What follows is a response to a Sacramento Bee Article written by a "Hoover Institute Fellow" in response to usual poorly researched, propaganda B.S., that flows out of that Fallis shaped edifice like lava....geese what a metaphor!
Just once, just once could you climb down from Hoover Tower...or jump maybe, and provide a well researched and vetted piece of academic work, not the partisan crap you passed off for an article in the Bee today?
You attack legislators for visiting a successful (oops it can't be successful it has government around it) educational approach in Long Beach because of the cost.
Then, unbelievably you actually seem to tout that lobbyists' spending is vital to embellish lawmaker's knowledge (and pocketbooks)!
The mess we have with outright bribery by lobbyists is good? What? Where is your evidence? You know...proof?
Next, you list other "examples", that any 12th grade Civics student could do, of the breakdown of big government (I think). You actually have the gall to include Modesto, with its housing bubble meltdown, Prop 13 starved local government, and high unemployment rate.
You are implying that big government did that? Really...really?
Ok, that's right...you are a Hoover Fellow!
I dare you...I dare you to publish or refer me to a body of work, you know RESEARCH backed by empirical evidence, that PROVES (I went to Stanford, so walk north west from the Tower and visit the Engineering Department for advice), that the limited government ideology of the Hoover Institute works.
President Hoover never forgave Franklin Roosevelt for being right about the Great Depression. He, and others "never give in to reality and science" types, set up the Hoover Institute, that should be studying issues of War and Peace; not right wing economic nonsense, to prove that he really was right after totally failing as President.
Now, the Hoover Institute churns out revisionist history, backed by nonsense, that the New Deal actually caused the Great Depression! Or, that the New Deal lengthened the Great Depression. Or, that the New Deal really didn't happen at all ....look I can see Alaska from my house!
When I was an undergraduate, I used to look at the phallic symbol looming in the sky, and think, "Poor loser". We laughed at Hoover then, I pity him now.
So, bring out the studies that prove, oh let's try: that Prop 13 revitalized California's economy....Or, that the Housing Bubble of 2003-2008, thanks to George W. Bush's "ownership society" de-regulations, actually helped the economy.
Or, that the law and order "reforms" of 1970-1999 actually reduced violence and provide a safer urban society today (you evidently don't think Oakland is there yet). Please include the government spending explosion that led to California being one of the most incarcerated places on earth.
I would suggest you apply Poverty rate statistics, unemployment, foreclosures, health care rates, distribution of wealth data; etc. You know, Hoover Fellow, use facts!
Of course you won't, because, surprise, the limited government crap you dish out every day, from the Hoover edifice, is just that...crap!
What do you do all day anyway? While you lambast "full time legislatures", as if a part time government could govern a state of millions, what do you produce?
I am betting you confer with others who agree with you, who don't bother to look at the overwhelming empirical, quantifiable, statistical evidence that proves the limited government, free market ideology simply DOES NOT WORK!
The idea behind Political Science, that you obviously hate, is that social, economic and political human behavior can be studied like Anthropology, or Biology. And, there are empirical standards, if you will, upon which a better government can be built. This requires study, of present realities, and past history. From this study, (why am I telling a Hoover Fellow this?), political decisions can more accurately be made...you know, "Public Policy"!
In effect, ideology does not drive public policy formation, rather, science does. And gee whiz, it actually works.
But that is not the reality at the good ole Hoover Institute is it? Nope, ideology drives public policy formation. Research is designed to not quantify but to manipulate public opinion. Public policy is not a product of process, it is a product of propaganda.
That is what you do!
Finally, I was one of those Political Science graduates you seem to complain about. I find it interesting that employers are not hiring them, while raping us with a lobbyist system, that in the guise of pluralism (look it up) simply bribes its way to more profits, more income inequality, and builds an aristocratic state.
You work near one of the greatest research Universities on the planet, in a den of ideological vipers (Biblical reference), and your fellow...fellows provide ideology and propaganda (Fox News) rather than science to back up what is actually a decade long apology for the mistakes of one of the most vilified Presidents in our history!
Oh, you also worked for Wilson, whose anti-immigration public "policy" has landed the Republican Party a permanent minority status in California politics.
Good job. If you worked for me, with that success record, you would be making room for some of those Political Science graduates who nobody will hire right now. How can somebody do nothing, contribute nothing to the body politic and make money at it?
And THAT, my kind Hoover "Fellow", is the real tragedy!
Sent from my iPad
Friday, March 15, 2013
Sunday, March 3, 2013
Here's to the Lazy Reporter!
An open letter to a "journalist":
Where do we start? How about years of claiming the President was born in Kenya? How about years of comic book drawings, depicting the President's wife as a "bubble butt"? How about years of snide comments that "he is Un-American , or he is a nazi, or he is not one of us"; it goes on and on.
