...so I missed it OS. I'll correct that mistake immediately. Your posts are one of the very best things on DU for me. (Plus Omaha is where I grew up!)

Hell the same info posted again in a different forum might get a hundred recs. It is kind of a crapshoot. That said, kudos to your Union. Since we live in an era where money has been made equivalent to speech, your Union sleeks with a louder voice.

Also, I was unaware that anyone was Alerting your threads. I don't see anything wrong with them, they are inspiring and heart warming.

Your thread about the slaves getting freed I K&R'd, but didn't go into detail, unable to find the article I'd posted on the situation last year. What those men went through was utterly terrifying.

You don't respond to me, OS, but I frequently kick your threads and rec them when I see them. You have a lot of supporters here.

and you aren't allowed to leave DU!

I don't usually reply, but I find them very informative.

Please keep on posting!

the problem is you post a piece about people being victimized for actually doing something rather than feeling really sad about someone's situation and just being a victim, in general.

thread I read in LBN would be locked while I was responding, over some issue involving GMT and counting hours and 'this story was in the Guardian yesterday'. Well. Was it? How nice.
Not suggesting they change, that's the LBN trip. I just don't comment there much because it's too fussy and particular for my tastes.

because I so rarely visit LBM.

Trotting over there now.

Never mind.

A story posted on a Saturday night during a holiday weekend is not going to get a fast flood of recs. No matter what the content.

I was relieved to see you bring a little skepticism to that party. I believe we share a common former profession which gives us a "nose" for things and I was bothered by the whole thread. I stayed out of it, though, because I assumed my opinion would end up with a jury deciding it. As for the labor union post and Fox, I just haven't gotten around to reading it yet.

We all know that those in the police departments always have each other's backs, but they also have a reputation for sticking their noses where they don't belong.

Just sayin...

Union guys do not equal police departments.

Just sayin'.

In any case, how do you know I wasn't the police department's union rep? Sheesh. Every cop isn't eeeeeeeevil.

Or what you said but to JTFrog.

And I do not think all police are jerks.

no kidding? My comment stems from the fact that when asked how he got information on a poster asking for help here at DU, Omaha Steve said he learned a few things while working for the Omaha Police Dept. before retiring last year.

So being as how they share a common profession which gives them a "nose" for things, it wasn't really that hard to figure that out. Sure sounds rather authoritarian and almost sounds like there was an invasion of privacy.

Talk about not nice.

That thread just had too many contradictions.

If you check back, you'll see that.

I was in agreement with you.

donated money to that poster during the first "fund drive"?

The whole thing seems off.

is the sense of not being able to get ones act together and the need to keep making rent to try to hold on to a place one has lived a very long time. Perhaps we all would prefer the person did something different rather than repeatedly beg for money for a repeated expense (rent): but she's tired and overwhelmed, she has the dog, she doesn't want to move. She wanted the landlord to fix stuff and for all these problems to go away long enough so she could get her working life back in order and get everything back to normal. We want to judge her for not having friends and family to fall back on. Even if she gave up her dog, and all her stuff that makes up her identity, it's pretty hard to find even close relatives that will let you couch surf the time it takes to rebuild your life these days. If your relatives are in rural areas - you're doomed.

As I said in that thread - I'm not trying to vouch for the truth for what TTW said, and I can't tell anyone whether she's a scammer or not. But the experience she describes is "authentic", and the reasons people were giving for picking at her were the reasons of people who have never been in that position. If you do get in that position, you WILL do whatever you have to do to hold on to avoid homelessness (the scariest thing imaginable if you're right on the verge), stay in the place where you have lived for a decade, hold on to your pet, hold on to your stuff.

You will also try to avoid things like prostitution, holding up people for their wallets, and the humiliation of begging on street corners. The anonymity of begging on the Internet is the next best thing. I've thought about it more than once myself and that's why I understand everything TTW has described.

One more time - I can't vouch that TTW is actually going through that. It would be nice to have a witness to visit. But these "smell tests" are also "off" since they are clearly coming from people who have never been in a similar situation and had no way of lifting the "month after month" nature of the rent while they addressed it. Since TTW has reached out for help, the kind thing to do is find out more about the best way to help so she doesn't have to keep scrambling for rent. (And it's not "Catholic Charities&quot . A lawyer in the thread wrote a really good analysis of the sort of services TTW needs to hook up with, but someone would probably need to reach out to her to make that happen, especially if she doesn't live in an urban center.

Ps. She might want to try to get the dog officially classified as a companion animal, too.

