99er's - Here we go! Talks of deadline extensions already starting!

First topic message reminder :

Unemployment benefits fading away

Nearly all Americans who find themselves out of work starting next month will likely receive only 26 weeks of state unemployment checks -- at most.

Why? Because the deadline to file for extended federal benefits expires at the end of the year.

"Most people who lose their jobs after July 1... won't be eligible for federal unemployment benefits," said George Wentworth, senior staff attorney at the National Employment Law Project.

http://tinyurl.com/5uv8h3w

Are we going to sit by and let this happen again? Any help for the unemployed MUST include legislation for the 99ers this time. If we don't act NOW, we will be "SOL"!!!

And, there's currently soooo much division and disparity that at this time, there was no realistic way possible that 99% of say a 'democratic' party would have even remotely been heavily favored and has shown that much ability to support us, changes for middle class, and stop the GOP/big business deals/breaks. Even Obama himself, avoids the subject matter and Pelosi also, at same time I remain very positive because we are growing in numbers and believe the middle to end of July we are going to be heard and heard loudly.

I really wish someone would look at the UE picture as a whole. Because everyone including Barabra Lee has been going on estimates. I believe the 99er prob is far worse than the estimates and is only going to get worse. 99ers need help and fast. Get the numbers from the states get the true facts then go over the problem and realize the 99ers need help bad.

47,000 per week every week in California alone, according to its state department, if thats not a bad enough number of citizens not being able to contribute to spending in the marketplace, then I don't know what else is, and where are all the politicians talking on radio shows, twitter, facebook and on floor speaches in DC daily or at least weekly about this matter????? Boxer? Sheila Jackson-Lee? Durbin? Waters?
Stabenow? Nothing really on any of their personal twitters or websites directly addressing this or their intents/plans in support or for helping us. We have to keep fighting along way, and plan to keep at sherrod Brown in Ohio.

That may be mj, but think of it this way, everyone went Repub in November, many out of anger. In NJ, we did not have a repub candidate who ran on jobs, economy or help/relief for the unemployed and we have a 9.6 rate of unemployment? When you vote in anger you get tax cuts for the top 2, with current elected officials now looking to get them more tax cuts, no jobs plan, no relief for the long term unemployed with the exception of we need more tax cuts. I for one do not want to live in a country of the "haves and the have nots". I am not a serf, nor do I want any of us to be, I fear that is the direction we are being taken. Who cares if we don't make anything, if we don't have jobs for everyone, I care, we all should. What was the major cause of the turmoil in Egypt, high unemployment, no jobs, desperately low wages. That's not what we are as a country, it's not who we are as a country. When we cast our votes, we have to research and find who best represents our needs, our futures even if not perfect, not vote because you don't think the Democrats moved fast enough or didn't get the extension pushed through fast enough, because you get Paul Ryan, John Boehner, Mitch McConnell, Michelle Bachman and company. They don't speak for me, they don't make sense when they lay out their tax break plans, they have no credible proof that granting tax breaks will in fact create jobs, not many have been created by those that benefitted from them in December's extension and they won't seek guarantees from them, just like they sought no guarantees when they bailed them out in 2008, then they fought like hell to defeat Dodd/Frank. While not perfect it is a foundation to build on for the future, like healthcare. Yesterday, they killed the banks (in their opinion) with the defeat of the fees. Our money making them even more profits. At times I am a simple person, if you can't afford to build a business without tax breaks on everything, which is how most businesses operate anymore, then how did you get your start up loans. Who is backing you if they only way you can afford to keep a business running is on the backs of a tax payer? The big argument in Wash DC is that the unemployed like being home and taking hard working tax payers money, well, isn't that exactly how banks and businesses are making profits soar? I am all for helping people, but it's out of hand they just don't see it. The Democrats are for people benefits, the Republicans are for corporate benefits all the while claiming they are deficit cutters, of course, that is only when it involved people who need help and benefits, not corporations. It's funny they have yet to notice that the very people they bailed out have nailed them to the walls of the House and Senate by not using the money to lend and create jobs. Three years later they still don't get it.

