Cutting Through The Bullshit…. Machetti’s Blog

As some of you may know I work for a major American Flag manufacturer. We make flags for US, State and Municipal governments. We make the flags that go on the caskets of our dead soldiers, we make banner advertisements for the military in their efforts to recruit. We advertise to our government and other customers that our products are made in the USA. This is bullshit.
1. Starting in the past couple years we have begun importing poles and other hardware products from China. That’s right China. We don’t say it’s from China in the catalog, but the products are marked China when you get them. (VERY SMALL hard to find print) This isn’t the majority but it is becoming more and more common.

2. The people sewing the flags here in the US, 80%, I believe are illegal immigrants. First of all I have nothing really against illegal immigrants, I love and respect those that I work with. BUT the fact is that they have fake social security numbers and IDs, I know this because they go by different names than their employment papers/pay check says. I know that my company will change their names (fire and rehire the same person) when they get better fakes. I’ve seen it done.

So yes profits stay here the USA, so that management can by their BMWs and travel the globe (well I guess not those profits haha) and we can just stand here waving our flag that says “freedom ain’t free.”

And I puke a little more in mouth.

Lou Dobbs would have a field day if he knew about this.

I think all bureaucrats in charge of the VA should have to use the Veterans Administration for their personal health care. That is the only way they will understand how ridiculous the system can be. I propose a panel of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans to advise and report on the VA Medical and Benefits system. I am shocked that there are so many levels of the VA and no one is talking to each other. All in all the system is silly and broken and the only people aware of this fact is the veterans who can’t afford decent health care.
1. I am moving this summer to Chicago. So I went to my local VA Clinic and inquired on how it all works, changing clinics. They said if I left the Hines system and went to one of the 2 other VA Hospitals in the area, I’d have to re-apply and it would be very difficult to transfer my medical records. Why? Why aren’t all VA Hospitals linked into one system? This is insane.

2. There needs to be a select advisory panel of Veterans of the War on Terror. It is one thing to tell people you have waited 8-9 hours in an ER to see a doctor, it is another thing to experience it. Those who make the decisions only see complaints on paper. The fact that I have to go to the ER to see a doctor when I am sick, or wait 2 weeks to see my internist sounds ridiculous on paper, but is insanity to experience.

3. Here is where you come in.

A. Illinois Vet-Care is great idea, but only a great idea as an alternative to Federal VA Care. As it stands IL Vet Care only covers those who do not qualify for Federal care but make under x amount of money, lets say 40K which I think it was last time I checked. So it only is good for those who make 30-40k per year and had been without insurance for 6 months. This is why so few people are part of your program. “I’m giving health care to vets” a wonderful election slogan, but unfortunately isn’t that effective in practice.

B. How many VAs are there. County, State, Federal??? And non of them seem to know everything each other is doing. Not to mention other Vet resource centers etc… It is again great politics to say we offer all of these things but if they don’t work, and don’t work together, what is the point. It is more empty promises wrapped in an illusion, just like the GI Bill, which is a joke.
Thank you for taking the time to read my opinions on this.

-Brett

Afghanistan Veteran.

It’s bad enough that Bush is sending troops off to die in an un-winnable war. He’s now apposed to giving basic benefits to those that survive it. Read the details here: http://www.military.com/veterans-report/white-house-fights-proposed-pay-raise?ESRC=vr.nl

My area of concern is the Reserve GI Bill. A joke. This ploy of a program is 2 lies wrapped in an illusion.

Lie 1: All Veterans are covered by the GI Bill.

This is a bullshit myth that most Americans believe and it helps them sleep at night as they ship our soldiers off overseas. If you leave the reserves, there is no GI Bill. Nothing, no matter how many tours you do in Iraq and Afghanistan, if you want college money you can not get out of the reserves. This is the position I am in, a veteran of Afghanistan, and $0 GI Bill money.

Lie 2:

GI Bill covers school…… The reserve GI Bill is 300 some dollars a month. If your college costs only 300 a month; you are not going to be getting a diploma that will help you in the future. The active duty GI Bill (which requires you to pay into if you can get it by enlisting in Active Duty with that in your contract) only pays around 900 per month, which certainly doesn’t even cover rent in Chicago.
They don’t want veterans to get ahead. They don’t want you to find success out of the military. They need you reenlisting to keep the ranks filled. Why do I say this, because they do…. from the article “The White House says the change would mean DoD loses control of a critical incentive program for reserve recruiting and retention.”
The GI Bill is just a tool for filling their ranks, not a benefit for our nations most deserving. Pass this on tell everyone you know, lets destroy the myth about the GI Bill and get an effective benefit system for those of us who do the nations dirty work.

So I occasionally scan the pages of urbandictionary.com to keep up on “what the kids are saying these days.” Not only do I find the amazing new sexual positions created by 13 year old masagonists hilarious, I also love the creative nicknames created by other sinical 20 somethings.
The 13 year olds define such acts as the rusty trombone and the Cleveland steamer. My peers of the cubical wasteland define some great new slang such as “bluetool”, “Multi-Slacking”, and the one I wish to comment on “cubical speed.”

I have pasted their definition at the bottom of the blog entry. Anyways, I always found it funny how my office, being as tight with their money as a child and their favorite teddy bear, would shell out money for free office coffee. The caffeine is there to boost productivity. But I think the taurine - caffeine blend of an energy drink is much more effective. (cracks open rockstar number 2 for the day) If they bought rockstars for everyone I’d see that as a benefit. The shitty folgers and maxwell house, they burn up daily, just doesn’t cut it for me.  The more awake I am the more I can work, the quicker my work gets done, and the more money they make out of me. Being that I purchase my own cubical speed, (6 dollars a day habit) means that I need to subtract that 6 dollars per day from my daily wages in order to compensate for the uncompensated artificially increased productivity I am giving them. So I take my 8.5 hour work day and subtract .5 hours for that 6 dollar productivity increase. Then I factor in the fact that my wages are about 25% lower than the average wage for my position in other companies near me. (thanks carearbuilder.com for making me realize how bad I’m being fucked)  So I subtract 25% from that 8hours to compensate for lack of compensation bringing us to 6 hours of work. Then I take into account the .5 hours per day I spend teaching my coworkers who make more money than I how to do their job, while they work only 25% of the day, so I don’t feel guilty. So we are at 5.5 hrs of work per day, subtrack my .75 hr lunch break, brings us to 4.75 hrs of work. And that is all I give them. If you are cheap and go to McDons for lunch and get a cheap combo meal, you are not going to get filet mignon from them in return. They get what they pay for, and a little more so that there is room for a raise. So what to do with all that other time they haven’t purchased? I cyber-multi-slack, surf, blog, bulletin, myspace, message board, and email back and forth to my girlfriend all day long. And this delicious rockstar gives me the strength to get all of that done in one 8.5-12 hr work day.
Defined: