This blog continues to fascinate me. Someone left a comment on a post that I wrote years ago. It was nothing spectacular, I was questioning the use of DMT, a very powerful drug. The drug is claimed to have the ability to really open your mind. I don't believe most people can handle having their mind truly blown in such a short period. I am all for considering possibilities; but, I also know how hard it can be to have your whole world perspective taken away in a moment. I don't believe understanding comes in a pill.
Knowing everything is not the same as understanding everything, it does not mean that one would know what to do with all knowledge. It is narcissism in a pill, not earned and therefore foolishness. To seek knowledge for gain over others rather than seeking wisdom or understanding is the greatest folly in the universe. Have a great day.
Thursday, April 3, 2014
Wednesday, April 2, 2014
Some news and talk about the media
New York Times - Why Employers Will Stop Offering Health Insurance. An interesting interview with one of the people behind the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). He talks about how in the future he believes businesses will stop offering healthcare insurance to employees and instead give them pay increases to allow them to pay for it themselves. I believe this is exactly what we will see and that is in keeping with the way 401k plans work. The real bottom line is that businesses in the United States will be seeking to put more of the risk of being an employee on employees.
Yahoo - AFP - US, Dutch try to deposit billions in fake bonds in Vatican bank. I find this story intriguing as it is not the first time this has happened. On at least two other occasions people were caught trying to deposit billions of dollars in what is said to be fake treasury bonds. Nobody ever seems to follow up on these stories or get more detail and sometimes the perpetrators are let go. Funny.
Yahoo - Daily Ticker - We're in a private debt crisis that could lead to the next economic collapse: Richard Vague. I highly recommend you watch the very short video interview. The interviewee gives some numbers on debt in the United States. He says that the United States consumers and businesses have about $28 billion in debt. Okay, we also know that the US government has about $17 billion in debt. I have yet to hear a number that reflects debt from local and state government. Of the consumer and business debt about $1 trillion is student loans, $13 trillion is business loans, $9 trillion is mortgage loans. Hmm, let me test my math skills. Hey, that means $23 trillion is student, mortgage or business loans. That would mean that $5 trillion was car loans and unsecured or credit card loans (credit card loans are only about $600 billion). Earlier the man mentioned that household debt was about 160% of GDP (which happens to be about $17.5 trillion). 160% of $17.5 trillion is about $26.3 trillion.
He talked about how household debt was 160% of GDP; but, he used a figure that combined household debt with corporate debt. Here is where this gets real interesting, we are told that because of the government debt, every child is born with $50,000 in debt and if you multiply that by 350,000,000 people in the United States it comes out to $17.5 trillion if my calculator is working properly. Hmmmm. If you combine government debt with private and business debt the total is about $43.8 trillion or a little better than twice the GDP.
Now lets talk about household debt for a second. For every $50,000 someone makes, they would traditionally qualify for a 30 year fixed rate loan of $100,000 for a home and this would equate to 40% of their income not including their tax refund for paying their home loan. 40% of $50,000 is $20,000. I know this is a lot of numbers; but, I care about my readers and it upsets me how they are misled by the media which uses experts to explain the numbers while hiding the reality about them. The numbers aren't that bad, the debt is not that much, there is something else going on.
I used to make about $150,000 a year. I bought a house for a little less than $300,000 with a 30 year, 4% fixed loan. I was completely within the traditional requirements for buying a house and was more than capable of making the $2,100 per month payment which included property taxes and insurance. Now before you get too jealous you should know that I turned down well over triple that amount to work for others. You should also remember that I lost everything in my divorce including my house and ended up paying as much in alimony as I did for my house payment. My debt was over 200% of my income when you include credit card debt and car loans. It was not a problem to pay and I paid my taxes in full. Here is what I am saying, it is not uncommon for homeowners to have over 200% income to debt ratio and still easily pay off their debts over 30 years.
Now that is lots and lots of talk about debt numbers and it may be unclear why I bring this up, this is why you should have watched the video. In the video the man says that government debt is never the problem and that private debt is what takes down countries. It all sounds so reasonable until you understand what is really going on and what the man is really driving at, he wants to restructure private debt over a longer period of time and allow government debt to increase. The issue is the total debt that can be had.
