Lawsuits Have Been Filed Over Trump Cutting Food Stamp Benefits….AGAIN!

 

I am pretty sure that those lawsuits are from agencies that help feed the poor and hungry and who are most terribly upset that the poor and hungry are going to starve thanks to Donald Trump’s latest round of food stamp benefit cuts. And as we can see, before Trump is finished, the piddling little safety net that was still in place is going to be gone! So let’s now take a look at who is suing the Trump Administration over food stamp benefit cuts and why.

Slashing Food Stamps Hurts The Poor And Their Supermarkets

A coalition of 14 states, New York City and the District of Columbia, have filed a lawsuit challenging the rule. The lawsuit notes that cuts to the $61 billion food stamp program will have a ripple effect on grocery stores.

WHAT????!!!! The lawsuits were not filed on behalf of the millions who may be impacted by Trump’s cuts to the food stamp program, the lawsuits were filed because of the “ripple effect on grocery stores?” Damn the hungry people; children and all, the focus must be on protecting capitalism and in order to do that, keep those food stamps coming because the corporate bottom line is going to suffer. Children suffering from hunger pangs? Who cares? Mothers needing food to eat in order to go out and work to keep a roof over their children’s head? Who cares? The concern is only for the supermarkets that will take a hit over the loss of those food stamp benefits.

Folks, this is the world we live in today and I for one, don’t mind if the world ends today because I have had it with this shit! People can just starve to death! Never mind that, but the corporate bottom line must be protected at all costs.

I have known hunger and may do so again. I have had to go to work with my stomach growling and I was walking to work with the soles of my $2 sneakers all but gone and one toe had pushed its way up out of the top and yet, there I was, walking to work with just a thin jacket on in the dead of winter and I knew that when I got back home, there was no need to open the freezer or the fridge or even the cupboard as there would be nothing in either one for me to eat and I would have to get up the next day and trudge along. And unfortunately, this is the plight for many, even those who don’t live in America.

I just read a blog about hunger and this lady does not even live in America and she has been hungry for some time. Hunger is no laughing matter! Have you seen the price of ‘food’ lately? This is not the time to be cutting food stamp benefits. People are dying for lack of food. If there are so many charities out there, then why are people still so food insecure? One of the reasons is that in order to access food from food shelves, food pantries and the like, one must first fill out applications and get approved. Did you read that? People must get approved before they can take food home. These charities must process applications to make sure that people are poor enough to make use of their food pantries and food banks in order to take food home. I’m not saying that ALL of them are requiring that people fill out applications, but quite a few insist that people go through an approval process before they can take food with them. There is an all out war being waged against the poor and that war is being ramped up with each Administration serving the rich at the expense of the poor. Donald Trump just recently handed a windfall to already wealthy, rich whites in the form of tax cuts and to pay for those tax cuts for the filthy rich, the abject poor must take another hit.

Why don’t you look up from those damn phones and take a look around at what is happening ALL around the world? Everything is going to hell in a hand basket while you sit there and scroll down a damn smartphone screen that’s taken the place of your brains. We don’t need a plague to turn our asses into zombies. We already are zombies, only we are such dumb zombies that we are not stumbling around trying to chomp on brains because no one has any.  And the reason why we have no brains is because for those of us who can afford to put food on the table, that food is poison. It is toxic to our bodies. Even the soil we use, for those of us who are lucky enough to grow our own food, is toxic because the white man has seen to it that no blade of grass, no soil on any continent is worth a damn. We are ALL walking toxin factories thanks to what whites have set in motion that has caused this planet to become a toxic waste dump as opposed to what it was originally, paradise. Everything that we needed to be strong and healthy was right on this planet but because whites were sent here to destroy us and it, this is the result; a toxic waste dump. Look at who is causing ALL the suffering ALL across this planet. Take a good look! And yet, we want to live by their example. Seriously???!!! The rest of us need not have taken up their sorry ass habits. We should have fought back against them with all that we had. And now, it’s damn late to be attempting to reverse the damage that whites have wrought all across this planet on the Innocent.

Everything with whites is ALWAYS all about the bottom line and to hell with anyone and everyone who is not rich and pasty. Who are ALL the billionaires? Who are the ones who can afford to use their billions to launch a presidential campaign just because they long for relevancy and want to derail the outcome of an election? Who is ALWAYS gutting social programs that help those who have been touted as the beneficiaries of those programs when the whites make more use of those programs than anyone else because they make damn sure that we don’t qualify? And yet we are put on display by the whites as the face of social programs when nothing could be further from the truth. I don’t care how brain dead you are, even your brain dead stupid ass should be able to see what the hell’s going down. And for those of you who still claim not to see this shit, the only thing I can do is “Heave A Sigh!”

 

I Heave A Sigh!

I heave a sigh for the hungry children,
who will go without a meal tonight.
I heave a sigh for the sick, old man,
who’ll be dead before morning’s light.

I heave a sigh for those who are jobless.
And for the ones who are out on the street.
I heave a sigh for those who are in cages
and for whom the word freedom, is obsolete.

