Vietraq..., Iraqnam..., banal service economy Janesville, Wisconsin, finds little relevance

8 July 2014

So Iraq is in flames this summer of 2014.  According to the the many news outlets, a "bunch" representing an off-shoot of Al Qaeda has taken over a third of Iraq.  If you believe our government, America has sent 300 military personnel back to Iraq to shore up the floundering Iraqi government and to protect our billion dollar embassy there.

Did I say that right? Just 300 military personnel?

Iraq III goes out with a whimper? Probably not at least for the 300 American military souls assigned the task of fixing it. 

I don't know if I am qualified to pass judgement, but Iraq is the size of California.  So we send 300 people to sort it all out?  A country of Iraq by the way, it took 250,000 military personnel in the first war in '90-'91, and 175,000 military personnel in the second war '30-'11, to only marginally control. 

And what of the trillions of dollars we have spent there since 1990? That's right, 1990. Has everyone forgotten the "first, Gulf War?"   I am thinking that several trillion dollars could have provided state-of-the-art health care for every American for 20 years.  

While people here in banal Janesville, Wisconsin, struggle to makes ends meet, still in the throes of "The Great Recession," they can pop on the boob-tube and watch former American and Iraqi Army equipment and weapons captured by and being used by the bad guys, the ISIS (Islamic State in Iraq and Syria), to facilitate the deconstruction of current Iraq.  While eating chips and dip in front of Satellite TV, the peeps can watch the carnage in Iraq and distract themselves from an America slipping into Second World Status (a poor police state country with nukes).  They languish with daily budgets like paying for..., health care.

These aforementioned Janesvillians do their toils as their state of Wisconsin, under the tutelage of an arguably inept Governor, slumps into a Great Depression rubric, but with cell phones, Internet, and dish tv.  The said Gov is convinced he is Presidential material. Looking back now, maybe he is. 

And looking back then, always a perilous activity, what of the perps that facilitated the many wars in Iraq. Father George H.W. Bush, American President during the first Gulf War jumps out of air planes in his 90s.  George W. Bush, the son, American President during the U.S.'s second war over there, paints pictures of world leaders while he is bunkered in his fancy house in Dallas, Texas.  For six years Barak Obama, the organizer, and the American President who inherited, "Iraq," fretted about health care and finally declared, "If you ain't got it, we will penalize you."  He pulls all Americans out of Iraq.  The "pugnacious" and 1960s Military Draft-dodging Dick Cheney, Secretary of Defense in the First Gulf War, and Vice President during the Iraq War levies criticisms of Obama, as said Dick enjoys his new heart.  He's got some health care from somewhere.

And, the peeps? Did I mention the peeps? Working in an entrenched service economy America, and languishing with the simplest personal budgets.

New information added in the last paragraph (a basic composition class no-no) :

How convenient it has been to forget the American Vietnam War and all its hell done to our economy, our Veterans, our nation, and to the people of Vietnam.  I remember the news on the aforementioned boob-tubes in 1975 showing the bad guys overwhelming the country we had just spent over 20 years dumping billions of dollars into..., and soon after the communists took the country, America slipped into the "Misery Recession" of the late '70s and early '80s. Many of the Cold War American military families had to go on Food Stamps.

The end of Iraq is eerily like the..., end of our Vietnam War..., trillions of $ down the dumper; thousands of Americans, Vietnamese, and Iraqis dead and wounded from both wars. Lives ruined for ever.  We learned nothing as a nation.  

We "learn" nothing as a nation. 

Vietraq...., Iraqnam..., surely it's just my imagination run a muck...,

...,banal service economy Janesville, Wisconsin, finds no correlation. 

Dadio's Lunch Bucket Radio Clinic

7 July 2014

Dadio's Lunch Bucket Radio Clinic

Posted by Bob Keith in category Dadio's Lunch Bucket

A little over six months ago it came to my attention that some folks in Janesville, Wisconsin, were starting up a new "community" radio project.  It would be dubed Janesville Community Radio. They were seeking host and volunteers et cetera.  Not being able to walk well anymore, I need a sit down hobby. Having done a tid-bit of radio before, and having enough media material from my Web site and blogs to do two years worth of show, I gave them a jingle.  Long story short, I was asked to start the next day.  