I have been in critical housing situations myself, and so I DO know how nerve wracking and anxiety causing and miserable it feels. I cannot see her judgments being anything close to what I would do in her situation.

$2000 for rent is outrageously high, and just that part alone makes me skeptical. People with very little money would be motivated to find a cheaper place to live.

It might have to do with the dog. Or back rent? In any case it sounds like she does need to get out of that situation, but she needs a gentle transition out, and some hand-holding. But we can't tell what she needs from here. She needs someone of a good will evaluating her situation.

Unfortunately the collapse of the social services system means the removal of those people of good will from the system. It's likely all that remains is mental health crisis professionals who are empowered to help her if she has to be institutionalized (the State is very quick to authorize SSI if they can pay themselves out of it...), and TTW is of course trying to avoid that outcome.

Sucks to be poor and living under this regime.

It's a 3 bedroom row house. So not outrageously high.

Here's another thing you apparently missed in your skimming of the thread: after the court hearing and subsequent inspection, the "psychotic" landlady called her, wanting to come in with workers to repair something, that coming Saturday. TTW told us that she told the landlady Saturday was not good. TTW wrote this in an aggrieved tone that suggested this was another example of the outrageous things the landlady was doing to her.

There were people in that thread who WERE trying to be gentle with her. Who WERE pointing her to places to go to get the on-the-scene guidance she needed. My own feeling was that she was having an emotional breakdown so she was being illogical, but she was asking specific questions and people were giving her concrete answers! There were people ready to donate $ to her as soon as she set up the gofundme account, but she was dragging her feet on that because 1) she'd have to give her real name and 2) it would take so long to get the money. People were a little taken aback by that and I don't blame them.

It still doesn't make for a coherent or compelling story, when you also take into account that this is the 2nd time she asked for cash donations in 3 months.

It seems to me that someone who has been out of work for as long as she has, would have found a cheaper and smaller place to live, especially since she describes it as a dump, with a horrible landlady. She was possibly being truthful, but if so, why would strangers from a political board want to thow money into maintaining a lousy living situation? Oh well. That's about all I have to say about this.

And she was definitely not working with ideas that would take more than a couple days to carry out. Another reason neither GoFundMe or PayPal were working for her was that they both required bank verification (PayPal has a limit of $500/month until you do bank verification and GoFundMe doesn't transfer funds at all until you complete bank verification). That process takes several days. However each time a disaster hit, TTW was making kneejerk decisions.

What bothered me here is that people seemed to be blaming TTW for not responding in a sophisticated way when half the problem was that she was obviously too stressed to be able to do that.

Again, I'd like to say this without sounding like I'm promoting sending funds to TTW. IMHO, this is an ongoing situation, and she does need to be hooked up with multiple services (if they even exist) there. She needs hand-holding to get that done. That process could take days - perhaps weeks. To give you a clue: it took me 3 months to sign up with the Dept. of Rehab. I had to wait one month to go to the screening session (and I would have had to wait another month if I showed up late). Then I had to gather my information and submit an application. Then I had to wait for them to assign me a counselor for an initial interview. The speed of social programs is GLACIAL - and they don't care that your rent is due NOW.

Anyway, IMHO, the best thing in this case would have been for someone to eyeball the situation, so TTW would have some to vouch for her here and hand hold her through some of this process. What she DOESN'T need is unfriendlies busting in and telling her she "can't afford" to live in the place where she's lived for the last decade when she doesn't have anyplace else in mind to go.

But between everything TTW had to deal with pertaining to the eviction notice and all the pile on she got here, she might have just hid under the covers. That's what I'd probably do. Hopefully the police didn't drag her out of the place.

My MIL is a hoarder and she lives with us-

Luckily her house is sold now and the last of the "crap" that was in it. Why do you want that box of busted picture frames from the 70's that are rotted and fucked-

Then starts like every other conversation-

"I was going to use those blah blah blah..."


Junk doesn't define a person-

Make your own decisions about living free of keepsakes, books, photo albums, special outfits, and other "hoarded" encumbrances. That is the way YOU live. Most normal people do build their lives in concert with the personal items they gather around them.

