Broken Democracy

#Occupy #May Day (Taken with instagram)

Tue, 01 May 2012 19:59:50 -0400

#Occupy #May Day (Taken with instagram)

#ows (Taken with instagram)

Tue, 01 May 2012 19:40:27 -0400

#ows (Taken with instagram)

"The richest one percent of this country owns half our country’s wealth, five trillion dollars. One..."

Fri, 14 Oct 2011 22:38:14 -0400

“The richest one percent of this country owns half our country’s wealth, five trillion dollars. One third of that comes from hard work, two thirds comes from inheritance, interest on interest accumulating to widows and idiot sons and what I do, stock and real estate speculation. It’s bullshit. You got ninety percent of the American public out there with little or no net worth. I create nothing. I own. We make the rules, pal. The news, war, peace, famine, upheaval, the price per paper clip. We pick that rabbit out of the hat while everybody sits out there wondering how the hell we did it. Now you’re not naive enough to think we’re living in a democracy, are you buddy? It’s the free market. And you’re a part of it. You’ve got that killer instinct. Stick around pal, I’ve still got a lot to teach you.”

- Gordon Gekko - Wall Street (1987)

lovinglyai: I’m working two fucking jobs just to pay for a place to live, to send money home, and...

Fri, 14 Oct 2011 22:37:45 -0400

lovinglyai:

I’m working two fucking jobs just to pay for a place to live, to send money home, and to survive. On top of that I’m taking string lessons and working on my bachelor’s degree in tourism at the same time.

Why is it that I’m still broke as fuck most of the time, while trust fund kids blow their money on shit.

I’m part of the 99% asking what the guck and who I gotta shank?

wearethe99percent: I have worked since i was 10 years old....

Mon, 10 Oct 2011 19:12:01 -0400

wearethe99percent:

I have worked since i was 10 years old. I never went to college, i have zero loan debt, i worked twice as hard and made great money, recived many performance increases and titles, had private health care, a home, cars, 401k, personal long term disability,life,accidental death & dissmenberment, savings, money market accounts, and investments. A single mom of three living the dream. my then (14) year old daughter was diagnosed with cancer, the 600$ a month private insurance company refused to pay, the private health care facility refused to treat her without payment, i drained my savings, my 401l (what was left of it),and everything else i could, the insurance company refused to let me cancel and kept taking monthly premiums even though they refused to pay for anything. (cancer costs $45,000 a day)Recently, i was diagnosed with a chronic illness and cannot work, my carrer of 28 years is over. My PRIVATE dissability insurance Company denied my claim,i lost my home, my vehicles, all my private insurance, my private health care, all my belongings, and my children were forced to live seperately with family and friends as every household is full and we couldnt stay together. My daughters cancer is out of remminssion & she is back in treatment,she works two jobs at $7.40hr while going through chemo and radiation to pay for it.(18yrs old) my health is deteriorating, and my living arrangement has been terminated due to inability to pay. I AM NOW HOMELESS,SICK,DESTITUE,AND FOR THE FIRST TIME IN MY LIFE…UNABLE TO WORK. I watched my parents entire retirement savings be wiped out,their wall street investments bottom out, their home depreciate in value by 200k, and their life savings of 40 years gone. My brother took a 50% pay decrease to keep his job, another brother lost his 100k a year job due to downsizing and outsourcing,my sister lost her 80k a year job due to labor cuts, all of them are in danger of loosing their homes and have upsidedown mortgages. their savings..401k’s, stock investments, are all depleated. We are a hard working,blue collar,tax paying,successfull proud American family that paid their bills, planned for our futures and our childrens futures. thank you Skank of America, General Ho-tors,Logitech, AT&T,Shittybank,Found On Road Dead (FORD),K-Fart,FIRST CHOICE not to pay claims,Prudential,Thats All I Get?(AIG), thank you for taking over 2.5 million dollars of my family’s hard earned lifelong savings and then allowing us to pay our 30% income taxes for the past 10 years to bail you out! We have nothing left to loose and nothing but time on our hands, and if for no other reason than to make you uncomfortable…WE OCCUPY WALLSTREET! WE ARE THE 99%

