Senator McConnell recently said that he feels we need to tackle "entitlements" and that there's a bipartisan attempt not to because they're too popular....
Ok, I promise this will be quick, there's not much to dig into but let's get started.
1) The GOP Congress last year reduced taxes, especially on corporations and, not surprisingly, the rich. At the same time, they gave a big boost to military spending... spending the military didn't ask for. That's why we are so deep in the red this year. Let's not pretend this is anything but what they planned: reduce the money coming into the Federal Government (and increase non-social spending) so you can claim to e forced to reduce spending on the non-military. It's a manufactured crisis. Don't think of it in any other terms.
2) If a program is popular, and it works, both of which are true for these social nets, why are you so hung up on tearing into them? And boy are they hung up on it... I can't remember a time when the leadership of the GOP wasn't trying to break the contract with the American people. Oh, it's because you feel it has something to do with the deficit spending that Conservatives like to rail against in times of Democrat leadership of the government and love to indulge in when the Republicans are in power.
3) Ok, so, let's talk about their impact on the deficit... there is none. Ok, it's even better than that, these programs are funded by a separate revenue stream to the general tax system and they bring in more money than they spend... so far. That's right, the Social Security and Medicare elements you see in your paycheck more than cover these programs. They never have caused a deficit. They, in fact, have been used to offset the deficit spending from time to time. "But Peter, you said 'so far'... won't they eventually go bankrupt?" Well, sure, if we don't do anything, eventually the money the Government takes in for Social Security won't cover the costs of the program. There are a number of different ways that we can resolve this however, and one of those is to change it from a regressive program to ... less of a regressive program. See, your income is taxed for Social Security but only up to a certain cap... and that's currently $127.200. We could simply remove the cap and those of us fortunate enough to make more than $127,000 would pay an equal percentage into Social Security as everyone else. And the benefits aren't capped in the same way, so a person making $127,200 and a person making $1,270,000 pay the same into Social Security but the former gets back significantly less when they retire. So just remove the cap on the taxable income and you're pretty much covered.
So really, what the fuck are GOP leaders talking about when they say that we don't have the resources to support these programs and need to find ways to cut costs?
Dark Wind Rising
Tuesday, October 16, 2018
Saturday, September 8, 2018
The Bias Against Conservatives is Real.... even Facts are Against Them
I almost feel badly for conservatives in this country... the main stream news have a bias against them, hollywood has a bias against them, teachers and universities have a bias against them, unions have a bias against them, the courts (until now) have/had a bias against them, and now big tech has a bias against them... hell... even reportedly unbiased news/internet searching has a bias against the President they elected.... I would suggest that history, the last 1,000 years of cultural progression, and general facts have a bias against them, even sci-fi tends to have a bias against them.... must be really hard.... harder still for those that are even further on the Right that are villainized by the generally accepted culture, such as white nationalists who are the villains of many a movie, tv show, comic book, history book, and you know, common sense... just imagine if you believe in the ideals of the Nazis today and have to live your days being told you're evil by... you know.... everything around you except for the right wing media and your family / white-supremecist friends. Almost makes me feel badly for them.... almost.... ok, not really ... except for maybe those that don't realize that's who they are.
(in case you're reading this and need a quick explanation of why it's come up now... various big tech companies have recently banned various far right personalities such as Alex Jones, who is a well known and widely followed somewhat extreme right-wing talk-piece who has claimed such things as that the shooting at Sandy Hook was faked and other ridiculous conspiracy theories that present the left as fakes or villains... and the Right is proclaiming that tech is presenting a bias against them and infringing upon their free speech.... as opposed to what is happening which is that private companies are halting extremist, hateful, and dangerous speech from being spread on their platforms)
(in case you're reading this and need a quick explanation of why it's come up now... various big tech companies have recently banned various far right personalities such as Alex Jones, who is a well known and widely followed somewhat extreme right-wing talk-piece who has claimed such things as that the shooting at Sandy Hook was faked and other ridiculous conspiracy theories that present the left as fakes or villains... and the Right is proclaiming that tech is presenting a bias against them and infringing upon their free speech.... as opposed to what is happening which is that private companies are halting extremist, hateful, and dangerous speech from being spread on their platforms)
Monday, July 30, 2018
OPENAIR Circus gripe 2018
Ok, I don't often quite so publicly complain but I need to get something off my chest. Please don't take this as a general complaint or something that is truly out of the ordinary for a given year. I have had similar scenarios play out in the past and I will have them play out again in the future. It is not likely to change the course of my life or the OPENAIR Circus.... it is, indeed, just a rant... a pure and personal rant.