Having 36 gallons (yes counted them) of 25+ year old paint that is trashed is another-

Oh, I've got a broken kiln taking up space in my garage right now...let me know if you are interested LOL- about to go on craigslist

I've not had any time to even revisit my own thread with everything that's been going on. Apparently there's a whole lot of people thinking I was pulling some kind of scam though I can't imagine what that would be especially seeing as in my last OP about the hearing disaster it seemed to escape a rather impressive number of peoples' notice that I NEVER ASKED FOR ANY MONEY!!! For those people, go read it again:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10026442802

Anyone care to say where the hell I asked anyone for any money? Did I attach my paypal account to the OP and ask for donations? Did I say I needed help to pay the rent or to pay anything else? NO. I told a story about a current terrifying situation where I was railroaded by the district court here as well as the code enforcement office who barely glanced at any of the major problems in this dump. All I wanted was to vent and get some actual advice from anyone that had any ideas of what I could do.

Yet people here were skeptical because "that's not how it happens". Well, no SHIT that's not how it's supposed to happen but it's how it happened to me and probably plenty of others who didn't know anything about the law concerning their circumstances and their rights and will keep happening to people that have to find themselves at the mercy of this pathetic excuse of a court. This Repuke judge does whatever the hell he wants, and there's no one to tell him otherwise since he's the pinnacle of the district court and the only judge. He has the court SET UP to ignore the law and peoples' rights keeping the clerks thoroughly ignorant of anything giving wrong information or hiding behind "I'm not a lawyer and can't give legal advice" in response to any question they don't know how to answer like what something means on one of the forms they generate, and never mind that you weren't asking for any legal advice in the first place. They'd likely respond the same way to the question "Can I borrow a pen"? All they do is generate forms having no clue what anything means that's on them or what laws or legal procedures go along with them.

The judge doesn't read anything they generate nor sign them himself as the clerks just rubber stamp his signature on everything. All he does is show up to do hearings every Tuesday morning since his actual job is a law partner in a large private practice - he can't be bothered to dispense judgments according to the law and fairly but does however he likes and to hell with the law or anyone's rights. He's got private clients to catch and bill giant chunks of money to and golf games to play.

Despite all of that his judgment (once I found out what the hell it meant) allows me to stay here as long as I paid an amount of money (that close to $2000 amount I'd mentioned) to the landlord or appeal. Well, yesterday I spent most of the day at the court for my county filing an appeal as a pauper which waves the $285.50 filing fee and only made me pay about $375 of one month's rent instead of the whole judgment amount though I have 20 days to pay around $875 or so or whatever the rest is to equal a month's rent (I haven't even had the time yet to even check the math on that). But that's 20 days I didn't have before. Had I not paid the whole judgment amount to my landlord or appealed in 10 to 15 days the constable would come to throw me out and everything I own would be cleaned out and put in township storage at my expense. And if I missed a storage payment it would all be sold at auction. I don't even want to know what would happen to Yoshi.

Since the appeal is in my county's court it gets the case out of that stinking disaster of a district court. It's these various county courts I'd been accustomed to dealing with when I used to be a legal secretary/paralegal and where the clerks know what they're talking about and can help with all kinds of filings.

After about a hundred phone calls with the clerks at my county's court I got at least the basic gist of what I needed to do though I'd gotten confused and believed that the whole judgment amount would also be waived. That sure would have been nice. At least I didn't have to plop down a huge lump sum just to file the appeal at all because there's no way I could have done that.

I'm damned if I know what the hell anyone is even talking about claiming I'm doing some kind of scam. What scam? I never asked for any money in the first place. Yes, back in February I did and was up front about it despite how humiliating it was. And bless those people that donated then because it's the only way I've had anything to live off of lately. Thanks to a wonderful neighbor who has also had water damage in their house because of my landlord having this hidden leak from the shower into the ceiling for years and also have had no luck in getting her to do a damn thing about it (we share a wall) I was gifted enough money to pay a big part of what I had to pay to file the appeal yesterday. If they hadn't and I'd had to use all of the money I had left I would have been just about wiped out.

So, what's the issue? The issue is that some people just think they're Sherlock Holmes and can "sniff" out something just because they start from the premise of "I don't WANT to believe this person" and try to figure out ways to convince themselves and others that they somehow know what the hell they're talking about. That's how it's always been on DU about pretty much anything and anyone. And like usual nobody knows what they're talking about and look ridiculous thinking they have a clue.

Some of it even started to get pretty amusing like those people analyzing my mental health (thanks, but I've had a shrink for decades, and he's who I'll pay any attention to concerning my mental health) and just deciding I don't bathe, and have a vicious dog and I just didn't bother with anything else after that nonsense.

I'm really curious about where all the photos came from of the damages in this dump that the landlord has basically ignored. What, have the "sniffers" just forgotten about them or have they convinced themselves that I've been running around destroying my home myself just to poke DU in the eye at a later date?

