“The US stance on libertarianism is quite different. It means extreme advocacy of total tyranny, and private unaccountable tyranny is worse than state tyranny because the public has some control over state tyranny. The corporate system, as it has evolved in the twentieth century, is pure tyranny, completely unaccountable. You are inside one of these institutions and you take orders from above and hand it down below [this is hierarchy].”
Monday, January 30, 2012
Sunday, January 29, 2012
David Foster Wallace and what a liberal arts education means in our age of multicultural corporate totalatarianism
In the beginning, DFW tells the graduates the standard commencement speeches given by individuals who attempt to show the value of a liberal arts education is not a passé attempt to justify four years of paying college tuition, but something deeper than what appears on the surface, something about how to choose how you construct meaning from experience.
Twenty years after my own graduation, I have come gradually to understand that the liberal arts cliché about teaching you how to think is actually shorthand for a much deeper, more serious idea: learning how to think really means learning how to exercise some control over how and what you think. It means being conscious and aware enough to choose what you pay attention to and to choose how you construct meaning from experience. Because if you cannot exercise this kind of choice in adult life, you will be totally hosed.
To most critical observers, higher education in America is in a pretty bad place at the moment. Tuition at state universities continues to raise while programs in the arts and humanities suffer a fate that resembles death due to being underfunded. For-profit schools like the University of Phoenix have made astronomical profits through exploitation by marketing their vocational-based educational programs to society's least educated. The fraud of for-profit colleges starts with grandiose promises of employment in profitable and emerging industries after graduation. The television commercials for these schools feature bright eyed people of all races, genders, and ages who want to get on the fastback and move ahead with a promising career. The worst part is whether or not a student at these diploma mills graduates they are still stuck with paying back student huge loans, meaning your federal tax dollars are subsidizing the profits of the University of Phoenix every time it snatches either a Pell Grant or Federal Direct Loan from a single mother with a GED and three kids to support who is tired of being poor or some stupid schmuck who thought his 40,000 dollar associates degree in computer networking would make him a millionaire. And as long as employment continues to be a dismal prospect, the education ponzi scheme committed by these for-profit education S&P 500 companies like the Apollo Group, who own the University of Phoenix will continue to flourish. The narrative that continues to be replayed involves a depressed economy that has no bearing on the record profits made by the elites who run the biggest banks and own the companies that outsourced American jobs overseas, in the process threatening the cultural life and environment that is not our own. Our system is totalatarian in nature because resistance to what is unjust is met with acts of violence and police brutality. Take the Occupy Wall Street protests across the country as evidence of this repression of democracy.
There is no clear correlation between a doomed economy created by malfaseance and the points DFW makes in his commencement speech about the purpose of a liberal arts education, however, if the liberal arts tradition DFW rightly defends is replaced by a curriculum whose aim is to find employment in an already rotten industry, where class discussions about what it means to be a human being are phased out to make room for business classes, with business ethics only offered on Friday nights, our culture is one railroad stop away from Shithead City, a place where Michelle Bachman is the mayor and Bernie Madoff does your taxes.
Education, formal or informal, is what allows to the social change caused by popular indignation that stemmed from just actions to happen. This is always a rare occurrence. As Noam Chomsky pointed out once, "education is a period of regimentation and control, part of which involves direct indoctrination, providing a system of false beliefs." And this has been largely true ever since the industrial revolution in some capacity. The huge increase of high stake standardized testing in elementary and secondary schools and the noticeable presence of for-profit colleges that advertise in the middle of the work selling the idea that a better life is possible when you get certification in some vocation that you took tens of thousands of dollars in loans to cover tuition should not be a shocking surprise. If education is to be a means of social control, social marginalization, and cherry picking future middle-managers, accountants, and other white-collar cogs that carry out a corporate agendas, the traditional universities, funded by both public and private endowments, has a role to play when making sure the economic system continues to benefit the wealthy corporate elite by providing a place where in between learning some kind of academic discipline that you may or may not base a career, you take can do keg stands and take plenty of bong hits to sow a few wild oats as the cliche goes, because real soon you may be part of the professional or managerial class, no longer concerned about what you think, how you think, and how you construct meaning.
And at this point, after you've graduated from a four college or even stayed around an extra year or two to get a masters degree, after you took all those cool classes about Greek philosophy and the history of Asia and take bong hits with your buddies as you played Xbox, what DFW said during his commencement speech at Kenyon College is more relevant now than before.