And then the sequester.. Why not explain the history behind it? It was part of a deal, to desperately stop the government from refusing to pay its bills, which would have sparked a full blown depression. Remember...oh that's right, journalists don't remember anymore.
There are assholes (there a foul word) in this country, conservatives (another foul word), who are obsessed with "getting" the "black bastard" (as my con friends so delicately say) AT ALL COSTS!
And you get your pants in a knot, when staffers in the White House get upset. And then you have the audacity to compare this White House to Nixon's.
Really...really?
Bullshit. It is all bullshit. The American people are plenty mad alright, at YOU. The idiotic, non working, lazy ass press, who leaves real investigative reporting to John Stewart for Christ's sake.
The only place I can get any investigation of the mess we have right now, is on a comedy show! And he makes fun of lazy journalists all the time.
How much by the way does MSNBC pay you for your five minute spots? How much work goes into that? You say about five words and get paid probably ten thousand bucks. That money could feed a family in poverty for months!
Woodward did the nation a huge service many years ago. He took risks, and investigated. He got off his butt and went out and interviewed people. He was really threatened then..He is too old now, he needs to retire.
And so Woodward had his "feelings hurt", because someone disagreed with his lack of investigating (he is too damn old to do what he does anymore and doesn't investigate anything), and called him on it.
It is all part of the game you are all playing back there, and getting rich off it.
It is all part of the game the health care monopoly is playing too, and getting rich off it...Everyone is getting rich, except the rest of us!
The sequester was part of a deal to keep America paying its bills, and not defaulting. Without it, we were going to default, and ruin the damn economy. The sequester was a gimmick to get people to negotiate...I know that and I have never investigated anyone. I just REMEMBERED!
But I worked in America's schools for thirty five years. I went into hell holes for homes, dealing with six year olds who hid underneath desks because they were getting abused at night at home. I dealt with the part of America that you are afraid to drive into. I got paid a little for it, but now "investigating journalists" like you, write articles that the problems of education are cause by lazy teachers, by bad old unions, as Rome burns.
And the Party that put us into that position sure as hell are not the Democrats.
Finally, it took one investigating journalist (one of the few left), doing a expose on the health care cabal in Time Magazine, to uncover the monopolistic, ruinous health care greed merchants, who are bankrupting our country. The President said it in his last press conference, "The greatest source of the deficit (over thirty years by the way) are health care costs". You should have written your article on why he said that. You could have investigated what is the source of the deficit. You could have been a journalist.
But no, you investigate what an old man whines about. You say it is why people are mad at Washington; that the White House are meanies. And you, and your ilk do what, why you sit and whine that that mean old White House is cussing at you. We're mad at Washington all right, we are mad at lazy jerks, who pull down huge salaries, for doing nothing!
Try doing your job for once. Get off your ass (I am not talking about the Senate) and get out of your nice office, and give us some investigating on what is really screwing this country up. Quit collecting that nice fat paycheck from MSNBC and try going out into the country and LOOK AT IT!
We are in deep shit my friend. This country is in real trouble. The guy in the White House gets it. The rest of you are so busy getting rich off it, you don't want to notice.
I did more for this country in one week, than you have done in your whole career!
Sent from my iPad
Where do we start? How about years of claiming the President was born in Kenya? How about years of comic book drawings, depicting the President's wife as a "bubble butt"? How about years of snide comments that "he is Un-American , or he is a nazi, or he is not one of us"; it goes on and on.
And then the sequester.. Why not explain the history behind it? It was part of a deal, to desperately stop the government from refusing to pay its bills, which would have sparked a full blown depression. Remember...oh that's right, journalists don't remember anymore.
There are assholes (there a foul word) in this country, conservatives (another foul word), who are obsessed with "getting" the "black bastard" (as my con friends so delicately say) AT ALL COSTS!
And you get your pants in a knot, when staffers in the White House get upset. And then you have the audacity to compare this White House to Nixon's.
Really...really?
Bullshit. It is all bullshit. The American people are plenty mad alright, at YOU. The idiotic, non working, lazy ass press, who leaves real investigative reporting to John Stewart for Christ's sake.
The only place I can get any investigation of the mess we have right now, is on a comedy show! And he makes fun of lazy journalists all the time.
How much by the way does MSNBC pay you for your five minute spots? How much work goes into that? You say about five words and get paid probably ten thousand bucks. That money could feed a family in poverty for months!
Woodward did the nation a huge service many years ago. He took risks, and investigated. He got off his butt and went out and interviewed people. He was really threatened then..He is too old now, he needs to retire.
And so Woodward had his "feelings hurt", because someone disagreed with his lack of investigating (he is too damn old to do what he does anymore and doesn't investigate anything), and called him on it.