I heave a sigh for a world in distress
because the needs of the many aren’t met.
I heave a sigh for the broken and forgotten
and for the homeless Vietnam vet.

I heave a sigh because my pen runs dry.
My voice is silenced by a deafening snore.
I heave a sigh because I don’t understand
why we cannot help the weak and the poor.

…..I heave a sigh!!!

Written by,
Shelby I. Courtland
© 2014 Shelby I. Courtland

Food stamps are being cut AGAIN! The hunger problem in America is about to get even worse as food shelves are already stretched. The programs that help those in need, including children, are being gutted every year and it does not matter if there is a republican or a democrat at the helm of this lopsided, sinking Titanic. The military budget is more important because killing will always remain America’s top priority. And for those who are caught up in a never ending struggle for survival amidst all the lavishness and decadence displayed by the ‘powerful’, who grin at your plight and spit in your face, I heave a sigh and my pen is drained from bemoaning your fate!

…..I heave a sigh!!!

Youtubers Are Going Crazy Over New Youtube Rules Coming Out In 2020 Thanks To A Hefty FTC Fine Against Google/Youtube

Apparently, there was some sort of law on the books, COPPA, that was being ignored by Google, the owner of Youtube.

Google to pay $170 million for violating kids’ privacy on YouTube

Google will pay a record $170 million fine to settle a lawsuit filed by federal and state authorities that charged the internet giant with violating children’s privacy on YouTube, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) said Wednesday.

The settlement requires Google and YouTube to pay $136 million to the FTC and $34 million to New York state for violating the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, or COPPA, by collecting personal information from children without their parents’ consent.

Kid influencers: Companies make millions while laws protecting children fail to keep up
Amazon’s Echo Dot Kids puts kids at risk, complaint alleges
New program teaches kids how to protect their privacy online

The FTC and the New York attorney general alleged in a complaint that YouTube gathered children’s personal information by using “cookies,” or personal identifiers, that track users online. According to the suit, YouTube earned millions of dollars by using the information to deliver targeted ads to kids.

Also, it has been stated that the FTC will also fine individual Youtubers for each and every single video that they post that is in violation of COPPA, over $42,000. Ouch!

Hundreds of thousands if not millions of people have taken to Youtube to earn a living. If anyone can remember, I posted a blog about multiple Youtubers making videos of themselves eating copious amounts of food for a living and they also encouraged their children to participate. I wonder what is going to happen to those content creators. But I do know one thing, there are many Youtubers whose panties are in a bunch thanks to the fact that Google completely ignored COPPA for years and now that the FTC has caught up with them thanks in part to child advocacy groups, the fur is about to fly starting in January 2020 as the new rules will apply.

People, seriously! Did you honestly think that the gravy train was going to never come to a halt? People had been asking me to start a Youtube channel and speak about the issues on a Youtube channel that I have blogged about. Well, I knew better and that is why I never even thought to start a Youtube channel because I don’t live in the moment. I’m a space woman. I see waaaaaay down the goddamn road and I saw this shit coming. Hell! If people weren’t so dumbed down and stupid, it was right there in front of us all, but because most of us have our heads down, staring at a smartphone and most likely watching a Youtube video, they couldn’t see the forest or the trees.

How could ANY of you think that this technology that we have been encouraged to embrace would be for our benefit? Would better our lives? People have been encouraged not to greater heights of achievements in helping humanity, but have been encouraged to act like jackasses, fools, gluttons, game idiots and assholes. And if anyone says that thanks to Youtube, videos surfaced showcasing outright murders of American descendants of slaves has helped American descendants of slaves, then how so? Because even with video evidence of Eric Garner getting the life choked out of him, what was the outcome of that? Nothing. What happened with evidence of Mike Brown lying in the streets like a dog for hours with not even a sheet to cover him after having been shot dead by a KKKop? Nothing. What happened after video evidence of multiple whites calling the KKKops on American descendants of slaves for barbecuing, selling bottled water, swimming in a pool, doing their job of checking homes for fire code violations, sitting inside a Starbucks and the list is endless? Video evidence of this shit does not matter. It never will. Whites know what the hell they do to us and them seeing video proof of other whites doing the same thing, does not a damn thing. It has changed NOTHING. So who the fuck needs Youtube? Yes, people were making their little coins on Youtube, but as we ALL know, nothing stays the same. The only thing constant is change, so have a backup plan for the backup plan or we’re screwed. And though many of us are trying to ignore the fact, the vast majority of us are indeed, screwed.

I have not been blogging because, once again, I have gone all across America trying to find some other place to live and I am right back, once again, at square one. The shit I’ve seen would curl your toes. I even spent a night in a homeless shelter to see if my suspicions about those shelters was still on point and, yes indeed, they are.

I was in Minnesota and spent a night at The Salvation Army Harbor Light Center
1010 Currie Ave N
Minneapolis, MN 55403
(612) 767-3100

This is what I was supposed to read and I pretended to not understand and so I was given this paper by Salvation Army staff.

This is the back of that.

All ‘guests’ must sign this form.

