Scott Porad

Upon complaining about the online activism of SOPA opponets, one Congressional aide remarked:

Why can’t they just hire a lobbyist like everyone else?

Well, maybe because we don’t have the money that the major media corporations do!

If this doesn’t explain how corrrupt our government has become, then nothing will.

Cheezburger recently turned 5 years old!  Hooray for us!  Who would have ever thought that a silly web site about cats could transform into the leading destination for online humor?!

Sadly, after 5 years, Cheezburger, and the entire Internet, are facing the most serious thread of censorship that has ever existed in the United States: SOPA.

In protest, Cheezburger will protest SOPA legislation with a “blackout” on January 18th.  From Geekwire:

All Cheezburger sites will also be instituting a blackout on January 18th to protest SOPA and PIPA. Now, go ask Wikipedia to do it,” Huh said in a Tweet on Thursday. Wikipedia creator Jimmy Wales said he’s considering taking the popular online encyclopedia offline in protest of the legislation, a black-out being led by Reddit which noted in a blog post this week that “there are powerful forces trying to censor the Internet.

SOPA would enable the government to shut down websites based on the simple accusation of a copyright violation.  No due process.  No day in court.  Just a claim and…poof…you’re done!

…Goodbye Cheezburger
…Goodbye Google
…Goodbye Facebook
…Goodbye Internet

Of course, those sites won’t really shut down.  What will really happen is simple thuggery: major corporations with deep pockets will threaten a company like Facebook with a SOPA claim, but…through the graciousness of their good hearts…agree to withhold their claims for a modest fee.

I believe the mafia calls that “protection money”.

Just another step on the path to the Banana States of America.

Have you contacted your Senator?  If not, do it now…here’s a list of phone numbers.

The dim-wits and know-nothings that we ignorantly elected to Congress are about to screw you just about worse than ever.  (You can educate yourself on SOPA at KnowYourMeme.)

I’m Jewish, so naturally I have an aversion to Hitler. Yet, this Downfall parody explains the issues with SOPA perfectly.

The span of history is a never-ending conflict between the haves and the have-nots:

…the Department of Homeland Security had participated in an 18-city mayor conference call advising mayors on “how to suppress” Occupy protests…when you connect the dots, properly understood, what happened this week is the first battle in a civil war; a civil war in which, for now, only one side is choosing violence.

This article from which this quote comes is worth the read…it presents the Occupy Movement in rather clarifying terms.

From Occupy Protesters and the Police Clash in Lower Manhattan: Bloomberg backs the police in Occupy violence.

I thought Bloomberg was The Great Independent. The Benevelont Billionaire.

Are his true colors starting to show? Is he really just an ordinary oligharch…using the police and state to protect his interests?

Time will tell. He has two, or three a most, more moves to play before we know who’s side he’s on.

What, you don’t believe me about the revolution?

Look, the politics, the laws, the courts, the financial markets…the rules of the game…they’re rigged and corrupt and we all know it.  Unfortunately, most of us are just comfortable enough to be numb to the crime.  Or, at least numb enough to look the other way.

If you don’t believe me, then let’s just look at some data…over the last several decades, the rich have gotten richer, while the poor have gotten poorer.

If you haven’t noticed, there is a revolution happening in America.  It’s called the Occupy Movement, and it’s made up of the 99% who are getting royally screwed by the richest of the rich who have rigged the system in their favor.

Today, I read stories about how the police are clearing out protests in various cities around the country: Portland, Oakland and New York.  If the government is being rigged by the richest 1%, then the police are simply pawns in their game.  My goodness…I feel myself becoming a radical as I type.

As I was reading, I was reminded of this passage from Charles Bukowski’s Women, on the vibrant nature of the crowd at a boxing match:

The crowd screamed and roared and swilled beer.  They had temporarily escaped the factories, the warehouses, the slaughterhouses, the car washes–they’d be back in captivity the next day, but now they were out–they were wild with freedom.  They weren’t thinking about the slavery of poverty.  Or the slavery of welfare and food stamps.  The rest of us would be alright until the poor learned how to make atom bombs in their basements.

