Gawker
Hamilton Nolan
August 13, 2012



Every week, we're bringing you true stories from those caught in the unemployment crisis. The official U.S. unemployment rate is 8.3 percent; the true rate of hopelessness is much higher. This week: cops, businessmen, lawyers, students, academics, and other fellow Americans. This is what's happening out there.

The former cop

I quit my job in August of 2011. I was a cop and after ten years I had decided I had enough. I worked with corrupt, racist officers and for even more racist and corrupt bosses. I tried to stick it out best I could. I went to IAD. I got promoted so I could maybe make changes myself when my request for assistance with IAD went ignored. The harassment only got worse. It's bad enough being a woman in a man's world, but try being one who won't go help steal personal property or let you beat up that black man. Every day was emotional warfare. It was tough, but I was tough. For a while. There comes a point when you just can't stomach it anymore. So, for the sake of my sanity and to keep me from actually driving off the bridge on the way to work like I had envisioned myself doing many times over the past decade, I quit and decided to finish my Master's degree. I thought I would have no problem finding another job, after all I have a BS and a BA, not to mention I'm a decorated veteran and have a diverse resume. Boy, was I wrong.

I've been looking for work for almost a year now. I've been surviving on my GI Bill, I have been denied unemployment and I've watched my credit sink as the credit card bills pile up. Just last month my car was repo'd. Inside was everything I owned since I was partly living out of it. I have no f family to turn to, and I don't want to burden the few close friends I have, but I've been doing my best to keep a positive outlook. but it's hard. The few people I've talked to about this seem to not understand how soul crushing it can be to not be able to contribute to society. The GI Bill is alright, but it's not enough to live off of. In a few weeks, I will be homeless. I've been working since I was 14. I'm 32 now. I'm 32 and go to bed every night hoping I won't wake up in the morning. I thought I was depressed before, well I hadn't seen anything yet. I've researched on the internet, looking for ways to kill myself painlessly, but so far I've come up with nothing. So here I am.

I've been applying to anything and everything. From McDonald's to places I'm not even qualified for. I get told I'm either overqualified or unqualified. No one is willing to give me a chance. I try not to come off desperate in interviews (the half dozen I have been able to snag in these long 12 months), but I'm sure they can smell it on me. I'm willing to do anything forever if I need to. I won't bail at the next best thing because mainly, I'm serious about finishing my Masters and then getting my law degree. I've moved four times in the past year in search of work, and so far nothing. I can't go back into law enforcement because my credit is shit. I may have a job prospect in Ithaca, NY, but I need to finish out the semester here in Los Angeles before I can move. And then I need to figure out how to get out there.

And you know what doesn't help? Being told it will get better. For a while, I believed it. Then I lost everything. I don't even know if it will get better. I don't know how I can make it back from here. All my life I wanted to be a lawyer helping out the poorest in my native Detroit. I want to make this happen, but how can I when I don't even know if I can make it through tomorrow? Coming back from an interview a few weeks ago (when I still had my car), while driving past some construction, I thought about how easy it would be to just jerk the wheel and careen into a Jersey barrier. I thought about how quick my death would be with that sudden impact at 85MPH. I even took off my seatbelt in anticipation, but in the end, I was too fucking scared to do it. I was scared it would hurt. Sitting here tonight, writing this, I wish I would have done it.

Thanks for listening to my story.

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Audience Participation

nojo
6:14 pm • Saturday • August 11, 2012



Doesn’t compare to being a homophobic bully, but Paul Ryan’s high school classmates had his number.
{via RyanLizza}

http://www.stinque.com/2012/08/11/kids-say-the-darnedest-things/

Published on Aug 10, 2012 by TheRealNews

Cities around the country, from Baltimore to Oakland, are taking legal action against the banks responsible for suppressing the London interbank offered rate, Libor. And some 75% of major cities involved in libor-tied interest-rate swaps stand to reclaim taxpayer losses in addition to libor-backed mortgage holders who lost money on the rate's manipulation.