It is all part of the game you are all playing back there, and getting rich off it.
It is all part of the game the health care monopoly is playing too, and getting rich off it...Everyone is getting rich, except the rest of us!
The sequester was part of a deal to keep America paying its bills, and not defaulting. Without it, we were going to default, and ruin the damn economy. The sequester was a gimmick to get people to negotiate...I know that and I have never investigated anyone. I just REMEMBERED!
But I worked in America's schools for thirty five years. I went into hell holes for homes, dealing with six year olds who hid underneath desks because they were getting abused at night at home. I dealt with the part of America that you are afraid to drive into. I got paid a little for it, but now "investigating journalists" like you, write articles that the problems of education are cause by lazy teachers, by bad old unions, as Rome burns.
And the Party that put us into that position sure as hell are not the Democrats.
Finally, it took one investigating journalist (one of the few left), doing a expose on the health care cabal in Time Magazine, to uncover the monopolistic, ruinous health care greed merchants, who are bankrupting our country. The President said it in his last press conference, "The greatest source of the deficit (over thirty years by the way) are health care costs". You should have written your article on why he said that. You could have investigated what is the source of the deficit. You could have been a journalist.
But no, you investigate what an old man whines about. You say it is why people are mad at Washington; that the White House are meanies. And you, and your ilk do what, why you sit and whine that that mean old White House is cussing at you. We're mad at Washington all right, we are mad at lazy jerks, who pull down huge salaries, for doing nothing!
Try doing your job for once. Get off your ass (I am not talking about the Senate) and get out of your nice office, and give us some investigating on what is really screwing this country up. Quit collecting that nice fat paycheck from MSNBC and try going out into the country and LOOK AT IT!
We are in deep shit my friend. This country is in real trouble. The guy in the White House gets it. The rest of you are so busy getting rich off it, you don't want to notice.
I did more for this country in one week, than you have done in your whole career!
Sent from my iPad
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Restore
A small word, that for some reason is difficult for politicians to say.
In 1963, President Kennedy proposed, but did not see passed,a tax cut meant to stimulate the economy. This was heresy to New Dealers, who had raised taxes, to mostly pay for WWII, and primed the pump of the economy with federal spending. Kennedy's tax cut proposal, was actually a tax level restoration to pre-WWII levels (especially marginal tax rates).
New Dealers had learned the hard way that recessions and depressions did not come from a lack of supply, but from a lack of demand.
Cutting taxes allegedly work on the supply side of the economy, especially when rich Americans get more money and invest it in production. This promised investment would then spur more hiring, and the benefits of tax cuts would trickle down to everyone, increasing employment. This had never worked in the past because rich American either don't invest (they hoard), or invest their tax cut stupidly (witness the housing bubble of 2003 to 2008).
In 2007, the Bush's tax cuts, caused a housing bubble (increased production), killed demand when the bubble burst because consumers could not afford the houses, and wham; right into the Great Recession!
A balanced budget, with tax increases and cuts in spending, was a recipe for disaster for FDR in 1936. The New Deal recipe was to increase taxes (especially on the rich whose wealth tended to concentrate and grow even in hard times) and increase government spending. FDR famously said that mistake in 1936, to balance the budget like a household budget, was the worst mistake he ever made.
Conservative revisionist historians love to repeat that the New Deal did not end the Great Depression, but WWII did. This has some historical credibility; except it also proves the basic tenant of the New Deal. Taxes certainly went up as WWII approached, bond sales were a voluntary form of taxation, and spending went through the roof. Full employment and a booming economy resulted from this; which continued in post war America: "Tax and spend" works.
Kennedy introduced the idea that a tax cut could also stimulate the economy. And that basic idea, unfortunately revitalized the Republican Party, who had been reduced to irrelevancy from 1932 to 1952.
President Reagan, coming from Prop 13 California, instituted "supply side" economics, promising economic growth as the result of tax cuts. Democrats were successfully depicted as "tax and spend" liberals, who allegedly damaged the economy. American forgot what worked, and were lured into the poison "medicine" of tax cuts.
So, cutting taxes became a spectator sport, both for Democrats and for Republicans. As time passed, "temporary" tax cuts, became permanent because "tax increase" became a political poisonous term. And herein we encounter the little word "restore".
The payroll tax rate has been at its present rate for decades, but, consistent with what has worked for Republicans, its restoration is now depicted as a tax "increase". The payroll tax is actually the social security and medicare premium; it is NOT as tax!
Look up restore in the dictionary. The basic idea is that restoring something puts it back where it was. There is no increase!
Democrats need to start using the word restore, or restoration more.
The Reagan Revolution was based on simple tax rate restoration. But, it couldn't stop, it continued actually cutting, not restoring lower rates, forever, while the government got involved in several wars, with defense spending exploding from even Cold War levels.