I'm willing to bet that you naysayers flush your toilet without thinking a thing about whether or not the sewage pipe will crack again or disintegrate all together and wouldn't imagine you'd feel like every time you did you had to run and check it gripped with fear that this time it did. I've been doing that for TWO YEARS. Thankfully FINALLY the township made the landlord replace that pipe though she tried to before the township inspector saw it, so now I FINALLY have a shiny new PVC sewage pipe, but after two years of being gripped with fear every time I used the toilet it hasn't been easy to shake that feeling and stop checking on the pipe.

Here's a photo of it since I promised the plumber I'd take one:



I'm willing to bet that you never had to worry about the ceiling falling down on your head or what the hell that rotted looking plaster growing on the ceiling for years was or waking up to take a piss in the middle of the night and the toilet wouldn't stop spewing gallons of water out of the tank that crashed through the ceiling in a waterfall of brown foul smelling toilet water all over your tv, blueray player and a tv cabinet full of your favorite store bought movies. I'm also willing to bet that your living room ceiling doesn't look like this and that you don't have to set out pots and pans to try to catch most of the water that leaks out of the ceiling every time you take a shower:



I'm willing to bet that you never had a psycho for a landlord that screams incoherently at you, tries to illegally record your phone conversations with them and tries to blame YOU for their own unbelievable negligence while month after month you had to keep shelling out most of the money you slave at the world's most shitty job to pay for and that the law EXPECTS you to keep paying for.

I'm willing to bet that you've never lost your job that took you a year to get in the first place because of all the disasters in the house you pay for and the landlord continually insists you pay for solely so that she can pay the mortgage on her own nice house she lives in taking the income from you that afforded the ability to pay the rent and eat in the first place.

I'm willing to bet that you've never been smacked upside the head by the extremely real and more likely outcome of being homeless while you lose your only real friend in the world who is always there for you, protects you and is the only reason you keep clawing away every day trying to get unstuck from this mess someone else put you in while your landlord sneers at you and tells you since you're unemployed now what do you care when she decides to come over with workmen to try to hide the evidence of what she's done to you - it's not like you have anywhere to go, and all the while going to bed every night wondering how many days you have left to sleep in your bed and keep all the things you worked a lifetime to have and have a roof over your head even if it does threaten to down and always waiting for the next disaster to strike.

If you haven't been where I have and still am and where so many countless others have been and much worse and chose to try to poke imaginary holes in their tale of woe instead of scraping up a dimes worth of empathy if not sympathy than you need to be shoved off your high horse and get thee down to the nearest voter registration office and change your party affiliation to Republican because every bit of that shit is the epitome of the worst of them. Such epic inhumanity I would expect from them, but to be flogged with it by people claiming to be Democrats, progressives, concerned about social justice, etc. is a fucking disgrace. Yet here they are again discussing me as if I'm not here and somehow can't know that they are. I came into this thread out of concern for Omaha Steve's predicament that's so much worse than my own to find I'm being discussed yet again.

Meanwhile while you kick me in the face after my own family just did and pop into other threads whining about how evil Republicans are and go to sleep in your bed in your nice home that you never once gave a thought to having yanked out from under you in a matter of weeks along with everything you have and care about. Well, just think on that. Think about what it must feel like to go to bed every night in that position, and if you still think you have such an exceptional nose for "sniffing" things out than it's thanks to people like you this world is as shit as it is with perfectly normal people getting chewed up and spat out by incredible assholes with no conscience because all they ever think about is their own selves even when that means destroying someone else's entire world.

Hands up anyone willing to trade their nice stable life for mine right now. What, no takers? Of course not.

By the way, any of you "sniffers" managed to focus your so magical olfactory senses at detecting what my single biggest reason was that I was so concerned about having my real name attached to a gofundme account? I'll help you out with that one - YOU.

That's all I'll say on the matter. I've wasted enough time on it as it is. Excuse me while I get back to trying to save my own life.

Thanks again, daredtowork, and I'm sorry I happened to choose your post to use to bring up any of this.

It's very hard to get on top of a situation like yours, and a court - which adds a heap more stress to it - is not on the side of poor people. I do appreciate that phone calls, appointments, running around, trying to figure out where to get help, and the burn out from all that, does suck up all your time so you can't get your act together for "moving on" (re: getting a job so you can move out of that apartment.). Actually, moving is very stressful for someone who is on their own, so it's hard to imagine once you have a job. I think that's the thing that wasn't grokked well on these threads.

