A better title than I can remember

Nothing awesome by any means - just a tale of some confusingly unwilling customer service, if you need something to read.

By now you've read that I sold my car. Let me correct myself - by now you've read that I sold my car. :-)

In order to do this, of course, the buyer and I had to go to the bank to pay off my loan and get a lien release.

Before we went there, I called the bank to try to set up an appointment with a loan officer to try to get this done. When the lady picked up the phone, I asked to speak with said loan officer. She said they were all on the phone (which, as you'll read more about later, I don't believe) and asked why - I explained that I was going to be selling my car and needed to know how the buyer could drive the car home today as an owner. She informed me that I could pay off the loan at the window and that the lien release would be mailed to me in 2 weeks. So I explained, again, that the person wanted to buy my car today and drive it home knowing he'd be able to own it when he got home. Her response was, "Well, I don't know how he'll be able to buy it today because the lien release won't be there for 2 weeks." I paused for a second like...ok??? So...you just don't expect people to ever sell their cars??? So once again I asked her if there was any way I could set up an appointment with a loan officer to discuss that, and she once again said that all I had to do was come to the window to pay off my loan. Realizing I would never get anywhere with this person, I said, "ok, thank you," and hung up. (politely)

Later we made it to the bank. I went to the window, as instructed, to pay off the loan with the cash the buyer had given me. After my roommate brought me the wallet I forgot at home, as I had rushed out the door (thank you Grant), we asked how and/or if we could get a lien release today. The window attendant did not know, so went to ask a loan officer (which, as you read, is what I was trying to do to avoid this confusion). Now this is another part that confuses me. Instead of the loan officer walking over to the window, or inviting us to her cubicle to give us the good customer service I would expect from a bank that wants its customers to return, she continued to sit in her desk for about 10 minutes and discuss the situation with the window attendant.

The attendant finally returned, at which point we paid off the loan and she told us to go wait in the chairs for the loan officer to call us over. Now, don't get me wrong - I know that people working in these areas have things to do. I don't expect everyone to wait on me hand and foot. (is that the right saying??? It sounds weird.) However I did happen to look at the cubicles, and I did notice that no one seemed to be pressingly busy (e.g. on the phone or doing much paperwork, and not using a computer fervently). So, we sat and waited for another several minutes, which, in itself is fine - I'm not impatient and don't mind waiting!

BUT - she asked us over in a very condescending and unpleasant way, processed everything without one word of polite conversation, gave us what we needed and said something like "have a nice day" in a very insincere manner.

So - to those who read this - a few potential simple lessons:

1.) If you work in customer service, serve your customers.

2.) If you hate your job, don't ever take it out on anyone else.

3.) Solve problems - don't create them.

:-)

This has been another episode of How It Is with Jeff Schraw. In written format.

How It Is with Politics: Parte Tres

...and we're back! (from here)

The problem...to really break it down for you and put it into plain English, the problem here is that Scott Walker's "Budget Repair Bill" really has almost nothing to do with the budget, and everything to do with gaining nearly complete political control over the state, and eventually over the nation. Now that sounds like some kind of crazy conspiracy theory, doesn't it?

It saddens me deeply to say that it is no theory.

As I mentioned, the budget "cuts" that this bill would make don't even outweigh the tax cuts that have been made already by this "governor." What else is in this bill?

There is a part of the bill that explicitly states that the governor could sell all public power plants--now get this--AT ANY PRICE, WITH OR WITHOUT A BID.

Now that means a great deal when you consider that his most boisterous supporters are none other than the Koch Brothers themselves--2 corporate sluggers who already own several power plants and other facilities in the state and the nation. In fact Forbes magazine said that in 2008 they owned the nation's SECOND LARGEST PRIVATELY HELD COMPANY.

I can't imagine why Walker would want to add this part to his bill...oh...wait...I get it.

So these guys give him money to help him win an election...and then they get him to sell them power plants and other facilities at whatever cost they'd like to pay, so they can get richer...and the cycle goes on and on...

Unless we stop it.

Not that you need any more proof that this bill is a big dog and pony show hiding an obviously deeper agenda, but here is some more anyway:

Another part of the bill (and this is my favorite) allows for the hiring of "35 Political Assistants" by governor Walker (I don't even like capitalizing his name anymore). These "Political Assistants" have no one to report to but Walker himself.

Wow.

Read that again if you need to. Take a deep breath. Take your time. It's ok.

Yes...the governor would be able to hire...what else could you call them? Cronies. People who could do whatever he wanted them to.

I couldn't stress this enough: if you aren't outraged, you aren't paying attention.

