the disgusting greed and selfishness of Republicans

[undeterred]

The Brit Hume comment about deciding to buy futures when he heard about the London attacks made me think of a job I had a few years ago in a small office full of Republicans downtown Chicago. They were MBA/Financial Analysts who kept their eyes on the markets all day long. All the water cooler talk in this office was about money, and all they thought about was how to get more of it.

I was the office manager and it was part of my job to order lunches for meetings with clients. These were $15 box lunches, very very nice. One day we had 6 left over. Later that day I asked if anyone wanted to take these home and they said no. (Leftovers, how dare I suggest something so demeaning.) I asked if I could give them away to homeless people. They each objected: Where are you going to find homeless people? Don't you think its dangerous to walk up to those people? I think its just wrong to give handouts to people who don't work. You're just encouraging them to beg.

My boss said it was ok though.

I felt like it was wrong to throw away good food. It took me about 5 minutes to walk around the block and find people begging, in the financial district, and give these expensive box lunches away.

A chill went down my spine as I walked back into this office where people thought about increasing their own personal wealth all day long but would rather throw food in the garbage than give it to someone who was begging.

[givemebackmycountry]

1. That about says it all....

The old proverb goes...

"God helps those who help themselves"

I like to think he's got a soft spot for those who help others too.

[doublethink]

14. That quote is from Greek Pagan Mythology ..... not Proverbs ....

"God helps those who help themselves" is no-where to be found in the Bible. And yes these peoples 'God' is mammon, money. Peace. :)

[Roaming]

29. I thought Ben Franklin said that quote...

[doublethink]

35. He very may well have ... but then he either read it in ....

Aesop’s fables, of the 6th century B.C. “Hercules and the Waggoner.”

‘O Hercules, help me in this my hour of distress,’ quoth he. But Hercules appeared to him, and said: ‘Tut, man, don’t sprawl there. Get up and put your shoulder to the wheel.’

The gods help them that help themselves.” -snip-

The saying “the gods help those that help themselves” evolved to “God helps those who help themselves” as the phrase was repeated and passed on from culture to culture throughout the centuries. And, Christians, as well as others, often quote this phrase thinking it is Biblically based, without realizing that it actually originated from pagan mythology.

Peace. :)

[doublethink]

36. Wanna know another odd one?

Just for the heck of it. :) The thumbs up sign :thumbsup: actually meant in the Gladiator days of Rome to 'send the poor bastard to heaven' kill um. And the :thumbsdown: sign meant to ahhhh let him live, keep him here on earth. Hollywood f ... that one up in the movies so now everyone understands it in the opposite way now-a-days. Peace.

[NoSheep]

2. Shame on them :(

:applause:

[bryant69]

3. You know what sends a chill down my spine?

Spiders.

Very similar, though.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[getmeouttahere]

4. Nice post, undeterred....

what these money-grubbing pieces of shit fail to realize is that the vast majority of homeless people, and indeed poor people, do not choose to be homeless or poor. I encourage you to keep performing your random acts of kindness, ultimately it will be returned to you tenfold, I believe.

[jsw_81]

16. Really?

Come out and visit downtown Seattle or Portland sometime. Apart from the mentally ill there are TONS of people who choose to be homeless/poor. And I for one am sick and tired of being accosted by them on every street corner or red light.

Why should I feel guilty about wanting to make money and be successful? I'm no freeper but this whole anti-capitalism kick that many DUers are on is very troubling.

[undeterred]

23. "TONS of people who choose to be homeless/poor"

Wow, I've never met anyone like that in my life.

[Cleita]

5. This reminds me of a story of a woman who was having

lunch in an upscale restaurant. It was one of those places that served baskets of very fresh French rolls at each table. Sitting outside on the patio one day she noticed one of the busboys throwing the uneaten bread rolls in the garbage. When she inquired of the manager why they were throwing perfectly good food away that could be donated to homeless shelters, he didn't have an answer.

Well, she finally got through to the executive offices of the restaurant and convinced someone there to change their policy and donate uneaten food (not that on anyone's plate of course) to the homeless shelters. None of these executives ever thought of this until someone had to point it out to them. :eyes:

[undeterred]

11. There are rules about how food can be donated

to homeless shelters- I found this out when I worked in that office. I sometimes had trays of food I could not donate.

But when you know the food is fresh enough to eat, and people are begging on every street corner, there's got to be a way.

[Karenina]

39. Night shoot on Sunset Blvd.

Huge limo pulls up and fat cat strolls out. Everyone is offering him MORE to eat as I'd noticed an aging waif outside our chain-link fence, quick made him a sandwich and passed it through as several other SEGs shielded me from sight. An "alert PA" saw him eating and sent security to chase him away. All of us involved in feeding the poor man had long since "faded into the backround..."