I run the OPENAIR Circus. From the end of June through the beginning of August, I essentially have the backseat and back end (trunk?... no, that's not the right term for a hatchback, right?) of my car taken over by equipment for the Circus and spend somewhere between 12 and 26 hours on the program, between being at the field for 3 hours a day 3 days a week, not counting setup and take-down (which each takes around 20-30 minutes on a good day) and stilting workshops or stilt making workshops or some other activity on the weekend, as well as the administrative work of sending out emails, coordinating with teachers and other volunteers, and just odds and ends (such as switching what equipment is in my car between one day and the next).
I do all this as a volunteer, giving back to the community that has given me so much in my life. I do it because of the joy it brings others.
So, to the parent that complains that a particular class isn't going to perform because they haven't learned the most elemental of the skill they were set to learn because the children "only getting three classes instead of five - through no fault of [their] own" and is disgruntled enough to complain about how she has to tell her son he doesn't get to perform... I want to say this:
"I can certainly appreciate your frustration. It certainly is never optimal to have 2 of 5 classes rained out. The report I got from the teacher is that just about none of the students had learned the basic element of completing a yo-down plus yo-up. If [the child in question] can yo-down and yo-up, we would welcome him to be part of a filler in between acts if he's interested. If so, just let me know.
Understanding that this has not been what you were hoping for from our program, I've removed you from the email list.
Sincerely,
Peter"
ok, end rant, moving on with my day
I run the OPENAIR Circus. From the end of June through the beginning of August, I essentially have the backseat and back end (trunk?... no, that's not the right term for a hatchback, right?) of my car taken over by equipment for the Circus and spend somewhere between 12 and 26 hours on the program, between being at the field for 3 hours a day 3 days a week, not counting setup and take-down (which each takes around 20-30 minutes on a good day) and stilting workshops or stilt making workshops or some other activity on the weekend, as well as the administrative work of sending out emails, coordinating with teachers and other volunteers, and just odds and ends (such as switching what equipment is in my car between one day and the next).
I do all this as a volunteer, giving back to the community that has given me so much in my life. I do it because of the joy it brings others.
So, to the parent that complains that a particular class isn't going to perform because they haven't learned the most elemental of the skill they were set to learn because the children "only getting three classes instead of five - through no fault of [their] own" and is disgruntled enough to complain about how she has to tell her son he doesn't get to perform... I want to say this:
- I know we often joke at the OPENAIR Circus about my having control over the weather... I don't actually make it rain though... and as evidence from the first Thursday where I was at the field making the decision to call of classes rather than having listened to everybody earlier in the day and calling them off sooner, I really do try to ensure that we only cancel when we absolutely must.
- I work a full-time job and do this on top of that job. I know it may seem like I work part-time or full time for the OPENAIR Circus or that we have any paid staff beyond the teachers, who themselves are only paid for the time they're actually at the field and even then are not paid a rate I would expect to pay them for gigs outside the summer program.
- Not only do I volunteer my time, but I expend 6 days of work-vacation for what is really just about 1, maybe 2 days, overall, of actual relaxation. My colleagues who don't pay close attention expect that my week off is similar to their vacations and so expect it to be rejuvenating instead of what it truly is which is physically, mentally, and emotionally taxing.
- I'm sorry you feel like 3 hours of instruction wasn't worth the $20 you spent.
- I'm sorry that you feel that your son should be in a performance that is open to the public even if he didn't learn a skill to perform.
- You are one of the reasons that I, year after year, question my sanity for doing this volunteering.
"I can certainly appreciate your frustration. It certainly is never optimal to have 2 of 5 classes rained out. The report I got from the teacher is that just about none of the students had learned the basic element of completing a yo-down plus yo-up. If [the child in question] can yo-down and yo-up, we would welcome him to be part of a filler in between acts if he's interested. If so, just let me know.
Understanding that this has not been what you were hoping for from our program, I've removed you from the email list.
Sincerely,
Peter"
ok, end rant, moving on with my day
Sunday, March 4, 2018
Democrats, Republicans, What's the Difference? Part 2
O.k., so Democrats and Republicans are different, but surely they can compromise and make progress. Ok., how about we review some of the things people think compromise should be found on:
Social Security:
Democrats want Social Security to be strengthened.