This is a BIG DEAL, Wisconsin. I know the governor will smooth you over like silk, lull you, with his calm demeanor, into some kind of dreamy fantasy where this bill makes everyone happy and where the threat of layoffs isn't there, but you need to wake up, quit drooling, and realize that this bill could change life as we know it in the entire US, and even the world. The impact this would have on us would be profound.

I will explain how that is true in the next edition, because now, it is time to sleep in peace and dream of a happy and prosperous future.

How It Is with Politics - Part Deux

So let's continue the conversation on politics--and we'll carry on from where we left off here.

I will say, so that you know I'm not so "liberal" that I can't see the other side, that Democrats who've run for office haven't exactly followed through with the promises they made in their campaigns. For example, President Obama had said as part of his platform that if we ever had to fight for worker's rights, he would personally stand in the picket lines with the workers to protest. In his defense, it could just be that he hasn't had the chance to do so yet--I certainly won't say the fat lady has even thought about singing yet in that regard. However, we have never, ever seen a tactic, I'll call it, as shocking and as blatantly wrong as what we're seeing right now from Scott Walker.

So let's get down to business here, now that we know a little more about the "politics" behind this Scott Walker business.

Who is Scott Walker, anyway???

Here's a little history on Mr. Walker. He was born and raised in Colorado Springs, CO under a preacher. His family then lived in Iowa, and finally, Delevan, Wisconsin. Sounds innocent enough, right? Well here is the turning point of his life: he was chosen to take part in Boys Nation, where he travelled to Washington, D.C., met none other than Ronald Reagan, and decided he had found his hero (as referenced, also, in the prank call we've recently heard about).

He then attended Marquette University, where he spent 4 years earning a C average before dropping out for a "good job."

Put shortly, since then, he's had a long stint of representing parts of Wisconsin in the State Assembly and County Executive areas, opposing progressive legislature, and, to the shock of 47% of the state, is now the Governor.

What does he stand for?

Oh, you know...the usual, such as cutting wages for the middle class while giving tax breaks to the wealthy; opposing more progressive legislature such as a public high-speed rail system (that the Federal Government would have paid for) between Madison and Milwaukee; absolutely no abortion, even in cases of rape or incest, or to save the mother's life; abstinence-only sex education (because, yeah, that works); the rights of pharmacists to refuse filling birth control prescriptions on religious or moral grounds...nothing extraordinary.

Wait a minute...really???

Yep.

Look it up for yourself if you don't believe it.

So what is he doing now that's causing such an uproar?

Put simply, he's trying to pass a radical and uncalled-for bill, in a hurry, and he's not negotiating about it.

Well it can't be that bad, can it?

Haha. This fake conversation stuff is kind of fun.

Well first of all, this bill is called the "Wisconsin Budget Repair Bill." It's supposed to reduce the Wisconsin budget shortfall by $137 million. So that's cool.

But wait--Walker just passed some tax breaks for businesses, didn't he? Oh yeah...that's right, it was for $140 million.

Something seems a little off...well what else is in the bill?

Oh, not much...just some wording that will make underpaid public union members have to pay for their benefits and their pensions, and that will simultaneously cut funding to the already suffering public school system.

Now that in itself has caused quite a stir. I'm not sure whether you know this or not, but teachers work hard. Teachers care. They go in to school early every day to prepare for lessons, teach those lessons while trying to take care of kids (many if not half of whose parents don't give a crap, therefore making it that much harder to keep them in line), they stay after school to help the kids, and then they go home, grade papers, and begin to prepare for the next lessons. They grade papers on weekends. They take field trips to show the kids things they couldn't otherwise see. They shape the future of our nation. And they don't get paid much to do it. (The average Wisconsin teacher with a Master's degree (that's at least 6 years of college, mind you) going into the field can expect to make 25% less than someone with a Master's degree going into the private sector.) So, first of all, taking things away from teachers, in specific, is not really fair.

But teachers are reasonable people, so they are willing to accept the fact that they may have to pay a little more in benefits out of their salaries and take a decent pay cut (even though most of them have been taking pay cuts instead of getting raises for the last decade). So what else is the problem?

That will be continued in the next chapter of How It Is.

How It Is with Politics

I just have to write. I just can't take it anymore. I can't hold it in. All the arguing I have done has been dead-ended, so it's time to write something a little more in-depth, maybe in an attempt to explain some of this stuff to those who can't or won't see past the smoke in their faces, or maybe just to get it off my mind.

So this Scott Walker "Budget Repair Bill" issue is "political." We all have political views...we all have ideals, we all believe different things in that regard...well, not all of us, it seems.