In whatever position you have as a college educated professional, there may come a time when you have a moment to reflect about the world and how it works, not a conservation about politics with a co-worker about why or why not you're going to vote for Obama this coming November, nor is the conversation of about the economy and how it can get better...No, this moment of reflection goes beyond ideology and has a universal face of human suffering, leading you to think for just a few more moments you live and breathe not with autonomy but by the pulse of something so rotten, so pervasive and controlling, that the only ones who deserve your respect are those who actively oppose the stink and stand up for the interests of those who cannot. Your education has brought you to this fleeting moment, similar to the moment when the prisoner leaves Plato's cave and experiences the clarity of reality where truth is not political but an expression of human nature and its relation to the earth.
Since this moment is fleeting, your professional responsibilities quickly, much like before, is what consumes. You're the one-dimensional man Marcuse talked about.
If those people, the ones running the banks and major companies, the ones the Occupy Wall Street protesters stand in opposition to and the ones through a few degrees of separation you work for had actually stuck to the principals that were a part of their fancy elite university provided liberal arts education, our next stop on this train journey might not be Shithead City.
The Dead Kennedys "Kill the Poor" reaches Number One on the Tea Party Pop Singles Chart
One person who has seen this rejuvenation first hand is Whitesville Mayor Herb Scott.
"I have never seen any community motivated by a rock and roll song to get patriotic and get back to the old fashioned way of doing things where people took pride in their work and kids were taught the value of a dollar. A lot has changed since I was a boy growing up here. The shoe factory and the bottling plant that employed most of the town for decades is gone, but we have Wal-Mart and Best Buy now. Things don't change for the better all the time, but the change here in Whitesville isn't so bad. As as I said to the kid behind the counter at Burger King the other day when having lunch, no matter how much things change, you always have to be willing to work and do what's right. And that's the message I've witnessed the "Kill the Poor" song have on this community. It's no longer time to be lazy. With the poor gone, it will be time to capture the American spirit that's in our blood. We can finally live up to our potential as Americans now that all the undesirables are gone. My hat goes off to Jello Biafra and the Dead Kennedys for helping spread such a vision"
While it might be surprising to see a song which topped the charts in a country that was once behind the Iron Curtain, the message of the "Kill the Poor" has genuine relevance to music fans in the Tea Party whose tastes are usually not of the punk rock genre.
Buying the compact disc version of the "Kill the Poor" single for his grandchild at his local Whitesville Wal-Mart instead of downloading it on iTunes because he hates computers and claims he doesn't understand how to use such machines, William Brannon, believes "Kill the Poor" promotes a good message for America's young people. He speaks avidly of lead singer Jello Biafra's vision of a world without the poor.
"I think it's high time that we do something about all these freeloaders those liberals in Washington keep supporting. If we just kill the poor all our problems will be solved. As Jello says, no more welfare tax, the crime rate no more, and all those heathens living in those slums in the cities gone, it will definitely be a new day in America. My family never drove the latest car and dressed in the fanciest clothes, but we worked hard for what had and those virtues of hard work that we followed is why my family and those in our community are separate from the lazy poor, especially those illegal immigrants who collect welfare and get a free education."
The message Brannon is referring come from the explicitness of the lyrics in "Kill the Poor".
The sun beams down on a brand new day/No more welfare tax to pay/Unsightly slums go up in a flashing light/Jobless millions whisked away/At least we have more room to play/All systems go to kill the poor tonight
Tom Stevens, a senior at Whitesville High School and youth minister at his church, has recently become a loyal Dead Kennedys fan and as a result learned how to play guitar. He has recently started his own rock band, The Fuzz. Before he got into the Dead Kennedys, with the exception of his favorite bands Korn and Metallica, Stevens listened to just rap music. Hearing the Dead Kennedys for Stevens had become a defining moment of his youth. As Stevens waxes poetically, it is clear he is a passionate young adult who wants to clean up his country.