So far it has been Internet based.  Licenses have been applied for, plans have been drawn up, and if it actually ever does go on FM radio, the call numbers are 103.5 FM.  The project is to be a non-profit entity. 
The latest goal is to switch on the FM some time a year from now.  There has been studio wrangling; we were being donated a basement studio in a building in downtown Janesville.  The owner moved away and degreed he would need 250 bucks a month..., and oh yes, the doors are only open 9 a.m. to noon, Monday through Friday.  Yikes.  My show, the Lunch Bucket has been camped out for a month at Jeff's Coffee Bar on the west side of Janesville..., pending some resolution to the studio kurfuffle. 

The Lunch Bucket Radio Clinic is heard live on Tuesdays from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Blog Talk Radio via the Internet.  The pod casts can be found on Janesville Community Radio Blog Talk; or, I preferr our own Web site dadioslunchbucket.com .  We are up to show 36 this coming week. 

Several shows have already come and gone.  Survivers include: The original show which has a taditional interview with local movers and shakers and personalities, Discover Janesville; an eclectic and comedy genre show, Open Mick; political show Civil Discourse; and, our own hodge-podge of all of the above, Dadio's Lunch Bucket Radio Clinic. 

What's the premise of the Lunch Bucket?  Imagine sitting around at lunch break at the work site chewing the fat with co-workers and contractors.  

What's the word "clinic" imply?   We have had several remote shows, many from taverns and coffee shops.  Remote pod casting is a periless endevor at best.  If it can go wrong, it has.  Hence..., it's a radio..., clinic.  

What could possibly go wrong?  You need power; you need good WiFi or a hard line; you need mixers for the mics and the head phones; you need a couple good computers to pull it all off; you need an adaquate location to set up; you need guests; you need a couple people to set up and break it all back down; you need to do homework on your show plan; and, maybe most important..., you need to show up on time and every week - week after week. 

The Lunch Bucket crew has learned that wireless juke boxes can wreak havoc with a broad cast.  Mixers and power strips can be forgotten to be turned on.  Wires may get plugged into the wrong sockets.  Dials can be forgotten to be turned up or may be bumped out of whack. 

But unlike countless other well-meaing show ideas that have come and gone, the Lunch Bucket crew perserveres now for 36 straight weeks.  

Tune in live or listen later to the pod casts later.  Or, better yet, pop in to Jeff's and sit in on the show.  We always have four microphones. It's like starting a business out of a garage or worse yet, when we pile our equipment in my car, it is actually like running a business out of the trunk of a car..., and not getting paid. 

Here's some Web addresses with information regarding the Lunch Bucket:

http://www.dadioslunchbucket.com

http://janesvillecommunityradio.com

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/janesvillecommunityradio

Blue-collar new norm America: Dadio's handy manual to break workers' spirit - Keep'm Standing

4 July 2014

Blue-collar new norm America: Dadio's handy manual to break workers' spirit - Keep'm Standing

This entry was posted on 7/4/2014 1:31 AM and is filed under Broken spirit.

The production facility I work in gives me lots of fodder to put into instructions how to destroy workers.  The joint is a bottomless pit of tricks encompassing a gamut of banal, inept, and intentional, institutionalized methods to "break workers' spirits." 

Sometimes, I think I have seen it all in 50 years of working fifty or more crappy jobs in several parts of the state, country, and world. Many at the same time, hence, 50 in fifty years.  Often I have worked three jobs at once. But, then, when I think I've seen and heard it all, something is presented to me that has been right under me nose for years.  It just needed presenting by a different pair of eyes.  

One day I was chatting with a fellow from the apprenticed end of the building. Those guys are union and get benefits - insurance; vacation; sick time; lunch time; and breaks.  The production starts on their end and heads to us non-benefited rabble. 

Before the production started up I mentioned how I never used the break room as no sooner a guy will pop in there to sit for a minute and try to eat a sandwich after five hours straight of production, management, or a minion thereof, will scramble in to shoo you out and back to the production floor. 

The fellow I was chatting with has been at the place 30 years.  He quietly observes the nuances of the blue-collar drama without fanfare.  

He paused, smiled a faint smile and said, "Keep'm standing."  Then he said, "It's been in the game plan for ever. Transcends decades, management, and employee turnover.  Keep'm on their feet, it keeps 'em disoriented and disheveled.  Do it long enough and they don't even realize they're being conditioned."

