October 8, 2015

Dear valued worker,

To: American Worker
From: POTUS
Subject: TPP and Our New Direction

Dear valued worker,

As you may have heard, we have recently announced plans to move a large part of our economy offshore in order to pursue new opportunities for growth. In these competitive times, we have no choice but to take difficult but necessary actions to keep America’s CEOs operating at peak efficiency.

While every effort has been made to minimize the impact to workers and their families, some workers have been asked to pursue economic advancement outside the mainstream economy. I’d like to extend my thanks to everyone who served our nation so well for so many years. The outplacement specialists from Goldman Sachs have been retained to assist with a variety of fees and hollow platitudes.

With the past behind us, we must move forward. As we say goodbye to those who helped us achieve a profitable and productive chapter in American history, I hope everyone is as excited as I am to welcome our new co-workers in Asia. They’ll play a key part in reducing our operating expenses. And while your management team has implemented the right steps to limit waste and inefficiency, everyone must do their part. That’s why those who remain will be automatically enrolled in our new “WorkSmart” productivity enhancement program. WorkSmart is used throughout the industry and is credited for doubling productivity while maintaining consistently positive reductions in base compensation and benefits.

I’m proud to say our new economic direction is the most progressive workforce realignment in our nation’s history. Should you have any concerns at all about today’s announcement, please feel free to contact the human corrections officer assigned to your district.

I hope you’ll join me in celebrating this historic milestone. Remember,

“The future’s so bright, you might be able to afford some shades from the dollar store.”

Barack Obama, POTUS
America, Inc

October 7, 2015

Dear President Obama, If TPP is as great as you say...

Why not tell us more about it?

* Tell us how many new jobs will be created here in the US?

* Tell us how much our wages will increase?

* What new regulatory agencies will be created to monitor compliance with the agreement?

* Who will pay for regulatory services? Corporations or tax payers?

* Are ALL provisions of the agreement subject to monitoring and are there SERIOUS penalties for violations?

* Will the largest US corporations, who pay near zero taxes, start paying taxes as a result of this agreement?

* What prevents companies from continuing to flood India and China with jobs?

* How will jobs and wages be monitored over time to assess the impact of the agreement?

* If job and wage growth doesn't meet expectations, what provision exists to end the agreement?

Every working man, woman and (child labor in Asia?) knows trade deals absolutely suck for the middle class and below. NAFTA crushed communities across the US. It meant lower wages and higher costs. Standard of living plunged. Poverty and prisons have been a growth industry ever since.

When all the rhetoric about open markets and new opportunities in Asia is added up, TPP is an exclusive benefit for massive corporations who want lower wages. Companies like Microsoft, Google, Intel, who pay the smallest fraction of taxes, have found China and India too expensive. They want something even cheaper.

People are working harder for less pay. Our kids are working harder for fewer opportunities on graduation. Our health care and education costs are driving us into deep debt. TPP is just a continuation of fucked up abstractions designed to transfer wealth from the middle class and below.

Stumped? How about this one simple question?

Why did you give us this incredibly divisive trade bill at a time of record inequality and economic disparity in the US?

It's a pretty fucked up thing to do to the working class.

October 7, 2015

Gun owners buy guns because guns kill people in an efficient manner.

If a company built a gun that could not be used to kill someone, would anyone buy it? No. Not unless they were a child buying a toy gun for cowboys and Indians.

And that's the point. Gun owners are playing cowboys and Indians with real guns. They haven't gotten smarter as they've grown up, just more dangerous.

They want to play with guns. But they refuse to pay for the mess they make. They want their guns but take no responsibility for the price of their hobby - 100,000 dead and injured a year.

Gun owners need to be charged with a felony when a gun they own is used in a crime.

They need to buy insurance and pay taxes to cover the $200+ billion dollars a year it costs taxpayers to deal with aftermath of gun violence.

They need to be fined for losing a gun or having it stolen. Multiple loses should revoke right to own a gun.

They need to submit to background checks. No private sales exceptions, no gun show exceptions.

Just for starters.

But gun owners don't want any of that. They want the guns and they want us to clean up after them.

October 7, 2015

Just a few of the killers the NRA has enabled with help from Congress

October 7, 2015

The NRA is probably the most socialist political organization in America

They flood the streets with guns and who mops up the blood?

We do. At price of $229 billion dollars per year.

We pay for the medical teams.

We pay for the trauma centers.

We pay for the crime investigation.

We pay for the morgue and medical examiner.

We pay for the trials.

We pay and pay.

But the NRA pays nothing.

They put the gun into the street and walk away.

They refuse to pay.

They claim ignorance to the consequences of their bloody hobby.

I guess we can agree they are ignorant moochers.

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/04/true-cost-of-gun-violence-in-america

October 7, 2015

If your gun is used in a crime, you should be charged with a felony.

It's time to get tough on crime.

This means if you own the gun, you are responsible for the gun.

If you lose the gun or it is stolen:

$1000 = first offense.
$5000 = second offense, lose right to own any firearm. Forever.

If lost/stolen gun is used in crime and not previously reported lost/stolen - you go to jail.


US boy, 11, kills girl, eight, over puppy
Chicago (AFP) - A simple childish spat over a puppy led an 11-year-old boy to shoot and kill his eight-year-old neighbor in the US state of Tennessee, the girl's grieving mother said.

Latasha Dyer said her daughter was playing outside when the boy asked to see her puppy. Little McKayla said "no," and shortly after was shot in the chest.

"When we first moved to White Pine, the little boy was bullying McKayla," Latasha Dyer told WATE 6 news in a video posted on the station's website Sunday.

