The fact that the lives of the average Americans have changed over the past thirty years is the epitome of understatement.  The various alterations we have gone through cannot be calculated.  Through the course of these changes the buzz word has been “Change is good” and “You cannot stop progress.”  It is undeniable that progress is unstoppable.  But has the change it has resulted in really been for the better? 

We now have a whole generation of citizens who were raised in day care, as progress and change forced both parents into the workplace, not so much as a matter of survival, but as the most feasible avenue to prosperity.  There have been some positive accomplishments as a result of the change, such as the advancement of women’s rights and prestige in the workplace.  But at what cost? 
Continue reading “Grunge Barbie”

Violence in Libya is escalating as their government is making an attempt to stifle all reporting on the situation there.  This being the case the reports coming out of Libya are unconfirmed as eyewitness accounts.  The unconfirmed reports are saying that the government security forces are attacking protesters using vicious and deadly tactics.  There are reports of funeral processions being fired on.  And one report said a helicopter opened up on a crowd with machine gun fire. 

Best estimates have the death toll at two hundred with scores more injured, causing hospitals to be overrun to the point that they cannot provide adequate care for the casualties.
Continue reading “Middle East Plan Progressing on Schedule”

Many 99ers seem baffled by the fact that the public workers unions so easily brought their issue to the streets.  Many 99ers seem to think that they possess magic that we just do not have.  And the fact is they do.  The public workers unions spent $30 million to organize the protesters and get them into action.  The sad fact is most 99ers can’t afford to go a mile from their house and back. 

The thousands of public sector workers who were on the streets yesterday were met by counter protesters composed of Tea Partiers who had been bused in.  Well I have a message for those Tea Partiers.  You have just gone against your own people for those who have been robbing you blind.  I   think it was in the movie, “Gangs of New York” where the rich man said, “You can always pay one half the poor to kill the other half.” 
Continue reading “Tea Partiers Turn Against Their Own in Wisconsin”

There have been a series of comments coming into our site from another 99er site identifying themselves as Displaced American Workers United.  When these commenters first appeared I took them to be genuinely concerned about those 99ers who feel they have reached the end of their rope.  This being the case I allowed them to promote their site on ours.  After which they began attacking our stance on reality, even going so far as to insult us.  Well we are not here in The Trenches because we allow others to walk on us and these socialist mental midgets from DAWU are no exception.

I put up and run From the Trenches World Report but it belongs to the 99ers that are making it a growing reality that is putting forth the most unexpected adversary to those who would see the 99ers swept under the rug. 
Continue reading “99ers HR 589 Not Because They Pity Us but Because They Fear Us”

It is a well known fact that President Obama is an undisputed expert at talking out of both sides of his mouth and it appears he is going to need this skill in addressing a U.N. resolution put forth by the Lebanese government.  The resolution calls for condemnation of Israel’s further building of settlements in the West Bank.  The resolution apparently has the backing of more than a hundred countries and is predicted to pass whether the United States backs it or not.

Obama has stated that the United States will abstain from the vote in an effort to block it, which further emphasizes the precarious situation the United States finds itself in reference to the Muslim world. 
Continue reading “Will Obama Block UN Resolution against Israel?”

Violence continues to spread throughout the Middle East.  Some of the worst has been seen in the small country of Bahrain, once again a country headed by a dictator supported by the United States for the past 60 years.  Apparently the United States has a naval facility at the island nation of Bahrain where our 5th fleet is stationed, and we wonder why we’re broke.

It is reported that Bahrain’s riot police fired live rounds at protesters, some of which were said to be sleeping in a protester encampment set up in Manama, Bahrain.  Four have been killed and many more wounded.  Thousands are protesting the killings today.  It is beginning to look as though there may be more deaths.  It is reported that a doctor was killed and paramedics wounded when they tried to assist some of the victims. 
Continue reading “Bahrain, Egypt, Libya, Yemen, More Protests”

HR 589 was swept aside using Clause 2 (c) of Rule XXI as the legislation would have created new unfunded law as an attachment.  I was the first to blame Barbara Lee for not knowing the rules but in all truth and fairness, I’m sure she did.  The fact is these rules are routinely waived for issues, oh like, defense expenditures.

Though the House Resolution 589 is not completely dead in the Ways and Means Committee it certainly must be considered to be in its death throes. The bill at present has 67 backers but would require 283 to bring it forward. 