"Before the Dead Kennedys, I had no desire to start a band, become famous, and be a true patriot. My band has really been inspired the message of the Dead Kennedys. I never listen to rap anymore. It came to a point where I got sick of these city gangsters talking about shooting rival drug dealers and how much they loved their bling and big booty hoes. I asked myself who am I fooling? I live in Whitesville, Indiana. There's no big booty hoes here and all the drug dealers sell meth. They don't make crack dealer money. They just put everybody around them in danger with their meth labs. All the people who buy their drugs are poor and have been a real eye sore on my community for far too long. The meth dealers here are just like the enabling liberals in office who just want to give these scum more foodstamps and health care. And all those Meth listen to Lil Wayne, Tupac, and Biggie. So I ask what kind of message is this hip hop sending to me and me friends. It's time we ditch the rap crap, stop wearing oversized plain t-shirts that come down to our knees and our hats backwards so we can become the kinds of real Americans that our grandparents would be proud of. Next year I'm going way to college to play football. I also plan to join the Reserves. I have to be a leader on and off the football field and one day maybe on the battlefield. I can't do that if people think I'm some white hip hop gangster acting black. When I started listening to the Dead Kennedys, I realized I needed to start being a real American. And as a matter of fact, me and my bandmates use our music to get out the message that America is the greatest country in the world and if you'd rather sit at home collect welfare, keep having kids while you drink 40s and smoke crack all day, then you're gonna shall I say face the music or be killed. I believe in the message that it's time for all these welfare cheats all around America to start acting like the real patriotic Americans our grandparents were and still are today."
As quick as "Kill the Poor" has climbed up the Tea Party charts, the Dead Kennedy's music has definitely experienced a revival even amongst traditional conservative politicians. On the presidential campaign trail in Des Moine, speaking at a rally sponsored by the local Tea Party chapter, Newt Gingrich walked out to the podium to address two thousand people while the Dead Kennedy's "Holiday in Cambodia" blasted through the PA.
Without question, the appeal of the Dead Kennedy's have had on the Tea Party and the conservative ideals it holds is indicative that the purging of the poor throughout the country will be done with good old fashion American rock and roll as the soundtrack. Ted Nugent's vision is finally coming to fruition.
Login below to Tea Party Patriot Radio to hear "Kill the Poor" and "Holiday in Cambodia"
Saturday, January 28, 2012
From S. Korea with love: Warm socks sent to North by balloon Each pair could be traded for a month's supply of food, activists say
It's 2012 and South Koreans are sending warm socks inside balloons to North Korea? Is this a joke?
During the Cold War, there was Radio Free Europe to spread the word about the evils of totalitarian dictatorship of communist regimes, maximizing technology to the fullest with radio signals. Now, South Korea is not a country of neophytes. Those precious high def Samsung or LG TVs you stare at when walking through BestBuy are made by South Korean companies. Your friend swears the new Hyundai car he recently bought is just as good as a Honda is made in Korea. Apparently South Korean aerospace research is pretty up to par as well.
So why Balloons? It must be a symbolic gesture and sometimes symbolism is what springs humanitarian deeds.
This guy must be in cahoots with Gingrich - South African doctor accused of creating viruses that would only attack black people.
Now if a doctor prescribes oxycontin to a kid in college who just wants to get high, that's professional misconduct. In the enlightened world, a world that any decent person wants to live, creating viruses that would only kill black people would be called genocide.
Yet, nobody should be surprised by this: we're talking SOUTH AFRICA!
Compared to Gingrich's racist desire to have black kids work as janitors because it builds the character needed to assimilate into the great white world, Basson is the late 20th century version of Josef Mengele.
BBC:South Africa: Wouter Basson to answer misconduct case
Friday, January 27, 2012
Apple's new executive is a bigger piece of scum than Steve Jobs...At least Steve Jobs did acid and was a bohemian in the beginning.
Tim Cook wants you to believe that Chinese slave labor is something Apple is concerned about.
Another thing, it's about time the New York Times has decided to do some reporting on the exploitation Apple is guilty in China.
Apple Inc.'s chief executive responded to a wave of negative attention to conditions at overseas factories that make its products, saying the insinuation that Apple doesn't care about the welfare of its workers is "offensive."
"Unfortunately, some people are questioning Apple’s values today," Tim Cook wrote in an e-mail to Apple employees. "Any accident is deeply troubling, and any issue with working conditions is cause for concern."
A series of articles in the New York Times has brought new focus on Apple's highly profitable production strategy, which relies heavily on Chinese workers who live in dormlike factories and spend many hours assembling devices. The safety records and working conditions in those factories have been questioned, and Apple's labor practices received intense scrutiny in 2010, when more than a dozen workers at Chinese iPhone plants committed suicide.