And if you go to the link, it sounds like the homeless hit pay dirt. Not so fast. The website states that there is a hot meal served. Nope. There was no hot meal served. The site states that this is a place to “begin the healing process.” Nope! When I saw the prison like cot that was supposed to be my bed for the night, I balked. I’m like, “Where is the disinfectant?” None was available. The ‘mattress’ was not even an inch thick. It was clearly older than the ‘Dead Sea Scrolls’ and underneath it was steel. I gingerly sat down on the thing and my legs started screaming because the steel edges of that thing was biting into my legs. I had to get up and sit in my walker. I sat like that for hours until I was so tired, I decided to try and lie down on that ‘thing’. When I tell you that my body hurt everywhere from being on something so hard, it should have been illegal, I am SO fucking not kidding. By the time, I struggled to get up, the cops were coming in the room, bringing in a homeless woman who had been riding the light rail. And in the room, there was four bunk ‘beds’ and so eight people to a room. I saw young and old, Black and white and one Hispanic. I smelled odors that I’d never smelled before. I cannot post pictures because I don’t want the nice ladies who were in my room to be ogled over, but I am telling you if you don’t believe me, I dare you to go, undercover, into one of those so-called ‘christian’ otherwise known as faith-based homeless shelters and tell me that what you found was so very different and better than what I found. The next morning, my cousin came to get me and he burst out laughing because he said that never had he seen bags like those underneath my eyes. He said the bags underneath my eyes were touching my toes. I told him that the women in the shelter told me that clearly I was not cut out for living like that and wondered what I was going to do. I then came clean to them and told them that I had a home, but I couldn’t stand where I was living and was trying to see if I could tough things out and live rough if I had to. They told me to get on the fastest thing smoking back to where I came from and that is exactly what I did. I traded my apartment for a hotel room and then traded my hotel room for a homeless shelter and I am telling you that I now have much more of an appreciation for those who can live rough because I’m telling you, it ain’t easy. It ain’t easy at all.

One Black lady told me that she had been in that homeless shelter for a year. I was stunned, STUNNED, I say because I could not make it to night two. She told me that she thought that she was finally going to get an apartment because a social worker had taken her to view an apartment the day before. I told her how happy I was for her and that I sincerely hope that she gets out of there. The next morning, on the loudspeaker, we were told to start packing up to leave at 8:55a.m. I saw multiple women with walkers slowing heading down the hall towards the elevator. Also, one had a leg that was obviously mutilated and it was curved outward and she was struggling to walk. I could not believe that they were putting her out of the shelter for the day to walk around like that. But the other ladies in the same room as myself had told me that it matters not what condition you are in, you are put out. And that the only way that you can stay is to get a slot on the fourth floor. We were on the 3rd floor.

The fourth floor is for those who have an income and who don’t have a problem when the Salvation Army takes 30% of their income and in exchange for really, no better conditions. The women just get to come and go as they please until curfew which I believe is at 8:00pm. They get three meals a day, but they are still sleeping eight to a room on a cot with the same type of ‘mattress’ that I had and they must also use communal bathrooms. There was one bathroom for one entire hallway and I lost count of the rooms along that hallway. There were two showers inside the bathroom with just a filthy curtain over the opening of each. One woman was washing her clothing in one of the sinks even though there were two washers and two dryers in a different area. She had no money to spend on the washers and dryers. The next time you want to put some money into those red kettles outside of Walmart and grocery stores and department stores, re-read this blog because that money is not going into helping the homeless. But don’t take my word for it. Go to one of those Salvation Army homeless shelters in a town near you, that’ll make a believer out of you!

Those places are foul as hell and are worse than prisons. And it’s not just drug addicts and drunks who are homeless. I spoke with a woman who had retired from the Minnesota school system, had a pension and was receiving Social Security and she was still homeless because senior communities claim that she was making $400 over what she could to get housed. Of course she was an American descendant of slaves and so that explains the TRUE and REAL reason why she was sitting all up in a homeless shelter. Whites will make up any excuse to keep American descendants of slaves out on the streets. That poor woman was actually saving up money so that she could afford a hotel room for a week over the holidays so that she could finally have a bathroom to herself and a decent bed. When I left that homeless shelter, I felt two inches tall because I had not been thankful for the fact that though I hate where I live, I had a home to go to and a bed that was not like that in the homeless shelter which was worse than what you’d find inside a prison hell.

And so while those who have been playing games and eating like there was no tomorrow on Youtube for a living and who are now screeching and wailing that the shit’s about to come to an abrupt end, there are people who have already bottomed out and so if you are about to bottom out when Youtube and the FTC demonitizes your channels and close you down, it will be your own fault because you refused to look up to see where you were headed, into homelessness and foul ass so-called ‘faith based’ homeless shelters. The future is now. The future is dark. And we are all fucked!

I don’t think this guy would make it in a homeless shelter. He looks too soft by far. But there he is bemoaning the fact that Youtube is on its way out and Youtube is his source of income.

And here are more who are going to be impacted.

I’d love to know what these ‘professional mukbangers’ are going to do when Youtube becomes defunct.

There are bunches of them.

