I want to work together with other unemployed workers here in Ohio to tell our stories. The post I made on January 21st about how Ohio Department of Job and Family Services (ODJFS) treats unemployed workers as criminals has been getting a lot of comments from my fellow unemployed workers. I have seen some asking what they can do. Many of us can not get someone on the phone or get any money paid out from ODJFS. This has become a huge problem since the new year, but I am learning from others that it has been a problem since before the new year for many. Some want to protest. But it occurred to me while reading peoples comments here on Gonzo Times that we might have a tool to reach a lot of people at home and draw more attention to the issue. We have our real lived experiences. We have what we have suffered through during this pandemic. It is one thing to hear someone say there is a problem. It is another to see and hear about our real lived experiences and struggles. One of the most powerful things we can use is our stories. Stories get attention on the six o’clock news and seeing a face and a real person behind this to see what is going on just might go a bit further.
Continue readingOhio Treats Unemployed as Criminals In Response To High Unemployment
The new stimulus package (The Federal Consolidated Appropriations Act) signed by Trump at the end of December 27th 2020 was to bring relief to many Americans. With the $600 stimulus it also carried with it an extension of unemployment and a $300 additional weekly unemployment payment. Many states have been reporting that this $300 has been going out to unemployed workers. A few of the payments have reached some Ohioans. Many Ohioans have taken to social media though to express frustration over what looks like up to 4 months of no unemployment payments whatsoever. On Reddit a group has formed of frustrated workers who have been dealing with the sudden shut off of unemployment payments in Ohio. Many are reporting no payments in quite a while. Ohio has failed to contact people or relay what is going on.
The coming conflict will closely resemble the Civil War in Syria
There are not two sides to the current conflict going on right now in the United States. As I write this it is January 9th, 2021, a couple days after far-right white nationalists, neofascists and authoritarians stormed the Capitol as congress was certifying election results of the 2020 election for the President Elect Joe Biden. Many on the right printed up novelty T-Shirts with the date January 6th, 2021 with the words “Civil War” written on them. There are those who want what they call a Civil War on the far right.
Power is in the Neoliberal Nation State which serves the interests of large corporations and big business, they are there to serve the rich. This faction is who sits in positions of power. Mao Zedong said, “Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.” And the state has the upper hand there. The fascists have loyalists in the United States government. They have supporters with positions of power in these institutions either elected or appointed and they will be a problem in the coming days. The right will be trying to regain power in a struggle between Republicans and Democrats for these positions. Both parties have lost faith of the citizens of the US. Their support and approval are not high in a country where most have little to no allegiance to the powers that be.
Continue readingI take no issue with the tactic, I do take issue with the cause
Conspiracy theories have become mainstream in politics from Hannity peddling conspiracy theories of the Deep State to Qanon telling people some rubbish about pizza shops feeding children to Democrats. It has not helped that the President of the United States also has been spreading his own conspiracies and lies. The right-wing make-believe world they imagined with the help of the reality star in office and the constant right-wing media falsehoods, has made an impact in society.
Yesterday the far right gathered in front of the Capitol building then stormed it, temporarily delaying congress in the process of certifying Biden as the 46th President of the United States. Social media went nuts. Most of the world watched in fascination for the entertainment of the spectacle. It did not change the results. There was little to no resistance from the police. It was simply a protest. A few windows were broken, and some guys got away with Nancy Pelosi’s mail and a podium, some souvenirs of the day. They marched at the orders of the President himself. They marched for a man who lived his whole life wealthy and privileged because his daddy was rich and powerful. They did not march for the people; they march for a rich man and a rich politician at that. But really there were underlying issues they marched for. They marched for fascism and racism. I say that because many who were in there are long time self-proclaimed neo-Nazis and Fascists. These are the same kind of folk who declared victory when Trump won saying that their side was embraced by the American people.