The later New York Times article quoted former Apple and Foxconn employees saying that Apple prioritized profit and production speed above worker welfare.
The company was trying to address problems in its factories, one of the sources said, “but most people would still be really disturbed if they saw where their iPhone comes from.”
In Cook's note, first published by 9to5Mac, he said that Apple was a world leader in improving overseas working conditions, and will continue to work hard to find and fix problems.
"We will continue to dig deeper, and we will undoubtedly find more issues," Cook wrote. "What we will not do — and never have done — is stand still or turn a blind eye to problems in our supply chain. On this you have my word."
Monday, January 16, 2012
Arizona, proving it's the top asshole state in America, is becoming the number one hotspot to start your career as a Nazi!
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| UNLESS YOU SPEAK SPANISH AND HAVE DARK SKIN |
Nazism has become so popular in Arizona that the statewide ethnic book ban has forced the Tuscan Unified School district to pull even Shakespeare's Tempest from the shelves of school libraries. This is good news for all Nazis in Arizona.
Editor of the commonly taught book in Tuscan schools, Rethinking Columbus, Bill Bigelow (no relation Duece Bigelow or wrestler Bam Bam Bigelow) tells the New York Daily News, “By ordering teachers to remove ‘Rethinking Columbus,’ the Tucson school district has shown tremendous disrespect for teachers and students”. - http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/ethnic-studies-book-ban-arizona-include-shakespeare-tempest-article-1.1007105
If Bigelow is correct, it is prime time for Nazism in Arizona!
Disguised as common sense, neo-fascist venom makes its rounds on the internet. Represented and supported by the Dissemination Committee, Jesus of Nazareth son of God, hopes to become US president and stop such disguised neo-fascism.
If you cross the North Korean border illegally, you get 12 yrs. hard labor. If you cross the Afghanistan border illegally, you get shot. Two Americans just got eight years for crossing the Iranian border. If you cross the U. S. border illegally you get a job, a drivers license, food stamps, a place to live, health care, housing & child benefits, education, & a tax free business for 7 yrs ...No wonder we are a country in debt. Re-post if you agree..
How the Dissemination Committee responds to such contemporary right-wing propaganda:
We do not agree, therefore we will certainly not repost nor will we take part in this right-wing charade of blaming the most powerless among us for our tanked economy. What makes the above rhetoric does is similar to blaming a person hit by a bus driven by a drunk driver on the fact a person wanted to do was cross the street.
Let Jesus of Nazareth son of God further explain our position:
The borders of this great American nation of ours should be open to anyone from any country and those who turn up on our soil, rich in the blood of massacred Indians (the feather Indians not the Dot Indians that make kick ass curry) be granted full citizenship and be given the same perks we Americans only sometimes cherish.
This is one of the few decent things we can do as proud Americans who are lucky enough to have been born in the greatest country in the world. For far too long have our awesome corporate way of life left its detrimental footprint on the natural resources possessed by other countries who are all too often defenseless. While wrecking environmental havoc in these countries, we also committing grave human rights abuses in the process. Look at Dow Chemical in India, Coca-Cola in Columbia, and United Fruit in Latin American. Furthermore, and make no mistake about it, NAFTA - the North American Free Trade Agreement - signed into effect by that great liberal Bill Clinton - has been an economic and environmental nightmare for much of the Mexican population. What these totally awesome overseas business ventures have done is shine a light upon and exemplify how much better our ways of free market capitalism is to any other alternative that that would put people over profit.
Every time us Americans start dropping bombs in the name of democracy and security on innocent civilians far away in places with strange names most Americans are too busy playing Angry Birds to learn how to pronounce correctly, it's obviously America that's doing the fucking. And what good sweet fuckers we are...Everybody around the world wants to fuck like us, especially the UK whose banking and financial malfeasance makes our own American banking thieves like Goldman Sachs, MF Global, and Country-Wide envious. China wants to be like us too. They even have their own version of Google, although our Google is way better because nobody censors us...Those Chinese bastards will have to learn that if you want to be the best fucker on the block, you have to give your citizens a little freedom every now and then to criticize the government. Luckily what the Chinese have learned from our best corporations is how to disregard labor and environmental laws, which is a very good thing because it allows our favorite companies like Wal-Mart and Apple to come in, set up shop and reek huge profits. And we all know in the new century we've embarked upon not much as changed except decades ago the saying what was good for General Motors was good for America has changed to what's good for Wal-Mart and Haliburton is good for America!