In a way I'm very lucky to have some of the disabilities I do, because that enabled me to plug in to more resources for getting these sorts of problems sorted out. You do need some one is more like a "life coach" who can rapidly hook you up with the programs you need. Most people don't understand that the "social workers" at "social services" don't do that: they just sign you up for the pathetic couple of programs that are still offered by the Federal government or county governments (food stamps, temporary assistance for needy families, general assistance, medicaid). They don't "help people". But in major urban areas it's possible to find the organization that does "help people". It might take a while to find, but keep looking.

I do think that you need to find a way to move. You need to be closer to the urban center where there are more resources and a greater chance of finding someone who can help you. *Start* with organizations on 211 (http://pa211sw.org/housing) to see if they can refer you to places with "wrap-around services". There are programs out there to help people avoid homelessness.

My sense is you (and a lot of people) would be better off on some sort of "temporary disability" (for PTSD at the very least) that is funded in such a way that would still allow you to stabilize your housing situation. Instead what the current post-Clinton "welfare reform" era has done is constantly try to pull the rug out from people who have nothing, as if the threat of homelessness will magically make them get their act together. Instead it makes things worse and tends to drive mental illness as well as homelessness.

Again I'm so glad to hear you survived the week.

And so appreciative that your Union includes Planned Parenthood in their support. That's forward thinking.







People alert your threads? Whaaat? That doesn't make any sense.

I'm number 99.

Please don't confuse me with anyone who would under-value posts, especially yours, which are worthy of reading.

I was trying to explain this to Mineral Man yesterday… I responded to his OP to ask a question and when I wasn't back in record time, this apparently was some fault of mine. I have a busy life, and DU is part of my life. It doesn't come before other tasks of mine on an otherwise busy weekend.

When I'm retired (if this place still exists in a few years) I'll have more time to respond more often. Until then, I'm like many others who only have so much time to check in.

Meanwhile… by all means, please continue your excellent posts!

To find out why the post was locked, look to the last reply as the locking host typically says why they are locking. "off topic" is frustratingly wrong in most locked posts but automatically inserted by the software.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1014&pid=1059255

I've actually seen the explanation. I rarely post in LBN because of that.

I always look forward to reading what you have to say. Don't fret the haters and those who alert at the slightest little thing. They seem to be out in force lately.

Happy to K&R both posts

Please please don't let the haters get you down.

I appreciate the articles you post.

good for you donating poster, i guess.

another thing I am learning here. "Self Delete" WTF???

That post on any Democratic Forum...no, just no.

Self Delete...how nice. Disappeared.

You can contribute here, and "pay" great for you. Good.


This site is huge, but maybe not so much.


On Edit:

This post was to RenewDeal who self deleted, not to JTTFrog where it posted.

Shame on you RenewDeal for not letting your post stand...okay getting it...a bit.

For the post he deleted. It's in a reply to the post he deleted. Have to give credit where credit is due.

I usually find Omaha Steve's labor posts interesting and sometimes enlightening, but the repeated posts about number of responses not being what he expects, repeated references to his illness in an apparent attempt to make us feel bad for not responding, and threats to leave (too many to count) are off-putting to me personally.

The labor voice is welcome and needed, but the "woe is me, I'm dying and not enough people are reading my posts, I'm leaving DU, really, I mean it this time, I'm leaving DU" are tiresome.

Can you give us a count? Exactly?

Yes, I'm curious because I find it to be a big, broad statement about all the information that OS provides.

as I haven't kept count. While not frequent, they're not rare either.

And you might want to re-read everything I wrote instead of just the parts you apparently don't like.

You have the temerity to insult him? Why? These types of insults are for the purpose of discrediting & tearing one down. One of the strategies used by those who would like to see someone discredited & demeaned. Why don't you communicate your message in a respectful way? Your post says quite a lot about your motivation.

But then, I guess that's okay with some people.

Way to treat your fellow Democrat.

Wow, just wow.

Despicable. Shameful.

What a way to be.

And who the fuck continuously alerts on someone's posts? You have that much of a problem, put the person on ignore.

God damn there's some self righteous whining in this thread

Thanks 99Forever. Glad you said it.

Last edited Sun Apr 5, 2015, 05:52 PM - Edit history (1)

... I used purposely mild words to describe my actual view of what this poster did.

Frankly, when it comes to this, especially with Steve, I don't care.

