Grey Matter – 99ers Unite and be Counted

First Published 9-7-10

On the Sunday edition of the CNN program Your Money, the host Ali Velshi, opened the program with the following statement,

“This past week we got the job numbers for August. There is no green in August numbers. In fact the jobs are down; we lost 54,000 jobs in August. But the private sector, private businesses, companies actually added 67,000 jobs that is the Holy Grail. We want companies growing. We don’t need government growing. Companies growing mean that the emphasis on economic growth has fallen where it is supposed to.”

(Source: CNN.com – Transcripts)

Now did he say that only 54,000 jobs were lost in August or did he say that we gained 13,000 jobs, and if so why did the unemployment percentage gain one tenth of one percent?  He goes on to say,

Stephen Moore is an editorial writer with the “Wall Street Journal, he is a respected sparring partner and a good friend of this show. Last time you and I talked about jobs Stephen, I described it as a glass one quarter full. I stick with that assessment given today’s news. You?

(Source: CNN.com – Transcripts)

Ali was then joined by Stephen Moore, Editorial Writer for the Wall Street Journal, the conversation continued as follows,

” Yes, Ali, I generally agree with what you just said. The really good news in this report s we got some private sector job growth which you are right that is the mother’s milk of the economy. And so I was encouraged by that and by the way this report was a lot better than a lot of economists were forecasting. Most of the job losses as you said were the layoff of census workers. Those were part-time workers, but you know the thing we have to focus on Ali, we need to generate about 125,000 jobs a month just to keep the unemployment rate where it is because we have natural growth in the labor force. So we have got to do a lot better.”

(Source: CNN.com – Transcripts)

I guess that old saying; “If you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullpoo” applies more today and to this issue than it ever has.  According to the Department of Labor’s press release dated September 2, 2010, the week ending August 28, 2010’s advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial unemployment claims was 472,000, however the jobless rate only rose one tenth of a percentile.  Now is that because there are that many new jobs or because that many more workers have become 99er?   The fact is as I see it; the actual numbers cannot be discerned from the gobbely gook we are being fed by the mainstream media.  Why can’t they for once just tell us the truth, it’s just three little words, “You are screwed.”

Are you confused yet?  If you are it’s because you are supposed to be, as the so-called “expert economists” are throwing out truths, half truths, and out in out lies, so that when you finally turn your television off because nothing they are saying to you makes sense, you are left thinking, “well it’s just too complicated for anyone but an expert to understand”, and all you know is that you only feel more helpless than ever.

We are not helpless. We the 99ers have at our disposal an awesome weapon that we have yet to turn on our enemies.  It is the grey matter located between our ears.  Would you like to strike back at the one world corporate mafia scumbags?  Well let me show you how simple that can be.  When I became a 99er back in May of this year, I did not cease filing my weekly claim to the unemployment office and have not to date.  After about a month of getting a letter every week telling me my claim had expired, I finally got a letter telling me not to report any more.  I continued to report.  Then one week I discovered I had been blocked from reporting online, so I reported by phone.  Last month I received a call from the unemployment department.  The gentleman on the other end of the line stated that I no longer need to report as my benefits had expired.  I told him that I was still unemployed, still actively seeking work, and that as the reporting of said by the unemployed is how the unemployment percentage figure is arrived at.  I will continue to report as I have a right to be counted.  I’m still reporting every week and will continue to do so.

Now I wonder what would happen if every 99er keeps reporting.  What if every 99er whose claim was closed and cannot report starts calling the unemployment office and states that they are still unemployed, actively seeking employment, and demands to be counted in the unemployment figures. If the unemployment office refuses, start an online petition drive directed at the Department of Labor and force them to capitulate.  Let’s go a step further and use that grey matter a little more, what if every 99er reading this article takes an hour or two a day and goes to as many 99er sites and blogs as they can find and refer their fellow 99ers to this website and article so that they might join in.

Whoa, with the most menial of effort, expense, and determination a movement can be established.  Then how cool will it be to see the liars posing as our government have to admit and report that the true number of unemployed workers still desperately seeking work to be between 20 and 30%?  How long do you think it would take them to get up off their lying arses and pass a Tier 5 extension?   Or even better, to be a fly on the wall when the undeniable statistic is handed to President Obama sending him mumbling down the hall, “The elections are coming up, the elections are coming up.”  Do you think he would pause in signing the bill into law?

I hear all too frequently, somebody needs to do something.  Well, you are somebody, we all are somebody.  So let’s do something.  Let the apathy cease and let your grey matter go to work.