So I, Jesus Of Nazareth son of God, in my campaign to become President of the United States am running under the platform that we as Americans continue the good fuck, but let's give some other people a turn in the fucking. If we don't allow the Mexicans who come fleeing into our country feeling from the savage drug cartel violence that has a little something to do with our love of cocaine and heroin, or the Mexican farmers who can no longer survive due to the cimmerian consequences of NAFTA, after overcoming dangerous and life threatening challenges, and give them such human rights as health care and education, then we as Americans have no lived up to our end of the bargain. It's these human rights rich Republicans believe are luxuries. Those in the GOP have duped the average Tea Party slug into believing illegal immigrants are given the key to the city once they arrive, or should I say key to the country?
Because I am the son of God, I can tell you with 100% accuracy, those so-called "illegals", a dehumanizing term, have a lot more in common with an unemployed Tea Partier whose job was outsourced to some developing third world country. Both groups are victims of the totalitarian nature that is global capitalism. It grinds Jesus' gears that Republicans and Tea Party poltroons backed by the John Birch Society ideological beliefs and wealth held by the Koch Brothers, have done everything in its power to legitimize malfeasance. They will stoop so low as to use the classic method and cliche of scapegoating, as demonstrated by the countless examples throughout history, some not well know and some very well know - hello, Germany 1933, are you there?
But I, Jesus of Nazareth son of God, have an even bigger problem than that of the far-right. The ultimate in gear grindage are those liberal and moderate Democrats who just stand by and let what is now popularly referred to as the "one percent" do exactly the opposite of what I preached 2000 years ago before I was executed by the Romans.
With all that being said, vote for me, Jesus of Nazareth son of God, come this November. My campaign slogan is a simple one, give somebody else a chance to do some fucking for once. If elected president, I promise to give every illegal immigrant family an unlimited lifetime gift card to Wal-Mart courtesy of Wal-Mart. How could Wal-Mart say no to my plan? After all, I am the the son of God.
So after you read this, please begin chanting, the Son of God for President!
*This message has been brought to you and paid for by the Committee to Make Jesus of Nazareth America's President. All rights reserved 2012.
The borders of this great American nation of ours should be open to anyone from any country and those who turn up on our soil, rich in the blood of massacred Indians (the feather Indians not the Dot Indians that make kick ass curry) be granted full citizenship and be given the same perks we Americans only sometimes cherish.
This is one of the few decent things we can do as proud Americans who are lucky enough to have been born in the greatest country in the world. For far too long have our awesome corporate way of life left its detrimental footprint on the natural resources possessed by other countries who are all too often defenseless. While wrecking environmental havoc in these countries, we also committing grave human rights abuses in the process. Look at Dow Chemical in India, Coca-Cola in Columbia, and United Fruit in Latin American. Furthermore, and make no mistake about it, NAFTA - the North American Free Trade Agreement - signed into effect by that great liberal Bill Clinton - has been an economic and environmental nightmare for much of the Mexican population. What these totally awesome overseas business ventures have done is shine a light upon and exemplify how much better our ways of free market capitalism is to any other alternative that that would put people over profit.
Every time us Americans start dropping bombs in the name of democracy and security on innocent civilians far away in places with strange names most Americans are too busy playing Angry Birds to learn how to pronounce correctly, it's obviously America that's doing the fucking. And what good sweet fuckers we are...Everybody around the world wants to fuck like us, especially the UK whose banking and financial malfeasance makes our own American banking thieves like Goldman Sachs, MF Global, and Country-Wide envious. China wants to be like us too. They even have their own version of Google, although our Google is way better because nobody censors us...Those Chinese bastards will have to learn that if you want to be the best fucker on the block, you have to give your citizens a little freedom every now and then to criticize the government. Luckily what the Chinese have learned from our best corporations is how to disregard labor and environmental laws, which is a very good thing because it allows our favorite companies like Wal-Mart and Apple to come in, set up shop and reek huge profits. And we all know in the new century we've embarked upon not much as changed except decades ago the saying what was good for General Motors was good for America has changed to what's good for Wal-Mart and Haliburton is good for America!