Youtubers, you have until January 2020 to figure it out! That’s not that far away. Enjoy the holidays!

Fxxx White Saviors — changingthenarrative

Until we have sensible intelligent white people who are strictly going to Africa to use their platform to make a difference and strive to improve the poor conditions in the Motherland……we will continue to have exploitation of Africa’s resources and the people. There are too many images of a white person standing around a load […]

The negative images of Africa is portrayed on a daily basis through social media and on the te-LIE-vision. Black people and especially African people throughout the African diaspora must wake up to the brainwashing that is going on. What money have these white-owned charities contributed to aid in propelling Africa forward?!?! Not a goddamn thing!! Sounds like systematic financial oppression to me.

via Fxxx White Saviors — changingthenarrative

Yeah! What she said, “Fuck White Saviors!”

I am sure that many of you have heard about the white female parasite that was over in Africa pretending to be a medical doctor of some sort and who because of her fake ass pretend doctoring murdered multiple African children.

 

White Woman Accused Of Pretending To Be A Doctor In Africa Is Sued After ‘100 Babies’ Die

Renee Bach is a U.S. missionary with no medical training who left Virginia in 2007 and went to Uganda. By 2012, she founded a private NGO and healthcare facility called Serving His Children. She allegedly led people to believe she was a doctor and 100 babies reportedly died around her fraudulent care.

Why are those Africans still falling for that “Christian missionary” shit hundreds of years after those shits initially was over there fucking those Africans up while stealing my ancestors and dragging them over here, over yonder and every goddamn where? Why would those Africans continue to trust a ‘white’ face in the face of ALL that whites have done and are still doing to fuck up Africa and the African people? This shit just makes no sense at all.

Those same whites are over here in the states fucking us up and since even internet service should be up and running in some remote villages in Africa that could clue those Africans in on just what the fuck whites are up to, worldwide, then there is no reason in the world for Africans to still be trusting the whites. Especially seeing as how a Civil War is about to get started in South Africa since the whites that have taken over South Africa from the true Africans are hell bent on keeping land that does not belong to them and the true Africans are demanding that those white-assed devils get the fuck off their land.

And yet I have the nerve to sit here in the states and wonder why my Black ass is sitting over here when what went down that made it possible for my ass to be sitting here is still going down in Africa. Fucking seriously???!!! When has an African or an Amerikkkan descendant of slaves ever had a reason to trust those pale-assed whites? Never! Whites don’t mean any Black person, be they African or Amerikkkan descendants of slaves any damn good! Those debased rejects from who the hell knows where ain’t about shit! They’ve never been about shit and they never will be about shit and so why those Africans even let those white shits off the goddamn plane over there is also a complete and utter mystery to me because if I was in control, not a one of those white demons would land and come strolling up to me with their fake ass christian bullshit or any other shit! I know better! Trust a goddamn white??!! Never in a million fucking years and those Africans over there ought to know damn well better by now than to be trusting all up and down on those debased white monsters for what the hell comes with whites? Wars, destruction, theft, slavery and death and so why on earth would you welcome that shit with open arms and hand over your children to what has brought nothing but wars, destruction, theft, slavery and death to an entire planet? If you had any goddamn sense, you would not welcome that foul ass shit! You’d send it packing or at the very least run like hell away from it!

You don’t welcome your mortal enemy into your home, give it your children and expect your children to prosper and grow from something that ain’t even human. What the fuck is wrong with those Africans? Africans are still paying a fucking ‘slave tax’, otherwise known as a ‘colonial tax’ to France for the dubious ‘pleasure’ of having been colonized by those fucking bastards and so I guess it should be no wonder that others in Africa are still welcoming what the Indians here in Amerikkka called, “yellow eyes” and ‘he who speak with forked tongue” for the being the most evil and depraved, blood thirsty monstrous treaty breakers and murderers to ever slither and crawl up to their shores.

I don’t care if your African ass just climbed down out of a tree, you should still know that if what you are facing does not look like you, then run like hell away from it or fuck it up because it is damn sure going to fuck you up! And that is just what it did to your babies! What the hell is wrong with you???!!!!!

Over ALL of this shit, I am just too through!

 

 

 

On The Wicked Ways Of Man

I came back as a homeless man

And you locked me in a cage

The guards beat me ferociously

My Father was consumed with rage.

 

When next He sent me back to you

I walked across desert sand

A drone was sent to kill me

And I was back in my Father’s hand.

 

I was sent once more to shed some light

On the wicked ways of man

You once again, paid me no heed

since I had the deepest tan.

 

No more will I come for you

Your sins have damned you all

And when you die, you’ll not come here

In hell on your knees, you’ll crawl.

Written by,

Shelby I. Courtland

©2015 Shelby I. Courtland

 This one is for the Christians because you guys have just finished patting yourselves on your goddamn back  and screaming and yelling about how “He is risen!” etc., etc., and then got on with the business of hating on your foreign neighbors, got on with the business of playing fake ass do-gooders when you’re really taking all of the tithes that you bilk from the blind sheep and using it to purchase your fancy vehicles and take your grand vacations. I’ve watched as you beseeched the public for funds to feed the homeless, only to turn around and fill your pantries and freezers with the choicest meats and delicacies and gave to the poor and hungry, outdated shit and you smiled all day long over what your hypocritical ass was doing. Oh, you’ll get yours, indeed you will.

