RANGER AGAINST WAR: Like, Totally <

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Like, Totally

--Rick Scott at Naples homeless shelter
on Thanksgiving thinking,

"What are those things in her hair?"

You're a rotter, Mr. Grinch

You're the king of sinful sots

Your heart's a dead tomato

splotched with moldy purple spots

You're a three-decker sauerkraut

and toadstool sandwich with arsenic sauce!

--The Grinch Who Stole Christmas
(1966)

"It is required of every man,"

the ghost returned,

"that the spirit within him should

walk abroad among his fellow-men
"
--A Christmas Carol
, Charles Dickens

"Me and my old school pals

had some mighty high times down here

And what happened to you

poor black folks, well it just ain't fair"

He took a look around, gave a little pep talk,

said "I'm with you" then he took a little walk

--How Can a Poor Man Stand
Such Times and Live?,

Blind Alfred Reed

__________________


If there's one thing Lisa cannot countenance, that is hypocrisy (OK, and lies, and willful ignorance, and cruelty . . .).

Florida's
Governor "Pink Slip Rick" Scott is so utterly unctuous, so venomous to those most vulnerable in his state that it defies description. Posing for a photo op at a Naples shelter providing Thanksgiving meals, Scott said he "cared completely" about programs for the homeless, but his care is in the form of de-funding them so, presumably, they (the homeless) will go away (maybe to Missouri -- isn't that where they sent a lot of the Katrina refugees?)

Says Scott,
We've got to make this a place people can do well.” Apparently, there is no room in that plan for rehabilitation or giving someone one-down a leg up.

One Jacksonville homeless shelter official noted that Scott “zeroed out all homeless funding” — $7 million worth — in his budget proposal. That funding supported programs dedicated to homelessness prevention, housing initiatives, and programs that “re-house” people once they’re on the street. “Not only that, he took out the line items so it can never be funded again,” said the official.

To show how much he cares about the homeless, Scott went further by vetoing $12 million in funding that state legislature had passed to support homeless veterans. There are an estimated 17,000 homeless veterans in Florida — the second highest in the nation. Overall, a record 17.2 million Americans went hungry last year (Rick Scott says "I Care Completely" About Homelessness).


Earlier this year, Scott meanly proposed to eradicate Homeless Awareness Day and eliminate the $7 million funding for the Office of the Homeless which worked with housing coalitions around the state to innovate solutions for the state's estimated 58,000 homeless.

Meanwhile, 16.1% of Floridians suffer "food insufficiency", a nice way of saying they go to bed hungry, and there has been a surge in the numbers of children eligible for free school lunches. Florida was one of 11 states that had over a 25% increase in program participation over the last four years.

The NYT's reports, "Millions of American schoolchildren are receiving free or low-cost meals for the first time as their parents, many once solidly middle class, have lost jobs or homes during the economic crisis, qualifying their families for the decades-old safety-net program" (Lines Grow Long for Free School Meals, Thanks to Economy). It is a federal program, but I'm sure Mr. Scott, caring so completely in his own special way, would ax it if he could, in the name of making this a place "where people can do well."

The thing Scott misses is, the state needs to create a middle class to patronize the businesses he has so unspectacularly not drawn to the state. It should be in his state's interest to support those in need of the social safety net lest they go under completely.

To those staunch Objectivists: Your gated communities will not keep you safe from the abject desperation of your fellows.

[h/t to reader Deryle for the Thanksgiving piece.]

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3 Comments:

Blogger jo6pac said...

Here’s a little something on why they want to kill what’s left of the middle class. They just don't care.
http://www.counterpunch.org/2011/12/02/outsourcing-jobs-offshoring-markets/

This will help with who they are and they are in every function of life just check who the generals/corp. ceo are running the wars of
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/11/24-0 cyclepaths

Friday, December 2, 2011 at 8:29:00 PM EST  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

http://www.politifact.com/florida/statements/2010/may/21/bill-mccollum/rick-scott-former-healthcare-ceo-barely-escaped-pr/

And while Columbia/HCA did plead guilty to 14 felonies, those were corporate convictions -- meaning no one served prison time.

This was before the Supreme Court decided corporations were people too.

Scorpions riding on frogs and guys carrying half-frozen vipers home in their coats.

If Florida had a recall for Scott, like they're doing in Wisconsin, do you think he'd last long?

bb

Saturday, December 3, 2011 at 6:17:00 AM EST  
Blogger Lisa said...

bb,

I know many well-placed and not-so-weel-placed gov't workers and ALL are disenchanted, inc. those who voted for him. Most are afraid for their jobs and many are trying to form backup plans.

Would he be recalled? Like, totally.

Saturday, December 3, 2011 at 12:22:00 PM EST  

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