Occupy Wall Street

Sat, 08 Oct 2011 18:24:54 -0400

It’s like a mass of people read my blog and got angry and protested. It’s nice to see like minded folks agree with me. What get’s me angry though is the mainstream media and how they’ve covered the protests as if everyone there is just smoking weed and clowning around. Occupy Wall Street is a legitimate movement and not to be taken lightly. I officially renounce all mainstream “news” because it is officially a joke. Whatever happened to real journalism, whatever happened to not injecting your opinions into actual news stories. News anchors are too stupid to realize what the protests are about, they don’t even get the symbolism of why it’s taking place on Wall Street. News anchors are exactly the kind of people that live in the same bubble that the top 1% do. Occupy Wall Street is about getting corporate money out of politics, CORPORATIONS CAN NOT VOTE, THEY ARE NOT PEOPLE THEY SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED TO DONATE TO POLITICIANS, THAT’S CALLED BRIBERY! All of our politicians are bought, yes that includes you too Tea Party, your all bank rolled by corporations as well you foolish proxies.

Get rid of corporate person-hood that was established by ACTIVIST conservative judges.

Reform campaign finance laws.

And stop putting wealthy/corporate interests above your citizens.

http://occupywallst.org/

http://weknowmemes.com/2011/10/i-am-the-99-percent/

http://wearethe99percent.tumblr.com/

3 weeks of nothing but bad news.

Wed, 21 Sep 2011 16:52:57 -0400

I realize I haven’t posted anything new in 3 weeks, and with good reason, I haven’t felt like it but I’m back and it’s a big one.

I’m not even sure where to start but rather than chronological order let’s do this in order of emotion.

So the poverty rate in the U.S is the largest it’s been in 52 years. Why 52? Because that’s when it started tracking it, so that means it’s more than likely larger than 52 years if you even adjust for inflation. If you believe we aren’t a banana republic at this point then you are incredibly naive, we’re a banana republic with a higher standard of living. Income inequality is the worst it’s been since the Great Depression, we have the same income inequality as Mexico or the Philippines (how’s that trickle down workin’ out for ya’?). We are the RICHEST COUNTRY in the world, with 46.2 million people living in poverty. 14% PERCENT OF THE POPULATION LIVES IN POVERTY, 14% that means almost 1/6 of this country barely earns enough money to live on. THAT’S INSANE! Yet the top .1% of this country, has 24% of the wealth! That’s right .1% no 1%. POINT 1 PERCENT! Owns 24% of all the money and assets in this country. I wish Ronald Reagan were alive right now so he can explain to me when exactly was all this going to trickle down on the rest of the country. The hour glass economy we have now isn’t going to work and at some point people need to wake up and stop believing the propaganda.

Corporations in the 1940’s make up about 43% of all income taxes paid in this country. (Do not get confused their tax rate was not 43% it was about 38%) Now they make up 19% of all income taxes paid in the US. The US claims to have a progressive tax code which in actuality it does, 49% of Americans have an effective tax rate of 0% after qualifying for tax credits, which honestly is ridiculous we pay all these taxes through out the year just have the federal government refund them back to us? Want to know who else has an effective tax rate of 0? General Electric, the American conglomerate also get’s a refund as well! Remember all that talk of giving corporations tax cuts will mean more jobs, well, they lied. General Electric has moved over 8000 jobs overseas! And what makes anyone think corporations will turn tax breaks into jobs, corporations BY LAW have to seek the most profit for their shareholders. There is NO OBLIGATION for a corporation to take a tax break and turn into a job. None, zip, zilch, nada, so don’t believe it. Remember taxes were higher under the Clinton administration and I remember the economy doing fabulously well then.