Thursday’s jobs report showed 410,ooo new jobless claims indicating that all the talk about job recovery is just more lies.
Continue reading “99ers Unemployment Extension HR 589 in Death Throes”

HR 589 is shot down this morning.  Apparently the House Resolution violated a rule which says any legislation that changes existing law or creates new law cannot be added as an amendment.  Unbeknownst to us Barbara Lee tried to attach HR 589 to the Fiscal Year 2011 Continuing Budget Resolution, a stopgap measure that will continue to fund the federal government. 

The point of order was initiated by Congressman Denny Rehberg, a Republican from Montana.

The only way the bill can go forward now is through overwhelming support which would require republican support, which is not going to happen.  It is disturbing to find out that our greatest advocate Barbara Lee evidently either does not know the House rules or somehow thought she was exempt from them.
Continue reading “99ers HR 589 Unemployment Legislation Shot Down In Flames”

Italy’s Premier, Silvio Berlusconi, evidently likes to party, which can tend to get you into trouble if you are not careful.  Berlusconi is at present facing charges that he had sex with an underage prostitute, a 17 year old Moroccan girl named Ruby.   

Nicole Minetti, the madam involved in the case, claims that the relationship amounted to no more than affection, though it is reported that Berlusconi got Ruby out of some trouble with the police a while back. 

Amid the allegations of from having sex with a minor to state sponsored orgies, Berlusconi is emphatically stating, “I did not have sex with that woman.”  Now where have I heard that before? Cigars anyone? 
Continue reading “Italy’s Berlusconi Facing Sex Charges”

It has been 45 days since the 112th Congress took over and in that time nothing has been done to address the needs of the 15 million long term unemployed.   All this new Congress seems to be interested in is making up lost revenues, which in theory is not a bad thing.  But let’s look at the problem in fact. 

The mortgage derivative collapse, by admission, was the final consequence of a massive Ponzi scheme perpetrated by the banksters.  They stole $22 trillion from the rest of us.  Think about that number because it is the sole reason that we have lost our jobs, are suffering from a $14 trillion debt, and a $4 trillion budget deficit.  

The fact of this reality is unarguable and every member of Congress knows it to be true.  They also know that this massive debt must be eliminated or our country is going to go bankrupt.  So will these self-proclaimed patriotic Americans arrest the thieves, retrieve the monies, and put our country back a right?  Noooo. 
Continue reading “99ers Water-Board the Banksters”

Imagine a person owning a business and that person, out of necessity to run the business, has hired employees and given them responsibilities.  One day your employees tell you they all need new cars.  You say that’s not unreasonable as the business is doing well.  And then you find out that the person writing the paychecks has been paying out amounts in excess of anything you ever intended.  You go to your employees to enquire as to what is going on.  They tell you that they had a meeting and raised their pay and gave themselves more benefits. 

You are then alerted so you start looking at the books.  It takes you days to decipher as they have been compiled in a manner designed to deceive.  At the end of the day you find out that your business is in big trouble as your employees have been milking and defrauding your business through relationships they have established with other businesses. 
Continue reading “99ers HR 589 – Unemployed Have Rights”

Two United States Immigration Service Agents were shot in Mexico Tuesday.  The agents were apparently based in Mexico City where about two dozen other agents are based.  (Why are our ICE Agents stationed in a foreign country?) The two agents who were shot were driving from Mexico City to Monterey when they were attacked by unknown assailants.  One of the agents is dead and the other is said to be stable. 

The area where the incident occurred is apparently a war zone wherein the drug cartels and Mexican police have been doing battle for some time.  Twenty Mexican police have been killed in this area this year and last year over seventy killed.
Continue reading “ICE Agents Shot in Mexico – AZ Proposes New Law”

As promised, I tried to contact the Congresspersons sitting on the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Human Resources who will be deciding the fate of HR 589. Eleven calls – eleven press secretaries away from their desks, out of the office, or speaking on a conference call.  I left a lot of messages with only one return call and one lady even hung up on me when I told her she was my employee and I wanted to know her name.  In short, I was denied access most likely because so many 99ers have been emailing and calling the members of the committee since we released their names here on From the Trenches.

The one person that did call me back was from Lloyd Doggett’s office.  However she became agitated and distressed when I pushed her to answer one simple question.  Mind you, she did not even know what the question would be.  She gave me the number to the press person for the Democratic side of the Committee and of course I got voice mail. 
Continue reading “99ers – HR 589 to be Decided by 7 Republicans and 4 Democrats – Does it stand a Chance? Let’s Find Out”

How will the Iranian government react as Green Movement protesters take to the streets of Tehran today?  The Green Movement was formed in Iran in response to the 2009 elections which they believed were rigged in favor of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. 