Sometimes people earn respect rather than it just being the right thing to do. OS has been here over 10 years. He has helped people tremendously, kept us informed, fought for Democrats and unions like almost no other. If you like his posts or not, he has more than put in his dues and asked nothing in return until recently. And all he has asked for is a little understanding of what his disease is doing to him.

But even if he hadn't asked, he deserves nothing less. I don't care if he wants to post pictures of chipmunk sex in GD or a health group, he gets to do that. And we get to thank him.

I lurked for years before signing up and OS was always one of the best things about this site.

Fuck anyone who can't see that and can actually say some of the things said here. Just Fuck them

are two different things.

I'm new to this apparently ongoing dispute. I appreciate Omaha Steve for his animal welfare posts, which are always a welcome antidote to the many sources of despair in our world (and that are rightfully reported here at DU). I don't really follow the other ones and don't "rec" regularly out of ignorance, I guess.

I actually have no quarrel with Steve and no reason to agree with or disagree with anyone here, but I am so disappointed in the projection and judgmentalism I'm seeing on this board.

If you are concerned about a person mentioning their terminal illness, another approach might be to wonder if that person is going through unusual pain, the debilitating fatigue and brain fog related to treatment, and the grief associated with imminent additional pain and then death. Attacking them for supposedly manipulating their very serious illness is really, really callous. And if you believe that's what they are doing, even unconsciously, ask yourself why--ask yourself why someone going through something so serious might have their illness front and center in their lives, and might have thin patience at times. Wouldn't you?

Just sayin...

It is awful that OS is facing terminal illness. I hope he has good medical care and people in his life.

And advice for the same person, for the same reason?

There was nothing wrong with what he said. It was sound advice.

I especially appreciated his saying "Help us help you!" to get her back on track, because she was being resistant, and ultimately unresponsive.

Thank you.

Well said

I'm rather shocked at this thread. I wonder if hiding behind a name makes these posters feel cool in being callous and very rude. Extremely rude!

Last edited Mon Apr 6, 2015, 02:12 AM - Edit history (1)

of my own health issues, offering help and solutions. I told him there were none, but thanks anyway. I think it was very discouraging to him and am sorry I wasn't positive.

I have written, not just in terms of OS, that you never know if the person you are talking to on the other end of the monitor is posting on their last day.

Many people here have are on their last leg, so to speak, and at times their spouse or child or friend will write to tell us that the DUer has passed away. It is often a shock to members.

Many people post a lot at different times of the day or night, because they are in pain and can't rest. The body does not give in death easily, at times the process is long and painful. At times, it does a person a lot of good to get comments, so I try to be kind, or say nothing. If nothing else, say TY for a post if it's too deep to figure out an appropriate response.

What we write to each here, may very well be the last human contact some members will have before their last breath. I mean that literally. Do we want to be using any of our limited time on Earth by scolding a persons, questioning their motives personally, etc.

I let a lot of things slide, if a person is ill. We don't know the truth of anyone here, at times we may get a face or a letter and reveal ourselves to someone. I believe OS because he is in addition to being a DUer, a public personage who ran for office in his town.

If a person is begging for positive input, no matter what we may think, that is a sign of pain or discouragement. I won't add to their pain or discouragement. Sometimes it is too much for their health to bear. I have been written by a number of DUers who have left because of negativity and how it has affected their health.

Literally. Some attacks leave the person crying. Or they hit a chord that is far too painfully to argue, they are paralyzed. They just can't take it, and really, jumping on each other serves no purpose at all.

I never see this in my DP district or other advocacy meetings unless an invasion of RWers takes place. They are real life trolls who show up to disrupt in real life, just like some come here to disrupt threads.

Pardon the length of my long reply to you. Really, you expressed it better, but I don't mention people by name. It's a general sentiment some have on the internet.

I think it was because you were implying TTW was a fraud if she didn't prove herself. But she had repeatedly said she was exhausted and could barely think, and that whole thread was pretty much a battering ram against her character - it looks like she completely bailed on it at some point.

Honestly, if I were the juror it would be a tough call: on the one hand you were trying to protect fellow DU members from being scammed. On the other hand you were challenging/undermining someone who was pretty fragile at that point - who was having to field a lot of phone calls for eviction resources at the same time, and whose landlady apparently came to scream outside her door during the course of the thread.

On top of that it seemed she couldn't accomplish what she wanted via DU - gather enough money to pay off the rent judgment on time. She may have moved on to trying something different, she may have just gotten some sleep. Hopefully she didn't do anything rash. In any case, IMHO, just asking her to follow up in "back channels" with those helping her would be enough to both spur her to follow up and cue others to wait for more verification. No need to point out what might be "suspicious" in her story.