And if you are sitting somewhere expecting an announcement that Jesus has come back, are you serious? There will be no trumpet announcements and “Gather ye!” messages. Your biblical Jesus was poor and humble and walked the earth in a robe and if you truly believe that He will arrive driving a Cadillac Escalade with an Armani suit on, are you for real? You faithless shits wouldn’t know Jesus if he walked right through you. You wouldn’t even feel Him because you are dead inside. The only thing you care for is material shit and to see people who you think are your enemies, dead. You chase after ever more elusive highs because your sad and pathetic little world is really not doing it for you, is it? No, it’s not and that is why you have to deaden the awareness because you are not really living, you are just pretending because that is expected of you and you need stronger drugs and more alcohol to get you through the day because no one can know that you are not really as happy as you claim to be. But you won’t do what you need to do. You refuse to stop worshipping money and you just can’t stop being greedy, cold, callous, thoughtless and selfish. You pretend that you are not any of those things when in fact, you are all of them and so much more of the like.

If your Jesus did come back, what would He think of you? Yeah, I know and what’s more, so do you!

 

This Is How I Truly Feel About The U.S. Military!

I had originally posted this as a comment but as strongly as I feel about this, I decided that it needs a blog unto itself.

While you are reading it, I hope that you can feel the disdain that I have for you. I hope that you can sense the contempt that I have for you. I hope that you realize that you are a piece of nasty, stinking, vile ass shit and that you mean less than dirt to me. You think that what you do is honorable. It’s not and I cannot stress this enough! How can “kill by drone” ever be considered honorable? How can killing people who have inferior weapons to yours be an honorable thing to do? How can killing people while you are in THEIR country be considered, honorable? You are not fighting a foreign enemy on American soil and so what business is it of yours as to what goes on in any other country? Why are you in someone else’s country bringing destruction, maiming and death to the country and to its people? You think that there is ‘honor’ in that? Who are you shitting? Yourself? Well, I’m here to enlighten you. You are just a military whore and if you’ve ever read anything from me, then you know that I’ve called you military motherfuckers, useless military whores many times over and I will continue to do so. But I did promise to post a comment of mine and without further ado, read this eloquently worded comment and remember, I mean every goddamn word of it!

They are not heroes! They are military whores! They bend over and get fucked and if they make it back, they decide to bend over again and then if they come back fucked up after having been fucked, well now, let’s put them on a commercial since the Veterans Administration said to them, “Fuck you and get at the end of that non-existent line!” And what does Obama do? Oh, he goes to a military base and salutes his military whores and promises them the moon all the while laughing at their goddamn stupidity and blind obedience. There is always going to be a ‘conflict’ and what a nice, pretty word for war, conflict is, because as long as there are dumb motherfuckers that sign up, ‘conflicts’ will never cease. War will never cease.

We say we don’t like or want war? Well fucking prove it! Stop signing the fuck up! We don’t want to keep hearing and seeing your sob stories about how sorry you are that you fucked people up for no reason. We are sick and tired of your attempts to gain our sympathy when you had no reason to sign up in the first damn place. No one is forcing you to sign up. That is all on YOU! No one is to blame for your nightmares and your post traumatic stress and for your depression but YOU! Take some responsibility for what YOU chose to do! I don’t owe you a wheelchair! I don’t owe you a goddamn thing because I didn’t ask you to fucking ‘keep me safe’! Keep me safe from who? What enemy of mine are you keeping me safe from? America IS the goddamn enemy and you are America’s goddamn willing tool of war! I begrudge you motherfuckers, a slice of moldy bread and I truly mean that!

Now, come on up in here and try my non-existent patience with some patriotic bullshit and see just what the fuck you get for your efforts, you goddamn worthless ass military whores!

So, when you military whores bring your filthy ass eyes all up in here thinking that you are going to read about some whores that are available for you to bend them over and fuck, think again. This is about you, you nasty whores and how you yourselves bend over and get fucked by the likes of Dick Cheney, George W. Bush, Donald Rumsfeld, Barack Obama, Colin Powell, John McCain and all the other filthy warmongers and war hawks that you whore yourselves out for.

And if you bring your whorish ass back from deployment, I am sure that it goes without saying that I won’t be standing on the sidelines of a parade watching you nasty ass whores strut your wide open asshole all up and down a pothole filled street in this shithole called America. Don’t even think that I am one of the suckers that watch a commercial about ‘Wounded Warriors’ and open my checkbook to send you a goddamn penny. Why should I throw good money after bad? I am already paying for you whores to kill innocent people. I am paying for your goddamn health care. I am paying for the goddamn food that you eat. Yeah, think for one goddamn second that I’m going to hand some more money over to you because you’re now a ‘Disabled Vet’ and the Veterans Administration told you to “Piss off!” Like I’m going to continue to fucking help you? Never fucking think it!

