{∅, {∅}, {∅, {∅}}} : Mutual Respect Between Nervous Reeks and Wrecks

OK ... Bear with me, I am reconstructing some posts that got destroyed when isis.phpbb3now.com was redirected by an unknown force.  I am doing this in a hap-hazard manner, but there is a "history" ...

One thread is from when Anarch57 joined the "old" board just after the "new" admin appeared at whywork.org.

Maybe some body does not want us to speak...? I tried to post what I said a few times that day, but it failed to show. I figured it just needed some time.

Maybe somebody doesn't want us to post ... I get that same feeling when "GENERAL ERROR" appears after I've typed a lengthy calculated essay. Paranoia? I'm not sure.

Goodness, you are Crazy Ghost now, huh? Well hello again! I am still here. I just checked the whywork forum, and it seems that there is a new admin speaking there..? What is going on? Who is this person? The only comments by this "Alice" I've seen so far are quick "hello"s, but no explanation as to how this person came about. Maybe I am just paranoid.

I may be paranoid as well, but I have to say I smelled something fishy as well. Very few will openly state it, but the last admin of "whywork" (Gordon Hayes) was a total money-grubbing scammer who went to jail for trying to sell counterfeit money ("the Phoenix Dollar"). He was an absolute piece of **** - a "libertarian" with a unicellular brain and a hatred for people on public assistance (which many of us are). I hated him from day one and made no secret of it. Scumbag! Why DJ Swanson handed control to this guy is a total mystery to me, and I will never stop saying so. Unlike most, I will not let her off the hook for such a serious and consequential blunder. Personally, I think DJ was hard up for money and the guy made her a monetary offer based on the traffic. Just a guess. DJ is not quite who she paints herself as, believe me. I can smell a half-ass flip-flopper from a mile away. She dislikes jobs, but is still willing to take them. "Nuff said?" Actually, no. Who is "Alice?" What do we know about her, and how did she get control of WhyWork? Did the former admin (a crook) sell it? "Alice" said she now has CLAWS as well. Who knows! Nothing was explained and no clue was given as to how it came to be that the site has a new administrator.  In any case, I find the whole thing pretty weird. Someone had to get control of the site from the former admin (a crook who is in jail), and how did that happen? I doubt the domain name expired - if it had, some **** spammer would have snatched it up. This means a deal was made between "parties unknown."

So many strange events surround a simple website.

Also - the obvious. Alice in Wonderland. To the "normals," we are "wonderland."

Is "Alice" an agent? Like I said, I'm paranoid, but just because you're paranoid, it doesn't mean they aren't out to get you.

Yeah, I've been wondering about all of that stuff, as well. I've been going back to WW? off and on to see if any progress has been made, and I tried to register with my newer email address, but so far, 'Alice' hasn't done much of anything besides those two messages. It's all very odd...

Indeed. I see no action from "Alice" either. Big announcement, then nothing. And there seems to be no real renewal of activity.

Just to bait us into saying more "incriminating" stuff? I dunno. Maybe not, and maybe I'm way off. But you never know.

In the same thread, a question is raised, one which I think is still worth considering as of Summer 2014 concerning the whywork.org forums. 

Hey Mike, what 'resources' does one need to be able to back the forum up?

What resources needed to back up a forum? Let's see ... a computer with a hard-drive and a connection to the internet. I have lost interest at the moment and have fines to pay. Anyway, I had the entire whywork.org site with forums backed up on my hard-drives before the machine was stolen (from my apartment 2 blocks from the Atlantic Ocean while I was being held captive in the air-conditioned dungeon a couple summers ago).

When I get my hands on a very inexpensive hard drive with ample storage, one of the things I would do is back those discussions up again ... for posterity, I guess.

Hmm, I don't know what to make of this Alice character either. It's been a month now since she first posted and then nothing. Bizarre. Ok she did say that she wouldn't post much in the forum, but it's odd that a new admin would say "hi" and then completely disappear... Anybody tried emailing her?