[CaliTeacher]

6. The right wing...

...has selective amnesia when it comes to Reagan closing all the asylums and putting the mentally ill out on the street. So many of our homeless deal with serious mental health issues and have no access to proper care unless they end up in jail. Check out the Frontline report:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/asylums/view/

[ucmike]

7. i had the misfortune to visit rnc hq during the nyc convention

i was there to discuss installing a wireless link between their offices on the 20-something floor to the roof of madison square garden next door.

the rnc guys were the most paranoid i've ever met. they were concerned that someone would intercept their signal. it was baseless paranoia, but they were soaked in it.

i talked to them for a while when the big boss (i don't remember his name) announced that they weren't risking it. i tried again to assure him our systems were safe, when he said to me "do you see the interns we have here? (pointing out at a cube city full of bright eyed stepford interns) if i have to get important information to the convention floor i will print it out and have one of them jump out the window with it...and they'll line up to deliver the next message."

he was so arrogant and dismissive of the little flunkies, it was pathetic. in his mind they were simply dispensable, like office supplies. i laughed at all of them, him for being so pompous and the interns for thinking they were an important part of the operation when their bosses had total disdain for them.


the other thing that was funny, was that they wanted to install the microwave equipment in a lunchroom window where only the low level staffers and interns ate. they were terrified of their enemies breaking into their systems so they wouldn't discuss putting the equipment on the roof, but had no problem exposing their low level employees to the microwave signals while they ate lunch. the group i was with didn't use the lunch area, so they wouldn't have been exposed.

[undeterred]

28. " they were simply dispensable, like office supplies"

I've been working as a contractor for the last four years, not by choice. That's exactly how I felt when I got cut from an assignment on short notice- having a manager walk up to me at 10am on a Friday and tell me it was my last day...

[dogday]

8. Money is their God

Don't be deceived by their "religious" crying. Their God is money and power, plain and simple....

[montanacowboy]

9. In the Movie "The Corporation"

this wall street trader said when the towers were falling all they could think about was how much money their clients would be making on the gold market...

there is a special place in hell for these people and if there isn't I sure as hell don't want to know

[jojo54]

10. The mindset of freeps is just amazing

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

ME, ME, ME, ME, ME, ME, ME, ME, ME, ME, ME, ME, ME, ME, ME, ME, ME

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

ME, ME, ME, ME, ME, ME, ME, ME, ME, ME, ME, ME, ME, ME, ME, ME, ME

[FreedomAngel82]

27. Yes

It's like when Bush started his priviate plan for SS. Hearing the republican callers talk about me, me, me. One of my favorite new quotes is from James Roosevelt and that is "Is it going to be me all the time or is it going to be I and we?"

[tjwash]

12. They are the same bastards that laugh and make jokes...

...when a wildfire destroys power lines and they get to jack up the price of electricity. Or think it is just hilarious when a company lays off eight thousand people and their stock goes up three dollars a share.

You know--the party of moral values.

[Ysolde]

13. Your post perfectly illustrates the difference

between US and THEM. I have compassion and concern for all because I truly believe that there, but for the Grace of God, go I. THEY, on the other hand, think they are SPECIAL and WONDERFUL because of their wealth and privilege, not that they are just VERY lucky. THEY have no compassion because they have no imagination nor empathy. Truly, truly sad.

[jsw_81]

15. Hate to be the devil's advocate

But the "greed" that you decry means jobs and prosperity for millions of people. It's true that our system has all kinds of flaws but without the incentive to make money and become wealthy it it is highly unlikely that we as Americans would enjoy our current standard of living. Just think of all the people who might become poor -- possibly even homeless -- if that greedy downtown office had to close.

There's nothing wrong with extending a kind hand to the homeless but you want to make sure that you're helping in a positive, constructive way that might actually lead them toward a new life of work and responsibility rather than a life of begging and despair. What's that old saying about teaching a man to fish rather than just giving him a fish?

I don't know much about Chicago but out here in Oregon there are lots of people who literally build their "careers" around begging on the streets and never change. One homeless woman lived behind a local bookstore for something like 20 years until she passed away a few weeks ago. The memorial service was filled with all kinds of flowery talk about what a nice woman she was but I couldn't help but wonder why she never tried to better herself and escape poverty. It's almost like people were proud that she lived in a cardboard box and made a "living" by digging through garbage cans for almost a quarter-century. Call me a greedy, heartless, capitalist bastard if you must, but I thought the whole situation was pretty damn pathetic.

[undeterred]

17. Just how much of a background check does one need

to do to give away a box lunch that was going in the garbage anyway?!

Giving money is one thing, as it can be used for drugs or alcohol, but how can you question giving food?