This resulted in an acute revenue shortfall, that got the country into the deficit mess we are in today.
Taxes, on local, state and national levels need to be "restored" to former levels, that are more in tune with economic and defense realities. History proves that restored tax levels, balanced and in tune with social needs, actually grow the economy (Eisenhower, Johnson, Clinton administrations saw almost balanced budgets).
Cutting social programs and reducing employment, because of low revenue levels caused by tax cuts, reduces overall economic demand and causes unending recessions (depressions).
The economy can survive with a balanced approach, increase revenue by restoring some tax levels, and simply allow defense spending cuts to occur from the withdrawals from Iraq and Afghanistan. That's it, there is no more to do.
But, a political party's future depends on depicting tax restorations as increases, it is the formula that has worked so well, and Republicans have no other real policy positions! Tax cuts are why the Republican Party still exists!
Just for fun, repeat after me, raise taxes, raise taxes (you get a dull unsettled feeling don't you?)
Now repeat after me, restore taxes, restore taxes (no feeling, nothing...you wonder restore from where to where..and you learn there is history to taxation that often is justified.
Restore tax levels, sounds better, and is HONEST!
In 1963, President Kennedy proposed, but did not see passed,a tax cut meant to stimulate the economy. This was heresy to New Dealers, who had raised taxes, to mostly pay for WWII, and primed the pump of the economy with federal spending. Kennedy's tax cut proposal, was actually a tax level restoration to pre-WWII levels (especially marginal tax rates).
New Dealers had learned the hard way that recessions and depressions did not come from a lack of supply, but from a lack of demand.
Cutting taxes allegedly work on the supply side of the economy, especially when rich Americans get more money and invest it in production. This promised investment would then spur more hiring, and the benefits of tax cuts would trickle down to everyone, increasing employment. This had never worked in the past because rich American either don't invest (they hoard), or invest their tax cut stupidly (witness the housing bubble of 2003 to 2008).
In 2007, the Bush's tax cuts, caused a housing bubble (increased production), killed demand when the bubble burst because consumers could not afford the houses, and wham; right into the Great Recession!
A balanced budget, with tax increases and cuts in spending, was a recipe for disaster for FDR in 1936. The New Deal recipe was to increase taxes (especially on the rich whose wealth tended to concentrate and grow even in hard times) and increase government spending. FDR famously said that mistake in 1936, to balance the budget like a household budget, was the worst mistake he ever made.
Conservative revisionist historians love to repeat that the New Deal did not end the Great Depression, but WWII did. This has some historical credibility; except it also proves the basic tenant of the New Deal. Taxes certainly went up as WWII approached, bond sales were a voluntary form of taxation, and spending went through the roof. Full employment and a booming economy resulted from this; which continued in post war America: "Tax and spend" works.
Kennedy introduced the idea that a tax cut could also stimulate the economy. And that basic idea, unfortunately revitalized the Republican Party, who had been reduced to irrelevancy from 1932 to 1952.
President Reagan, coming from Prop 13 California, instituted "supply side" economics, promising economic growth as the result of tax cuts. Democrats were successfully depicted as "tax and spend" liberals, who allegedly damaged the economy. American forgot what worked, and were lured into the poison "medicine" of tax cuts.
So, cutting taxes became a spectator sport, both for Democrats and for Republicans. As time passed, "temporary" tax cuts, became permanent because "tax increase" became a political poisonous term. And herein we encounter the little word "restore".
The payroll tax rate has been at its present rate for decades, but, consistent with what has worked for Republicans, its restoration is now depicted as a tax "increase". The payroll tax is actually the social security and medicare premium; it is NOT as tax!
Look up restore in the dictionary. The basic idea is that restoring something puts it back where it was. There is no increase!
Democrats need to start using the word restore, or restoration more.
The Reagan Revolution was based on simple tax rate restoration. But, it couldn't stop, it continued actually cutting, not restoring lower rates, forever, while the government got involved in several wars, with defense spending exploding from even Cold War levels.
This resulted in an acute revenue shortfall, that got the country into the deficit mess we are in today.
Taxes, on local, state and national levels need to be "restored" to former levels, that are more in tune with economic and defense realities. History proves that restored tax levels, balanced and in tune with social needs, actually grow the economy (Eisenhower, Johnson, Clinton administrations saw almost balanced budgets).
Cutting social programs and reducing employment, because of low revenue levels caused by tax cuts, reduces overall economic demand and causes unending recessions (depressions).
The economy can survive with a balanced approach, increase revenue by restoring some tax levels, and simply allow defense spending cuts to occur from the withdrawals from Iraq and Afghanistan. That's it, there is no more to do.
But, a political party's future depends on depicting tax restorations as increases, it is the formula that has worked so well, and Republicans have no other real policy positions! Tax cuts are why the Republican Party still exists!