Then he smiled that little smile again, turned, and went back to work and vanished into the shadows of his big production machines.

"Keep'm stand'n," I thought....., It's been right under my nose for years. Just couldn't put it into words. 

"Keep'm stand'n! 

Fuck'n brilliant. 

Note: This blog "Blue-collar new norm America: Dadio's handy manual to break workers' spirit" - book version Category is a work in progress. These original vignettes are being edited for book form. Go to the Cooldadiomedia Web site and the Broken Spirit Page for an ordered chronology of the book vignettes (chapters).

Com'on Wisconsin Gov'na Scotty Walker, Dadio needs a different, and better, damn job

3 July 2014

Dadio (Bob) needs a different damn job segment

Almost a year ago I got involved in the Janesville Community Radio project. My show is the Dadio's Lunch Bucket Radio Clinic.  And like any start-up project..., their is a lot of begging. So, since we’re begging to our audience to listen and check out Janesville Community Radio…, and we are begging for a piano player and a bass player and an extra host for the Lunch Bucket Clinic, let’s beg some more. 

Since I basically have three part-time non-benefit jobs right now…, Dadio could use a different, better, and main job.  You know the kind of job; one that, is family sustaining. It is an almost t unheard of commodity in Janesville, Wisconsin.  

        The only thing Dadio asks, is that the job be something with a modicum of dignity. 

        Fifty years of work experience in a cacophony of work genres and venues, caped with four college degrees. Missed two days of work in tens years. 

       A dandy catch for any work place.  

      You can get the Dadio for a song. 

       Caveat:  Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, let's see you walk the walk, and get Dadio one of those 250,000 jobs you promised. Pull it off and Dadio will quit writing about what a dick you are.  

Janesville, Wisconsin, "new norm" underemployed prison city with invisible fence of steel.

2 July 2014

Janesville, Wisconsin, "new norm" underemployed prison city with invisible fence of steel.

I moved to Janesville, Wisconsin, back in 1992 for a year after re-settling in Wisconsin from Texas. I moved to Madison, Wisconsin, forthwith; then, just south of that capital city to rural Green County.

My mother's cancer brought me back to Janesville in 2000..., been here ever since. Life has a way of doing that to a guy.

Mom grew up in Janesville for the most part. Moved away for years; then, moved back from my dad's farm in her retirement. Her own dad worked for Janesville's infamous GM plant. She worked for the city's famous Parker Pen company. Both gone..., GM packed up in 2008-9 in the Great Recession. Parker left in the Misery Recession of the late '70s and early '80s. And gone too, all the satellite industries that helped facilitate the two cap-stone companies and their family supporting jobs. What's left..., part-time service jobs. If that.

People here work crappy jobs as best they can. Many have silently fled..., slowly but surely. Not everyone can flee. I am 60, have health issues, and own a house. Hard to pack up and leave like one is 18 again. That leads to another variable.

What is left for commerce in the once industrial city is three-fold...., and disappointing at best, disturbing at worst. The number one industry if you will, is health care (sick people). Number two industry? Public schools (Taxes). Also, number two facilitates Janesville's biggest export..., its children after graduation, to other cities, states, and countries to find jobs. And the third industry? Well of course it is taverns and fast food (drunks and fat people).

When one is forced to work part-time, non-benefit jobs to get by, they start to slowly be deconstructed. They don't get sick-time so they work sick. They don't get vacation time so they never get a rest. They are essentially slowly destroyed. They never have enough money to make even the most basic life-style really work. There by, they slowly get in a rut of not having the seed-money to escape.

With gas at nearly four dollars a gallon, even a recon trip to a more vibrant state to scope out the potential could cost 600 bucks in gasoline alone. An untenable amount, for a person only making 165 bucks a week..., a 1978ish paycheck actually. And that assumes of course..., they even have a car any more.

People are trapped in a weak service economic self-fulfilling nightmare. Janesville's newspaper of record recently lords in an OpEd piece, that these low-wage jobs are entry jobs and people don't stay in them long - there's no reason to raise the wages.