Twelve Days!

No, I am not writing about the ‘Twelve Days of Christmas’ and I am sure that by now, the majority of my readers know that I do not celebrate most holidays. Halloween is the only holiday, dear to my heart, for my own selfish reasons. I know, imagine me being selfish, but I digress. The twelve days that I am referring to here is the fact that I am now twelve days from participating in The Homeless March, a march that takes place every December to honor the poor souls who died for lack of a home.

While people around the world are gearing up to max their credit cards out, indebt themselves to banks, shove, trample and bash people over the head for a ‘smartphone’, there are those who, can you believe it? Lack a home! And die! So, while you are speeding down the highway on a crash course into holiday madness, I will dress in layers, don my sturdy boots and muffler with my knit cap and proceed to grab a sign, any sign; the first sign I come to, lift it up and carry it for a few miles, trudging through the snow. I will carry it past brightly lit restaurants and glance in at people sipping wine and dining out, having fun and poking into each others shopping bags to have a peek at what great gift is intended for a special someone. Then, I’ll sigh and keep moving, lest I stumble into the person in front of me, also carrying a sign. We will brave the frigid temperatures and think that we are doing something, but we’re really not. This is all just a symbolic gesture. It really is. Because who am I really kidding? Myself? Hardly! Since, I am no longer naïve as I once was. I no longer believe in the inherent goodness of humanity. I have lost my faith in the decency of mankind. What has replaced it you ask? Good that you want to know because that means that one or two of you have managed to unplug yourselves from the ‘Matrix’, or are you just bored because it is SO cold out? Or could it be that you anxiously await that ski vacation that you have been promised will be underneath your Christmas tree this year. Congrats! No, I mean it. It is important that you have the means to go skiing. Think of the fun that you will have as you step off the lift and head for that high slope, the rush and thrill of besting ‘Killer’s Leap’.

I will wonder if the ‘deceased’ named in the sign that I carry ever went skiing? Did they ever sit in an upscale restaurant and sip wine amongst friends and fellow shoppers? Did they ever enjoy the feeling of being thought of as a person and not merely labeled, a ‘vagrant’, a ‘cast-off’, an ‘unwanted’ ‘the homeless dead’ ‘a name and an age on a sign’? I will wonder if they ever felt valued as a member of the ‘human’ race or if in their last days above ground, they could ever recall, there actually having been a ‘human’ race to remember? I will wonder if they ever enjoyed the ‘holidays’? Or were they always touted out by charities to encourage more donations and then after the holidays, relegated to the back door ‘homeless’ entrance since their ‘usefulness’ will be over, that is until next year. It matters not to the charities whether or not that particular ‘homeless’ person will be there next year or not because it is a well known fact that society does more to encourage homelessness than to discourage it.

And I bet you thought that this one was going to be all mushy about celebrating the twelve days of Christmas and how I intend to get a ‘partridge in a pear tree’. No, I will save the celebrating for those who think they have it all or shall I say, everything that credit cards can buy. Unfortunately, credit cards cannot buy what they really need; selflessness, kindness, compassion, empathy, decency, a soul, a heart.

What has replaced my lost faith in the decency of mankind? The sign that I will carry in twelve days!

As I march and trudge through snow,
up ahead, I see a glow.
Around a little fire,
the homeless built a pyre,
to mourn another loss.
And so they carve another cross.

Written by,
Shelby I. Courtland
© 2013 Shelby I. Courtland

‘Tis The Season To Help The Homeless….Uh, Charities!!!!

‘Tis the season to be homeless and to give to charities.
The homeless; they get recognized and you bring your checkbook please.

All year long, they get the shaft; the poor should not be seen,
but it’s time to dress them up, with some polish and some sheen.

We’ve got to help the homeless; it’s the right time of the year.
And when the season’s over, get the homeless out of here.

We preach about what good we do and how we need your money.
The ‘bible’ says to help the poor; most days we find that’s funny.

A good thing, yes we know and that is why we love Thanksgiving.
We can fleece our christian flock; that’s how we ‘earn’ our living.

So, homeless folk, you gather round; you’ll get a decent meal.
Instead of chicken broth, we’re serving up some veal.

Smile for the camera; show your need for dental work.
We’ll get some more donations; your plight will be our perk.

When Christmas rolls around, what joy for us there’ll be.
The homeless get a scarf and we get a shopping spree.

I’ll splash a homeless man as I drive my brand new car.
And serve him bread and water while I feast on caviar.

What a lovely time of year to head a Christian charity.
I’m no smelly homeless person bogged down by poverty.

Written by,
Shelby I. Courtland
© 2013 Shelby I. Courtland

The ‘faith based’ charities have the homeless out ringing bells and looking their most ‘homeless’ right in time for the season of good ‘tithings’, uh…I mean..good ‘tidings’. Time to get your checkbook out BEFORE you head out the door and give all your money to the merchants. Remember, the homeless, I mean…the charities NEED your donations to help themselves, uh…I mean to help the homeless! Don’t be stingy now, ya hear?

Frustrated!