Just for fun, repeat after me, raise taxes, raise taxes (you get a dull unsettled feeling don't you?)
Now repeat after me, restore taxes, restore taxes (no feeling, nothing...you wonder restore from where to where..and you learn there is history to taxation that often is justified.
Restore tax levels, sounds better, and is HONEST!
Friday, February 22, 2013
The Consequences of Tax Cutting Madness
What follows is a response I wrote to Dan Walters, conservative columnist for the Sacramento Bee. His diatribe today was how California is overtaxed and get poor government anyway. This bullshit (pardon my language) has gone on for years by the wing nuts, who have blithely destroyed government. Right now, they are about to do it again, with the sequester mess in Washington. If you starve government, there are negative consequences, like losing wars,losing democracy, and depressions!
Where have you been for the past 40 years? Prop 13 has gutted the treasury of every city in the state. We idiotically passed a huge cut in vehicle license fees, cost a governor his job, and elected an idiot who spent more time banging his housekeeper than governing the state.
We drank the poison of tax cutters, who promised that lower taxes would mean a more robust economy, while we ruined the greatest public college institution in the world.
I could go on and on. Now, predictably, after a minuscule tax increase, limited in time, we hear that California is overtaxed and does not spend its money wisely.
Journalists like yourself "investigate" state bureaus who dared to save money in special accounts, so they could continue to provide services amidst the onslaught of tax cutter madness.
Meanwhile, although we produce as much oil as Libya, we have NEVER taxed oil profits, like every every government on the planet, including Texas!
I ran a couple school districts in my career. I heard everyday how we were "wasting money" on cafeterias, on counselors, on administrators, and ultimately on teachers. I designed master schedules, putting 40 into algebra classes, knowing full well the instructor could not possibly teach that many kids. But I knew it was that, or lay off the teacher.
And finally, just last night, while chairing the a Charter School Board, I heard how one of our new teachers was laid off from a local school after 15 years of experience. She is an excellent teacher, but the money ran out, because school budgets are run like a Russian Work Camp, only bread and water allowed; "efficiently"!?
Then I listened as our Director explained that the teacher was now working for $35,000 a year, "what a bargain" the Director explained.
A bargain, just like what you want from California's taxes, a bargain, with lousy results. A "bargain" that cut the teacher's salary by 1/3, so she spend less in our poverty ridden city, reducing demand even more, and spreading the pain.
I a couple weeks, "born again" Tea Partiers, will successfully plunge the country into another recession, by cutting spending with a meat axe (just like Prop 13). Demand will plummet, thousands will lose their job, their health insurance, their lives; and poverty will continue.
All so a bunch of ideological idiots, can run economic "Laffer Curve" forecasts, that have NEVER worked, always result in pain and poverty, and unbelievable riches for the top 1%.
We have "starved the beast" for forty years in this state, ruined the UC system, ruined public education, ruined water projects, ruined prisons, ruined the Highway Patrol, ruined local cities and counties; and you explain, like a true right winger, that California is overtaxed and poorly governed. And as a reward, we got Reagan, who closed the mental health hospitals, leaving the insane to run the streets, with the right wing insane.
What a legacy to leave for conservatives! They ruined democracy, they ruined the American Dream, the "wrecking crew" that they are, have "screwed" us all (both book titles you might try to read).
How does it feel to have helped in that wrecking process?
Sent from my iPad
Where have you been for the past 40 years? Prop 13 has gutted the treasury of every city in the state. We idiotically passed a huge cut in vehicle license fees, cost a governor his job, and elected an idiot who spent more time banging his housekeeper than governing the state.
We drank the poison of tax cutters, who promised that lower taxes would mean a more robust economy, while we ruined the greatest public college institution in the world.
I could go on and on. Now, predictably, after a minuscule tax increase, limited in time, we hear that California is overtaxed and does not spend its money wisely.
Journalists like yourself "investigate" state bureaus who dared to save money in special accounts, so they could continue to provide services amidst the onslaught of tax cutter madness.
Meanwhile, although we produce as much oil as Libya, we have NEVER taxed oil profits, like every every government on the planet, including Texas!
I ran a couple school districts in my career. I heard everyday how we were "wasting money" on cafeterias, on counselors, on administrators, and ultimately on teachers. I designed master schedules, putting 40 into algebra classes, knowing full well the instructor could not possibly teach that many kids. But I knew it was that, or lay off the teacher.
And finally, just last night, while chairing the a Charter School Board, I heard how one of our new teachers was laid off from a local school after 15 years of experience. She is an excellent teacher, but the money ran out, because school budgets are run like a Russian Work Camp, only bread and water allowed; "efficiently"!?
Then I listened as our Director explained that the teacher was now working for $35,000 a year, "what a bargain" the Director explained.
