"Keep Working...

[Ryan Ruck]

RAW VIDEO: Thousands Line Up For Section 8 Housing In Norwalk

September 21, 2015



Thousands of people lined up Monday morning for the chance to apply for low-cost, government-subsidized housing in the city of Norwalk.

Officials with the City of Norwalk Housing Authority began handing out applications at 8 a.m. at the Norwalk Arts and Sports Complex at 13200 Clarkdale Avenue.

Roughly 3,000 applications for the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) Program waiting list were scheduled to be distributed through Sept. 24 or until all applications were handed out, city officials said.

By just past 7 a.m., a line of people could be seen going all around what appeared to be nearly a city block, according to aerial reports.

Only “very low-income” renters were eligible for the program, which requires total household gross incomes ranging from below $29,500 for one person to $54,800 for households of eight people, according to the city.

Applicants living or working in Norwalk and U.S. veterans were given preference on the waiting list. Applications were limited to one person per household.

Residents waiting in line took to social media to vent their frustration with the overwhelming turnout, including one Facebook user who claimed the first two people to get in line showed up on Saturday – two days before the application period began.

A fact sheet distributed by the city prior to the event warned prospective applicants that it “may be many months or several years before we are able to assist you with your rent. This is not an emergency program.”

The city of Norwalk has a population of just under 107,000 as of a 2013 census.

When the wheels come off it's going to be spectacular!

[vector7]

Senator Cruz on Budget Deal

October 29, 2015
Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) spoke about his opposition to the budget and debt ceiling agreement. He was critical of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), President Obama, and Senate Democrats over the deal.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOwrxCMDPfo

[Ryan Ruck]

Welfare Moms Unhappy With Free Lodging, Prepared Meals, WiFi, Maid Service

February 4, 2016

D.C. welfare moms are having to put up with lodging in hotels that give them prepared meals, cable TV, internet WiFi access, and maid service that don't meet their standards:

Tiera Williams and her four children dodge cars on a winter evening as they cross the parking lot of the Days Inn to the Washington motel room the children call "Mommy's house."

People at the Days Inn – one of at least 12 motels being used by the city to house 730 homeless families this winter – lean over the balcony that overlooks the courtyard lit by the December glow of yellow lights.

They occupy a hidden world of desperation and poverty mixed with every-other-day maid service, free WiFi, continental breakfast in the lobby, and lunch and dinner in the 170-room motel's banquet room.

Lunch and dinner in the banquet room meets my definition of hidden desperation.

They've been living here since August when Williams – then six months pregnant and unemployed with no place to go – called the city's homeless hotline.

She opens the door to her unit, ushering her children inside a space that she describes as "the size of two jail cells." The decor is pleasant enough, with maroon carpeting, wood paneled headboards and a television in an armoire near a bathroom vanity.

If Tiera is unhappy with her room, why doesn't she go to the front desk and change her reservation to get a larger suite, as any person paying her own way would do?

Williams dumps bags of groceries on the motel room desk. In the mini refrigerator, she stacks yogurt, apples, oranges and a roasted chicken they will have for dinner that night. She uses her food stamps to buy meals because she doesn't like eating the pasta, casseroles, chicken, hot dogs and other dishes the city provides at the motel.

Isn't this shocking, how taxpayers are paying to prepare such low-class meals for welfare moms? What kind of country is this that doesn't cook better meals for people on welfare?

By the way, if you're wondering why Tiera has four children and no daddies, here is that part of the story:

... she was 19 when she met the man who would become her daughter's father. She moved to the District to be with him. But the relationship, she says, was controlling and abusive. She left him when her daughter was 4 months old[.] ... Much the same thing happened again in August when she left the father of her three other children because they were arguing all the time. "You think you're stable, then [stuff] happens," she says.

What a shame it took three additional children with man number two before Tiera learned he was unlikeable.

Questions for discussion:

1) Tiera has only four children. How many more children does she need to produce before being given an additional hotel room?

2) Why should Tiera and her kids have to eat in the banquet hall every day if they are in a hotel with room service?

3) Is there a constitutional right for people on welfare to have their food prepared and served to them?

