enjoy whats left of the day.
8 years ago a guy named John Edwards was in the same place as Bernie, fighting establishment dems for that "Other America". When he dropped out candidates vied for his endorsement and his supporters, most went to Barack begrudgingly because none of us were under the impression he was a liberal but he was better than Clinton.
Four years ago we agreed to not primary the president out of respect and we supported him even though they kept Single payer out of the debate on health care and were still cozying up to Wall Street.
That "Other America" didn't go away and in many instances grew. We felt betrayed these last 8 years and our circumstances haven't changed. Bernie is our standard bearer and despite every effort by the DNC and the media to mute his campaign he is succeeding despite those distractions.
I have very serious issues with a candidate that starts her campaign tacking to the opposition. Tell me universal healthcare is a myth when I see the rest of the world with it. Tell me free community college is a myth when I see it elsewhere (our children are our greatest investment).
We have compromised enough with the rightwing. It's time the pendulum swung the other way for a change. I don't see that happening with Ms Clinton.
As for the alternative be real Joe. Clinton will get enough GOP votes to beat anyone on the right. They don't want to see those clowns in office either. 

Bernie Sanders isn't a phenomenon he is a continuation of our American Heritage! The great American experiment continues.

   

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About.com Political Humor

This is how We the People get screwed by corruption in Washington.

Annabel Park
This is how We the People get screwed by corruption in Washington.

"The provision gives Amgen an additional two years to sell Sensipar without government controls. The news was so welcome that the company’s chief executive quickly relayed it to investment analysts. But it is projected to cost Medicare up to $500 million over that period.

Amgen, which has a small army of 74 lobbyists in the capital, was the only company to argue aggressively for the delay, according to several Congressional aides of both parties.

Supporters of the delay, primarily leaders of the Senate Finance Committee who have long benefited from Amgen’s political largess, said it was necessary to allow regulators to prepare properly for the pricing change.

But critics, including several Congressional aides who were stunned to find the measure in the final bill, pointed out that Amgen had already won a previous two-year delay, and they depicted a second one as an unnecessary giveaway."

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/20/us/medicare-pricing-delay-is-political-win-for-amgen-drug-maker.html?smid=fb-share

Reflections...

When you get older you tend to reflect a lot on your life. How things went, where you could have changed something, where things all went wrong. You do that a lot when your best years are behind you.

I was just thinking today how they used to preach at me to work hard save for your retirement and you'll be set and I did that. I worked hard, tried to start my own business a few times, took out IRAs and 401ks tried to live responsibly.

I did all that and now that I'm left, at age 63, with nothing but social security and VA health care I'm pretty damn glad I have a government I can count on that at least wont let me die. The rest of them have abandoned me. So much for doing what they tell you to do.

American Entitlements

In all the campaign rhetoric we are being bombarded with the one thing the right screams over and over again is Entitlements "we need to limit entitlements" why do Americans feel entitled to anything? I would ask why not?

In any other country than America citizens are entitled to health care. From Canada to Japan citizens all over the world are "entitled" to good health through their countries health care system. Yes they have a higher tax code than we do but when you consider they get health care whenever they need it you have to consider the tax is worth it.

Some countries subsidize their education system. They know that their future lies in educating their youth so children go to school from K-College on the government and what do they reap? Well they are far ahead of us in just about every area because they have, unlike us, the educated citizens to fill the jobs they need to keep their economies going. We make sure that anyone graduating, who isn't born into wealth, is in debt for years after they graduate.

Now I can hear the rightwingers screaming nanny state, nanny state, but I assure you that no one wants a nanny state nor do we want an intrusive government. We just know that when it comes to a fair shake we have a better chance with a efficient effective government than we do with the sharks on Wall Street.

Do we like higher taxes? No. No one does but then we know the bills must be paid. If the bills aren't paid you run a deficit and the left has historically been able to keep the deficit under control more so than those on the right. We do expect more from our government when our taxes are going up but we know a bargain when we see it and some of the entitlements we already have are well worth the price.

In closing I would ask why is it being an American citizen only entitles you to a life of hard work and in the end nothing to show for it, that is unless your in the 1% of citizens who can afford whatever they want. We are suppose to be the greatest country on earth but yet those countries we look down on entitle their citizens to much more than we do and those on the right want to take back what little we do have.