So I, Jesus Of Nazareth son of God, in my campaign to become President of the United States am running under the platform that we as Americans continue the good fuck, but let's give some other people a turn in the fucking. If we don't allow the Mexicans who come fleeing into our country feeling from the savage drug cartel violence that has a little something to do with our love of cocaine and heroin, or the Mexican farmers who can no longer survive due to the cimmerian consequences of NAFTA, after overcoming dangerous and life threatening challenges, and give them such human rights as health care and education, then we as Americans have no lived up to our end of the bargain. It's these human rights rich Republicans believe are luxuries. Those in the GOP have duped the average Tea Party slug into believing illegal immigrants are given the key to the city once they arrive, or should I say key to the country?
Because I am the son of God, I can tell you with 100% accuracy, those so-called "illegals", a dehumanizing term, have a lot more in common with an unemployed Tea Partier whose job was outsourced to some developing third world country. Both groups are victims of the totalitarian nature that is global capitalism. It grinds Jesus' gears that Republicans and Tea Party poltroons backed by the John Birch Society ideological beliefs and wealth held by the Koch Brothers, have done everything in its power to legitimize malfeasance. They will stoop so low as to use the classic method and cliche of scapegoating, as demonstrated by the countless examples throughout history, some not well know and some very well know - hello, Germany 1933, are you there?
But I, Jesus of Nazareth son of God, have an even bigger problem than that of the far-right. The ultimate in gear grindage are those liberal and moderate Democrats who just stand by and let what is now popularly referred to as the "one percent" do exactly the opposite of what I preached 2000 years ago before I was executed by the Romans.
With all that being said, vote for me, Jesus of Nazareth son of God, come this November. My campaign slogan is a simple one, give somebody else a chance to do some fucking for once. If elected president, I promise to give every illegal immigrant family an unlimited lifetime gift card to Wal-Mart courtesy of Wal-Mart. How could Wal-Mart say no to my plan? After all, I am the the son of God.
So after you read this, please begin chanting, the Son of God for President!
*This message has been brought to you and paid for by the Committee to Make Jesus of Nazareth America's President. All rights reserved 2012.
Proof the NYC Dept of Ed hires yuppie teacher-bashing assholes to become teachers who disguise their motives as wanting to bring about change.
Posted below is an article from yesterday's Daily News about teacher evaluations written by former teacher NYC public school teacher, Alexander Nazaryan. Obviously the classroom wasn't for him and doing hack work for the Daily News, in the interest of the Dept of Ed, seems to be a perfect fit.
http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/teacher-evaluation-faking-success-york-city-school-system-fooling-kids-article-1.1006336 Check out the comments section. This guy Alexander Nazaryan sucks
I know the attitude Nazaryan carries all too well. Back in the South Bronx, I remember brand-spranking new teachers, recent graduates from prestigious colleges, barely old enough to drink, rolling their eyes during union meetings, snubbing their noses towards veteran teachers, and believing they were the solution to a decaying system; they were often recruited to teach through Teach for America, believing wholeheartedly the dogmatic rhetoric about teacher accountability and the importance of high-stakes standardized testing advocated by so-called education reformers like Wendy Knopp (founder of Teacher for America), Mayor Bloomberg, and the reincarnation of Satan herself, former Washington DC school superintendent, Michelle Rhee.
One common trait of the teachers I worked with who shared similar views to Nazaryan was that most were born outside of the New York City metropolitan area and understood the city, not as a New Yorker, but as a cultural tourist and parasite who would write smug emails to their friends back home in the Midwest about how cool it was to watch a few black and latino kids breakdance on the subway, further solidifying the unspoken idea and belief that non-white inner-city kids had to either assilimate into the dominant American hegemony of the ruling elite, sweeping away any kind of dissent regarding social justice, or just continue living like a ghetto savage.
- The Committee
Monday, January 2, 2012
Obama's response to Matt Damon quotes long forgotten rock band Tool
Responding to Matt Damon's recent comments in Elle magazine that he is a one term president, amongst other criticism, President Obama pulled no punches.
"I've got some advice for you, little buddy. Before you point your finger. You should know that
I'm the man and if I'm the man, then you're the man, and he's the man as well so you can point that fuckin' finger up your ass. All you know about me is what I've sold you, dumb fuck. I sold out long before you ever even heard my name."
"I've got some advice for you, little buddy. Before you point your finger. You should know that
I'm the man and if I'm the man, then you're the man, and he's the man as well so you can point that fuckin' finger up your ass. All you know about me is what I've sold you, dumb fuck. I sold out long before you ever even heard my name."