4) If the maid providing maid service works hard cleaning Tiera's room, do you think she makes enough money to take care of her kids?

5) If Tiera is getting only basic cable on her TV, would a Bernie Sanders presidency fund a program to get her HBO and a decent pay-per-view package?

[Ryan Ruck]

Almost assuredly due to SSDA claims...

Social Security Administration Beneficiaries Top 60,000,000

March 18, 2016

The number of people receiving benefits from the Social Security Administration topped 60,000,000 for the first time at the beginning of 2016.

In December 2015, according to data published by the Office of the Chief Actuary of Social Security, the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance and Disability Insurance Trust Funds paid benefits to 59,963,425 beneficiaries. In January 2016, that increased to 60,084,225, and in February 2016 to 60,199,914.

The average monthly benefit paid per beneficiary in December was $1,228.12. In January, it was $1,229.85. In February, it was $1,230.70.

The total number of beneficiaries includes retired workers and their dependents, survivors of deceased workers, and disabled workers and their dependents.

In February, there were 151,074,000 people employed in either full or part-time jobs in the United States, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ seasonally adjusted employment numbers. That means the 60,199,914 individuals receiving Social Security benefits during the month equaled 1 per each 2.5 workers.

There were 123,206,000 people employed full-time in February, according to BLS’s seasonally adjusted numbers. That equals approximately 2.05 full-time workers per each beneficiary of the Social Security Administration.

The Social Security Administration spent a record $944,143,000,000 in fiscal 2015 (Oct. 1, 2014 through Sept. 30, 2015), according to the Monthly Treasury Statement for September 2015.

In fiscal 2016, the Social Security Administration is continuing to spend at a record pace. In the first five months of the fiscal year (October 2015 through February 2016), it spent $400,078,000,000. During the same period in fiscal 2015, it spent $390,260,000,000.

The Monthly Treasury Statement for February says the budget estimate for the Social Security Administration for fiscal 2016 is $991,558,000,000—or $47,415,000,000 more than its record spending of $944,143,000,000 in fiscal 2015.

The 60,199,914 beneficiaries in February included 40,338,983 retired workers, 2,342,674 spouses of retired workers, 659,198 children of retired workers, 6,064,984 survivors of deceased workers, 8,896,604 disabled workers, 139,269 spouses of disabled workers, and 1,758,202 children of disabled workers.

[Malsua]

All I can say is that I can't wait to get on this gravy train when my wife becomes eligible to retire in June.

Business bad? "Fuck you, pay me."
Oh, you had a fire? "Fuck you, pay me."
Place got hit by lightning, huh? "Fuck you, pay me."

[American Patriot]

62.... can't come quickly enough. lol

Next year I get my military retirement pay. Two years later, I'm getting SS. I'll keep my IRAs put away for awhile.... in case somethng happens to me so the wife can have money. Or something happens to her so I can have money.

Either way, I'm still STRONGLY considering making a move offshore.

[vector7]

Guess what Starbucks did after raising workers’ minimum wage

Posted on July 2, 2016 by Dr. Eowyn


ZeroHedge reminds us that a year ago, owner and CEO of Seattle-based Starbucks, Howard Schultz, piously told CNN that he supported raising the minimum wage to $15/hour “across the country,” but warned that “it will be very difficult for small business in the country at a $15 level to pay those kinds of wages.” Then Schultz grandly announced that Starbucks will lead the way by raising the wages of its employees “way above the minimum wage”:

“For Starbucks come January 1 we are taking wages up across the country and we will pay above the minimum wage in every state we operate. Starbucks is way above the minimum wage. I have always looked at total compensation. I have always believed that our success as a company is best shared.“