"He was making fun of her, calling her names, just being mean to her. I had to go the principal about him and he quit for a while and then all of a sudden yesterday he shot her."
http://news.yahoo.com/us-boy-11-kills-girl-eight-over-puppy-211349093.html

October 5, 2015

America is like an angry boil. Trump wants to pop it. Meanwhile, the DNC is

continuing to deny the local dynamics behind Trump's popularity. Populism is a major problem for a status quo candidate like Hillary Clinton.

The main problem? Hillary lacks the care, passion and authenticity needed to work with the middle class and below.

Where we need empathy, Hillary brings an arrogant bravado.
Where we need peace, Hillary brings threats of violence.
Where we need economic justice and opportunity, Hillary brings Wall Street banks, H1Bs and outsourcing.
Where we need new energy sources, Hillary brings fracking.

Hillary cannot not heal the nation. To do so, she would have to acknowledge that her polices and beliefs need to be reversed. She'll never agree to that. So she panders with phony half measures and micro solutions that barely nibble around the edges. "Everything is fine," she says.

In contrast, Trump correctly sees America as a boil ready to pop. He's selling a cure using his magic potion. People are so desperate for relief, they are putting cash on the table for a genuine bottle of Mr. Trump's Effervescent Bullshit.

He's become more than just a bigmouth, chicken in every pot populist ready to rescue the middle class and below with truck loads of problem recognition discarded from the Democratic Party. He's a front runner to win the Republican primary.

Perhaps we should credit Debbie Wasserman Schultz for beating the populist imperative out of the rank and file. She's managed to stay on top and keep all the sugar on top as well.

Trump is promising barrels of sugar. Hillary is promising barrels of jobs to Asia.

There's no way she can win the general election with a platform like that.

October 4, 2015

We don't need another wall. We have a perfectly good one that keeps people out...

It was built using bipartisan cement, the densest, most immovable material on Earth.

It has proven to be virtually indestructible and is growing bigger every day.

It keeps 100s of millions of people at bay.

It's in a very fashionable location. Even has a street named after it.

Both parties carefully maintain it. It gets a large part of our taxes.

It's kept up much better than our bridges and highways.

Looks like some candidates clearly don't understand anything about wall building.

And there are some who are experts at the trade.

October 4, 2015

Remember when NEA endorsed Arne Duncan? How did that work out?

When I heard about Duncan as Obama's nominee, I was stunned by his love affair with charter schools. I remember thinking, oh, fuck, another corporate take-over artist, transferring Government backed wealth from poor schools to rich Wall Street pockets.

But amazingly, NEA has done it again - put their support behind the Wall Street's Current Director of Government-Corporate Partnerships, Personal Fulfillment Division, Hillary Clinton.

Let's check the way-back machine: 2008

Mr. Duncan’s experience in expanding the number of charter schools in Chicago and creating additional ways of recruiting new teachers reflect two important ingredients of Mr. Obama’s campaign platform.

His stance on the federal No Child Left Behind Act also reflects Mr. Obama’s. At a congressional hearing in July, Mr. Duncan was one of several urban leaders who endorsed the NCLB law’s emphasis on holding schools accountable for student performance. ("City Leaders Back Stronger Accountability,” July 30, 2008.)

Although the NEA is one of the biggest critics of the law’s accountability rules, the union says it welcomes Mr. Duncan’s support for doubling funding for the law over the next five years, NEA President Dennis Van Roekel said in the union’s statement supporting Mr. Duncan’s nomination.
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2008/12/16/16duncan_ep.h28.html

Fast-forward to: 2014

WASHINGTON (AP) — The nation's largest teachers' union wants Education Secretary Arne Duncan to quit.

Delegates of the National Education Association adopted a business item July 4 at its annual convention in Denver that called for his resignation. The vote underscores the long-standing tension between the Obama administration and teachers' unions — historically a steadfast Democratic ally.

A tipping point for some members was Duncan's statement last month in support of a California judge's ruling that struck down tenure and other job protections for the state's public school teachers. In harsh wording, the judge said such laws harm particularly low-income students by saddling them with bad teachers who are almost impossible to fire.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/07/nea-arne-duncan_n_5564101.html

Well, he's finally gone. Maybe it was this?

At its annual meeting in Chicago, The National Education Association's Representative Assembly passed Saturday New Business Item C., a strongly worded piece that comprehensively lists the NEA's grievances with Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.

Some have nicknamed the item "13 Things We Hate About Arne Duncan."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/03/nea-13-things-we-hate-abo_n_889411.html

Or this?

Arne Duncan’s Patently False Promise to Forgive Student Debts at For-Profit Schools

Arne Duncan is lying when he says the administration will hold for-profit colleges “accountable.” These criminal enterprises are creatures of the federal government. The for-profit school industry has no reason to exist except to suck up federal education moneys while destroying the hopes and credit of desperate, largely Black and brown people. The Education Department acts as the bill collector for the industry, enforcing the terms of student debt. Enforcers for loan sharks don’t give debt holidays to the masses of victims.
“The for-profit education industry will be protected.”
http://www.commondreams.org/views/2015/06/12/arne-duncans-patently-false-promise-forgive-student-debts-profit-schools

For failing to learn the fundamental lesson that Wall Street profits prioritized over a quality public education system do not lead to better outcomes for students, the NEA's leadership team gets an F.

October 3, 2015

Is there any difference between a maggot infestation and the NRA after a mass shooting?

Both show up to feast where ever there is death, while the corpses are still warm.

Both are an excellent bait food. For fish. For Congress.

No, I guess there isn't much difference between the two.