Let's start out talking about "politics." What are they, really? The first thing that comes up on a simple Google search is this:

'social relations involving intrigue to gain authority or power; "office politics is often counterproductive"' (1)

Get a little more picky, and you get this:

–noun ( used with a singular or plural verb )

1.

the science or art of political government.

2.

the practice or profession of conducting political affairs.

3.

political affairs: The advocated reforms have become embroiled in politics.

4.

political methods or maneuvers: We could not approve of his politics in winning passage of the bill.

5.

political principles or opinions: We avoided discussion of religion and politics. His politics are his own affair.

6.

use of intrigue or strategy in obtaining any position of power or control, as in business, university, etc.

7.

( initial capital letter, italics ) a treatise (4th century b.c.) by aristotle, dealing with the structure, organization, and administration of the state, especially the city-state as known in ancient Greece.

—Idiom

8.

play politics,

a.

to engage in political intrigue, take advantage of a political situation or issue, resort to partisan politics, etc.; exploit a political system or political relationships.

b.

to deal with people in an opportunistic, manipulative, or devious way, as for job advancement. (2)

The parts of this definition I want to focus on involve the words "principle," "opinion," "intrigue," and "strategy" (and please particularly note definition number 4--how ironic!!!) Hopefully you already know what those mean, or know how to find out, because I'm not in the mood to post definitions for all those as well.

We all know that politics involve a great deal of principles and opinions. A person stands with his or her political party based mainly on these. Now the problem comes in when we also introduce the intrigue and the strategy--these are the parts that the politicians can easily abuse.

First, the strategy. The general strategy of any politician is to get a group of people to vote for him or her. How does he/she do this, you ask? Well, it's simple. He/she learns of the opinions and principles of the population of the voting community, and devises a campaign that will play on those opinions and principles.

For example:

Let's say a politician learns that the voting population absolutely loves cheese; however, he/she also learns that there is a local shortage of cheese. That politician will probably run, in part, based on the elimination of the shortage of cheese, and possibly will run also on turning it into a surplus. Surely, this will gain voters' support.

Now comes the intrigue. The politician wins the race because of how much the voters love cheese. However, they quickly find that the elected official has simply used them to gain some power, and has no intention of fixing the cheese situation, as he/she instead goes on to pass some legislation that actually makes it nearly impossible to own cows in the community.

You may be catching on.

So let's get back to the real world. It can easily be argued, and substantiated, that this happens on both sides of party lines. Fine. However, current events are showing us, more clearly than we've ever seen, exactly why this is happening on the "right" side.

In a real-world example:

Republicans run on the principles of conservatism, which involve supporting traditional marriage, Christianity, anti-abortion, individual achievement, "reduced income taxes," and on and on. They oppose, of course, the other side of what they claim to stand for.

Democrats then run on principles of liberalism, which involve supporting gay rights, freedom of religion, reproductive rights, collective achievement, progressive taxing, and so on and so forth, also opposing the other side.

Now here is the problem that leads back to my example involving cheese. Much of what the Republicans stand for are ideals--they are emotional issues that tug at the hearts of America. Of course America hates the thought of killing an unborn baby--don't you? Of course America would like to pay less taxes--wouldn't you? Of course America loves the thought of the American Dream, where they will invent a product or service, or join a hit band, or invest correctly in the stock market, and become rich--don't you?

The reality is that there is a gigantically gaping chasm between Republicans' platform and their actions. While they may pass legislation, for example, banning abortion, banning gay marriage, and stopping public health care, just to make their constituents happy, they are simultaneously accepting money and in return taking orders from their richest campaign supporters (see: Scott Walker & the Koch Brothers). What's the problem with this, you say? Oh, nothing...only the fact that what is essentially happening with the Republicans is that corporations are being allowed to run the nation. And the vast majority of corporations have only one thing on their minds: money. So if the corporations move their puppets the right way, they might get tax breaks that allow them to earn more...you guessed it!...money.

I'm going to stop here for now, because once again I just can't take it anymore. Politics tire me the heck out.

Just please realize: this is no small exaggeration. This may not be 100% accurate in every single way, because I am not perfect, but this is How It Is.

Note the 2 small references I listed, for posterity.

(1) http://www.google.com/search?q=politics&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a#sclient=psy&hl=en&safe=off&client=firefox-a&hs=PFR&rls=org.mozilla:en-US%3Aofficial&q=politics+definition&aq=0&aqi=g4g-o1&aql=&oq=&pbx=1&bav=on.1,or.&fp=18e4c0cc530c3619

(2) http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/politics