I see your point and what you mean. Im not one ofthose 'norm' that vote out of anger, have voted same past four years independently and for best candidate, so guess don't personally fit that mold or mainstream. with that said, have to imagine there are plenty that jump ship and change as often here stories like taht of experienced voters into politics on radio shows etc...

The bottom line is there is so much disparity and no matter how much we vote for one particular party, whatever that may be, in this case democratic as you say, theres just still to much history of a backing in remote areas that it would not have made a difference yet and they would still have such disparity and division with long drawed out debates in the house/senate. Places like Alaska, Texas, etc.. as we know have been one sided and supportive of their own philosophies, taxes, and economic 'theories' that it will take still another 3-5 years for enough change to be made, looking REALISTICALLY at past trends. just my 2 cents worth/opinion.

What just a minute now Desperate!

When you start turning parodies around to suit your perception you have to get your facts straight!

First of all, you misquoted me in your post. My “tongue and cheek parody”, involves the Chicago Cubs, not the Chicago White Sox, as you inadvertently misstated. That’s a critical difference! As any serious baseball fanatic will tell you, the White Sox’s just won the championship in 2005 and historically they have a track record quite unlike what the Cubs have. The Cub’s winless drought is unprecedented, just like what this current unemployment crisis amounts to. Now, I suspected you might be a part of the Red Sox nation, as you apparently reside somewhere in Rhode Island based on your choice of a website moniker. Although I am not a Red Sox fan, I am also very familiar with the “curse of the bambino” and know the details about its background involving the “sultan of swat”, Babe Ruth. Until their 2004 championship, the last time the Red Sox won the World Series was in 1918; which is ironic because they played the Cubs in that series. That is a drought that encompassed 86 years for the Bean Town Bombers. It you want to use this Red Sox example to motivate you to stay the course with an optimistic attitude with this unemployment campaign, I would be very hesitant to embrace an 86 year old World Series winless drought as your figurative steroid to pump up your motivation level. Translate that kind of time frame, even with an allowance for inflation to this unemployment situation, and we will all be long gone, having long ago shuffled off this planet, by the time congress gets around to passing this bill.

All levity aside, you saw on a separate thread the email I received and provided to you from Robert Reich earlier this year. Apparently you hold him, as I do, in very high regard. As indicated, even though Reich supports unemployment benefits contingent on an 8% threshold being met, he also believes a Republican controlled house will never go for another expansion of unemployment insurance, perhaps only occurring if a “double dip” recession takes hold.

However, as I have said previously, in my view the Republicans are not the main or only obstacle right now for moving HR 589 out of this gridlock. The Democrats are in a stranglehold as they need to publicly support their incumbent sitting President, who gives strong signals out that he does not, in worst way, want to see this bill ever grace his desk. It is obvious why Obama wouldn’t want to see this bill, as he believes it would only magnify the unemployment problem. Exposing this problem for what it really is, rather than what he would like it to be. With HR 589 posing potential harm to his performance as President, Obama’s desire to be reelected in 2012 likely overrides any compassion he may personally harbor that would push him to support a bill such as HR 589.

Personally, I don’t trust Obama as far as I can see him, as he has a rootless background, having used my state of residence, Illinois, as just a part time rent-a-state in order to pole vault himself into the oval office. The CBC, being at the forefront of this bill, most definitely needs to expand their political power base within their own democratic party if they have any thought of moving forward with this bill.

Lee and Scott cannot pretend to the unemployed of this country that this campaign for HR 589 is going anywhere fast with the track record presented so far. Democratic names on a support list mean very little if none of those representatives will advocate proactively for this bill, which has proven to be the case so far. I don’t think Congresswoman Lee is the “sharpest knife in the drawer” to solely advocate in the lime light for this bill. Either the Democratic Party leadership needs to be on the front end of this issue or others in the party need to step up along side the CBC to take on an extremely polarized GOP who consistently demonstrates their lack of compassion for the unemployed problem.