He is saying the problem is that you cannot afford more government debt because you bought things for yourself on credit. The fact that the vast majority of household debt is home loans and car loans doesn't get mentioned. Imagine a world where the longest a home loan could be was 10 years and they would not lend you more than your total income. If you made $50,000 a year than you could only buy a house worth $50,000. Okay what would be the effect. Firstly house prices would drop immediately by half and then your payment would drop by half. Heck and increase in taxes by 50% would still leave you with more spendable cash than today.
I have been bothered by all the talk about eliminating the federal income tax. Personally, and I have said this before, I believe in a flat tax and eliminating all deductions. Everyone should pay 15% or so in income tax regardless of how they make the money or how they spend the money, pay as you benefit from living here. What if the end game was to eliminate the federal income tax and institute a federal property tax? Think it sounds crazy, how bout this. Imagine them getting rid of the mortgage deduction from your federal taxes, that would be a federal property tax and you wouldn't even call it that. By the way, I have been talking for 7 years about people who want to get rid of the tax deduction for mortgage payments.
Now I am going to go back to the man who gets interviewed. He lies. He said that banks needed to restructure the home loans that make up $9 trillion in debt. Banks don't own those loans, they are owned by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government. I wrote a post not long ago about how Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are about to return hundreds of billions of dollars to the government based on the payment of these loans, what if they took those "profits" and used them to restructure the home loans they own and reduce the payments? It wouldn't cost the taxpayer a dime as the loans to Fannie and Freddie were paid off this year.
Right now England is experiencing a housing bubble. Whatever the decision we make on how to deal with this debt will be followed in England if this is all coordinated. Sorry, lost my train of thought and have to go to bed.
Yahoo - AFP - US, Dutch try to deposit billions in fake bonds in Vatican bank. I find this story intriguing as it is not the first time this has happened. On at least two other occasions people were caught trying to deposit billions of dollars in what is said to be fake treasury bonds. Nobody ever seems to follow up on these stories or get more detail and sometimes the perpetrators are let go. Funny.
Yahoo - Daily Ticker - We're in a private debt crisis that could lead to the next economic collapse: Richard Vague. I highly recommend you watch the very short video interview. The interviewee gives some numbers on debt in the United States. He says that the United States consumers and businesses have about $28 billion in debt. Okay, we also know that the US government has about $17 billion in debt. I have yet to hear a number that reflects debt from local and state government. Of the consumer and business debt about $1 trillion is student loans, $13 trillion is business loans, $9 trillion is mortgage loans. Hmm, let me test my math skills. Hey, that means $23 trillion is student, mortgage or business loans. That would mean that $5 trillion was car loans and unsecured or credit card loans (credit card loans are only about $600 billion). Earlier the man mentioned that household debt was about 160% of GDP (which happens to be about $17.5 trillion). 160% of $17.5 trillion is about $26.3 trillion.
He talked about how household debt was 160% of GDP; but, he used a figure that combined household debt with corporate debt. Here is where this gets real interesting, we are told that because of the government debt, every child is born with $50,000 in debt and if you multiply that by 350,000,000 people in the United States it comes out to $17.5 trillion if my calculator is working properly. Hmmmm. If you combine government debt with private and business debt the total is about $43.8 trillion or a little better than twice the GDP.
Now lets talk about household debt for a second. For every $50,000 someone makes, they would traditionally qualify for a 30 year fixed rate loan of $100,000 for a home and this would equate to 40% of their income not including their tax refund for paying their home loan. 40% of $50,000 is $20,000. I know this is a lot of numbers; but, I care about my readers and it upsets me how they are misled by the media which uses experts to explain the numbers while hiding the reality about them. The numbers aren't that bad, the debt is not that much, there is something else going on.
I used to make about $150,000 a year. I bought a house for a little less than $300,000 with a 30 year, 4% fixed loan. I was completely within the traditional requirements for buying a house and was more than capable of making the $2,100 per month payment which included property taxes and insurance. Now before you get too jealous you should know that I turned down well over triple that amount to work for others. You should also remember that I lost everything in my divorce including my house and ended up paying as much in alimony as I did for my house payment. My debt was over 200% of my income when you include credit card debt and car loans. It was not a problem to pay and I paid my taxes in full. Here is what I am saying, it is not uncommon for homeowners to have over 200% income to debt ratio and still easily pay off their debts over 30 years.