Republicans want it gone.
How exactly do you compromise in this instance? If you're Republicans, you claim that you're trying to strengthen the program by reducing the benefits (to maintain the program in the long run even though it hurts the underlying point of the program) or by privatizing the program (essentially, hand all that money over to investment bankers to play with). If you're Democrats, you see through both options for what they really are since you've been hearing Republicans rail against the program for decades. So... how do you compromise on something so black and white?
Environment:
Democrats want to make the air quality better by moving to electric cars or other alternatives
Republicans like oil...
So we compromise and instead of slowly improving regulations on cars so that they are more efficient and less polluting while maintaining gas cars rather than rapidly building up our electric-car infrastructure and enhancing our public transportation, we keep everything exactly the same (or let them deteriorate).... except California... cause they're concerned with such things as air quality.
Guns:
Democrats don't like guns in the hands of the public because they are concerned about public safety.
Republicans want guns in the hands of the public because it's all about freedom to them. Freedom to have a gun is as important to them as freedom of speech and significantly more important than freedom of religion.
Ok, so in this case, let's start with the starting volleys for compromise:
Democrats compromise by saying that we only ban new sales on guns, not take any away by force
Democrats compromise further by saying, let's not even ban new sales on all guns, let's just ban sales on semi-automatic rifles... we've already banned automatics so this isn't something that's totally outrageous to consider.
Democrats propose that we ban the sale of high-capacity magazines... we did this in the 1990's, the world didn't fall apart.
Republicans counter these compromise options by saying we don't do anything about guns or any gun parts.
Remind me who's unwilling to compromise?
Social Security:
Democrats want Social Security to be strengthened.
Republicans want it gone.
How exactly do you compromise in this instance? If you're Republicans, you claim that you're trying to strengthen the program by reducing the benefits (to maintain the program in the long run even though it hurts the underlying point of the program) or by privatizing the program (essentially, hand all that money over to investment bankers to play with). If you're Democrats, you see through both options for what they really are since you've been hearing Republicans rail against the program for decades. So... how do you compromise on something so black and white?
Environment:
Democrats want to make the air quality better by moving to electric cars or other alternatives
Republicans like oil...
So we compromise and instead of slowly improving regulations on cars so that they are more efficient and less polluting while maintaining gas cars rather than rapidly building up our electric-car infrastructure and enhancing our public transportation, we keep everything exactly the same (or let them deteriorate).... except California... cause they're concerned with such things as air quality.
Guns:
Democrats don't like guns in the hands of the public because they are concerned about public safety.
Republicans want guns in the hands of the public because it's all about freedom to them. Freedom to have a gun is as important to them as freedom of speech and significantly more important than freedom of religion.
Ok, so in this case, let's start with the starting volleys for compromise:
Democrats compromise by saying that we only ban new sales on guns, not take any away by force
Democrats compromise further by saying, let's not even ban new sales on all guns, let's just ban sales on semi-automatic rifles... we've already banned automatics so this isn't something that's totally outrageous to consider.
Democrats propose that we ban the sale of high-capacity magazines... we did this in the 1990's, the world didn't fall apart.
Republicans counter these compromise options by saying we don't do anything about guns or any gun parts.
Remind me who's unwilling to compromise?
Saturday, March 3, 2018
Democrats, Republicans, What's the Difference? Part 1
"We need more compromising", "I just wish that Democrats and Republicans could meet somewhere in the middle", "Democrats and Republicans are the same".... OY!
Alright, so, let's start with the concept that Democrats and Republicans are the same.... THEY'RE NOT...
Democrats want government to take care of people (which costs money)
Republicans want the lowest taxes there can be and the least amount of government oversight
Democrats want a smaller military presence throughout the world
Republicans want a military that is 3 times larger than the rest of the world's countries' militaries combined (or larger)
Democrats want to send aid to countries (for the most part)
Republicans want to send troops to countries (ok, Hillary too... and some other Democrats; but mostly Republicans and not Democrats)
Democrats want unions to have power because workers have better lives when there is someone advocating for them
Republicans want unions to no longer exist because unions tend to favor Democrats and mean smaller profits for corporations
White Democrats are racists that want to help minorities by trying to look at institutional issues and resolving them and/or providing social safety nets.
White Republicans are racists that want to keep minorities from voting (see the variety of voter suppression tactics that Republicans have been working at implementing, sometimes succeeding but mostly failing due to their unconstitutional nature)
Minority Democrats are similar to White Democrats except that they tend to have a better view of the institutional issues.