Many times I have wanted to call it quits with regards to doing this ‘blogging’ thing and many times I have decided to forge ahead, to continue. Even though, like many, frustration kicks in because you put so much effort in before you click that ‘publish’ button. Some will get a few ‘likes’ and maybe even a comment or two and you think to yourself, “why did I go through all of the effort to research, to type and to find relevant images to display?” “Why has no one enjoyed the epiphany that I have experienced? Don’t they see what I see and if they do, then why have they not acted upon it? I’ve given them all the data they need in which to do what needs to be done.” Now, therein lies the problem. Do what? What can they do? What am I doing? I have been over this forwards, backwards, sideways, upside and down and there is just nothing that can be done to solve a multitude of the problems and issues that many face on a daily basis.

There will be no savior to sort this out for us. There will be no one person who will stand above the crowd and ‘fix it’. There will be no second coming of Christ, for those of you who believe in the first coming of Christ. We go on each day until there is no ‘next’ day. We open our eyes. We get out of bed and we do what we have to do to survive. This has been going on for centuries and it will continue until either we fuck this planet up to the point where it expels us all or we drop dead. GMO foods may kill us, a drone may kill us, or a vehicle accident may kill us, but either way, we will be just as dead. There is no way that we can fight every single battle there is. We are human and we are weak and fallible and the human body is going to seek sustenance over spirituality when push comes to shove. We can think that we have all the inherent goodness in the world, but if it came down to sacrificing ourselves in some way(I don’t know quite how) for the good of the many, what would you do? What sacrifice is worth it? What would be the point? What would change? History has shown us that even those who are held in high esteem, the ones who are in the history books for effecting change, what good did it do them? They sacrificed themselves to make people aware of the suffering and injustices perpetrated on others and look at where we are now? Not just here in America, but all over the world. What good did it do for the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., to step out of his comfort zone and get assassinated for his efforts when the Supreme Court just dealt a blow to all that he and others marched and protested, got arrested and brutalized for? What good does it do to quote Gandhi? What good does it do to quote Mother Teresa? What good does it do to quote Malcolm X? George Orwell? Or any other ‘visionaries’ who tried to warn us of where we were headed.

Yes, some people have awakened, took a look around and said, “we’re fucked!” But what else can they do? If they have not the money to build affordable homes for the poor, if they have not the money to purchase land to grow food for the hungry, if they have not the money to pay the medical bills of the uninsured or money to simply put to good use and help as opposed to aiding in destruction, then there is nothing that they can do except to try to not contribute to the problem. There are so many so-called faith based charities that are nothing more than tax exempt corporations who are not helping the poor, they are not mitigating the consequences resulting from a lack of housing, food and health care. They are in the business of lining their pockets with one hand and preaching bullshit on the other. It is hypocrisy. That is all I see when I look around, hypocrisy in the guise of charities and government officials who grandstand to win votes and then disregard their constituents needs and instead, sell themselves to the highest corporate bidder for their own selfish agenda. Self is another key word of today. Selfish, self-fulfillment, self-serving, self-centered, self indulgent, self-satisfying, self, self and self. It is all about ME, well isn’t it? If not, who is it about? Is it about YOU? What can I do for you? What can you do for me? You scratch my back and I will scratch yours. That is the mindset of today.

Why do you think that when the holidays approach, people will gladly line up and stand in freezing, below average temperatures and trample each other over what is considered to be an unbeatable bargain? Why are they like that? Why is it that they can somehow find the time to pitch a tent for a week or more in a store parking lot to grab that huge TV, but when it comes to lining up to protest against homelessness, hunger, lack of medical care, there are a few stragglers wandering around with signs while people pass by them in vehicles yelling at them to “get a job!?” No one yells at those who are lined up to buy the latest Apple product to, “get a job!” The emphasis is placed on materialism to the exclusion of all else. If you don’t have it, you’re a loser. There are going to be winners, but there are going to be so many more losers and the winners have the microphone. The winners own the papers, the media and they feed us Kim Kardashian and Justin Bieber and Rihanna and we eat it up. When Kate Middleton or Michele Obama struts an outfit, there is a stampede to purchase said outfit. That is what is important? No, but it is to those who have been programmed by the people who control the media and who shove down their throat what is important.

So, just because we have not joined forces and somehow stopped a world takeover does not mean that all of us are simply sitting around awaiting the latest chapter on Tim Tebow, it is just that we are all limited in what we can do. I can volunteer. I can advocate on behalf of those who are suffering. I can even sometimes help house a homeless person. I can continue to keep the issues in the forefront. It does not matter if I never get a ‘like’ or a following. If I am talking to myself, so be it. The fact that I am sharing my thoughts, sharing what is important to me, sharing my frustration at the status quo may be all that I can do because I see no other way to get my two cents in, but I will not point the finger at another and say, “you are not doing enough.” I know not what they are dealing with and so I will concentrate on what I am dealing with and hope that I can somehow find it in me to help someone else, even if it is only one person. I cannot change the world. I can only say to the world, “we’re fucked!”

Non Profit Charity?

The CEO’s salary of this ‘charity’ is in a race to the top!