Continuing to hold onto a confidence level that would only foster an attitude of strong optimism is shortsighted in the face of so many miscues since this bill was first introduced. Initially, the CBC equivocated about the funding for this bill; yes it will it be paid for, then they changed course and pushed it as an “emergency measure”, which then just gives the GOP an easy excuse not to support it, lending fuel for dragging this out. Then the preliminary meeting the CBC had at the White House with Representative Cleaver telling the President point blank that HR 589 is cost prohibitive and then pulling back on promoting it, undermining a golden opportunity to solicit the President’s support. Then the second meeting at the White House with the full CBC contingent and its reported Obama both dismisses and discounts the unemployment problem as primarily a minority based issue, trying to give the appearance of the issues limited nature. Then the Lee/Scott meeting with the GOP leadership occurs and Lee comes out of the meeting reporting that it went very well, spreading what turned out to obviously be false optimism to the unemployed community. I would think someone who is in a position in congress would know whether the GOP was either just patronizing them or sincere about their convictions to move this bill forward. What subsequently occurred since that meeting is an absurdity after the fact. The GOP coming out with a bill such as 1745 just made fools out of the CBC in terms of the picture they presented after their GOP leadership meeting. The CBC publicly reported after the meeting that they were told by Boehner to go work with the Ways and Means committee to find a funding vehicle in order to apparently get the GOP’s support to any degree for this bill. That obviously never occurred and so it goes.

Desperate, I realize you and some of the other members are investing a considerable amount of your time and effort on a daily basis maintaining and keeping this website going. With that effort, it would behoove one to justify maintaining an aura of optimism, making all the sense in the world for you to continue to vociferously engage in this battle for HR 589.

Make no mistake about it; I would like to see HR 589 happen as much as you do. I have sent out a considerable amount of communications to congress over the last several months seeking some form of relief for both myself and the wider community of unemployed. However, given the current state of affairs, unless I see some positive signs that this bill has a realistic shot, I need to temper my time and effort with continuing to advocate for this cause to the degree that I have previously done.

On a positive note, as you know, the economic news continues to be very negative. If it continues in this vein, this may be the driving force that is needed to help turn this HR 589 campaign around by giving it some wings.

Short response to this Ron -- if something doesn't happen very quickly, there are going to be millions living in the street, including me. Any job creation program at this point is too late. We need help right now, the money has run out and we are destitute. That is why I MUST remain optimistic. Failure is not an option anymore.

DesperateInRI wrote:Short response to this Ron -- if something doesn't happen very quickly, there are going to be millions living in the street, including me. Any job creation program at this point is too late. We need help right now, the money has run out and we are destitute. That is why I MUST remain optimistic. Failure is not an option anymore.

cheers to that! Failure is not an option...especially now when the sh** is about to hit the fan because of the new unemployment rate etc. now is the time to push.

yes, it's pretty much quite simple with the current problem of unemployment at hand as for what needs done

1) providing immediate short/intermediate financial assistance to the long term exhaustees

2) businesses working directly with educational institutions and training type programs on the localalized/state levels (government is not needed for this to happen)

3) government providing some assistance to co's for hiring incentives, subsidized job opport's, & educational opport's (1 month, 6 month programs/tech/cert's at most) that are more long term and can't be initially met at localized levels

Desperate, I realize you and some of the other members are investing a considerable amount of your time and effort on a daily basis maintaining and keeping this website going. With that effort, it would behoove one to justify maintaining an aura of optimism, making all the sense in the world for you to continue to vociferously engage in this battle for HR 589.

Just a note on this part of your post, Ron. I don't think I need to justify why I maintain an aura of optimism, the reason I do is obvious and it certainly isn't to keep this forum up and running. I wish I had better things to do with my life, but with no job and all means of support just about gone, I will keep fighting for some justice for the innocent victims of this Great Recession.