Something really doesn't smell right, maybe Nat's nailed it with suggesting Alice is really DJSwanson - the latter did state last year that she wanted to get a CLAWS 2.0 off the ground....

And so ... here we are ... after all.


Geek Notes:

In that thread, I had suggested Offline Commander.  The link in the old thread was obsolete when I tested it, and when I find current downloads, the software is "free-trial" and it very sneakily and annoyingly installs sizlsearch ... I will wait until I have a Linux Box set up with ample storage capacity, then use Open Source software.  Note that if you ever find annoying adds cropping up all over your web-browser, remove silzsaerch from extensions in your browser settings and immediately go into the control panel of your operating system and remove sizlsearch.  Another pest is called Okiitan.  I have only found this to be a problem with Windows since downloading software for Linux is free by principal, so there is no funny business with sneaking aggressive advertising software in with "free trials".

Then there is the Tuvaro browser hijacker.  The Tuvaro homepage is technically not a virus, but it does exhibit plenty of malicious traits, such as rootkit capabilities to hook deep into the operating system, browser hijacking, and in general just interfering with the user experience. The bottom line is that it is an unwanted program.  It may show up as "Search Module" in the Control Panel Programs list.

The pop-up ads of Okiitan may show up on the computer when the PC user is moving the mouse towards some particular products being sold through the ads. Okiitan may propagate and insert itself onto the PC bundled with various free software, which PC users can download and install from suspicious download websites. Freeware may often carry various extra applications, which may be not necessary for the PC user. Therefore, when the computer user installs any free program, he should carefully look through what extra software he is going to install together with the desired app that has been chosen.

This was back in 2010 when I had first returned from the Seattle area after an uneventful search for like-minded individuals out West.  I still felt like kind of a freak out there, so I returned with my tail between my legs.  Actually, it might have been a little worse out there due to the deference paid to all things religious.  I mean, the mentality of some people out there was that "How can you say that the world was created by a blind demon? It's a indisputable fact that 'Jesus' created the mountains and the rivers!  Someone ought to punch you in the face!"

That was what an attractive young woman had told me on a bus.  Ech ... ignorance is dangerous.

Oh, the computer ... well ... No, I never filed a complaint.  The police in that town think I am a joke ... they just see me as a potential suicide.  Trust me.  They would do me more harm than good if given the opportunity.

Going through some of the posts at whywork.org/forum where we were attacked by trolls like tc33, I noticed that the founder DJ Swanson DID try to warn us to ignore the trolls ... and Irv Thomas, who has since left this world, also stepped up and scolded the trolls for bringing their status quo attitudes to a forum that was fairly non-confrontational for awhile since we were agreeing with each other when stating our forbidden perspectives.

AmericanIdler, Crazy Squirrel ... I agreed and still agree with her view of the political/economic situation.  I understand why she is angry with me for my lack of any kind of stance when it comes to women's issues.  Debbie, DJ Swanson, and AmericanIdler were all very supportive when I was standing up to the trolls.  I appreciated that.

I know it was, what? - X years ago ... X = 2014 - 2006 = 8 years ago ... but ... I know I will not have a chance to do this after about 10 days from today, so this is one of the things I will peck away at while "doing nothing" here on earth.  This is just the kind of thread I might want to pay 20 cents per page to print out at a library in the lonely spooky sci-fi existentialist horror near future ... 

Here in the US, they're working on possibly raising the minimum wage. From what I've heard, it will come in three installments, the last one raising it up to $7 and some change, but not until 2009. Too little, too late, I say. By that time inflation will render the raises useless, not to mention that the poor saps who toil for just above that won't see a dime!