Minority Republicans don't exist. Don't believe me? Think I'm being flippant? Take a look: http://www.politifact.com/wisconsin/statements/2017/apr/28/mark-pocan/congress-democrats-have-women-and-minorities-repub/
Of their members in Congress in 2017 (combining the two chambers):
Democrats Republicans
Total count: 239 289
African American: 48 (20%) 3 (1%)
Hispanic/Latino: 30 (12%) 13 (4%)
Asian/Indian/Pacific Islander: 16 (6%) 0 (0%)
Say it with me, minority Republicans in Congress do not exist. Oh, and women...
Women: 78 (32%) 26 (9%)
Democrats want everybody to have health care, regardless of financial background
Republicans don't... yeah, not much else to say there
Democrats want to listen to scientists
Republicans want to listen to corporations
Democrats want us to convert to renewable energy sources because they're better in terms of the environment in general but also better for the populace (fossil fuels cause health issues in surrounding communities)
Republicans want us to use coal, natural gas, and oil... because ... corporations
Democrats want to do SOMETHING about climate change
Republicans, until recently, have refused to state that climate change is real, and now, don't want to do anything about it.
Democrats don't really care all that much about illegal immigration as long as the illegal immigrants aren't causing harm to the US (generally speaking, they pay taxes, don't commit as many violent crimes as US Citizens, and use up fewer government resources than US Citizens)
Republicans want to get rid of all illegal immigrants regardless of whether they are committing further crimes beyond being here.
Democrats want to fund social programs
Republicans don't want taxes to pay for social programs so...
Democrats want to get rid of all civilian-held guns but are willing to compromise and only ban new sales of semi-automatic rifles and high-capacity magazines. They'd also like the CDC to study gun deaths the way that it studied automobile deaths
Republicans want to arm everybody and are willing to compromise by ... arming everybody? They also feel that allowing the CDC to study gun deaths would lead to gun regulations and therefore are fervently against any such research. Yes, if they think that the CDC researching gun deaths will lead to proposals about regulations because, you know, gun deaths can bee prevented, and that this would be bad and therefore they have prevented any research from taking place. No, seriously, look this up. This is insane.
In my next post, we'll discuss compromising...
Alright, so, let's start with the concept that Democrats and Republicans are the same.... THEY'RE NOT...
Democrats want government to take care of people (which costs money)
Republicans want the lowest taxes there can be and the least amount of government oversight
Democrats want a smaller military presence throughout the world
Republicans want a military that is 3 times larger than the rest of the world's countries' militaries combined (or larger)
Democrats want to send aid to countries (for the most part)
Republicans want to send troops to countries (ok, Hillary too... and some other Democrats; but mostly Republicans and not Democrats)
Democrats want unions to have power because workers have better lives when there is someone advocating for them
Republicans want unions to no longer exist because unions tend to favor Democrats and mean smaller profits for corporations
White Democrats are racists that want to help minorities by trying to look at institutional issues and resolving them and/or providing social safety nets.
White Republicans are racists that want to keep minorities from voting (see the variety of voter suppression tactics that Republicans have been working at implementing, sometimes succeeding but mostly failing due to their unconstitutional nature)
Minority Democrats are similar to White Democrats except that they tend to have a better view of the institutional issues.
Minority Republicans don't exist. Don't believe me? Think I'm being flippant? Take a look: http://www.politifact.com/wisconsin/statements/2017/apr/28/mark-pocan/congress-democrats-have-women-and-minorities-repub/
Of their members in Congress in 2017 (combining the two chambers):
Democrats Republicans
Total count: 239 289
African American: 48 (20%) 3 (1%)
Hispanic/Latino: 30 (12%) 13 (4%)
Asian/Indian/Pacific Islander: 16 (6%) 0 (0%)
Say it with me, minority Republicans in Congress do not exist. Oh, and women...
Women: 78 (32%) 26 (9%)
Democrats want everybody to have health care, regardless of financial background
Republicans don't... yeah, not much else to say there
Democrats want to listen to scientists
Republicans want to listen to corporations
Democrats want us to convert to renewable energy sources because they're better in terms of the environment in general but also better for the populace (fossil fuels cause health issues in surrounding communities)
Republicans want us to use coal, natural gas, and oil... because ... corporations
Democrats want to do SOMETHING about climate change
Republicans, until recently, have refused to state that climate change is real, and now, don't want to do anything about it.