I find this part of your post a bit condescending. The Admins and Mods here give 200% here everyday of the week. It isn't only to advocate, there are times when members need support from people who understand what they are going through. Please don't belittle the people here who truly want to make a difference and change the current course our economy is taking now.

However, given the current state of affairs, unless I see some positive signs that this bill has a realistic shot, I need to temper my time and effort with continuing to advocate for this cause to the degree that I have previously done.

"A quitter never wins and a winner never quits."

We aren't all worry warts here, we know this will happen!

Desperate:

I am sorry to hear you personally took offense at my post, as no personal insult was intended. I was neither asking nor expecting you to justify anything to me about what motivates you to spend your time here. I have nothing personal against you or what you do. I am just making a distinction for myself in the course of the context of everything else I said in my previous post. Like you, I have put considerable time into closely following and evaluating all this political business the last several months, but unlike yourself, I can no longer remain as optimistic as you and others still appear to be in the face of such significant adversity. Never having met you, we are limited to being strangers to one another, just responding to the written words that we write about, concerning a subject matter in which a common interest is shared.

Please understand, I totally realize that this website is just a means to an end and not an end in itself. That it provides a service for unemployed people who are similarly situated. Who can exchange information, thoughts, and ideas and also seek comfort in a community atmosphere that will extend compassion during these difficult times. That is all for the good!

Nonetheless, I am very sorry to hear about your situation being destitute; hopefully a job opportunity will come your way sooner than later. Although my situation is not as dire yet, my life is significantly diminished from what it previously was. Also, I am not just fending for myself, as I have the added stress of two children who still depend on me for their support day in and day out.

I guess maintaining an optimistic view of this really just boils down to having faith. Like with religion, faith in a higher being or power… one either believes or does not. It cannot be proved absolutely. Scientifically, there is no empirical evidence one can point to serving as definitive proof that would act as a basis for maintaining or strengthening a certain religious belief. It is faith based.

In the matter at hand, I would like see some positive evidence very soon that I could logically rely upon, so that I could evaluate the facts and draw conclusions that would support maintaining an optimistic view of this situation. However, I just don’t see it anymore. My mind is not completely closed to these prospects as of yet, but it is certainly getting close to that point.

"Desperate, I realize you and some of the other members are investing a considerable amount of your time and effort on a daily basis maintaining and keeping this website going. With that effort, it would behoove one to justify maintaining an aura of optimism, making all the sense in the world for you to continue to vociferously engage in this battle for HR 589. "

Ron if this is how you see this site, you are missing the boat. We are here to advocate for the unemployed and the 99ers and to give a home to people who need understanding and a place to come where everyone understands. Maintaining this site is a full time job, but it is a labor of love for many of us, particularly Desperate. To say your comments should not be take personally is a non-denial denial. It was personal. You opinion was stated loud and clear, you are certainly entitled to it but in case you didn't read it before you posted it, you did, in fact make it personal to every Admin/Moderator and member of this site that works every day to get our story out their and to help keep members who are having a harder day than we may be,upbeat and positive.

I am sorry you feel that the information flow on HR589 is not up to your standards. I can include something like, could you please forward an update or any information on the progress of HR589 in my correspondence and hope to get a response. But please note, if I get one it will be posted for all members and not to be reviewed and decided upon as to whether it is worthy of our continued efforts to advocate for benefits for the 99ers. Like most 99ers, with no prospects or actual jobs to apply to, advocation for jobs and additional benefits cannot stop, we have no choice. The choice we make is to remain positive and keep going, the alternative to that is not acceptable to us.