It may be called the ‘Red Cross’ but the CEO’s salary is definitely in the Black!

More like ‘Goodwill’ for the CEO.

What is the definition of a ‘non profit’?

An incorporated organization which exists for educational or charitable reasons, and from which its shareholders or trustees do not benefit financially. Any money earned must be retained by the organization, and used for its own expenses, operations, and programs. Many non-profit organizations also seek tax exempt status, and may also be exempt from local taxes including sales taxes or property taxes. Well-known non-profit organizations include Habitat for Humanity, the Red Cross, and United Way. also called not-for-profit organization. source:http://www.investorwords.com/3331/non_profit_organization.html

So, if the CEO of the Susan G. Komen Foundation nets a salary of $684,000+ expenses, what is that considered? Reportedly, the charity is cancelling half of the 3/day race for the cure events next year due to the economy. Is it really due to the economy or is it due to the fact that those who participate in the Race for the Cure must raise $2,300.00 before they are allowed to race. It is quite obvious to me that the money raised is going more to pay outrageous executive salaries than is going into research to find a cure.
Each participant is required to raise at least $2,300 to participate. That might feel like a big obstacle, but we are here to help you every step of the way with tips and tools.
source:http://www.the3day.org/site/PageServer?pagename=learn_about_what_is_the_3Day#more

I remember back in the day, we would get a sign-up sheet and hand it around to our friends, co-workers and other people we knew and they would write in how much they would pay us per mile for walking for charity. After the event, we would get paid based on how many miles we walked. There was no pressure to reach a goal of say, $2,300.00. Whatever we turned in, we assumed it would help. After all, we were volunteering for charity. What passes for ‘charities’ these days are nothing more than corporations with a tax exempt status masquerading as charities, especially when CEOs and other executives are paid hundreds of thousands of dollars. With that much money being paid to executives, just how much is going to fund the purpose of the charity? No CEO of a charity should be receiving damn near a million dollars and the ‘corporation’ is still considered to be a ‘charity’. That doesn’t even make any sense because no charity should be considered ‘nonprofit’ when its executives are ‘earning’ salaries that are, to put it mildly, over-the-top.

Back in the mid ’90s when the Red Cross came to my ‘rescue’, the CEO’s salary was $200,000. Today, it is..well..see for yourself.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/…/charity-ceo-pay-questione_n_496317.html‎

Mar 12, 2010 – Senators question $1 million pay for charity’s CEO – wtop.com … Red Cross only gives $.07 on every dollar to the people in need.

Next up!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/…/goodwill-workers-disabilities-low-wage_n_…‎

Jun 21, 2013 – As some workers were making as little as 22 cents per hour in 2011, Goodwill International CEO Jim Gibbons made $729,000 in salary.

Some disabled workers are paid .22 per hour and it is legal for this ‘charity’ to exploit the most vulnerable in our society while the CEO rakes in $729,000+ expenses(over three quarters of a million dollars). Where is the hue and cry of outrage over this? We are truly rotten to the core when we know that CEOs of charities are receiving outrageous salaries and we have no problem with this. We are sadly lacking in courage when we do not stand up for those disabled workers who are being exploited. We are ridiculously apathetic when we can know that only .07 out of every dollar is actually put towards helping those that the ‘charity’ was established to help and we just shrug. It is no surprise that these ‘charities’ are paying their executives these ludicrous salaries, etc., because they know that the general population is just too self-absorbed to care or to complain. Business as usual.

And to think that many of us have a problem dropping a dime into a cup held in the hand of a homeless person because we fear that he or she will only get drunk. Why is it that we do not hold executives of the so-called ‘charitable organizations’ to the same standards? You have no problem dropping $50.00 or more into the coffers of the Red Cross when according to reports only .07 out of each dollar will actually go to those in need. So, are you still wondering why there are so many in need? If you are, ask the CEO of a ‘charity’why!

Fear

Wherever I will sleep tonight,
I’ll get another bedbug bite.
No comfort shall I know,
in cots, row after row.

No peaceful dreams for me.
No cocoa, no hot tea.
Just a smelly, creaking cot
and the scent of fungus rot.

“Who’d want this life?” I wonder.
And everyday, I sit and ponder.
How much longer can I last?
Will this ever be my past?

All they say is, “move along!”
When I rest, I’m in the wrong.
I know for me, there is somewhere.
But right now, I live nowhere.

My bed is on my back.
Or in another homeless ‘shack’.
I guess I can’t complain.
I’m not in the pouring rain.

I bow my head in shame,
since they think I am to blame.
Some of us do drugs and drink.
We can’t help it if we stink.

Sometimes, the shelter’s full.
Don’t they know I’ve got no pull?
I’m just a number and that’s all.
They’ve yet to take my fall.

They’ll never understand,
nor guess, it’s all been planned.
When we meet up here someday,
their fears I can’t allay.

There’s troubling times ahead.
More like me without a bed.
They can’t see. It’s not yet clear,
just how much there is to fear.

Written by,

Shelby I. Courtland
©2013 Shelby I. Courtland