Now that is lots and lots of talk about debt numbers and it may be unclear why I bring this up, this is why you should have watched the video. In the video the man says that government debt is never the problem and that private debt is what takes down countries. It all sounds so reasonable until you understand what is really going on and what the man is really driving at, he wants to restructure private debt over a longer period of time and allow government debt to increase. The issue is the total debt that can be had.
He is saying the problem is that you cannot afford more government debt because you bought things for yourself on credit. The fact that the vast majority of household debt is home loans and car loans doesn't get mentioned. Imagine a world where the longest a home loan could be was 10 years and they would not lend you more than your total income. If you made $50,000 a year than you could only buy a house worth $50,000. Okay what would be the effect. Firstly house prices would drop immediately by half and then your payment would drop by half. Heck and increase in taxes by 50% would still leave you with more spendable cash than today.
I have been bothered by all the talk about eliminating the federal income tax. Personally, and I have said this before, I believe in a flat tax and eliminating all deductions. Everyone should pay 15% or so in income tax regardless of how they make the money or how they spend the money, pay as you benefit from living here. What if the end game was to eliminate the federal income tax and institute a federal property tax? Think it sounds crazy, how bout this. Imagine them getting rid of the mortgage deduction from your federal taxes, that would be a federal property tax and you wouldn't even call it that. By the way, I have been talking for 7 years about people who want to get rid of the tax deduction for mortgage payments.
Now I am going to go back to the man who gets interviewed. He lies. He said that banks needed to restructure the home loans that make up $9 trillion in debt. Banks don't own those loans, they are owned by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government. I wrote a post not long ago about how Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are about to return hundreds of billions of dollars to the government based on the payment of these loans, what if they took those "profits" and used them to restructure the home loans they own and reduce the payments? It wouldn't cost the taxpayer a dime as the loans to Fannie and Freddie were paid off this year.
Right now England is experiencing a housing bubble. Whatever the decision we make on how to deal with this debt will be followed in England if this is all coordinated. Sorry, lost my train of thought and have to go to bed.
Sunday, March 30, 2014
I Have No Idea What I Will Post Tonight
I have no interesting news to report. Wait, I have this one article. New York Times - Discoveries Challenge Beliefs on Humans’ Arrival in the Americas. Archeologists believe that people arrived in the Americas about 13,000 years ago; but, new evidence suggests that they arrived here 22,000 years ago. This is a big deal. The article goes on to say that the Polynesians had arrived here, something I have been saying for 30 plus years.
Tuesday, March 25, 2014
I Was a Little Sick; but, Had a Nice Day
I took the day off, I felt poorly, as if someone had hit me in my kidneys. I feel better now. Now, the news.
YouTube - Keiser Report: People Power Age (E577). This is an amusing video discussing how the United States wants to count manufacturing jobs overseas as American jobs. Treating "job creators" in America as American jobs if the parent company is in America. When you figure out how you are being lied to and taken advantage of let me know. The second part of the show highlights how electronic currencies are already taking over in Africa.
Yahoo - No, the U.S. Isn’t Really Giving Up the Internet—It Doesn’t Own It Anyway. A group I have written extensively about, ICANN, is being put under the "control" of an international body and the writer wants you to know how they will no longer report to the federal government but wants to assure you that the federal government never owned the internet anyways. It is all lies, we will always control the internet. It just proves what I have been writing about for years.
Huffington Post - WATCH: Fox News' 'Preferential Option for the Rich'. A great little critique of Jon Stewart pointing out the lies of those who want to get rid of food stamps. The videos are priceless. In one, a person, claiming to be a Christian says that we shouldn't feed people, we should teach people how to feed themselves and then in another a conservative complains that food stamps can be used to buy bait for fishing.
Forbes - Can Corporate Leaders Push Through Immigration Reform In 2014?. Well, if they cannot send the jobs overseas then they want to bring foreigners in to the United States to work for less and take yours. Get it through your head that your "representatives" don't care about you and only care about the corporate interests that pay them.
Yahoo - The Wall Street Journal - Mortgage tax breaks trickle up, new study shows. When the Wall Street Journal talks about how the wealthy are benefiting from tax breaks you better believe they are not looking out for the poor. Lets get rid of ALL tax deductions. The truth is that the average person only qualifies for about 2% of all deductions available and the rest are limited to the rich and corporations.
