Posts

Privileged

I originally posted this on FB ----- CLASS PRIVILEGE I have increasingly begun to believe that the most important social issue in America is class. In America 2019 class may well be more important than race, gender, sexual orientation or anything else. I see a lot of posts in my feed addressing white privilege. Clearly that has validity and... -------ASK YOURSELF-in terms of living in America, would you rather be middle class black or poor white?---- This is not to deny the importance of race, gender, sexual orientation, etc. but generally speaking money is the most important factor in enjoying a decent life in America 2019. Certainly given equal income there are advantages inherent in being white, but the advantage of money is far more important in day to day life than anything else. We need to start addressing class consciousness, starting with admitting that we have a class based society and that --------The class you are born into is the single most important determini
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Understanding People snd Power Made Simple

People Are People Regardless of gender, race, creed, and all the other details Underneath all the masks some people tend to treat others well and others tend to be more selfish in their dealings. When there is no accountability bad behavior is enabled encouraged and empowered. Whatever gender, race or creed holds political and social power, those members of it prone to using their power to oppress and exploit others will tend to do so In personal relationships women are just as likely to abuse their partners and children as men are, simply in different ways. Men tend to be abusive physically, women tend to be abusive emotionally and psychologically. Seeing things in simplistic terms of some groups are innately better and some groups innately worse is inaccurate. men are not better or worse women are not better or worse white people are not better or worse black people are not better or worse Straight people are not better or worse Gay people are not better or worse Etc.
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A Super Simplified but accurate View of the Economy

1 Any economic system not based in the physical parameters of Earth's ecosystem is not only a fantasy, it is an elaborate way to commit suicide-ecocide. 2 automation means that there are simply not enough jobs @40hrs/week that pay enough money to thrive for more than a portion of the society given current costs of living and for many no job at all. This is as much about prices as about wages and of course it's all about how prices and wages get set and distribution of profits in a society. Underneath hailstorms of rhetoric from all sides those are the realities.
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Bernie 1

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Some people think Bernie is too radical when really he's just a modern day FDR running in a Party that has a much closer resemblance to Reagan than to Kennedy. People forget that Nixon imposed wage and price controls. Obama bailed out the banks but let people lose their homes. I'm 63. In my lifetime the single biggest change in the lives of most people has been that housing has become a major source of speculation, investment and profit. Every time a deal gets done the banks and investors make their money and the people who pay for it are the renters who get their rents raised or the family trying to buy a house to live in after the house has changed hands a number of times with a consequent huge increase in the price. Investors look all over the country for areas to buy and sell and jack up the prices for people trying to make a living on wages that have not kept up with the rent gouging. In 1986 I was making $7 an hour and paying $100 a month in rent. That was not unusu
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Tax rates and prosperity

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Note that the years of highest tax rate correlate with most prosperous years in nation's history.
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The politics of Deserving

.THE POLITICS OF DESERVING and PSYCHOLOGICAL POLITICS Without judging... Underneath much of Blue politics is the idea that 1 we have a moral responsibility to care of everyone: homeless, healthcare, refugees, etc., and also the idea that 2 people who do not hold this view are bad people. Underneath Red are the ideas: 1  Deservingness-Do these people deserve help, especially if, as in the case of drug addicts, they are making very poor choices. This includes "you want to take my hard earned money and give it to THEM???" "Them" often has racial overtones (which this post will not get into). and 2 We can't afford to take in people from the whole world and take care of everyone. People will just be drawn to come here to take advantage of the benefits. "you want ME to pay for THEM?" And perhaps the key issue: 3***** Inside the psyche of many traditional people is a biblical worldview that sees wealth as a sign of God's favor, poverty a sign of sin, and
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Honest day's work for honest day’s wage

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Empowering the toxic feminine

Man rape men molest men abuse men do War the world would be such a much better place if women were in charge. That's a lot of what we hear these days, that men are inherently bad, women inherently good, that men should really be a lot more like women in the way they speak and act. Little boys are given drugs if they act too aggressively, that is to say if they act like little boys instead of little girls. Male bashing seems to be an international sport these days. I am someone who sees all the wrongs done by the old order and is glad they're going and I am someone who does not want to see the old wrongs replaced by a new set of wrongs perpetrated by a new order. Foolishly, idealistically, I actually believe in true justice and equality and want to see a society that is fair to all. It is a historical fact that for a very long time men have been in charge with very little accountability and some have acted very badly towards women. It is certainly true that there have
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On Billionaires and the Super Rich

There's a lot of discussion these days about billionaires. These are my thoughts: If you paid everyone who works for you a decent wage, if you are respectful of the environment and pay your fair share of taxes without scamming to avoid them,  if you Market your goods and services at a price that gives you a good profit but does not take advantage of people, in short if you've come by your money honestly without cheating or exploiting others,  then I see nothing wrong in some people making a lot of money, even being billionaires. On the other hand, if you got rich through taking advantage of others, paying people low wages, people who had no choice other than to accept because they had to feed themselves and their families and there simply weren't other choices, if you are constantly exploiting people, raising the prices of rents and Healthcare  far beyond the realm of any reasonable profit; if you have been gaming the system in various ways,  perhaps bribing politician
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Jobs