A bargain, just like what you want from California's taxes, a bargain, with lousy results. A "bargain" that cut the teacher's salary by 1/3, so she spend less in our poverty ridden city, reducing demand even more, and spreading the pain.
I a couple weeks, "born again" Tea Partiers, will successfully plunge the country into another recession, by cutting spending with a meat axe (just like Prop 13). Demand will plummet, thousands will lose their job, their health insurance, their lives; and poverty will continue.
All so a bunch of ideological idiots, can run economic "Laffer Curve" forecasts, that have NEVER worked, always result in pain and poverty, and unbelievable riches for the top 1%.
We have "starved the beast" for forty years in this state, ruined the UC system, ruined public education, ruined water projects, ruined prisons, ruined the Highway Patrol, ruined local cities and counties; and you explain, like a true right winger, that California is overtaxed and poorly governed. And as a reward, we got Reagan, who closed the mental health hospitals, leaving the insane to run the streets, with the right wing insane.
What a legacy to leave for conservatives! They ruined democracy, they ruined the American Dream, the "wrecking crew" that they are, have "screwed" us all (both book titles you might try to read).
How does it feel to have helped in that wrecking process?
Sent from my iPad
Saturday, February 9, 2013
Ripped Off
The following is a response I wrote to a conservative columnist, who wrote a piece in the Sacramento Bee about having his I-Mac Laptop stolen. He blamed the state prison system of course, made snide comments about the Prison Guard union (?), and said the "realignment" caused by prison overcrowding was the problem. I couldn't resist:
First, I am sorry you got ripped off. My daughter had her car almost stolen last weekend, the thieves badly damaged the steering column of her Honda, but luckily were scared off before they hot wired the vehicle. Pros would have had her car in five minutes.
She called in tears, feeling violated. The car was parked right outside her house.
It does not sound like parolees did the deed in your case. Likewise, the amateur attempt in my daughter's case, also indicates "pro"s were not involved.
But, statistics show a large number of state prison releases, on parole, in our communities. And, sure enough, crime is beginning to move up.
Remember, conservatives used the "law and order" brand, to push "three strikes and youare out", determinate sentences; etc., that caused the prisons to overflow in the first place. The Prison Guard Union power grew along with the growth of state prisons, NOT before it. The union grew in power because the state spent so much money on imprisoning almost everyone, did away with rehabilitation programs, and cut probation system in localities.
My stepson lived in Susanville, CA. The BEST jobs in the town were as prison guards, since the timber industry is in deep decline. He is a college graduate, but fought to get hired as an entry level guard; he didn't get the job.
Thanks to over thirty years of conservative dominance in criminal justice, we have the highest imprisonment per capita in the world. We imprison thousands for non-violent "drug" crimes. We then "get tough on crime" by gutting rehab programs, not hiring ex-felons, and creating more hardened criminals.
And, part of the political push you have so consistently encouraged, rehabilitation programs have been scrapped in prisons, giving way to punitive "get tough" policies.
This has resulted in minor criminals (like the kids that ripped you off) being jailed with career gangsters, who beat them into learning the "trade" so to speak. Moreover, since there is so little follow-up due to drastic cuts in probation officers, parolees are released into communities with no skills, many cannot read, with little monitoring.
And guess what, they resort to crime again, because they can't get jobs, and nobody is checking them. Recidivism is over 40% in most states. Our prison system is broken. Conservative "war on crime" and "war on drugs; just say no" did it. Yes, conservatives, there are consequences for stupid public policy!
And we privatize prisons in some states. And we continue to "get tough on crime", following the same old prescriptions that YOU have pushed for years.
Try this, I dare you. Follow those young men who allegedly stole your laptop (not physically), but follow them through the criminal justice system. Find out how it works, and doesn't work. Visit a prison, talk to the guards (they might be union but they won't bite).
You will discover a system that actually manufactures criminals from amateurs. You will find a system that imprisons over 25 percent of African American males under the age of 30. You will find a system that is creating much of the decline of America.
You got ripped off plain and simple. You are another statistic, just like my daughter, and me (when my new Prius had its window smashed out and my wife's purse stolen; that sent us into identity theft hell).
And your twisted political philosophy is what is made the situation so bad!
First, I am sorry you got ripped off. My daughter had her car almost stolen last weekend, the thieves badly damaged the steering column of her Honda, but luckily were scared off before they hot wired the vehicle. Pros would have had her car in five minutes.
She called in tears, feeling violated. The car was parked right outside her house.
It does not sound like parolees did the deed in your case. Likewise, the amateur attempt in my daughter's case, also indicates "pro"s were not involved.
But, statistics show a large number of state prison releases, on parole, in our communities. And, sure enough, crime is beginning to move up.