A lot of the homeless in Chicago were mentally ill inpatients who were dumped on the streets during the Reagan administration. Many of them don't really have the living skills to make it own. Many are veterans who should have access to services and benefits but somehow they've fallen through the cracks. Many were runaway teens who never got a good start in life. All are more vulnerable to crimes that will never be prosecuted.

What scares me is the incredibly judgmental attitude that people on the right have towards the poor. If you're poor, you must be lazy and stupid. If you are buying food with food stamps, I have the right to look into your shopping cart and judge whether you're making smart choices or not. I have the right to know your life story and judge it and tell you what you're doing wrong before I buy you a cup of coffee.

As someone who is highly educated and has had 22 months of unemployment during the Bush administration, I do not have trouble imagining myself as homeless. And if you can't picture yourself there maybe you haven't realized just what bad economic shape this country is in and that it could even happen to you...

[VaYallaDawg]

32. Exactly!

Whatever kind of God you believe (or don't believe) in, the real manifestation of God is in helping our fellow humans. Giving money is one issue - it may end up in drugs or in creating more evil. But giving a hungry person food (like giving a thirsty one water) ought to be a basic need for all of us.

[tjwash]

20. Yes, and it's that attitude exactly that right at this moment...

...is having jobs being shipped off to India and China, to the cheers of "hooray for capitalism" being shouted by the unemployed right wingers whose jobs they just shipped off.

You are making a basic mistake in your logic. You are confusing Corporatism with Capitalism. Capitalism died years ago, after corporate special interest groups got the federal government to sign free trade into law, and gave the green light to the latest crop of mega mergers and mega multi national corporations.

I know you are just trying to play devil's advocate, but open your eyes. These people don't care on little bit about about you, their employees, the environment, ANYTHING but their bottom lines, and their own bank accounts and stock options. And if yet another CEO just happens to get a sweetheart deal from a contractor in India with zero environmental restrictions, and pennies on the dollar for labor, they are gone tomorrow.

Believe me, I know first hand. I spent years in the nineties flying back and forth to Malaysia, Thailand, and The Philippines setting up those very sweatshops and assembly lines, and hiring local labor for companies. It started to weigh to heavily on my conscience, and have never done that type of work again. I have been an extreme advocate against it ever since.

[Hidden Stillness]

31. You "Hate" to be the Devil's Advocate--But You Are

Not to sound like I am totally attacking you, because it gets tiring on these websites, but your whole post was full of so much of the illogical false-attribution that deregulators think with, that I wanted to mention a few of them. By the way--Hi, undeterred, and another great post.

The claim that all good flows from greed and exploitation is, weird, to say the least (and why did you put quotation marks around "greed"?). The middle class is being destroyed by corporate greed, that narrows prosperity down to an ever smaller group of bankers and investors, until finally our country itself will be unneeded for their profit. Have you not been to the Midwest lately? We don't have manufacturing jobs; there are good, hardworking people here who have not had a job for years, and have been searching all along. We have made progress and a good life, on the contrary, only by fighting you people, with labor unions, government programs, laws, etc. Witness your comment about "our current standard of living": What do you think "our" current standard of living is? It is clearly not yours (one clue: no stocks in the stock market, so, "going down").

"Extending a kind hand to the homeless"--Oh, wasn't that cute? Makes it sound like the sappy sentiment you obviously believe it is, rather than the right under a civilized society that others feel it to be. If you don't want to be accosted by homeless, mentally-ill, etc. people, then why do you cut their social services, which are their only lifeline? "What's that old line about teaching a male to fish...?" etc. What's that old line about corporations polluting the waters until there are no fish? Your attitude works well if we are all living in a pristine rural setting where our pursuit of food can be uninterfered with, but nonsense when we are living in a corporate marketplace rather than a country.

You last paragraph was cruel and heartless and contradicted by your own earlier remark. At the end there, you claimed they liked being homeless, "proud," "wonder why she never tried to better herself and escape poverty" (??--gee, Einstein; mental illness, maybe?), yet earlier, first paragraph, you mentioned that people might easily lose everything and become homeless if the workplace closed and they lost their jobs. Doesn't that clarify to you that that is how it happens?

Again, the greed that makes capitalists fight workers' compensation claims, injury on the job claims, pensions, benefits, pay raises, all other things that were earned but not gotten, and to shift all their taxes onto us, are really not doing us a whole hell of a lot of good. We are helped by unions and workers' rights advocates, fighting against you.

[tjwash]

33. What the corporo-fascists eventually want to do...

...is get rid of anything that does not go into their own pockets. Pesky little things like universal health care, welfare, food stamps, etc. That's why they are running up massive debts, and trying to bankrupt the federal government. If we continue the course we are headed, eventually, all social programs will be replaced by "bring out your dead" carts.