None of the articles were particularly novel or exciting, more of just the same old garbage; but, that is the point of picking them. The real point is about what is under attack and what the average person who is willing to work hard can no longer expect and shouldn't.
Firstly, you shouldn't expect that going to college means you can get a good job. Nope, we are giving a preference to foreign students at our colleges and are making college so expensive that the average middle class person cannot afford to send his children to college or the child will be forced to take on more debt than he or she can expect to see in increased income. I have a simple solution to this, any state college or university that takes in foreign students should immediately cease getting and state or federal funding.
Secondly, you shouldn't be able to count of working towards a retirement. You should work till you die and even if you contribute to a retirement fund for 50 years you shouldn't be able to collect it because others have a better use for your money. I contributed to Social Security since I was 12 until I was 30 and won't see a dime of it coming back to me because I have a pension. Yeah, that is fair. We are not talking about an "entitlement", how bout if they just gave me the money I contributed back? I can live with that as I will have a pension; but, for those who only have Social Security, they want to take that from you too.
Thirdly, a home in which to raise your family. Nope, we are destroying home ownership and making everyone a renter. That is the purpose behind housing bubbles, the people living in them now make a profit and houses become unfordable for future generations. Are you seeing your future yet?
Fourthly, Mini-apartments and a life without personal transportation. Live in 250 square feet and never own a car and you will be a hero in the future because you are so environmentally friendly. Stop using up oxygen and maybe you can get a tax rebate.
Music for the generation about to be taken advantage of. YouTube - X - "The New World"
YouTube - Keiser Report: People Power Age (E577). This is an amusing video discussing how the United States wants to count manufacturing jobs overseas as American jobs. Treating "job creators" in America as American jobs if the parent company is in America. When you figure out how you are being lied to and taken advantage of let me know. The second part of the show highlights how electronic currencies are already taking over in Africa.
Yahoo - No, the U.S. Isn’t Really Giving Up the Internet—It Doesn’t Own It Anyway. A group I have written extensively about, ICANN, is being put under the "control" of an international body and the writer wants you to know how they will no longer report to the federal government but wants to assure you that the federal government never owned the internet anyways. It is all lies, we will always control the internet. It just proves what I have been writing about for years.
Huffington Post - WATCH: Fox News' 'Preferential Option for the Rich'. A great little critique of Jon Stewart pointing out the lies of those who want to get rid of food stamps. The videos are priceless. In one, a person, claiming to be a Christian says that we shouldn't feed people, we should teach people how to feed themselves and then in another a conservative complains that food stamps can be used to buy bait for fishing.
Forbes - Can Corporate Leaders Push Through Immigration Reform In 2014?. Well, if they cannot send the jobs overseas then they want to bring foreigners in to the United States to work for less and take yours. Get it through your head that your "representatives" don't care about you and only care about the corporate interests that pay them.
Yahoo - The Wall Street Journal - Mortgage tax breaks trickle up, new study shows. When the Wall Street Journal talks about how the wealthy are benefiting from tax breaks you better believe they are not looking out for the poor. Lets get rid of ALL tax deductions. The truth is that the average person only qualifies for about 2% of all deductions available and the rest are limited to the rich and corporations.
None of the articles were particularly novel or exciting, more of just the same old garbage; but, that is the point of picking them. The real point is about what is under attack and what the average person who is willing to work hard can no longer expect and shouldn't.
Firstly, you shouldn't expect that going to college means you can get a good job. Nope, we are giving a preference to foreign students at our colleges and are making college so expensive that the average middle class person cannot afford to send his children to college or the child will be forced to take on more debt than he or she can expect to see in increased income. I have a simple solution to this, any state college or university that takes in foreign students should immediately cease getting and state or federal funding.
Secondly, you shouldn't be able to count of working towards a retirement. You should work till you die and even if you contribute to a retirement fund for 50 years you shouldn't be able to collect it because others have a better use for your money. I contributed to Social Security since I was 12 until I was 30 and won't see a dime of it coming back to me because I have a pension. Yeah, that is fair. We are not talking about an "entitlement", how bout if they just gave me the money I contributed back? I can live with that as I will have a pension; but, for those who only have Social Security, they want to take that from you too.
Thirdly, a home in which to raise your family. Nope, we are destroying home ownership and making everyone a renter. That is the purpose behind housing bubbles, the people living in them now make a profit and houses become unfordable for future generations. Are you seeing your future yet?