Unbeknownst to anyone who did not graduate high school in the 1990s, the President, in his hostile reaction to Damon's comments had borrowed a few lines from the rock band Tool's 1996 song "Hooker with a Penis".
Half of America In Poverty? The Facts Say It's True
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| Florence Owens Thompson |
Written by Paul Buchheit. Published on Tuesday, December 27, 2011 by Commondreams.org
Recent reports suggest that almost 50% of Americans are in poverty or at a "low income" level. The claim is based on a new supplemental measure by the Census Bureau that includes health care, transportation, and other essential living expenses in the poverty calculation.
The concept of "low income" is controversial. It has been defined as earnings between 100 and 199 percent of the poverty level, a claim which, if true, would place every American family making $50,000 or less at a near-poverty level.
Conservative organizations believe the whole 'poverty' issue is overblown. The Cato Institute blames LBJ and Obama for reversing a declining poverty rate. Forbes blames the calculations. The Heritage Foundation argues, "The average poor person, as defined by the government, has a living standard far higher than the public imagines...In the kitchen, the household had a refrigerator, an oven and stove, and a microwave." The case for a growing "consumption equality" is alternately defended and denied.
With emotions running high on both sides, we need to take a balanced look at the available data to determine how well the highest-earning family of the poorest 50% -- a family with a $50,000 income -- can survive. (The maximum individual income for the poorest 50% is about $30,000.)
Start with taxes. It is frequently noted by conservatives that the richest 1% pay most of the federal income taxes, and indeed they paid about 37 percent in 2009, more than the poorest 90% of Americans. But only the richest 5% of Americans have experienced income growth since 1980. And during that time, their tax rate has dropped from 34% to 23%. As for the 3 percent rate paid by the poorest 50%, the Tax Policy Center sums it up nicely: "The basic structure of the income tax simply exempts subsistence levels of income from tax."
More relevant to the poverty issue is that federal income tax is only a small part of the tax expense for lower-income families. According to a study by The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, the poorest 50% paid about 10 percent of their incomes in state and local taxes (the richest 1% paid 5 percent). Congressional Budget Office (CBO) figures reveal that the bottom 50% pays about 9 percent of their incomes toward social security (the top 1% pays just under 2 percent). CBO also shows that the bottom 50% is paying about 2 percent of their incomes on excise taxes, a negligible expense for the people at the top. Another year of Bush tax cuts will chop another 1-2 percent off the taxes of the very rich.
So total taxes for the poorest 50% are 24 percent of their incomes (3% + 10% + 9% + 2%), as compared to 29 percent for the richest 1% (23% + 5% + 2% - 1%).
Other significant expenses for low-income people, based on the most conservative estimates from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Census Bureau, the National Center for Children in Poverty, the Carsey Institute, and the Economic Policy Institute, include food (10%), housing (27%), transportation (6%), health care (5%), child care (8%), and household expenditures (5%). Expenses for insurance and savings and entertainment, although important to most households, are not being included here.
Energy costs hit low-income families especially hard, taking about 20% of their incomes. At the $50,000 income level the burden is closer to 12%, as generally agreed upon by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the American Gas Association.
Total expenses for the richest family in the bottom half of America?
- 24% taxes
- 27% housing
- 34% food, health care, child care, transportation, household needs
- 12% energy
That's 97% of their income. The richest family among 70,000,000 households is left with just $1,500 for a car, appliances, a TV, a cell phone, a loan repayment, an occasional night out. It comes to $30 a week, barely enough to take the family out for a pizza.
Critics bemoan the amounts of aid being lavished on lower-income Americans, making dubious claims about $16,800 in government funds going to every poor family and families with $90,000 incomes being classified as "near poor."
The fact is that only 4,375,000 families (out of 70,000,000 in the bottom half) received Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) in 2010, for a total expense of about $36 billion. Current federal budgets include about $350 billion for food, housing, and traditional 'welfare' programs for needy children, elderly care, and energy assistance. This averages out to about $400 per month per family.
Another fact is that earnings have remained flat for most people while productivity has grown 80% since 1980. If a $50,000 family had received a fair share from their contribution to America's growth, they'd be making $90,000, and they wouldn't need a dime from government.
Conservatives complain about the TVs and refrigerators owned by low-income people. But it's the height of insensitivity to admonish people who are trying to survive in a perversely unequal society.
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