Continue readingTrump, the Silver Spoon Spoilt Brat is about to have one hell of a temper tantrum and it could get very bad
It looks as if Biden has been declared winner of the 2020 election, and is the President Elect. And Trump is losing his shit. The spoilt brat is about to have a melt down on a national level like a child being sent to his room kicking and screaming blaming the parent unable to accept the reality he is facing. If you grow up your whole life with a silver spoon being given everything you want, not being told no it might be hard to imagine you might not get everything you want. But here we are, the pampered rich boy still acting like a bratty child in his 70s having a lame duck temper tantrum on a national level with way more power than a raging child should ever have.
Continue readingNothing Will Fundamentally Change, and they delivered
Right now we do not know the results of the 2020 election. It is the day after the election, and I pretty much avoided the media circus yesterday through it all. I managed to forget about it. Not because I don’t care, but because I had to for my own sanity. I couldn’t just follow this nightmare driving myself crazy. I voted, and there is nothing more I could do. This representative democracy works that way. Even if you manage to vote in someone from the other party, I have no power over the policy and laws they pass. I have little to no viable options to vote for representatives who represent anything I would back, support or believe in. There is no change coming from the ballot box, and Biden stated himself that “Nothing will fundamentally change.” We really see what that message brings us in this election. We see the democrats choosing a right wing candidate is not a slam dunk at all. Why would it be?
Continue readingLet’s Get Started
It’s been a while, Gonzo Times shut down sometime around 2013, and I withdrew from it way before that. The old url wasn’t available anymore, some greedy tech bro asshole is sitting on it waiting for someone to give him money for it, so fuck him. I’ll go with a hyphen before paying the ransom. Also, I don’t got the fucking ransom money to pay the asshole.
WordPress changed and seemed to have added a lot of rubbish nobody ever needed only to frustrate this old man. So, here I go….
How To Make A Human Being
People are created over time though social means. The act of making other people in and of itself is a social interaction. From conception to death, a human being is nothing without the social world around them. To see a ‘natural person’ existing outside of social influence seems an impossible task. To attempt to create the ‘natural person’ without social influence would be an unethical experiment to attempt to undertake. Let us say one did attempt this experiment. We would have to ignore the social act of creating a person, because to have a human being other people must fertilize an egg, carry it to term and deliver the child. This child is now taken and placed in an environment that would nurture the natural person without social influence, what is this? Oxana Malaya, a young girl raised by dogs was socialized by the dogs which raised her. Her behavior was formed by the socialization with animals, she barked, howled and crawled on all fours. A person who might survive the wild would need assistance from birth, and if in the wild, as we see, would simply be socialized and created by the animals which enabled the survival of the child.
Continue readingIs Post Scarcity possible?
Lately I have been reading more Kropotkin and Bookchin. Both of them have elements of post-scarcity found in their visions for anarchism. I have always perceived this as a utopian ideal that I liked. Post-Scarcity: is a hypothetical form of economy or society in which goods, services and information are free, or practically free. This would require an abundance of fundamental resources (matter, energy and intelligence) – Wikipedia. In looking at the concept I have been trying to understand it on a level I find real and practical. I have been trying to see how this non-market system would work, how it is implemented in a real world situation. I am, not rejecting it, I am not claiming it is possible, I am simply trying to gain an understanding of it and see how it might be possible.
Continue readingAmerikan Meritocracy
My neighborhood always has colorful people and just as colorful incidents. The cops like to swarm in here like we are some kind of war torn country. I don’t smoke in the house so I head out to my front porch to smoke. I come outside and yell conversations across the street to my neighbor Frank while the neighborhood kids play basketball in my front yard. I stepped outside to smoke as I saw three cops running from their car back behind the houses. One had a shotgun with a little orange flag on it. The other two pistols drawn. Oh boy I thought. They are after someone again. I always get nervous around cops. I get even more nervous when they are running with guns drawn. I went right back inside to hide and listen for gun shots.
Continue reading