That's called stalking. Your post is actually so rude as to be disgusting.

And yet, not surprising

He didn't attack you or anyone else. He just expressed disappointment and asked for people to look at his post.

a great contributor to DU-

Sorry about jumping on you. I read sheshe's thread and she reminded me that there are a lot of different people here with different perspectives and life experiences. I always try to keep that in mind, but sometimes it's easy to forget. I, like others find some of your posts informative or interesting. I know more about Nebraska because of you than I otherwise would. And I appreciate you being here. Hopefully we'll see more from you soon.

That takes a lot.

It's hard enough to admit to ourselves we may have mis-reacted to something--but to do so in a highly volatile public forum shows a lot of humility and accountability that I'm sorry to say I haven't lived up to myself at times. I'll remember this the next time (soon, no doubt) I put my foot in my mouth. Thank you.

Corporate Media is presented as reliable. I don't consider the MSM reliable so decided to skip the forum.

I'm sure I'm not the only one, so don't take it personally OS.

Is that the way it usually works?

The best of us get posts hidden. May as well wear them with pride. Another thing, if someone here and there gets tired of seeing your posts, they should just put you on ignore instead of alerting like maniacs.

Thanks for taking the time and effort to post worthy articles!

I'm sure a lot of DUers missed it because of the holiday weekend.

There are always people who are against unions...Thanks for fighting the good fight for us.

YES it's an awesome honor to be targeted by Fox! Congratulations!!!

And then "somebody" (I haven't even seen that user befor) locked the thread because it wasn't LBN enough!

Makes me think of a recent post that was locked because the long time poster "violated" the posting rules by putting up more than four paragraphs...the article at the link and the post were only five short sentences! Stupid....

I guess some DU'ers must be more worried about category versus the actual content and information.

so some of it is jealous DU'ers, some are probably trolls and some are just assholes following you around like puppies nipping at your heels.

And about replying to your posts…. I post less and less. Mainly because of things like the hide I got on that TTW thread.

Your "speculation" that a long time DUer, who was asking for help to keep from being thrown on the streets, might be addicted to a an expensive recreational drug because it fit your interpretation of the situation was appalling. All of those who attacked TTW and made ridiculous, hurtful and extremely insensitive accusations disgust me.

I recall reading not long after her first request for help that she DID POST that she received a whopping $500.00 in help. $500.00 yes. Not $1500.00 nor the $2000.00 she had hoped to collect.

Sad and pathetic situation.

If you are around TTW, let us know.

anyone for) and YOU decide it's not enough as evidenced by your derisive comment about it being "whopping"?

An HONEST assessment should not be hidden because you or anyone decides they want to engage in internet tribalism where anyone who doesn't simply take a long, unlikely and convoluted story at face value is tagged as somehow hostile.

As I said to the person you agree with on this thread- I posted on that thread days earlier and tried to come up with an assessment of how someone could be telling a truth or partial truth filled with so much information that doesn't add up in a rational world.

None of my comments were unsympathetic.

DAYS later I make one more suggestion based on honesty, and it gets hidden.

In the end it says more about DU'ers who can't handle an honest SYMPATHETIC evaluation then it does about anyone who dares to simply ask NON-JUDGEMENTAL basic questions or make basic comments.

Maybe in your world strangers on the internet you apparently think you know don't ever spend money they don't have on drugs they can't afford and then do stuff to try and keep the monkey on their back happy.

Apparently, only "bad" people do stuff like that.

On my world, people we love and/or care about can do stuff that is self-destructive, manipulative or abusive.

That I can't make a basic assessment along with the others I made days earlier is screwed up and anyone who has a problem with that has issues.

What i posted was no "attack" and all my posts in that thread were ENTIRELY SUPPORTIVE.

Let's be honest, some DU'ers are simply willing to enable destructive or dishonest behavior based on a sort of internet tribalism.

Honestly assessing a situation should not result in a hide.

You can probably tell from that which juror I was. :p

On Sun Apr 5, 2015, 09:33 AM an alert was sent on the following post:

listen, I posted earlier in that mess about potential causes that were VERY sympathetic.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=6462093

REASON FOR ALERT

This post is disruptive, hurtful, rude, insensitive, over-the-top, or otherwise inappropriate.

ALERTER'S COMMENTS

another outrageous attack from OP on TTW (destructive, dishonest behavior) and also against DU members (if you don't agree with OP's opinion of TTW, you have "issues" originating in "a sort of internet tribalism&quot OP needs to stop beating up on DU members for their compassion for someone she feels is not deserving somehow.