Then they can live behind their concrete and barbed wire "gated communities", surrounded by armed guards, while the 90% of the non rich class live in squalor. One set of laws for the 10 percent elite, another set for everyone else.

Just like a lot of third world countries I used to visit.

[KharmaTrain]

18. I'm In Chicago...I Bet I Know These People

I've had lots of dealing with bankers and accountants...these people truly have lost any sense of humanity. Everything is the latest interest rate or how to screw someone out of a couple sheckles or how they finished ahead of someone else. People are numbers...and respect is based almost soley on net worth. When you have no money, they couldn't dare to glance your way. However, come back with $20,000 burning in your pocket and they become your best friend...they just love everything you do. Sheesh.

[undeterred]

37. They're pretty much all the same

inside and out. One of the marks of corporate culture is the total supression of individual identity. The men wear suits so similar they could be uniforms- and any little sign of nonconfomity is considered a threat.

[Krist]

19. right on

All they do over at Freep is find more reasons to hate gays, muslims, blacks, hispanics and democrats.

The anti-Muslim rhetoric is sickening over there. They openly incite others to kill muslims, nuke all their citizenry, etc. Traces of the ol' lynch mobs of yonder are not hard to trace.

Sick and disturbing bigots.

[undeterred]

21. welcome Krist!

:hi:

[Krist]

24. hi there

Yes, I am a former freeper.. got kicked out for trying to talk sense into those Xtian bigots.

[stepnw1f]

22. It Really Comes Down To Not Caring

They can talk all they want, but the proof is in their actions. You either care or you don't. Sure... there are degrees I suppose, but in the end, these types illustrate how much they don't care.

My experiences have been very much the same as yours. I believe too many Republicans are disgusting humans.

[FreedomAngel82]

25. These people never cease to amaze me

Every day I find something new about them. And these people claim to be "compassionate conservatives"??? Thank goodness there are people like you out there and so many of us here who actually want to help other people. :hug: Very sweet of you. My family grew up on left-overs and I love them. Especially left over spgahetti. Last time I was at an aunt's house and they had a lot of food left over and threw it away! I was amazed at how much people waste.

[gulliver]

26. They only think they are being selfish.

They do the wrong thing for the wrong reason (selfishness), and theya re even wrong about their reason. Letting the world go to hell is not strategy or principled selfishness. It's stupid.

[baby_mouse]

30. VILE

Worshippers of Mammon.

[The Blue Flower]

34. More than one side to the issue...

Yes, this greedy, heartless mindset is disgusting. But I've worked with the homeless, and for the most part there are many factors that cause someone to end up on the street. It isn't laziness, but mental illness or a slide into substance abuse that ends with that situation. Those of us on this board who have gone through extended unemployment most likely would have the mental and emotional resources to avoid being out on the street, no matter how low the bank account got. There are those who simply do not have those resources, for a multitude of reasons. So while it's true that some people are there because of their own choice, you can't paint them all with the same brush and say they are not worthy of compassion.

[WLKjr]

38. That's the difference right there between a Democrat and a Republican

I use a similar argument when explaining why I am a Democrat everytime I get question why I associate myself with this party.


It's simple I tell them. FDR is a role model to me and should be for all Dems,

-He showed leadership during hard times
-Stood up for the average American
-He showed compasion through caring (ie,public works projects, getting people back to work
-led the U.S. through a financial depression and the second world war
-Had a since of pride duty to this county(never letting people see that he was crippled, there is a quote about conservatives for this one too.)
-He had progressive vision and plans, SS is still here today, one of the most successful programs in the US governments history. This probably won't be topped until someone with bawls like FDR gets universial medical coverage for all Americans regardless of ability to pay.
-He gave Americans hope, and put pride back into thier hearts. How do you think he was elected 4 times?????? must have been doing something rigth. My grandparents still talk about that man and how he got this country back up and moving again.


I could go on and on. Bottom line, Democrats show compassion and a willingness to help people at the drop of a dime, because they realize that if they were in that position, they would want help. I guess you could say that most Dems are born with it in their genes....Love thy neighbor and do unto others.


Republicans on the other hand.....well, they just don't care until it hits them, then they EXPECT help, even though they called the guy they saw the other day a bum who was hungry and possibly dying on the street corner....a guy/gal who was just like them only 6 month's ago with a good job, loving spouse, good home and lot's of money. But something happend and this is where they ended up due to the Republican concept of everyone bieng lazy & stupid if they are homeless/jobless, so fuck them is the attitude until it happens to them. Then it matters.

You also have no say on what to do in your life
You also have to live just like them or your worthless (famous quote from my grandpa, FDR dem)
A lot of them go to church on sunday and raise hell on monday (yet another)



Face it republicans, I just told the story of how you relate to EVERYTHING.