Why is this Recession so strange?

I finally realized what it is about this latest recession that is so different from any of the other ones I've lived through, people have lost confidence.  Actually, people are hopeless, but they need not be.

There is a lack of stability that has entered our lives that no amount of pundits talking about end of recessions and recovery can replace.  For many of us for the first time we go to work unsure if that job will be with us the next day.  We haven't changed or lost our skills or anything like that.  We are just unsure if those jobs will be there for us a week from now or a year from now.

I talk to people everyday who are quaking in fear about their future.  People are not sure what will happen to them and that is making them seize up, doubt themselves and become so unconfident that they cannot stand up for themselves.  They've lost that sense that things will be alright.  It's unknown.

It used to be that if you worked hard, paid your dues and did your duty you would have a successful career.  It was always an unsaid given that good workers would be safe and secure.  Unfortunately, someone left the back door open.

The difference is of course that no amount of hard work is a guarantee of continued employment.  Companies even when making record profits are still laying people off or not hiring.  The overall mindset of business has changed to a solely bottom line driven miasma that is always out for that extra half of a percent of profit on the backs of workers.  People can sense that they are no longer the heart of a company, but finance is.

So we work and we fret.  We think about the problems and what if's more than the have's and how it is.  We are looking over our shoulder, reading too much into emails and worried. We're afraid, but we need to buck up.

Confidence has nothing to do with circumstance.  It is an emotion that is separate from rational thought and reality.  We have to have it first before a cause.  The cause is ourselves and we cannot fail.  We can get through this latest challenge if we start to demand that companies start putting more thought into more than the bottom line.

Companies that put the need of their employees as part of the formula of their business's success not only make profits, but they secure a loyal workforce.  That workforce is the company in the flesh and if they stay true the company will prosper.

We want so much to be connected to something that is bigger than ourselves and if we can get that idea back into the heads of CEOs and managers, maybe they will see the benefit of having a workforce that is proud to say where they work, proud to clock in, and proud to wear that name badge.

My Follow Friday List of Terminally Tubular Tweeps.

This list is a mixture of just good people and progressives who broaden my mind every day.  No particular order; I love em all!

1.  @mamawantsthis     Cracks me up.
2.  @donutsmama          Mommy blogger extraordinaire.
3.  @nwprogressive       NW based progressive think tank.
4.  @richardkoett           Interesting guy who wants to learn.
5.  @amirightesounow  Left wing liberal progressive, so great.
6.  @robertasaithat        Progressive
7.  @babe_chilla           Mommy blogger
8.  @womanvote           Feminist Progressive
9.  @rustilyn                 One of the funniest and nicest "mommy bloggers" around.
10.  @muhajabah          Progressive, dedicated lefty
11. @brookejarvis         Progressive, writer affiliated with Yes! Magazine.
12.  @kelleysbreakrm   Lifts my day with her cracked sense of humor.  Hilarious!

Stream of Consciousness Post

One of the things that makes me stop in the middle of whatever I'm doing and just pause, think and tear up is when I see unjust activity.  I've been following so many things around the world and locally and it is getting to the point when I need to take a step.

We need to reconnect with each other and stop this silliness that we are separate.  We can't continue to walk past the obviously hurting people, but we need to be more empathetic to those who are hiding their pain.  Everyone you know has a problem that they are keeping to themselves.  Everybody hurts.


Let's be more understanding and patient with each other.  Let's give each other a break now and then.  And let's see ourselves for who we really are.

A sketch I did for July 23 Progressive Congress Event

Social Security? Hell no you can't!

I'm so angry right now that the president is considering putting Social Security and Medicare on the table in order to make a "deal" with the most radicalized republicans I have ever had the misfortune to see.  We cannot afford to give up our responsibilities just to get a few crumbs from the "we-voted-four times-to-raise-the-debt-ceiling-under-Bush-with-no-problems-at-all-but-if-a-Democratic president-wants-it-we-say-hell-no-you-can't!"

I've been following the tweets of Speaker Boehner and his laughable reasons behind the job crises can be summed up as follows:  Tax cuts, tax cuts, give my buddies more money!  It is quite sad that the actual facts of tax cuts to wealthy millionaires and billionaires does nothing notable to job growth.  Didn't we learn this lesson with the so called "Trickle Down" economics of the Reagan era?  It's like we all have brain damage.

The president of course is dealing with the hand dealt him.  We failed to make good budget decisions when we had the political clout of 2008.  We could have repealed the Bush tax cuts and solved the problem then.  Instead we diddled around feeling happy that we had elected a good person as president.  The president can't do everything on his own. 


The problem is that we got used to a cowboy shooting from the hip in the oval office.  As much as many of us disagreed with his policies, decisions and motivation, we did get use to seeing that six shooter twirling about.  When you keep stepping on thorns eventually your feet get calloused. 

The president actually leads like a president is supposed to.  He cajoles and influences with a manner that changes law and gives us longer security.  But sometimes I wish he used a club.

Thanks Michelle Bachmann

Michelle Bachmann is probably the best thing to happen to US politics in the last two years.  She is a viable presidential candidate and she is polling neck and neck with the very well known Mitt Romney.  It's too bad she's a nutjob.

I'm happy that she is running because in the last two presidential elections we have had women be serious candidates.  The "glass ceiling" has been broken and the fact that Bachmann is being taken seirously without the fact that she is a woman being THE REASON is progress.

Too many people are attacking her based on her gender just like what happened with Palin and that is ridiculous.  She has so many areas that are open to attack just from her political views that attacking her based on her gender is not only wrong, but quite stupid.  She is not a victim and attacking her gender is a sure way to make her into one.  Stick to her laughable political philosophy, religious mania and absolute disregard for facts instead.  There's plenty to see here.

American politics has finally grown up in one aspect.  We are starting to see the edge of sexism being blunted and for that I want to say thank you to Michelle Bachmann.  Now let's see what happens when people actually find out about her beliefs and world view.

23rd and Jackson

It's been a while since I've been to 23rd and Jackson.  It's one of my favorite intersections in Seattle and this morning it is living up to my imagination.

I'm at the Starbucks and the place is packed with a rainbow of people.  There are older men with golf caps and khakis talking about the derivatives market.  There is a guy with a blue tooth trying to hustle another man clad in basketball shorts and flip flops into a get rich quick pyramid scheme.  Two men are reading newspapers and reminiscing about the good ol days and a large group of mostly women have pushed together tables to have a large scale confab mostly talking about grandkids and family.

This area is in the 98118 zip code one of the most diverse in the United States. with more languages spoken in this radius than in any other in the country.  It's vibrant, loud, fast and touched with tradition that makes you feel welcomed even amongst strangers.  I'm calm.

Later today I'm working, well technically I'm early to work right now.  We're doing another action against Chase Bank and as per usual I'm an hour early just to make sure I'm there on time.  BPT is a curse I can only purify when it is work related.  My personal life?  BPT rules the day.  

Jazz is playing in the store but it is barely audible over the babble brook of human conversation.  One guy to my left is talking about hands only CPR to his friend and is demonstrating to the table that is obviously not breathing.  Uh oh, the guy who is trying to sell a pyramid scheme is working it.  The victim has a pen in his hand and is scratching away his money.  So sad.