Oops! Almost forgot the 4th graphic I did today

Yeah, it's that simple. Fear is not a relationship.

Getting a few things off my chest with Photoscape

Ideas tend to build up slowly in my brain until several pour out one day.

 One design seems to spark another. Help yourself to these.

 And I go, "Oh, yeah, we can do this also..." Distribute freely.

 Photoscape (free!) software available here.

Race to the Bottom

"But he saw too that in America the struggle was befogged by the fact that the worst Fascists were they who disowned the word 'Fascism' and preached enslavement to Capitalism under the style of Constitutional and Traditional Native American Liberty." --Sinclair Lewis, It Can't Happen Here

From the manga "Nekoduke"

Some Measure of Regret

• GOP 2014: "Hey wait—there's a pregnant woman in that polling place! Oh my god, she's voting! Stop her! Help me, quick!"
• [The single woman's hand moves closer and closer to the ballot—] 
• "Nooo—!" 
• [McConnell wakes up in a cold sweat]
• [Hillary smiles hideously as the stake is driven through her heart] 
• "You think I'm dead? Hahaha!" 
• [Bohner jerks awake. He caps the bottle]
• [Bundy drones on to reporters] 
• MILITIA1: Won't that old fool ever shut up? 
• MILITIA2: He played us for fools—
• MILITIA1 (furious): Shut up!
• [Video: Bundy tells us about 'Nigroes'] 
• [Hannity yells into a phone] 
• "You told me this guy would be the story of the year!"
• [listens]
• "Oh yeah? Well, now we're fucked!"
• [Paul Jr. stops in hallway; turns to Aide] 
• "Look, I don't care how, but get that Bundy off the air! He's going to blow everything wide open!"
• [Issa hisses into his cellphone] 
• "Look, I told you there's no way Hillary could win—Chelsea is pregnant!"

Driving the message home: the Ryan budget disaster

It's not the big money numbers that's important about the "new" Ryan budget; it's the big people numbers who are affected by this blatant attempt to balance the budget on the backs of the poor.

 

Source: DailyKos

Jobs like eager puppies

I keep reading about how there are typically 100 applicants for every one job opening. I don't know how anyone can look at figures like that and assume the unemployed are lazy, rather than victims of a vicious numbers game. I say vicious because far too many corporate business owners are spreading around far too much money to keep it that way. We're not unemployed by some statistical fluke; we're unemployed by design. It's deliberate.

I can't help thinking about the early 1980's when computer electronics were taking off. PC's would save the world. Some of the chip foundries and manufacturers were setting up tents in their parking lots and literally hiring people off the streets. All these generous employment benefits you read about today (and wish you had) began in that frenetic time. But then someone, who surely has a special place reserved in Hell, came up with a brilliantly simple solution: set up the hiring tents in developing countries and just forget about the generous employment benefits.

What if we had a hundred job openings per applicant instead? Let's say our economy has a massive turnaround (say, American dollars plowed back into American production like Adam Smith first intended), and the factories are booming. The fast food franchises are forced to trot out their burger-making bots since they can't hire enough desperate people to keep going. HR professionals are in despair; how are they going to hire enough people to meet the demand?

You open your email and your inbox is stuffed with job opportunities. Big splashy ads dripping with enticements and benefit packages. Spammed with employment. And these companies want to do their level best to persuade you to drop the well-paying job you have now to go work for them. Recruiters set up hiring fairs at high schools, offering college degree programs as performance bonuses. The need for trained labor is so great, state administrations now subsidize two-year degree programs--just maintain a specified grade level and your tuition and books are paid for.

And those job opportunities don't go away. Like other forms of spam, they follow you around everywhere, like puppies whining for attention, trying to jump up on you and lick you, barking and playing: Come on, throw me a resume! Throw me a resume! These job opportunities are so cute, rolling over, waving their paws in the air, yawning with big pink tongues, snuggling together in your inbox to snooze until it's time to check your email again.