I am not pushing Ross as a great retail store, I am just showing you that Goodwill is Way out of line.

The following pictures illustrate what a giant scam Goodwill is playing on our nation’s poor folks. When you donate your used goods to Goodwill, are you helping anyone more than the top dogs at the store? I doubt it. I talk to the people working there (most have been there for several years, not just a few months) and they are not making a living wage and are not being helped to find living wage jobs.

I am picking on Goodwill right now as it is the largest of the “thrift” stores, but the same thing happens in St Vincent, and the Salvation Army. I shop these stores weekly looking for “sleepers” of antique and collectable value, so I see the prices every day, and they have almost doubled since the recession began! This stinks to high heaven!

Here is what you can get at Ross for the same or less money

brand new coat...clean and fresh

look at the price and decide which coat you want to give to your family member?

price of Goodwill coat

can you believe the price of this used coat?

Goodwill Prices against Ross. The poor are being ripped off!

ring around the collar!

As promised, I went out and took pics of items at Goodwill and Ross for comparason. Goodwill runs on donated used goods, and Ross is a retail outlet for new items. Old and dirty against new and clean. I believe in re cycling but to charge outlandish prices for dirty, damaged, and out of style items is simply a rip off of the first order. As promised, here are the first of many pictures.

white wool blend coat, dirty collar and out of style

Legalize Marijuana to Rejuvinate our Economy! It can work!

Just do the math! Liquor stores and tobacco shops could charge $65. for a pack of 20 pot cigarettes and the tax to the state coffers could be roughly $64, each pack. What other product would have such a dramatic stimulus effect? Wellll of course cocaine and meth would be big sellers, but those drugs have such a terrible consequense to our citizens, that no one could support such an attack on our health and welfare. But legal pot would have an immediate positive effect on law enforcement problems, and stop overcrowding in our jails and prisons.

Another very important benifit would be the shake up in the Mexican dope dealers business. Pot smokers are often forced to turn to these criminals to buy their pot, and do not turn in their dealer (even tho pot smokers often hate the fact that thier supplier deals in meth and crack) because they dont want to lose their MJ supply. I do believe that if they could buy a pack of pot cigaretts at the local liquor store, they would turn in the meth and coke dealers en masse, thus solving a huge problem both here in the US and across the Rio in Mexico.

Those folks that use pot to deal with their chronic pain and nausea, would be happy to have a safe way to get thier medicine, and folks that like to light up a joint and watch the Simpsons after a depressing day at their dwindling job, would be of good cheer.

I often smoked pot as a younger person, and I can tell you, it did me no harm, and helped me alot with my chronic migranes. Even tho I eventually developed an allergy to the weed and can no longer indulge, I think that the currant policy toward pot is a curse that should be ended.Far too many people have done time in jail and prison needlessly.

I do believe that like liquor, pot should be limited to those over 21 and should not be used by pregnant women or those who suffer from asthma and other respritory problems.

Goodwill Rips Off the Poor! Are you listening Jim Gibbons?

First off, I would like to know what the salary is for CEO Jim Gibbons of Goodwill Industries? Is he aware that Goodwill is now getting a reputation for ripping people off in the “charity” biz? I have shopped there for more than 15 years, watching for collectors items that slip down to the unwashed public instead of being slipped off to management (yes that happens alot) or put up on a rigged auction site. My biggest complaint does not affect me per se, but the poor and desperate that shop at Goodwill for basic needs like childrens clothes and cheap household goods. Four years ago I noticed a drastic change in the pricing of goods and the change has been bad for the poor. I used to see loads of gently used clothing for super reasonable prices…..that is a thing of the past. Now the stores have priced their goods over the top of stores like Target, Marshalls, and Ross! Brand new merchandise in these places is less than used goods at Goodwill. I am planning to offer proof by the means of photos in the next couple of weeks so you all can see what Goodwill is up to.I have see Old Navy clothes pirced higher at Goodwill than at Old Navy! I will take pics of items, prices, and than price similar stuff at Ross or Marshalls and post them for you to see. Are you listening Jim Gibbons? If so, help the poor out for Christmas instead of ripping them off.

Obama is right on! The Big Bank CEO’s should lose those bonuses since they were complicit in the meltdown!

I hope the CEO’s quit their jobs and retire to their respective mansions. With leaders like this, the big banks and auto companies are in big trouble from the top down. Talent? The only talent these assholes have is for corruption.

Here is a thought! The Chinese economy is doing much better than we are, and they are getting loans out to the companies that are struggling to survive and small to medium sized businesses can get needed capitol. (NPR) so why can’t the big banks here that are bragging about their profits in the last quarter be forced to lend out money to our struggling small businesses. Also they should not be allowed to forclose one more home loan as a result of an interest rate re-set. As long as the home buyer is making the original payment on time, the re-set should be held off for at least 2 more years to give the buyer time to get prepared. If the buyer was simply sold a loan that he has no hope of repaying, then OK, the bank should find another more quailified buyer AND find a rental home for the displaced family that is closer to his ability to pay. The banks got greedy with thier mortgage programs, and their policies have forced them into a corner. The government bailed them out in order to solve the mortgage crisis…………but they went on a Las Vegas type gambling streak, rather than putting out conventional mortgage loans or small business loans. Now it is time to get tough on these big banks and make them loan the money, not spectualte with it!

This Saturday I will be showing at Queen Anne in Seattle

The now annual Uptown Stroll will happen at the newly completed Counterbalance Park on the south side lower Queen Anne here in Seattle. If you want to come, I will be painting on a new Seattle cityscape and showing quite a few of my recent (and older) canvas paintings. Come meet me and tell me you follow my blog! Of course I discount my paintings to those who come meet me face to face.

Puget Sound Is Once More Swarming With Egg Yolk Jellyfish. Some Are Very Large

I have been on the ferry to Bremerton 6 times over the last three weeks, and have seen a great increase in the size and number of egg yolk jellies in the last week. Earlier, there were more of the moon jellies drifting along, but the egg yolk ones are really taking over now. They seem to be drifting about a foot beneath the surface and some are the size of basketballs now.

Interesting fact…they do not keep egg yolk jellies in the Seattle Aquarium because the people who work to clean and stock the huge tanks do not appreciate their fierce stings. The moon jellies are less painful so they have a great display of those. If you want to get a good look at the egg yolk ones, you will just have to go out on a boat and check them out personally. But do not touch!

I wonder what kind of inroads they make on salmon smotes. I understand they eat them when they are small minnows. I also wonder if they travel (drift) beneath the surface to escape hungry birds?  I do not find alot of info about them but I do know sea turtles eat them. we should perhaps raise up some sea turtles to chomp them up. I am afraid the turtles would be harmed by all the boat traffic in the Sound tho………

There is evidence that a large jellyfish swarm is brought on by low oxygen levels in the water. Puget Sound is full of algae right now!

I have been trying to discover why the Sound is so full of creepy reddish algae right now. I have searched the Seattle Times and all the papers around here as well as the web, but am not seeing it mentioned anywhere. I traveled over to Bremerton last Saturday (a 80 degree day) and the Sound looked like a hideous vegetable soup with so much of this reddish flora (and fauna?) in the water you would not want to swim in it, even if you were a fish. I have never seen it soo nasty. Right along with the floating crud was dozens of moon jellies and egg yolk jellies. They were floating about a food UNDER the surface of the water which I found odd, since I usually see them right on the surface and for the last 11 months have hardly even seen them at all. Why is this all happening right at this time? Is it because of the warmer weather? Did all this stuff come up off the bottom as a result of the very low tides we had two weeks ago? I can’t find anything about it. If you are reading this and know the answer, send me a link.