Note that a worker’s total compensation is a function of hourly wages and total number of hours worked.
Fast forward a year . . . .
Lisa Baertlein reports for Reuters, June 30, 2016, that Starbucks, the world’s biggest coffee chain that employs 160,000 people in the United States, is accused by an online petition, signed by more than 9,000 people, of “extreme” cutbacks in work hours at its U.S. cafes, which hurt both employee morale and customer service.
In other words, Starbucks compensated for raising its employees’ wages to “way above minimum wage” by reducing its workers’ hours, so as to maintain its profitability.
According to Jaime Prater, a Southern California barista and the online petition’s creator, some 7,000 signers of the petition described themselves as Starbuck employees.
Prater said “The labor situation has gone from tight to infuriating.” The manager of a central California Starbucks who asked not to be identified for fear of reprisal, told Reuters that the store’s work force has shrunk by about 10%, even though sales are up.
Similar complaints were made by many signers of the online petition:

• Signer Aaron I. wrote: “No matter what we do to save on labor at my store, the system tells us EVERY SINGLE DAY that we are at least 8 hours over in labor for the day and have to cut even more.”
• Leslie S, a self-described shift manager, wrote: “We’re suffering, & so are our customers. It’s not working.”
• Makenna S, a shift supervisor, wrote: “Mobile orders have increased sales and created more need for labor, yet the company is cutting labor.”

While its employees contend with reduced work hours and, therefore, pay, Starbucks’ established cafes in U.S.-dominated Americas region is enjoying increased sales of:

• 9% sales increase in the first quarter of this year,
• 7% increase in the second quarter, and
• an expected 6.2% increase for the current quarter, according to Consensus Metrix.

Howard Penney, an analyst at Hedgeye Risk Management who follows Starbucks, observed, “They’ve been posting industry-leading same-store sales growth for the last five years while reducing labor costs – a trend that can’t continue.”

According to Wikipedia, Starbucks’ CEO Howard D. Schultz “was born to a Jewish family on July 19, 1953, in Brooklyn, New York.” He is pro-gun control and same-sex marriage. In 2012, Forbes magazine ranked Schultz as the 354th richest person in the United States, with a net worth of $1.5 billion.

Howard Schultz’s name should be listed in dictionaries as a synonym of hypocrisy.

https://fellowshipoftheminds.com/201...-minimum-wage/

[vector7]

Why Seven Million Student Loan Defaulters Are In A Standoff With Uncle Sam

by Tyler Durden

Aug 2, 2016 1:12 PM

As the 2016 election cycle heats up, we suspect the debate over student loan forgiveness will become an ever bigger issue with the Hillary camp looking to woo young voters that aren't quite as "enthusiastic" about her Presidency as they were about Obama's. We also suspect that students, helpless "victims" of predatory lenders looking to give them $200,000 to pursue their dreams of becoming anthropologists while consuming copious amount of free beer at frat parties, will grow increasingly vocal in asking why the Nanny State would have given them so much money to pursue non-existent "careers".

To put the student loan issue into perspective, there is roughly $1.3 trillion of student loans outstanding to 43mm Americans, an average balance of $30k per student. Roughly 16% of borrowers are currently in long-term default with outstanding balances totaling $125 billion, or an average balance of $18k per student.



Student Debt

To our point above, the Wall Street Journal recently recounted the story of Jason Osborne and his wife, a Medford, Oregon couple, who took out $46,500 in student loans to take classes at Abdill Career College to become phlebotomists. After completing their studies the couple said they couldn't find steady work in the healthcare industry had to look elsewhere. Mr. Osborne now makes $13 an hour in selling solar panels and his wife works as a maid. The couple is now asking why the government would loan them so much money to pursue a career with such limited opportunity?

"The government should have never extended [us] so much debt for jobs that are in low demand."

“Do you think I’m going to give them one penny I’m making to pay back the loan for a job I’m never going to hold?”

Well we guess that's one way to look at it.

In another example, Illinois resident Jim Lopko, 36, racked up an astounding $122,000 of student loans but just has an associate degree to show for it after dropping out of a bachelor’s program in 2009. Mr. Lopko, who lives in a Chicago suburb, now earns $32,000 a year as a customer-service agent for an Illinois manufacturer. He says he tries to be frugal but admits he occasionally splurges. He recently upgraded to a one-bedroom apartment from a studio and took out a loan for a brand new Subaru WRX that carries a $445 monthly payment, saying:

“Are you supposed to stay in inside all the time, never go out, and pay these loans?”