Friends, let's all smile, rethink our blessings that we have been given to us that at one time or another we took for granted, and just take a deep breathe and try keep in mind we're all we have, each other as we have that to out advantage, we live in each others shoes, maybe different sizes and colors and brand names, but for most part have been living similar lives as far as being out of work sector as for paying jobs that we strive to get back. It's ok to vent, complain, and at times blame others and then apologize as we come together for common cause. Try read, watch, remember, something that touches us and puts our most compassionate side of us back into the mix when we seem to get off track. At times we all sweat the little things in the big scope of what is going on.

Mary Kay:

Frankly, I don’t see any need for you to have either interjected any additional criticism or render your own personal advocacy of your fellow worker by continuing to negatively “push the envelope” on that particular statement I made in that post. However, since you seem well motivated to just jump into this fray with both feet, after I offered your co-worker a thoughtful response to her initial attack of my statement, and then compound this further by criticizing the content of my peace offering, then, for the record, I offer to you this rebuttal for your further reflection on this matter.

I strongly contend that offering your brand of self-serving interpretations of my words, based on your erroneous assumptions, not only misses the mark completely, but also serves to stir this pot needlessly further along the road of unwarranted antagonism toward my statements.

In my view, there is absolutely nothing inherently out of order with the statement I made in that previous post that was incorrectly deemed offensive by both you and “Desperate In RI”. If anyone has “missed the boat” as you so characterize it to me, it is not my view of what is going on within this website.

First of all, this entire statement that you take issue with really should be construed as a compliment, when I referred to both you and “Desperate In RI” as hard workers. I stated and I quote… “I realize that you and some of the other members are investing a considerable amount of time in maintaining this website”.

That innocent statement in and of itself is just my recognition of your daily efforts that I have observed in what it takes to keep this site current. Further to recognize your continued efforts to promote these various issues on behalf of the unemployed community. I see nothing negative in drawing and articulating that particular observation at all.

Furthermore, the next statement I made you take issue with is “with that effort it would behoove one to justify maintaining an aura of optimism”. Again, on its face, there is nothing inherently negative or “condescending” with that statement either. In my view, I am only saying with the effort your crew puts in, it is most definitely a considerable amount of work and personal commitment that goes along with this effort. Consequently, of course you wouldn’t want to then just undermine this designed and purposeful effort by focusing or unnecessarily amplifying excessive negativity. As long as constructive criticism is encouraged and developed, this can all be very positive for the benefit of all concerned. In other words, both the effort and degree of optimism go hand in hand to help perpetuate the reason for having this website in the first instance, and secondly to foster the ultimate goals of this forum that are in place; which is to provide a service of resources and sense of community to the unemployed community.

Finally, the last segment of the statement at issue is and I quote “making all the sense in the world for you to continue to vociferously engage in this battle for HR 589”. Again, I do not see any words that were meant to insult anyone’s effort, as you both so alleged. At the outset, I took recognition of your efforts, then I concluded that based on those efforts that it made sense to foster an optimistic environment to help motivate the membership to continue their assault on congress to persuade them that HR 589 is desperately needed.

Specifically, in this statement, I am only addressing the issue of HR 589, not anything else because that is my primary concern for myself. With that said, never did I say that UFF 2 is just relegated to only being a one-dimensional focus for advocating only for unemployment benefits. I am completely aware that this forum site provides other components and resources for the unemployed community to draw upon. That is so understood and self-evident that it goes without saying and doesn’t need any further articulation.

Now in terms of your follow-up post to all this monkey business, I can assure you Mary Kay, I read what I write. In fact, F/Y/I, I proof read all of my posts before I enter them into the public domain of this particular forum, or any place else for that matter. So, before you decide to run off half cocked attempting to impugn my character by making unfounded accusations and rendering your indictment of what you think I said and meant, I strongly urge you to turn around slowly and take a hard look in the mirror at yourself.