More news at http://therealnews.com

Dear Mr. Romney,

We have contacted you now several times regarding your missing tax returns for years ending 2000 through 2011. To date we have only received a partial return for year ending 2010 and a "projection" of taxes for year ending 2011. Unfortunately this is inadequate documentation to evaluate your financial history and allegiances, which are critical to understand your previous behavior.

Given the disappointing Swiss bank accounts and Cayman shell corporations that we have previously discussed, these documents are now critical to better understand your past financial background. This understanding is in turn required in order to make an informed decision regarding your capability to perform the financially sensitive position that you have applied for.

If you have recently released the tax returns for years ending 2000-2011, please accept our sincere apology and we will continue to evaluate your application. If however we do not receive your tax records for the years ending 2000-2011, we regret that we will be unable to process your application, and unable to consider you for the position for which you have applied.

If this is the case, we want to send our appreciation for your effort and application and encourage you to reapply when you are better able to meet with our admittedly high standards.

Thank You and Best Regards.

The American People.

Earl Gray · Top Commenter TPM · Sr. Controls Consultant at Honeywell

[font size=3]Ex-Idaho senator: Bathroom trip official business[/font]

SFGate
JOHN MILLER, Associated Press
Updated 7:32 p.m., Friday, August 3, 2012


[font color=gray]FILE - In this March 6, 2012 file photo, former Idaho Sen. Larry Craig, center, chats
with state representative Marv Hagadorn, left, with Rep. Raul Labrador, right, and
his wife Rebecca at the Ada County Republicans caucus on the campus of Boise State
University in Boise, Idaho. MANDATORY CREDIT Photo: The Idaho Statesman, Joe
Jaszewski / AP[/font]


BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Former Republican U.S. Sen. Larry Craig aims to fend off a federal election lawsuit against him by arguing his infamous June 11, 2007, Minneapolis airport bathroom visit that ended in his sex-sting arrest was part of his official Senate business. Craig is hoping to avoid repaying $217,000 in campaign funds the Federal Election Commission claims he misused to defend himself.

The FEC sued Craig in June in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., alleging he converted the campaign money to personal use by spending it on his legal defense after he was accused of soliciting sex in a Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport bathroom. The commission argues Craig's defense had no connection to his campaign for federal office.

Craig counters that money tied to his airport bathroom trip was for neither personal use nor his campaign, but fell under his official, reimbursable duties as senator because he was traveling between Idaho and the nation's capital for work. He cites a U.S. Senate rule in which reimbursable per diem expenses include all charges for meals, lodging, hotel fans, cleaning, pressing of clothing — and bathrooms.

"Not only was the trip itself constitutionally required, but Senate rules sanction reimbursement for any cost relating to a senator's use of a bathroom while on official travel," wrote Andrew Herman, Craig's lawyer in Washington, D.C., in documents filed Thursday.

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- Hmmm, so is he saying he can pay his oral sex-sting lawyer's fees under the meals per diem? Got any proof Senator? A menu??

Published on Jul 22, 2012 by vigilantchannel

The man who forced the government of Iceland to resign and kicked out the IMF representatives from his country, Hordur Torfarson, is now teaching meta-modern democracy throughout Europe.The rest of the world would benefit from following the example set by Iceland: Arresting the corrupt bankers who are responsible for the current economic turmoil.

Full employment contributes above all to achieving human dignity. ''It's nice to be important ,but is more important to be nice.''

The financial crash in Iceland in 6 minutes according to ABC´s 20/20. (Youtube)

Iceland economic crisis documentary (Youtube)
http://www.crisiswatch.net/EconomyCrisisList.html

Follow:
http://www.sott.net/ | http://rt.com/ | http://therealnews.com/t2/
http://www.oneworldscam.com/ | http://www.globalresearch.ca/ | http://www.savethemales.ca/

The true measure of the leader is not how many follower he has, but how many leaders he creates. Too many people hold the idea that psychopaths are essentially killers or convicts. The general public hasn't been educated to see beyond the social stereotypes to understand that psychopaths can be entrepreneurs, politicians, CEOs and other successful individuals who may never see the inside of a prison.