Anyway, I was reading a thread about this topic in another forum. Most on there are at least middle class, but there are some who are much poorer. The poor on the thread were of the same opinion as I, and they were adding how it's becoming impossible to "get ahead". The rich had a field day with this. They claimed that the poor were all lazy, and so they CHOOSE to remain poor. "Go to college", "move to where the better jobs are", and "start your own business" were their answers. How pretentous, right? Note that their solutions all take lots of money, and have high failure rates! The poor can't afford to fail; failure for them means not being able to eat for months! Even those such as myself, who tried to get out of retail sales hell by going to college and ended up with nothing but debt got shot down with, "Well, you're just not trying hard enough. Surely, you could find SOMETHING with your degree! Life is what you make of it." They also went on to say that you need to go above and beyond the call of duty at work, and to kiss the boss's ass. "No one owes you a living! Having a job is a privilege, and you shouldn't get raises just because you do your job.", they'd add. I couldn't read any more after that; my temper was flaring. I believe that a person can only do so much with their life; what happens beyond that is pretty much all luck, and that hard work and kissing up to the boss does no good these days, even if I were to lower myself to that. Am I way off on this?

The thread is called Attitudes, but, you know, just in case ... ww.o disappears again.  Also, I am purposely not porting over threads that were infested with trolls.  Sorry, but, upholders of the status quo have enough mediums where they dominate already.

I think you are right on target on this one. A person should not have to sell there soul to there job just to get ahead.

There ... that's important.  It's a simple validation that one is speaking coherently.

Just to let you know the minimum wage here in Australia is now set by the amusingly named "Fair Pay Commmission". The minimum wage for adults australia wide is $12.75, take 24% off for U.S dollars and your at $9.70. You can never be paid below this in Australia..tis illegal. Theres a good chance its also going up.

The minimum wage in the UK is 5.05 pounds sterling. Thats about $12.50 Aus, $9.50 U.S...

The short of it...you guys are being ripped off at least $2.50 U.S per hour even by the time 2009 rolls around in which time both the U.K and here will have likely gone up again. Pretty sure there talking about it in the U.K...time to move.

Well ... The USA has a history which includes actual chattel slavery, and nobody can compete with slaves ... I wonder if there was an actual conspiracy to flood the work force with workers who would not complain about wages and such?  I think the bottom is about the fall out ... and that perhaps there will be a slave rebellion.   Stay tuned.

minimum wage is a joke

 ... precisely ... which is why people "go insane" and get paid just a little less than full time minimum wage for "being crazy."

Wow, are we getting ripped off, and we're supposed to the one of the world's richest nations!! Our minimum wage now is only $5.15! Yeah, it's a joke, alright, try even paying the evil rent on $600 a month (which is the wage after Uncle Sam gets ahold of it). How depressing, really.

Also, I noticed that the rich not only wanted the poor to sell their souls to their job, but they also demanded that the poor give up the rest of their lives, as well. One guy said he couldn't move because it would cost too much to move all of his stuff, and scrape up the dough needed for a place to live (first and last months', plus deposit is quite a chunk of change!), and the rich countered that he should sell all of his things (yeah, right, and get pennies on the dollar for it all? No thanks.), and then go without any pleasures of any kind until he had enough for a new place, and they pretty much ended that with saying that it didn't do what they outlined above, that he was choosing to be a loser. No arrogance there...

One last thing...I just read that the wage hike proposal was blocked. All the rich on the board applauded it. The ones that own businesses actually came out and said point blank they didn't want to have to pay their workers any more money. Funny how both Australia and the UK already have a much higher minimum wage...more signs that the US is sliding into Third-world status. Jane, get me off of this crazy thing!

IDEA: Insert George Carlin video ... and ignore tc33's attacks.  Carlin got smarter and smarter as he aged ... great role model!  I'm serious.  A great philosopher! 

American Dream

I will not transfer tc33's trolling over here.  It's my prerogative.

The Dems and Reps are one and the same, and neither care about us. I have since refused to bother voting. Some may say that by doing so, I have no right to complain, but I say that voting for the lesser of two evils is still choosing evil.

A little more from GC:

not voting

The public sucks.  **** hope.

Voting is meaningless.  This country was bought and sold a long time ago.

All I know that it's plain to see without taking any fancy college courses that American worker is getting screwed. While I do understand that business owners need to make a profit and so forth, they're doing it at the expense of others, and that's wrong. Aside from high school kids and the like, no adult holding a full-time job should have to go without life's basic needs, and yet, millions in this country do so. I recently read "Nickel and Dimed", and I can tell you from my own experience, and those of my former co-workers, that her book doesn't exaggerate. Anyone who isn't horrified after reading that book has no heart.