Fourthly, Mini-apartments and a life without personal transportation. Live in 250 square feet and never own a car and you will be a hero in the future because you are so environmentally friendly. Stop using up oxygen and maybe you can get a tax rebate.
Music for the generation about to be taken advantage of. YouTube - X - "The New World"
Monday, March 24, 2014
Stop the Hype About Obamacare
I wasn't going to talk about this because there is already nothing but bias and lies about the healthcare law and most people don't even understand what it does. Over the last few days Matt Drudge or the Drudge Report was complaining that he had to pay a tax for not getting health insurance. Well, turns out he wasn't being totally honest and had chosen to pay anticipated taxes as he is self employed. His income is in the millions probably and that tax would be like $68. Now, he would only pay it if he chose not to get health insurance. Here is my first question, who would anyone with his money not have health insurance? Is he a complete imbecile or somehow immune from sickness? All it takes is one heart attack to understand how expensive this stuff can get and cancer can be a lot more expensive than that. So, I have to question the intelligence of a man who can afford the best health insurance getting none by choice.
Apparently his complaint is that people should not be required to have health insurance. I have read a lot of people complain about this. These are the same people that will end up in the hospital and then declare medical bankruptcy or wait until they are sick to get insurance and complain that they have to pay more. When you put other people at risk we often require you to have insurance or a bond equivalent to a high amount, that is how car insurance works. You don't have to have car insurance in many states, you only have to have a bond equivalent to what the insurance amount would otherwise be. All policies have limits, car insurance used to have a limit of $250,000 exposure by the insurance company; but, I don't know what it is now. If you live in a flood zone, you have to have flood insurance. We require insurance for all types of activities so why shouldn't we require people to have medical insurance?
Personally, I am in favor of having nationalized medicine as they have in England and Canada and many other western countries. I am in favor of socialized medicine that guarantees medical care for all of a nations citizens. Unfortunately Obamacare keeps the control of healthcare in the hands of the same people who have been raising rates for the past 40 years, the medical establishment, the pharmaceutical establishment and the private hospitals.
The reason so many hospitals and colleges were created by the Catholic church is because the wealthy wouldn't create either for anyone other than themselves and that is a fact. Ask yourself how many private hospitals invested in African countries. Yeah. The Catholic church sent missionaries who had medical training to Africa and South America.
Nothing infuriates me more than someone telling me they are a Christian and then complaining about taking care of the poor or taxes. I don't have a problem with an Atheist or Satanist telling me that (I am not comparing the two, Satanists tend to look down on the poor); but, I have a problem with someone saying they are a Christian and making these complaints. When the rich young man said he wanted to follow Jesus, Jesus told him to give up ALL his possessions and follow him daily.
The bible says that when we go to heaven many will call out the name of Jesus and he will say that he didn't know them. They will say that they know who he is and what he is; but, are so selfishly blind that they cannot understand his answer. It is not about knowing he is the Christ, it is about knowing his heart, his essence, that which makes him the Christ. It is not some ritual that you learn to do right, it is about loving your neighbor as yourself. He will tell them, those who know his name; but, not his heart, that he never knew them and they will say they never met him and he will explain that everytime they saw the poor, the troubled, those in pain that they had the chance to know him by helping those in need.
Apparently his complaint is that people should not be required to have health insurance. I have read a lot of people complain about this. These are the same people that will end up in the hospital and then declare medical bankruptcy or wait until they are sick to get insurance and complain that they have to pay more. When you put other people at risk we often require you to have insurance or a bond equivalent to a high amount, that is how car insurance works. You don't have to have car insurance in many states, you only have to have a bond equivalent to what the insurance amount would otherwise be. All policies have limits, car insurance used to have a limit of $250,000 exposure by the insurance company; but, I don't know what it is now. If you live in a flood zone, you have to have flood insurance. We require insurance for all types of activities so why shouldn't we require people to have medical insurance?
Personally, I am in favor of having nationalized medicine as they have in England and Canada and many other western countries. I am in favor of socialized medicine that guarantees medical care for all of a nations citizens. Unfortunately Obamacare keeps the control of healthcare in the hands of the same people who have been raising rates for the past 40 years, the medical establishment, the pharmaceutical establishment and the private hospitals.