Iranian reformist leader Mehdi Karroubi has been placed under house arrest after seeking government permission to hold the anti-government rallies.  He is reportedly being denied access to communication, although a statement did come out on his blog proclaiming that the rally would go forth.

Some are accusing the Iranian government of hypocrisy as it has openly praised the uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia. 
Continue reading “Iranians Take to the Streets in Step with Egypt and Tunisia”

Every once in a while it becomes necessary to attack the false left-right paradigm in order to keep the lie it represents front and center in the minds of those the propagandists seek to control.  I’m sure every 99er would agree that jobs and unemployment are for the majority the number one issue in the U.S. today.  However the will of the majority is subservient to the interests of the rich. 

The Demopublicans have historically sold themselves as proponents of the working man and the poor, whereas the Republicrats claim corporations and the rich as their own.  The fact is they all defecate through the same hole and the American workers et.al. are spoon fed what comes out.  As the fact that we are losing more jobs every day is being ignored out of hand, the one party socialist system is busy catering to their fellow filthy rich.
Continue reading “99ers Break the False Left-Right Paradigm, Push HR 589 and Eliminate NAFTA, CAFTA, GATT (WTO)”

Many would like to know exactly what is being done in reference to solving our ever worsening jobs problem.  You would think that as our continuing loss of jobs is the number one issue in America today, it would be all over the mainstream news.  Not so.  The fact is unless you are an Egyptian living in America you might as well not bother turning the television on.

I have been reading a lot of comments saying we need to do what the Egyptians did and little blurbs such as “Walk like an Egyptian.”  I have something to tell you.  The Egyptians haven’t accomplished shite.  The fact is if Jose Mubarak had dropped dead of a brain aneurism nineteen days ago, the Egyptian people would be in the same condition that they are in today.  That is living under martial law and under the control of a military dictatorship.
Continue reading “99ers Go Forth and Push HR 589 through the Ways and Means Committee”

In looking at the way the 99ers have jumped on the opportunity to change their destiny by aggressively attacking the problem of the Ways and Means Subcommittee that needs to move HR 589 to the House Floor as soon as possible, I am encouraged.  I believe that if enough of us can get together and assert ourselves aggressively, it is going to catch many who might oppose us completely off balance. 

The drive to force the passage of HR 589 needs to get out of control.  We cannot slow down, but rather we must intensify our efforts over the weekend.  We must go to every venue where a 99er might be found and convince him or her to email and tweet all the eleven members of the subcommittee over the weekend.
Continue reading “99ers – The Fight for HR 589 Intensifies”

In following the progress of the unemployment extension legislation it is revealed that it is being identified as HR 589 Emergency Unemployment Compensation Extension Act of 2011.  The emergency legislation was introduced Wednesday by Congresswoman Barbara Lee to the House Ways and Means Committee. 

This is an alert.  It is imperative that every 99er work to flood the Ways and Means Committee with emails demanding that the legislation expediently be moved through the committee and onto the House floor.  These are the individuals who sit on the Subcommittee on Human Resources of the Ways and Means Committee.  Also call the Capitol switchboard at 1-866-220-0044 and ask to speak to these members.  Don’t ask, demand, that HR 589 be put through.
Continue reading “99ers Alert – HR 589 Emergency Unemployment Compensation Extension Act of 2011 is Introduced to Ways and Means Committee”

Egyptian Vice President Omar Suleiman announced today that President Mubarak is stepping down.  Apparently Mubarak will be turning his power over to the military.  How this whole scenario is going to play out, no one can be sure, but there are talks of doing away with the Egyptian constitution.  I guess this leaves Egyptian under martial law which is essentially the state they were in before they started.  It will be interesting to see how the Islamic Brotherhood reacts to the new power vacuum.

I believe if the Egyptian people had any sense they would draft a new constitution from the United States Constitution, copying it verbatim.  I think even the corrupt U.S. government would have a hard time not coming out in full support of the Egyptian people.  And how cool would it be to see the Obama administration have to support our Constitution in another country at the same time they are violating it here? 
Continue reading “Historic Day in Egypt as Mubarak Steps Down in Face of Revolution”