Remember, conservatives used the "law and order" brand, to push "three strikes and youare out", determinate sentences; etc., that caused the prisons to overflow in the first place. The Prison Guard Union power grew along with the growth of state prisons, NOT before it. The union grew in power because the state spent so much money on imprisoning almost everyone, did away with rehabilitation programs, and cut probation system in localities.
My stepson lived in Susanville, CA. The BEST jobs in the town were as prison guards, since the timber industry is in deep decline. He is a college graduate, but fought to get hired as an entry level guard; he didn't get the job.
Thanks to over thirty years of conservative dominance in criminal justice, we have the highest imprisonment per capita in the world. We imprison thousands for non-violent "drug" crimes. We then "get tough on crime" by gutting rehab programs, not hiring ex-felons, and creating more hardened criminals.
And, part of the political push you have so consistently encouraged, rehabilitation programs have been scrapped in prisons, giving way to punitive "get tough" policies.
This has resulted in minor criminals (like the kids that ripped you off) being jailed with career gangsters, who beat them into learning the "trade" so to speak. Moreover, since there is so little follow-up due to drastic cuts in probation officers, parolees are released into communities with no skills, many cannot read, with little monitoring.
And guess what, they resort to crime again, because they can't get jobs, and nobody is checking them. Recidivism is over 40% in most states. Our prison system is broken. Conservative "war on crime" and "war on drugs; just say no" did it. Yes, conservatives, there are consequences for stupid public policy!
And we privatize prisons in some states. And we continue to "get tough on crime", following the same old prescriptions that YOU have pushed for years.
Try this, I dare you. Follow those young men who allegedly stole your laptop (not physically), but follow them through the criminal justice system. Find out how it works, and doesn't work. Visit a prison, talk to the guards (they might be union but they won't bite).
You will discover a system that actually manufactures criminals from amateurs. You will find a system that imprisons over 25 percent of African American males under the age of 30. You will find a system that is creating much of the decline of America.
You got ripped off plain and simple. You are another statistic, just like my daughter, and me (when my new Prius had its window smashed out and my wife's purse stolen; that sent us into identity theft hell).
And your twisted political philosophy is what is made the situation so bad!
Wednesday, February 6, 2013
Always
Always they are there, always. The conservatives believe, they so earnestly believe that the homeless could not possibly be victims.
Rather, the homeless are shiftless people who have chosen their fate.
They are to blame. They are irresponsible loafers, who, as our police chief famously claimed, collect $500 a day.
He never explained why the very next day, the same people are on the street corner begging again. I guess five hundred dollars doesn't go as far as it used to.
Always, we hear the negative, hateful reaction. "Get a job you bum", the common response to the dirty, skinny, hopeless people, holding a sign, looking embarrassed they are begging.
And, empirical evidence must be ignored: the homeless are not mentally ill (many are), they are not veterans (many are), they are not children (many are); the right adopts the same attitude they do with climate change, with evolution: it doesn't exist...
And the homeless numbers keep going up.
The economy is about to come under a huge attack, from conservatives who are dead set to drastically cut government spending, which they know might spark another recession, and give them a chance to gain Congressional seats.
Cons do not give a damn. Cons care only about their ridiculous ideology, that has failed constantly.
We in California saw Prop 13; and when the Great Recession hit, property values plummeted, and so did local government. Widespread layoffs of city workers, teachers; etc., still fuels the California recession. We in California saw the "Law and Order" campaign, "cracking down" on criminals (peace demonstrators at the time), forcing judges to give determinate sentences, the "war on drugs" that filled prisons with non-violent "criminals", whose only crime was enjoying some weed; and mindless tax cuts, that ruined the best public university system in the world. The list of conservative "ideas" that resulted in ruining the economy is practically endless.
And what do they now blame for our recession? Government spending and taxes of course!
We were supposedly left in California with a supposed "anti-business" climate, that has spawned countless technology innovative businesses.
Recently, Governor I can't remember three things Perry, of Texas, ran an ad in California trying to get entrepreneurs to move to Texas.
Texas shares one thing with California, years of conservative leadership has broke it. There are jobs there supposedly, mostly minimum wage. Texas is becoming a hell-hole (always was in my opinion), and a conservative "show place" of leading rates of poverty, high school dropouts, and misery.
Move to Texas Perry pleaded, and starve to death. The tragic thing is that climate change is already destroying Texas with droughts, hurricanes, and tornadoes. And, it will only get worse. Fracking has polluted the water, drought has destroyed millions of square acres (yet another con idea).
So, as always, the poor go hungry, the number of poor increases, and the cons now are eager to cut government spending, so more can go without, more can suffer.
Always..
Rather, the homeless are shiftless people who have chosen their fate.
They are to blame. They are irresponsible loafers, who, as our police chief famously claimed, collect $500 a day.