Republicans love claiming that they won’t raise taxes, they’ll never raise taxes especially on “job creators” by that they mean anyone that’s rich. Republicans actually think that if you raise taxes on the CEO, that somehow that means the CEO will start firing people left and right just so he can keep as much money for himself as possible. The republicans that claim this have clearly never run a business or even went to school for that matter. Yes, there is a point where taxes do become oppressive, and it hinders growth. But we are not at that point, are taxes are lower now than when the economy was doing well and I haven’t seen these ultra low taxes become job growth. You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to compare history. As I said earlier all this talk of not raising taxes by Republicans is a total lie, why? Because they raise fees. All those state legislatures that didn’t raise taxes, raised fees. Fees at the DMV, in prisons, (yeah they make prisoners and their families pay fees), at schools. Fees by nature are regressive because the people who use public services the most are the working poor and the middle class. But nope they wouldn’t raise taxes on those millionaire job creators because they are so busy creating jobs. So when you hear Repubs claiming that raising taxes on the rich is class warfare, believe it because it is class warfare, it became class warfare when Reagan sold Americans the myth of trickle down and proceeded to destroy the middle and resulted in the WORST income inequality since the 1930’s.

Enough about the economy, let’s talk foreign policy, mainly about Israel. I’ll be the first to say it, I am not an anti-Semite, I don’t blame Jews for the woes of the world BUT I don’t like Israel at all really. I believe Israel has a right to exist just as much as any people who fight and want to be their own people deserve to. What I’ll never understand is the Israeli and Palestinian hypocrisy you have a nation on one hand (Palestine) who let’s be honest doesn’t recognize Israel as the Jewish state. But at the same time who honestly says Israel recognizes’ Palestine’s right to exist because well, it doesn’t. The reason why Israel doesn’t want Palestine to seek statehood through the U.N is because it makes all of the illegal actions it makes literally illegal. Let me explain, Palestine technically isn’t a country, and in theory if Israel wanted to it could go and take all the Palestinian land it wanted and no one has a legal right to do a damn thing about it. But the reality on the ground is that there is international pressure that Israel can’t unilaterally take land even though that’s EXACTLY what’s it’s been doing even since they signed the Oslo accords. If Palestine is granted the same rights as even the Vatican they can take Israel to International Court for the massive human rights violations that Israel is incurring. Israel has a right to it’s grievances they are surrounded by hostile nations and of course deserve to live in peace and security just as much as any other nation. But they action they undertake are counter productive to that and must realize that their current policy is not sustainable. Nothing the Palestinian or Israeli government does is right and until one or both make bold moves nothing is going to come of this conflict.

And now for my favorite punching bag, the Republican presidential candidates. I love these clowns none of them can manage to say a truthful statement except for Ron Paul. (While I disagree with Ron Paul on the substance of his policies, I must say I respect the man for never folding on his beliefs, a true libertarian and for that he has my respect. I’m not even going to discuss the stupidity of Michelle Bachmann’s HPV gaffe. What I do have to discuss though is in the past 2 debates the audience has applauded and cheered two very disgusting things that show’s just how blood thirsty Americans seem to be.

The first comes from the applause of the amount of people Texas has executed while Gov. Rick Perry has been in office. When asked weather he’s lost any sleep over the fact that he’s executed 234 people (and counting). The audience then goes into thunderous applause. We could make arguments for and against the death penalty but this isn’t what this discussion is about. 234 people, are dead some that were quite possibly innocent and people clap about that? Rick Perry claims to have infallible faith in the Texas judicial system but then questions claims of global warming even though most scientists are in agreement over climate change. The party of life seems to love being able to take it away. While we can have back and forth on how appropriate the death penalty but to cheer killing 234 of your own citizens like it was your favorite football team, that just says a lot about some of the people in this country.