WHERE ARE THE JOBS for the %47 *Have you ever been in a store that seemed to be run on a skeleton crew, *can't find anyone to ask a question, *long lines at the cash register? Not to mention the value of experienced, helpful, motivated staff, rather than minimum wage kids. *Have you been put on hold, while a recording said "we are experiencing an unusually high level of call volume"? Bullshit. If it were truthful, that recording would say:  "we are experiencing an unusually high level of executive compensation and consequently are not hiring enough people to run the business properly". --------- There are thousands of businesses across America that need more sales people, customer service reps, technical people, clerks, etc. but instead of hiring enough people to staff the counters and floors, the execs are choosing to pad their own pockets and raise their own pay, give themselves perks and bonuses, and run the companies on a skeleton crew. *there
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Causes of government shutdown

The immediate, obvious cause is Donald Trump and the Republican Party. There are no excuses for their unpatriotic willingness to  put party and politics above America. For those willing to see more deeply than partisanship, it is obvious that one of the deeper causes is the long-term failure of the Democratic Party to make its case to the white working-class Americans who provide the base of support to Republicans and Donald Trump, to speak to them in terms they can understand about just why so many conservative ideas are wrong. Not to give up core principles or move to the right but to talk with them in Redspeak not Bluespeak. Instead Democrats and progressives are content to just simply write off that whole side of the country as enemies without taking responsibility for their own failure to communicate. As I often do, I again cite the work of George Lakoff.
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Why pay taxes when you can cheat

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For anyone concerned about people getting food stamps or social benefits what do you think of this?
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The Facts of Life

Simple economics 1 technology has increasingly made hiring people less profitable than machines. 2 Of the jobs that are left cheap transportation has made it more profitable to offshore manufacturing to countries where the labor can be hired dirt cheap and ship it to countries with the money to buy the products 3 in the United States and in other countries housing has become an investment strategy for non-local owners. Every time a profit is made by the wealthy investors the  profit comes from from  those buying and renting the houses paying the costs in higher rents and mortgages leading to a variety of problems in their life including stress leading to health issues. 4 climate change and other environmental issues are in the process of causing great disruption to the economy --- So the question becomes: is it the goal of our society that all should have a chance to prosper or are we accepting of a society with a built-in large number of people who will at best struggle and
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Offense Culture and Victorian view of women

Here in the United States of America or rather the disunited states at the moment we are living through a historical change of power. We are coming out of a very long period of power being held by for the most part older white Christian men and societal structures that systematically disempowered, oppressed and often abused women, minorities, gays, non-christians, etc., a racist, sexist, patriarchal society. That is historical fact. There have been centuries, even millennia of suppressed anger and all that is coming out now that people feel free to speak. That is understandable. Many groups and movements, most recently #metoo being notable, have been organized to work for equality and justice. This was necessary and deserving of support. Having said that, I am totally sick of seeing endless Facebook posts and other places telling me that I am the enemy because I am an older white male. Prejudice plain and simple. When I say that to people they say it's justified. Okay. ----
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Good Cop-Bad Cop

Democrats play good cop. Republicans play bad cop. Both serve the interests of the super rich. Dems will let a few more crumbs fall off the tables of the wealthy and give lip service to various issues while doing their best to block any substantive changes. Republicans make no bones about despising the poor. Essentially a one party state. One huge improvement that is starting to be talked about is giving 3rd parties a real chance through ranked preference or multiple choice voting so that people can vote for who they really want to vote for rather than the lesser of two evils.
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The Wall

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Although I see building the wall as a mistake I see it stemming from the same feelings as people who unfriend others on Facebook who disagree with them and college students who attempt to create safe spaces. The common feeling is fear, trying to block out that which you are afraid of and feel unable to deal with. In the case of the wall it is really a symbol for what people really wish to block out, which is their feelings of desperation and helplessness as far as being able to make a living and have Healthcare and all the other ways in which they struggle. Those who support the wall believe that their biggest problem is immigrants taking their jobs and creating problems for them in other ways. Of course the issues are far far more complex, but that's one of the things they're trying to block out. It's a lot easier to think you can solve the problems by keeping some immigrants from coming in than by acknowledging that the system itself is built for the average working per
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Environmental catastrophe and Skillful Means

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The single biggest cause of our current environmental catastrophe is the fact that, no matter what economic system you live under, capitalism,  socialism,  communism, with few exceptions the only way to make money,  which in almost every system is what one needs to stay alive and feed their families, is by destroying nature, turning nature into a product to be sold. Until that changes, and people have ways to feed their families and themselves without suicidally destroying the ecosystem they live in, it is going to be very hard to convince people to save the environment even though there is no other choice. For most people not paying the rent and the prospect of being homeless is a lot more immediately frightening then some future environmental disaster, even though of course we are experiencing many environmental disasters right now. Still people are doing what people often do when faced with unacceptable ideas, denial. Until we stop demonizing frightened people who are simply t
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Lightning Rods

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Donald Trump is the perfect trigger to outrage anyone on the blue side of the spectrum, the perfect distraction from the deep structural problems in the country. Instead of efforts towards changing the system, all those outraged are content to use their energies hating Trump. The ruling elites must be overjoyed that Corporate Personhood, corrupt, dysfunctional elections and the substitution of plutocracy for democracy  get so little attention while Trump serves as lightning rod, as Obama did before him in stimulating complacency on the left and outrage on the right Let's go back to the 2016 election. Trump only got 30% of the vote in most of the primaries.  Many Republicans couldn't stand him, in fact there was a very strong anti Trump movement in the Republican Party itself. Many Republicans would have voted for any Democratic candidate but Hillary Clinton. It's very well known that a candidate with very high negative perceptions has a very hard time winning an elec
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