I’m not suggesting that we turn to violence or bombs.  Let me repeat: I do not support or encourage violence.  I support a Gandhi-like approach…non-violence is the best solution in America because it will earn the affection and support of the masses.

So, here’s my question for you: How can I help?  What can someone like me do?

And, it’s not just me: How can we all help?

Elizabeth Warren, candidate for Senate in Massachusetts:

I hear all this, you know, ‘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.

Now look, you built a factory and it turned into something terrific, or a great idea. God bless — keep a big hunk of it. But part of the underlying social contract is, you take a hunk of that and pay forward for the next kid who comes along.

Amen.

Hunger is simply a terrible thing.  I can honestly say there has never been a single day in my life that I have had to worry about food.  Have you ever had to worry about food?  About where your next meal was going to come from?  I’m going to guess that 99.9% of the people reading this have not.

Hearing stories of hunger breaks my heart.  And, child hunger is even more heartbreaking.  Depending on exactly what reports you read, roughly 15 million…15 MILLION CHILDREN…live hungry, in homes where food is scarce.

Maybe it’s not exactly 15 million.  Maybe it’s only 10 million, or maybe it’s 20 million.  Does it matter?  The fact that it’s a non-zero number is a problem in my view.

This morning, I read this news report on food banks:

Across the Northwest food banks are seeing more customers than ever…The numbers speak for themselves. In Washington, food banks saw a 16 percent increase in hungry families…Oregon saw a 20 percent increase…Idaho food banks served 31 percent more this year than last…Food bank workers like Peny Archer of Moses Lake, Washington, says it’s hard to keep up with the demand. She says the long grind of this down economy has worn out many families who were able to make-do before.

Which makes sense: as these economic times drone on, people who aren’t working are running out of their savings.  To illustrate this, there are two things worth looking at.  I’ve provided some charts below to illustrate.

First, how many people are unemployed?  The answer is: a lot.  Roughly 1 out of 10 people are unemployed.  This doesn’t even count the people who are underemployed—that is, people working part time who want to work full-time.  That stands at almost 2 in 10 people—about 18%.

But, the real issue with hunger is not being out of work.  The issue that drives hunger is being out of money.

A lot of people have a little money saved, get a little unemployment insurance from the government, and can cut costs.  But, that only lasts for so long.  Eventually, the well runs dry.

Think about that for a moment: if you were unemployed tomorrow, how long would you be able to live before you ran out of money?  Assume that unemployment insurance will pay you only 25% of what you make currently, and beyond that you have to cut costs and live off of savings.  And, remember, that unemployment insurance only lasts for 6 months.

Could you go a month?  Two months?  Six months?  A year?

The fact is, the well has been running dry for more people than ever.  Below are two charts showing data since the 1960′s.  The first shows the number of people who have been out of work for more than 6 months.  The second, shows the average amount (or median, actually) amount of time that a worker is unemployed.

As you can see more people are unemployed for a longer time than ever.  Almost 5% of workers, roughly 7 million people, have been unemployed for more than six months.  And, the average time for being unemployed is also 6 months.

But, what really makes this stand out is the fact that both of these rates are double what they’ve been in the last 40 years.  Double!

So, I’m going to end on a gloomy note: a long as people remain unemployed their situation will get worse.  First, they will spend their money, then they will rely on charitable services and liquidate assets and so-on-and-so-forth.  Naturally, as each of these things happens, they spend less and less money.

Keep in mind that 10% of the US workforce is millions and millions of people and families.  So, as those people start spending less money, then businesses make less.  The result, of course, is that those businesses don’t do as well, and have to lay people off.  (And, governments have less money because taxes are lower, so they have less assistance to offer.)  And, so the vicious cycle begins anew with yet more unemployed people.

The point?  Our economy is going to get worse and we are going to see more and more of these stories about food banks and hunger until we come together as a community and society and do something to spur employment.  The choices we have before us are poor…we’ll be choosing the lesser of evils…but, those options are better than the dismal future we currently face.