Excuse me, but people don't stay in them long because the jobs are horrid with no dignity and their bodies are wrecked. And, people may leave those jobs if they are lucky and can actually escape Janesville. Others, like people over 50, tough out these jobs to make the few bucks they can. The "older ones" are not allowed to participate in Janesville's culture unless they volunteer their efforts for free. They..., when they try to keep languishing for that inadequate wage, are often deemed losers, by the normative driven owners of the message, like the local newspaper. Yet, those same struggling workers are sung praises when they volunteer for free.

Detecting a pattern? See an inept and misguided conspiracy of taking advantage of an already unfortunate economy? Can you notice the gleeful opportunists' use of the unintended consequences wrought by outsourcing our economy to third-world countries?  We have become a third world country ourselves.  Hey, we even like soccer now too.  A great subject for a subsequent essay.

But today, this is Janesville. A poster child if you will, for the dirty secret of America's and Governor Scott Walker's new economy. Don't let the handlers of the "official message" con the good people of Madison and the rest of the fair state into thinking everything is hunky-dory down in good ol' Janesville. The happy-talk message can get out of the invisible fence of economic decay...,

..., but, what is left of the workers are still imprisoned behind it.

GoDaddy shit cans millions of bloggers - techno fascists assholes meet Moore's Law

     Dadio moves all his writing to dailydadio.blogspot.com and dailydadio.wordpress.com . 

     A couple of years ago, GoDaddy owner Bob Parsens sold the company to some hedge funders / private-equity firms. Under Parsens' tutelage, it was a state-of-the-art Internet company; based, right in the good ol' U.S. of A. and with, their sponsoring of race car driver Danica Patrick.  But hedge funders do shitty things like move jobs to China et cetera. Although, apparently still in American, the company has slipped off..., the edge. 

     Go Daddy had a handy Blog rubric which could be used to link documents, pics, and pod casts to the said user's Web site.  As of late June 2014, Go Daddy shut down its Blog system leaving millions of subscribers in...., the fuck'n lurch.  

     When I found out about the change a'com'n, I called their once state-of-the-art help desk. There was never a wait when I used GoDaddy Help; they always happily solved the most mundane problems.  I pay for that luxury with my unlimited Web site.  The handy Blog system came with the deal, one for free and a second for a little extra fee.  

   This last or latest call to GoDaddy tech help went a little different.  The tech dude had a rube type personality.  He giggled when I complained about the abrupt and traumatic service change. And I asked if I might have my archives at least, to place on another Blog site. 

     "Ha, ha, heee," tech dude laughed like a pervert.  He then said, "You'll need to do a lot of cutt'n and past'n. Ha, ha, heee!"   I had originally understood several years ago the small fee was for archiving as well as publishing.  My face flushed, I cussed him and made some reference to GoDaddy being relegated to a left-over MySpace mess redux - simply vanishing.  

     I often spoke highly of GoDaddy.  No more.  I rip on them constantly now.  We visit their buffoonery often on my radio show, Dadio's Lunch Bucket Clinic.  Poetically, just tonight I saw a GoDaddy ad on the television.  

    What's the matter GoDaddy, got to do some damage control?

    These types of corporate shenanigans are typical of a techno fascist asshole outfit run-a-muck. Apply the neo-Moore's law, to an all too handy obsolescence, conveniently used to screw customers and people over in lieu of improvements.

     As so stated in the first sentence of this essay, Dadio will do his best to move all his copy-writed work elsewhere. 

Daily Dadio moves to BlogSpot and WordPress

30 June 2014

     Some of Daily Dadio's links will be down for a while.

     Daily Dadio is in the process of moving all blog postings, essays, stories, and works to Google BlogSpot and WordPress.

     The Internet and its foibles has burned enough of us over the years.  I am reminded just off the top of my head, of MySpace vanishing, news paper sites losing archives, and ridiculous viruses and their smarmy propagators damaging computers ad nauseam.

     Here we go yet again. Recently, the Internet company GoDaddy was sold to some private-equity jokers and hedge funders. The kind of shady people that move American jobs to China to claim they are increasing profits for investors...., just because they can.

     Among other things, Go Daddy provides Web building and domain name services.  For a long time they had a dandy blog rubric where one could easily link blogs, essays, pics, and pod casts to Web sites.

     That handy service has been dismantled.  I will post a follow-up posting tomorrow with more details..., and complaints.