No, Mr. Lopko, it would be crazy to penalize you alone for your personal decisions. We feel your pain and see no better option than an to hastily socialize your "stellar" financial decision making.

[vector7]

Colorado: Labor Dept Rules Muslim Workers Who Quit Deserve Unemployment Benefits

Posted on August 16, 2016 by creeping


If a non-Muslim quit, or perhaps refused to bake a cake rather than “choose between fidelity to their religion and their job,” they’d lose their job and their business, not collect benefits. Obama would see to it.

Source: Fired Muslim workers deserve unemployment benefits from Cargill, Colorado labor department rules – The Denver Post

Colorado’s labor department has ruled that more than 100 Muslim workers fired from a Fort Morgan meatpacking plant are eligible for unemployment benefits because a company cannot force workers to choose between their religion and their jobs.

The workers filed for unemployment payments after they were fired in December by Cargill Inc., amid a dispute over whether the Muslim employees could take prayer breaks during their shifts. Cargill challenged the claims, but the company withdrew its appeals this summer after losing 20 cases, officials with the state Department of Labor said.

While the labor department declined to put a dollar amount on the total paid to the workers, Cher Haavind, the agency’s director of government, policy and public relations, said the average maximum benefit per claim was $8,841.

That means the payments could cost Colorado’s unemployment fund nearly $1 million.

Unemployment benefits are funded by the state’s employers. Much like an insurance policy, a company’s rates rise with the number of claims filed from its former workers.

Cargill’s spokesman, Michael Martin, said the company had no comment about the unemployment claims. Cargill, based in Wichita, Kan., is one of the largest privately held companies in the United States, and its family includes 14 billionaires, according to a 2001 report in Forbes magazine.

Cargill fired more than 150 Muslim workers, most of them from Somalia, in December after they walked off the job because of the dispute.

At the time, Martin told The Denver Post that the company did everything it could to resolve the dispute.

“At no time did Cargill prevent people from prayer at Fort Morgan,” Martin said in December. “Nor have we changed policies related to religious accommodation and attendance. This has been mischaracterized.”

However, decision orders written by Colorado labor department hearing officers show a change in policy is what led to the walk out.

Throughout the hearings, workers told a similar story about how supervisors began informing them on Dec. 15 that prayer breaks no longer were allowed, according to documents obtained by The Denver Post.

The workers, many of whom could not read or speak English, told hearing officers that interpreters had reviewed employment policies upon their hiring, including a “Political and Religious Workplace Expression Policy.”

The policy said that employees could pray as long as business needs were met, and they should request religious accommodations through their supervisors. The workers said they understood they could pray but would not always be able to go when they wanted.

In one case, a woman who had worked at the plant since February 2012 told a hearing officer that she had never been denied an opportunity for prayer until Dec. 15.

It was normal for the woman to wait a few minutes for the supervisor to make sure the line was sufficiently staffed before approving a prayer break for a group of three people. The woman would use her paid 15-minute break to pray, the decision order said.

“The claimant was satisfied with the prayer arrangement,” the order said.

However, the woman said she asked for a prayer break on Dec. 15, and her supervisor told her she would be allowed to go the bathroom, but that if she wanted to pray, she had to go home, the decision order said.

“There was no piece of paper or policy sheet issued to the employees saying that the prayer policy had changed,” the order said.

The Muslim workers said that their religion requires that they pray five times per day to stay in favor with God.

The hearing officers repeatedly ruled that the change in prayer policy was substantial to the working conditions and was not favorable to the workers. Therefore, the workers were not at fault for losing their jobs.

The decision orders repeatedly said: “No person should be expected to choose between fidelity to their religion and their job.”

After the workers were denied their prayers, leaders in Fort Morgan’s Somali community
negotiated with the company for change. When the workers were told the company was standing by its new policy, they went home. After not reporting to work for three days, Cargill fired them.
The decision orders also revealed tension between the Somali workers and their representatives in the Teamsters union, which is led by Hispanic workers. The union did not fight for the Somalis, the orders said.