He never explained why the very next day, the same people are on the street corner begging again. I guess five hundred dollars doesn't go as far as it used to.
Always, we hear the negative, hateful reaction. "Get a job you bum", the common response to the dirty, skinny, hopeless people, holding a sign, looking embarrassed they are begging.
And, empirical evidence must be ignored: the homeless are not mentally ill (many are), they are not veterans (many are), they are not children (many are); the right adopts the same attitude they do with climate change, with evolution: it doesn't exist...
And the homeless numbers keep going up.
The economy is about to come under a huge attack, from conservatives who are dead set to drastically cut government spending, which they know might spark another recession, and give them a chance to gain Congressional seats.
Cons do not give a damn. Cons care only about their ridiculous ideology, that has failed constantly.
We in California saw Prop 13; and when the Great Recession hit, property values plummeted, and so did local government. Widespread layoffs of city workers, teachers; etc., still fuels the California recession. We in California saw the "Law and Order" campaign, "cracking down" on criminals (peace demonstrators at the time), forcing judges to give determinate sentences, the "war on drugs" that filled prisons with non-violent "criminals", whose only crime was enjoying some weed; and mindless tax cuts, that ruined the best public university system in the world. The list of conservative "ideas" that resulted in ruining the economy is practically endless.
And what do they now blame for our recession? Government spending and taxes of course!
We were supposedly left in California with a supposed "anti-business" climate, that has spawned countless technology innovative businesses.
Recently, Governor I can't remember three things Perry, of Texas, ran an ad in California trying to get entrepreneurs to move to Texas.
Texas shares one thing with California, years of conservative leadership has broke it. There are jobs there supposedly, mostly minimum wage. Texas is becoming a hell-hole (always was in my opinion), and a conservative "show place" of leading rates of poverty, high school dropouts, and misery.
Move to Texas Perry pleaded, and starve to death. The tragic thing is that climate change is already destroying Texas with droughts, hurricanes, and tornadoes. And, it will only get worse. Fracking has polluted the water, drought has destroyed millions of square acres (yet another con idea).
So, as always, the poor go hungry, the number of poor increases, and the cons now are eager to cut government spending, so more can go without, more can suffer.
Always..
Friday, February 1, 2013
Just Build A Fence
Charles Kats-my-hammer (sic) just published the critical comment from the conservatives about the recent efforts to finally do something about real immigration reform.
Predictably, he says "'enforcement first, legalization second". This is the same thing cons have been saying for years. This is the same thing that is reducing the Republican Party to an afterthought in California, cost the Republicans the 2012 election, and is ruining their future.
California is already a white minority state, and is slated to become a real white minority state in 20 years. This is a big deal, since California is the largest, richest, and most prominent state in the union.
And the cons are still talking about building a stupid wall. That's right, Kats-my-whammer, is again calling for a wall from California to Texas!
A wall! A trillion dollar wall, that will take eons to build, as schools lay off teachers, as the recession comes back, we build an idiotic wall.
This would happen as the immigration from Mexico has actually slowed to a trickle, in fact many are going back to Mexico, since its economy is actually growing faster than ours. That's right, Mexico is not the hell hole most idiot cons think it is.
So, as Latinos grow in power, and numbers, Republicans say build a wall then we grant citizenship. That dog will not hunt!
Of course, restricting citizenship keeps people from voting. But it does NOT keep Latino U.S. citizens from voting angry, in great numbers, walling off Republicans from power. And, those fair minded Americanos, are also turning on the Grand Ornery Party.
If you don't think that voter reaction works, look at California!
Predictably, he says "'enforcement first, legalization second". This is the same thing cons have been saying for years. This is the same thing that is reducing the Republican Party to an afterthought in California, cost the Republicans the 2012 election, and is ruining their future.
California is already a white minority state, and is slated to become a real white minority state in 20 years. This is a big deal, since California is the largest, richest, and most prominent state in the union.
And the cons are still talking about building a stupid wall. That's right, Kats-my-whammer, is again calling for a wall from California to Texas!
A wall! A trillion dollar wall, that will take eons to build, as schools lay off teachers, as the recession comes back, we build an idiotic wall.
This would happen as the immigration from Mexico has actually slowed to a trickle, in fact many are going back to Mexico, since its economy is actually growing faster than ours. That's right, Mexico is not the hell hole most idiot cons think it is.
So, as Latinos grow in power, and numbers, Republicans say build a wall then we grant citizenship. That dog will not hunt!
Of course, restricting citizenship keeps people from voting. But it does NOT keep Latino U.S. citizens from voting angry, in great numbers, walling off Republicans from power. And, those fair minded Americanos, are also turning on the Grand Ornery Party.
If you don't think that voter reaction works, look at California!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)