What I found the most disgusting was in the second debate, Ron Paul was posed the theoretical question that if someone was healthy could afford to get health care coverage but chose to forgoe it, and ends up getting sick and is in a coma, who picks up the tab, or what should happen to him. Ron Paul goes on to talk about personal responsibility, but then is asked again, what should happen to him. Someone says let him die, and there a few scattered applause to it. Ron Paul of course doesn’t endorse letting him die but says that churchs and other groups will take care of him. Of course what he didn’t tell people was that, well, his former campaign manager was in that same exact situation, and church didn’t take care of him, he died, and his mother was stuck with the bill and she doesn’t know how she’ll ever afford it. But this issue isn’t about Ron Paul. It’s about the few that chose to applaud letting him die, that’s where we’ve come to in this country, where we a 1st world country are letting people die because they can’t afford to be in the hospital. Yeah and people would vote for these kinds of people into office.

FORTUNE magazine isn't even about politics and yet my point is proven once again

Mon, 29 Aug 2011 18:21:20 -0400

FORTUNE magazine isn't even about politics and yet my point is proven once again:

A president who doesn’t have the grapes to lead and right wing lunatics, it’s all explained here an awesome article.

Not surprising, G.O.P won't enact tax cuts that help the lower and middle class.

Fri, 26 Aug 2011 20:42:46 -0400

Not surprising, G.O.P won't enact tax cuts that help the lower and middle class.:

This is by and large the most disgusting thing I’ve ever read. The sheer HYPOCRISY is impossible to fathom. I seriously can’t find the words to describe how disgusted I was by what I read in this article. They aren’t ok with reducing the tax burden on the middle class but will fight to the death for lower taxes on the rich. Are these people (excuse my language) OUT OF THEIR FUCKING MIND. Read it for yourself and you decide, I’m going to go vomit.

I cracked up at this.

Tue, 23 Aug 2011 11:36:55 -0400

I cracked up at this.

Republicans = face palm

Mon, 22 Aug 2011 16:55:24 -0400

Republicans = face palm

The blatant corruption never seems to end.

Sat, 20 Aug 2011 01:08:40 -0400

The blatant corruption never seems to end.:

Earlier I had posted a link to an article about Representative Darrell Issa, and how he uses his position to earmark public works projects that drive more traffic to his investments, as if that wasn’t enough I found ANOTHER article tucked away in the NY Times about this very same man. He’s breaking securities law but the S.E.C has no way of enforcing the law because investigating him would surely cause a major backlash that would seriously cut its funding more than it already is. It’s despicable and that this isn’t front page news but Anthony Weiner showing his crotch to someone is, it’s beyond me.

Things that need debunking.

Fri, 19 Aug 2011 11:16:22 -0400

“while Ms. Kibbee, 63, who sold insurance, is undecided. And she could be hard to please: she favors higher taxes on the rich, but lower corporate taxes to create jobs”

I read this in the paper earlier this morning and this really grinds my gears, to say a corporation will start hiring because of lower taxes is to say that people don’t look for a job because their taxes are too high.

A business is going to hire based on the needs of the company, on how much business they are doing, how many customers they must serve. Companies hire for the same reason they fire, to suggest otherwise is madness. Sadly people believe it because it sounds so simple.

And for those who don’t know what makes a business hire I’ll try and keep this explanation as simple as possible.

A company looks at how much merchandise they have to sell/ how many clients they have, and say “wow we have so many people to reach out let me hire someone so they can help out.” Or vice versa “wow we’ve been losing a lot of business/clients until we get some more business I’m going to have to fire John Doe.

Taxes are a factor in hiring but aren’t the deciding factor it’s based on the businesses need if you need em’ you need em’ if you don’t then you don’t your not going to sit on cash and say well I’ll hire for the hell of it. And right now corporate taxes are the lowest they’ve been in decades and with the corporate welfare we have through the tax code American companies like General Electric paid $0 and in fact got a refund in taxes, fancy that.

Politifact fact checks Buffet's Op-Ed piece.