The difference between bankers and the mafia is becoming increasingly indistinguishable. ''Mastering others is strength,mastering yourself makes you fearless.''

Control Your Money or Your Money Will Control You Change your attitude toward debt. Every time you use credit for a purchase think,"Debt is slavery; I am making myself a slave."

"Manipulators rarely advise you to seek new and diverse information or to 'learn and research for yourself,' it tends to be safer for exploitative and irresponsible leaders to keep their citizens in the dark; in their view less independent thought is better. Independent thought leads to an inquiring mind, a mindset that eventually leads to the questioning of authority figures, and that is the one thing that inadequate leaders do not want."

Governments have never existed to solve problems domestic or international. Governments and their institutions exist merely to further and secure the interests of favored groups, but We the People are never the favored group.

Magna Est Veritas Et Praevalebit

''When it gets down to having to use violence, then you are playing the system’s game. The establishment will irritate you – pull your beard, flick your face – to make you fight. Because once they’ve got you violent, then they know how to handle you. The only thing they don’t know how to handle is non-violence and humor.'' ~John Lennon

Reader Supported News
By Jonathan Weil, Bloomberg News
03 August 12


[font color=gray]The logo on the front of a branch of HSBC. (Getty Images)[/font]

To grow up in South Florida during the 1970s and 1980s, as I did, wasn’t your typical American childhood experience. Back then the area was known as the most dangerous place in the country. Carnage from the drug wars filled the local news long before “Miami Vice” became a hit TV show. By elementary school, my friends and I knew some of the lingo. A Colombian necktie wasn’t a piece of clothing, but a gruesome execution method. When I was 7 years old my barber was murdered in his shop, apparently over a drug deal.

It had been a long time since I thought much about those days. By chance I recently came across a fabulous documentary, “Cocaine Cowboys,” by Miami filmmaker Billy Corben. Then last month a Senate panel held a hearing on the U.K. bank HSBC Holdings Plc (HSBA) and its ties to drug lords, money laundering, al-Qaeda and rogue nations such as Iran and North Korea.

Here’s a bank with $2.7 trillion of assets that flouted U.S. laws for a decade, according to the July 17 report by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. HSBC turned a blind eye to organized crime, Mexican drug cartels and overseas terrorism financiers, and gave them access to the U.S. banking system. HSBC’s main U.S. regulator, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, for years tolerated its violations of anti-money laundering laws.

For this, HSBC and the OCC apologized. Justice Department fines are likely. It’s an outrage HSBC hasn’t had its U.S. banking licenses revoked, assuming the Senate panel’s report is accurate - and there’s no reason to believe it isn’t.

Published on Aug 2, 2012 by AlJazeeraEnglish

Bangladesh has ordered three international charities to stop providing aid to Rohingya refugees from Myanmar. They provide life-saving nutrition to thousands of people. Al Jazeera's Nicolas Haque reports from Dhaka.

[font color=red]IF THAT'S YOUR GIRLFRIEND SHE WASN'T LAST NIGHT[/font]

[font size=4]WONKETTE[/font]
by Rebecca Schoenkopf | 2:23 pm July 31, 2012



FACEBOOK. And MITT ROMNEY. There they go again, putting people in JAIL. And all because the nice young man to the (above) left did not like seeing tall, dark, and handsome Mitt Romney smiling his suave smile from the young man’s girlfriend’s Facebook page. So he smashed her computer into the wall and punched her in the face. As one does when one’s girlfriend is mooning over a mysterious stranger (MITT ROMNEY).

Lowell Turpin, 40, (of Tennessee) “angrily demanded to know who the male was,” reported Anderson County Sheriff’s Department investigators.

Crystal Gray, 38, “replied that it was a picture of Mitt Romney.”

Despite being informed that the man on Gray’s wall was the presumptive Republican presidential candidate (and not some hunky, severely conservative sidepiece), Turpin apparently was not placated.

Indeed not. Because it was probably this picture, don’t you think?

[center][/center]

RROWR!

{TheSmokingGun, via Fark}

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