Democrats don't really care all that much about illegal immigration as long as the illegal immigrants aren't causing harm to the US (generally speaking, they pay taxes, don't commit as many violent crimes as US Citizens, and use up fewer government resources than US Citizens)
Republicans want to get rid of all illegal immigrants regardless of whether they are committing further crimes beyond being here.
Democrats want to fund social programs
Republicans don't want taxes to pay for social programs so...
Democrats want to get rid of all civilian-held guns but are willing to compromise and only ban new sales of semi-automatic rifles and high-capacity magazines. They'd also like the CDC to study gun deaths the way that it studied automobile deaths
Republicans want to arm everybody and are willing to compromise by ... arming everybody? They also feel that allowing the CDC to study gun deaths would lead to gun regulations and therefore are fervently against any such research. Yes, if they think that the CDC researching gun deaths will lead to proposals about regulations because, you know, gun deaths can bee prevented, and that this would be bad and therefore they have prevented any research from taking place. No, seriously, look this up. This is insane.
In my next post, we'll discuss compromising...
Friday, February 16, 2018
Reason for Violence in Schools is Separation of Church and State?
Before I get started, I'd like to point out that this is not targeting most religious people... many religious people would never make this assertion.... those that do, well, that takes a special kind of... well, ok, I've made my disclaimer, go ahead and read
message reads:
Dear God, Why do you allow so much violence in our schools? - A concerned student;
Dear Concerned Student, I'm not allowed in schools. - God
Let's explore this a bit shall we? First, this is a direct response to the mass shootings we've seen at schools... so let's look at other places where mass shootings have been happening.
theaters - well... yeah, heathens go to theaters, they're the devil's playground. Full of violence and sex and filth. Makes sense that God would allow violence there.
malls - heathens go to malls to shop. Look at all those evil places like Victoria's Secret and Apple and TJ Max and...
college campuses - well, duh
military bases - well, since we allowed gays in, right? (oh, sorry, I seem to have moved to calling the person relaying the message homophobic somehow... I would say I'm sorry but I suspect you're realizing that I'm not particularly happy with anybody expressing this opinion)
churches... oh.. wait... God allows violence in churches because... hm...
message reads:
Dear God, Why do you allow so much violence in our schools? - A concerned student;
Dear Concerned Student, I'm not allowed in schools. - God
Let's explore this a bit shall we? First, this is a direct response to the mass shootings we've seen at schools... so let's look at other places where mass shootings have been happening.
theaters - well... yeah, heathens go to theaters, they're the devil's playground. Full of violence and sex and filth. Makes sense that God would allow violence there.
malls - heathens go to malls to shop. Look at all those evil places like Victoria's Secret and Apple and TJ Max and...
college campuses - well, duh
military bases - well, since we allowed gays in, right? (oh, sorry, I seem to have moved to calling the person relaying the message homophobic somehow... I would say I'm sorry but I suspect you're realizing that I'm not particularly happy with anybody expressing this opinion)
churches... oh.. wait... God allows violence in churches because... hm...
Timeline of DACA - Trump relationship
I'm just going to leave this progression of Trump's relationship with DACA and the Dreamers here:
throughout 2016 Campaign [1]: DACA was an illegal overreach by President Obama
5-Sep-2017 [2]: I like Dreamers so I'm going to try to get Congress to pass something that I consider legal and give them until March, 5 2018 to do it... once we hit March 5, I'm going to undue DACA because it is illegal (and therefore, even if it hurts those I really like, trust me, believe me, I like them, a lot, I'll get rid of it).
09-Jan-2018: I like Dreamers so much that I'll sign any bill that deals with them that Congress passes
21-Jan-2018 [3]: Democrats are wrong to shut down the government over Dreamers
14-Feb-2018 [4]: Nope, I don't like the bill that the Senate has come up with so I'm threatening a veto
16-Feb-2018 [5]: Democrats are to blame if DACA goes away without something in place to replace it.
Sources:
1) https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/20/us/immigrants-donald-trump-daca.html
2) https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/05/us/politics/trump-daca-dreamers-immigration.html
3) http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-42759934
4) https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/14/us/politics/trump-immigration-veto-threat.html
5) https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/feb/16/trump-slams-democrats-daca-disaster/?utm_source=RSS_Feed&utm_medium=RSS
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