[Comments by terrorist group CAIR removed]

The attorneys have filed a complaint on behalf of the workers to the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Rachel Arnow-Richman, director of the workplace law program at the University of Denver’s Sturm College of Law, has been watching the Cargill case.

The state unemployment decision has no bearing on any federal religious discrimination lawsuit that later might be filed, Arnow-Richman said, because lawyers cannot use those results in their arguments in federal court.

However, Cargill’s attorneys should be concerned, she said. The labor department’s decision shows that a neutral party hearing the facts of the case was sympathetic toward the workers.
“Cargill is going to have to steel itself for a serious fight if it wants to continue the federal discrimination case,” Arnow-Richman said.

---

The labor department is far from neutral. They only interviewed the Somali Muslims who have legal teams the average American could never afford and have been coached to say whatever is necessary to get more money from the filthy kuffar.

Truthfully, it couldn’t happen to a better company. Cargill deserves all the agony and financial losses they get for choosing cheap, foreign Muslim labor over American workers. Cargill will fold like a cheap Muslim prayer rug and bow down to their Muslim masters as they have many times already.

Islam means submission, not peace.

• Colorado: Terror-listed CAIR shakes down Cargill again, hiring policy changed for Muslims
• Cargill gives Muslim workers gender-segregated prayer space with prayer rugs
• Cargill plant submits to sharia law for Muslims in Colorado

Please Share & Help Wake America Up

[Malsua]

I don't see this as a big deal. Most companies get sued if they deny unemployment benefits, even if people are fired for cause. It's cheaper just to pay out the unemployment.

[Ryan Ruck]

How do you make freeloading even easier? Here you go...

Amazon To Accept Food Stamps

January 17, 2017

This summer, Amazon will begin accepting food stamps to pay for online grocery orders as part of a pilot program along with six other companies.

The two-year program by the U.S. Department of Agriculture could help to alleviate what are known as food deserts, areas where residents have little access to fresh food and groceries, while also relieving some of the stigma of using food aid.

Five national stores are taking part in the USDA pilot, Amazon, FreshDirect in New York, Safeway in Maryland, Oregon and Washington, ShopRite in Maryland, New Jersey and Pennsylvania and Hy-Vee in Iowa as well as two smaller companies, Hart's Local Grocers and Dash's Market, both in New York state.

The program could represent an opportunity for Amazon, which has typically ceded the lower-income food market to Walmart. Amazon shoppers in Maryland, New Jersey, New York will be eligible to take part.

While a Prime membership costs $99 a year, Amazon has been working to broaden its reach by making it more accessible. In April the company introduced a $10.99-a-month payment plan for Prime.

Amazon may feel the need to position itself to cover the full gamut of grocery customers, not just the higher end. Walmart is still the nation's largest seller of groceries and coming soon are two European discount grocery chains, Aldi and Lidl, both of which are looking to expand in the United States, said Phil Lempert, a food marketing expert.

While a potential new market, selling to this demographic may also require a slightly different marketing push, said Lempert.

"For those who are on food stamps, their primary 'computer' most likely is their smart phone - so Amazon will have to have an education effort for these shoppers to download the amazon app to buy their groceries," he said.

Amazon said it was excited to participate in the SNAP program and is committed to making food accessible through online grocery shopping by offering all customers the lowest prices possible.

Whether SNAP users will be able to get home delivery or pick up at a more central isn't yet known. One thing is clear, Prime membership can't be paid for with food stamps. SNAP funds can only be used to purchase eligible items online, not to pay for service or delivery charges.

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), distributed $66 billion in food aid to 43 million low-income Americans, half of them children and 10% people over 60, according to USDA.

Actual stamps are no longer involved. Today recipients are given an electronic debit card rather than actual coupons that they hand to the checkout clerk.

The program has been working to innovate and expand dietary choices for its users in recent years. Today SNAP to be used at farmers markets and in a pilot program money spent on fruits and vegetables goes further.

This will be the first time SNAP has accepted online payment for groceries, though SNAP has been experimenting with programs to allow grocery delivery to homebound elderly and disabled people.