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 16:36:00 -0400

Politifact fact checks Buffet's Op-Ed piece.:

Earlier this week I posted a link to a NY Times Op-Ed piece written by Warren Buffet. In it he states (titled Stop Coddling the Super-Rich) that his effective tax rate is 17.9%. And many of his peers who make no working wages essentially pay the 15% capital gains tax rate. He feels it’s unfair that his tax rate is lower than the people he pays in his firm who pay about 35% in taxes. For those who are unfamiliar with the tax code, capital gains tax is a tax paid on investment income, in other words for buying and selling stocks and the such. So if you make money with money you are paying a lower tax rate than those who actually work for theirs.

Republicans have sound bytes and illogical responses (which Buffet took upon himself to personally debunk) such as raising capital gains tax would discourage investment, or better yet that liberals are fanning the flames of class warfare. First of all, I as a finance major am absolutely 100% sure that if I know I’m going to make money off an investment that I am going to go for it regardless of whether the tax rate is 15% or 50%, W.B makes a similar argument and anyone with an I.Q would do so also. The other issue is this “class warfare” nonsense. Republicans love using this talking point because this is in fact America where anyone can be successful if you work hard and in America we don’t attack people for being successful while this might work wonderfully well for the right wing base the majority of Americans don’t feel the same and here’s why.

Every major industrialized nation in the world has a progressive tax code, including the United States. A progressive tax code means that the richer you are the more you pay as a percentage of your taxes. This works fabulously well especially in the U.S in which we have a smaller tax burden than that of other industrialized nations. The problem with this is that the ultra mega rich don’t usually qualify for the upper tax bracket because they report no wage income. They make 99% to 100% of their money through investing. As I stated before investments are taxed at a rate of 15%.

This isn’t an issue of class warfare, it’s an issue of fairness, you would think the richest 400 Americans should at least pay as much in taxes percentage wise as the rest of us.

I leave with this last note, ‎50% of taxpayers have an effective tax rate of 0%, that is after deductions and the sort, chances are you are getting a tax refund. Take that for what it is, 50% of Americans don’t make enough money to pay taxes. This speaks volumes of the direction our country is headed.

Stop giving the rich tax breaks says Warren Buffet!

Tue, 16 Aug 2011 14:21:57 -0400

Stop giving the rich tax breaks says Warren Buffet!

A congressman using his position to line his pockets! Gasp!

Mon, 15 Aug 2011 03:46:13 -0400

A congressman using his position to line his pockets! Gasp!:

A rather long article but completely captures what many politicians do once they achieve office. We have approached the days of robber barons and bought politicians. We need to make a change!

"It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. William Shakespeare"

Sun, 14 Aug 2011 21:01:17 -0400

“

It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

William Shakespeare

”

Now I don’t have a problem with corporations, their...

Sun, 14 Aug 2011 00:17:00 -0400

Now I don’t have a problem with corporations, their shareholders, people who work for them (even executives), my issue goes with that exact notion that corporations are people that have constitutional rights. A corporation isn’t allowed to vote, so therefor how can it be allowed to make campaign contributions. For the Supreme Court to say that limiting corporate donations is impeding free speech is the same to say that preventing corporations to vote is also impeding free speech its a contradictory idea. Corporations are legal fictions in other words facts assumed by courts, in this case it’s that they are established as entities separate from their owners that can be sued, therefor the legal fiction is that it’s shareholders aren’t responsible for the actions of a corporation but rather the executives are. The only issue with this is that executives are often held unaccountable for negligible actions with the burden proof lying usually in the hands of prosecution, anything short of outright fraud it’s almost impossible to bring wrong doing to justice. I suggest constitutional amendment reversing Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad to end corporate influence in American politics and put the power back in the hands of the people.

"Americans can always be counted on to do the right thing…after they have exhausted all other..."

Sat, 13 Aug 2011 02:02:33 -0400

““Americans can always be counted on to do the right thing…after they have exhausted all other possibilities.” - Winston Churchill”

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2011/aug/12/mi...

Sat, 13 Aug 2011 01:04:38 -0400

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2011/aug/12/michele-bachmann/bachmann-said-standard-poors-downgrade-proved-she-/

A woman who continues to lie through her teeth and the Tea Party loves it because they don’t have any mind of their own.