You served on a randomly-selected Jury of DU members which reviewed this post. The review was completed at Sun Apr 5, 2015, 09:46 AM, and the Jury voted 1-6 to LEAVE IT.

Juror #1 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: There is ZERO reason for anyone to "alert" on this post. None.
--H2O Man
Juror #2 voted to HIDE IT
Explanation: Attacking other Duers: they have "issues" and are "enablers" of dishonest behavior and participate in "internet tribalism". And this after a hide stating TTW had a drug problem--Geesh!
Juror #3 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: Seems as if the poster is responding defensively to an accusation. I see no TOS violation. The original post that is being brought back into the conversation was hidden. The poster has paid the price for posting something that was deemed inappropriate and should not be followed pillar to post for further punishment.
Juror #4 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: This post has no attack on TTW in it. This post is defending against a post attacking this poster. I disagree with and dislike most of KW's posts as I think s/he is rude in general from what I've seen (probably mostly on one topic) but this doesn't warrant a hide. KW was called out and is responding to that. The OP is meta to begin with and this whole mess should be hidden.
Juror #5 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: No explanation given
Juror #6 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: It's a confusing mess and a hard to follow trail of name calling and finger pointing. But this post, per se, does not appear to rise to the level of a hide.
Juror #7 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: Huh?

Thank you very much for participating in our Jury system, and we hope you will be able to participate again in the future.

Should not have gotten a hide, imo.

nice to know I'm in good company. But actually I mistakenly posted it on an earlier post (had it up to research it), noticed it, then posted on current post. Both were turned in and one was voted to hide and the current to leave it alone lol ... go figure.

Sorry I didn't see the OP earlier.

No riding off into the sunset!

a Rec on the one I missed.

Happy Easter/ Happy Holiday to you and yours OS.

I rec'd it but I can't kick it. The hosts locked it. What a really shitty thing to do! Beside the fact I disagree with them, you deserve more respect than that.

It was a great, relevant post.

I am so sorry you are being shown such disrespect. And the post you are talking about to help someone, I wonder if it was a cc troll that alerted. Absolutely nothing wrong with what you said. In fact, it was right on.

else, and not the spirit of this place. Long may you run.

Like you said it's Fox and they are just soooo awful. They make a note of the fact that tax payers are donating to the Union. As if tax payers don't support huge corporations by buying their crap. Or like tax payers don't ever donate to the GOP. Then they imply it is mandatory dues money that is only being donated to Planned Parenthood and such, so really no one supports the Unions, it's all mandatory dues. As if we have no monopolies in the US that turn most purchases into mandatory spending at excessive prices then the corporations turn around and give some of that profit they stole off of us to the GOP.

I had to scrub out the propaganda from my mind after reading that Fox article. It really is just so irritating to see them take a good thing and make it sound so awful with silly little lies and innuendos.

post a shit ton of worthy stuff that no one ever pays attention to. I am quite a certain some of those DUers might even be terminal. Sometimes it's good to take a break.

Take care of yourself, get rest, and come back when you're stronger.

I just went there now to read it...and gave it a Recommend. I've always learned a lot for you, Steve. I'm very grateful for everything you do.

a hollow victory at best?

Sometimes if something is really important to me, I will bump my own thread. LBN and GD, especially, are pretty busy, so next time you might want to bump it a few times. All the best to you, Steve.

Don't take things personally. It never helps. Sorry for your disappointment.

We need MORE union news, not less. Even here, while most of the comments I have seen in my brief time here are union positive, there is the occasional Fox talking point about unions and union issues.

The drop in union membership since Reagan's Presidency has been accompanied by a severe drop/stagnation in wages and benefits of the bottom 90%. Coincidence? If you think so I have a bridge for sale.

Any union member who receives a pension is painted as an over benefited taker by the media, while people like Carly Fiorina can walk away from a disastrous career at Hewlett Packard with a massive golden parachute with no comment from the corporate media.

Keep on posting Steve, and remember people that Labor Notes, a Detroit based labor publication, is a great source for labor news.

From a 40 year union member.

k & r for AFSCME, for contributing to other progressive advocacy groups!

am not necessarily well-informed on.

I would be a huge loss for so many you're may not even be aware of if you were to discontinue your posts, no matter the subject.

Take care.

Keep posting Omaha Steve.
And those tips you provide are insightful.

And happy Easter !