Moreover, you then specifically accused me of making a “denial” of your compatriot’s accusation. It apparently was taken incorrectly as a personal insult by both you and your colleague. There is nothing of a personal nature here; you are both part of a website just discussing unemployment issues. Your personal identities are not even disclosed. I will say this; based on both your reactions to my statement that you both take issue with, you are taking this much too personally. You appear to have lost your sense of perspective based on your demonstration of a gross over reaction to my statement. You both just expediently jumped to making incorrect assumptions about what was said without even questioning me in terms of what I possibly was saying. You just unilaterally drew the conclusions you wanted to make to suit yourselves, discarding the idea that maybe additional discourse might be helpful for the benefit of everyone’s clarification. By getting on your high horse and operating in that fashion you both needlessly turned this constructive posting into an adversarial or defensive discussion. This forum website should be separate and apart from both your personal identities. Also, as it should go without saying, this website should not be set up to have immunity from any constructive criticism or overtly discourage such types of discussion from its various members.

Now with that said, I think that the real truth of this entire affair is this. It is my sincere belief that “Desperate In RI”, decided to just “cherry pick” a statement out of the entirety of my post in order to twist it to render an attack against me, because she or he decided that the entirety of that post was not to her or his liking. At the outset of that post, I addressed the parody I previously presented and took “Desperate” to task good naturedly. Given the subject matter of sports being brought into the discussion, I did this just in the spirit of levity, because she or he turned the point of that parody completely around from its original intent to comport with her or his view. However, when “Desperate” did this, she or he then misquoted me regarding the correct reference of the team involved I was talking about. “Desperate” for some reason, apparently thought my parody referred to the Chicago White Sox, when it obviously was about the north side team, the Chicago Cubs. In pointing this out, I good naturedly gave her the raspberries about the incorrect reference. I suspect this then set her or him off and created a motivation to criticize me by wanting to dish back to me what her or his ego couldn’t handle in this instance.

Ron S,

I encourage you to provide as many essays as you can tonight, because in the morning you will not be able to so.

Let it all out because you need to get it out. I can tell. Hopefully this will be very therapeutic for you.

We care about our members, keeping this forum positive and moving forward. I care about anyone here having their character miligned over and over. Do you think your posts are effective and encouraging? I don't.

Do you think you can provide an brief apology to your fellow members here? If so, please do this very quickly.

Time is ticking. I wish you well at the site you admin. Don't come around here making any more problems, okay?

Goodbye.

Gosh, I thought I was back in the morning meetings in the conf room where we all had a voice in what we thought. I've been watching what is going on here all day, and what is exactly going on here any way? Come on people, this is not what we want to have, is it? I've seen nothing wrong, just a normal conversation about a discussion about how others perceive what our wonderful elected govt people will do to help HR 589. At this point, I can't remember what the hell started this, but I believe it was the bill. I, also, don't have alot of faith in the bill ever going any where in the bs, but will continue to move forward by emailing, etc. But, stop this threatening crap on the forum, we didn't come here to listen to this bull crap either.

disgustedwithgovt,

It is good that you try to amend a situation that on the surface might seem trite or against this forum's policy of open discussion without reprise. However please understand that this situation is not at all trite and there is much more that cannot be discussed.

I assure you of this. You will only have to trust me. I cannot discuss this matter further.

Thank you.

Hey, Ron! I never had a problem with the baseball analogy! Go back over the thread and read several statements I pulled out of your post that I found to be extremely negative and condescending to our members, Admins and Mods.

I don't know why you are even here and question your motives, given your feelings about HR 589 and any future relief for the 99ers. Perhaps as X suggested, it would behoove you to stay with the forum you admin. Arrogance and subtle put-downs of members, admins and mods are noted in your posts and won't be tolerated here.

Ugluck thinks this fellow is grand.

Feyth wrote:Ugluck thinks this fellow is grand.

This person is probably Ugluck's idol!

DesperateInRI wrote:

Feyth wrote:Ugluck thinks this fellow is grand.

This person is probably Ugluck's idol!

Feyth!!! How are you? we missed you

Hi Feyth, long time no see. Ugluck needs to come back.

Good riddance, WORRYWART!!!!!

***Moderated***