Barbara Ehrenreich ... It's true.  I always think the people who work at grocery stores or work on the farms must be some kind of saints ... or ... (I must have worked at the wrong grocery store, because some of my co-workers were such assholes I nearly when psychotic right there on the spot ... but decided instead, rather than draw blood, i would look into some kind of compromise ... like ... welfare STATE).

Its pretty common for business to block increases in the minimum wage. Theyve been doing it hear for years, but what use to be called the Industrial Relations Commission has an obligation to ensure the minimum wage at least keeps pace with inflation.

I mean any country that doesnt ensure its workers pay is keeping pace with inflation...normally around 2% in the developed world is really screwing people.

Under Howards new laws...and there like only a couple months old now, there has been cases where people have been getting shafted severaly. Like a boss gives a worker a 0.50c per hour rise in exchange for writing off all there conditions, like fewer sick days, no overtime etc...This has caused a bit of a **** storm here, so now you have the situation where the peak business body here, is now saying they will promote "decent" wage rises for the working poor, because they dont want to be seen as siding one some of the worse aspects of Howards new policy, they dont want to be seen anymore as anti-worker.

All this while Australia still maintains a pretty healthy growth rate. I know thats an arguement in the U.S...it substantially slows down growth..well dont believe the hype, thats just corperate America talking.

Your being treated really badly by your government to be honest..time to kick a few heads, in the literal sense of the term?

I mean why doesnt someone bring these facts up to support a wage rise in the U.S? The information is commonly available.

You are right about the Dems & Reps being one and the same. I find some of these traps infuriating, like this idea that we have no right to complain if we choose not to take part in the sham which is the elections.

We all have the right to complain. Is literature not a stream of complaining about what a bummer it is to be human?

It helps everyone when we verbalize our doubts.

i find that type of response or "counter argument" not only funny, but stupid, it's like the only line of defense people grab to make their reason legitimate...it's completely illogical, it just goes over peoples heads sometimes when you claim you don't vote, like you've comitted the worse sin in the world "OH MY GOD! YOU DON'T VOTE?!" then i love the response after that... "YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO COMPLAIN?! WHY DON'T YOU LEAVE AMERICA?" than of course you're "patriotism/nationalism/allegiance" to "your" country is "challenged" hahaha it's so stupid and funny at the same time, i don't know, but i find stupid remarks entertaining sometimes, it's just got this funny/are you fo real? twist to it...it's like "hahahaha....*pause* are you **** serious?"

You're right that the information is out there, in fact, it's freely admitted in the news that our minimum wage hasn't kept pace with inflation for quite a while, now. Add that on top of the fact that Australia and the UK have a much higher wage already, and they're no worse off than the US is, and that gets me rather steamed.

However, all I can do is take myself out of the workforce, which I've already done (Thanks, honey!). As much as I'd like to literally kick some heads in, I realize that doing so would only cause my death, played out on national TV, no less, to serve as a warning to everyone else. Gotta love that gilded cage.

I suppose that we can't take it back from the warlords because there's a lot of people who are in denial about the whole situation, and as for the rest of us who realize what **** we're in, no one wants to die. I don't think much will happen until the majority wakes up, and we all come to the point where we have nothing left to lose.

<PAUSE>

I take DJ Swanson's advice and do not feed the trolls anymore.  That thread ... degenerated into a war with trolls ... mouth pieces for the silent majority ... Maybe, just maybe, it is because of the silent majority and their upholding the status quo that cause some of us to join GC in cursing the masses who do not join our living protest.

I have to confess that I still get a little pissed off when reading some of the troll **** ... It's that self-satisfied sense of ... Nevermind ... Going through some of those threads gives me the creeps!  And so I move on.    Strategize bums me out because I see we thought and thought and thought only to grip the bars of our cage more desperately ... 

Some of the threads I will just have to store on a flashdrive and go over in private --- personal stuff I may want to "work through" ...

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