The reason so many hospitals and colleges were created by the Catholic church is because the wealthy wouldn't create either for anyone other than themselves and that is a fact. Ask yourself how many private hospitals invested in African countries. Yeah. The Catholic church sent missionaries who had medical training to Africa and South America.
Nothing infuriates me more than someone telling me they are a Christian and then complaining about taking care of the poor or taxes. I don't have a problem with an Atheist or Satanist telling me that (I am not comparing the two, Satanists tend to look down on the poor); but, I have a problem with someone saying they are a Christian and making these complaints. When the rich young man said he wanted to follow Jesus, Jesus told him to give up ALL his possessions and follow him daily.
The bible says that when we go to heaven many will call out the name of Jesus and he will say that he didn't know them. They will say that they know who he is and what he is; but, are so selfishly blind that they cannot understand his answer. It is not about knowing he is the Christ, it is about knowing his heart, his essence, that which makes him the Christ. It is not some ritual that you learn to do right, it is about loving your neighbor as yourself. He will tell them, those who know his name; but, not his heart, that he never knew them and they will say they never met him and he will explain that everytime they saw the poor, the troubled, those in pain that they had the chance to know him by helping those in need.
Sunday, March 23, 2014
Doing a Little Cooking and Americans Cheating America
I am not a chef and my sister can easily out cook me; but, we come from a family that had many great cooks in it. Unfortunately, I failed to learn anything from any of them and am self taught. My sister is an award winning cook. When she was younger, she was not that good a cook; but, she traveled the world and learned things I could only wish I had. I could never keep up with her anymore; but, I do have a few signature dishes and know how to spice and use some tricky techniques.
I prepare French food, Japanese Food, Italian food, Cuban food, Mexican food and of course American classics. While I do make some Chinese dishes, I don't consider them restaurant ready. I will put my braised ribs or mustard crusted rack of lamb up against anyone; but, not my Chinese food. The fact is that I used to really love cooking and stopped when I was ill. It is nice to be cooking again and I am getting crazy about it.
Tonight I made a Lobster bisque with clams that I cooked in a French manner separately. It was fantastic and if my doctor knew what I made he would probably chastise me; but, it was good. I also made a meal for a couple of days from now, I made Cuban shredded beef an a Cuban barbeque sauce from a reduction, that only took about 10 hours. It was completely made from scratch. I had never made the Cuban shredded beef before, ended up spending a hundred dollars on spices and it was the best shredded beef I have ever had in my life.
I am finding myself more and more drawn to Cuban food. I used to make Cuban sandwiches on Sundays when we would watch the show Dexter. There are different approaches to making Cuban sandwiches and the one I use involves marinating the pork tenderloin overnight after it has been given a special rub that includes lime zest. The flavor is amazing and very distinctive, it just takes two days to make the sandwiches. There is a famous Cuban restaurant in Southern California and the few people that have had both mine and theirs agree my mine is better. It isn't it is just a little more flavorful for a different part of Cuba.
The point is, I like cooking and do it the best when I am feeling well and I am feeling better and better. I like that it shows in my cooking, cooking is love and joy and hope. There is actually someone who reads this blog that has had a complete 5 course meal made by me for around 15 people, in a foreign kitchen, in a distant town for people I barely knew and they all asked that I publish some of my recipes to them and I did. I am much more limited in scope and abilities than my sister; but, I am pretty good at the ones I do know and fairly inventive. I should also say that I detest baking because it is so measured.
Now, lets talk about the news. I am an American and am not in favor of electing Anti-Americans; but, more and more the Republican party is becoming anti-American and it really annoys me. Too many Republicans believe that it is more important for companies to make a profit than whether or not they hire Americans. Reagan believed that the reason jobs were being sent oversees was because this country had too much red tape to get things going, thats why he de-regulated industries; but, he was wrong, de-regulation only led to more jobs being shipped overseas.
FoxNews - Humans are the true wealth of nations. The article from the notoriously right wing Fox news says that the most valuable asset of a nations is it's human capital. There conclusion is that we should let more intelligent Asians move to America, read through the nonsense and understand who we are putting in our universities and you will see that it is Chinese students. I disagree with the article, what if we invested in the most innovative workforce in the history of the world, Americans. What if rather than allowing in the best from other countries, we made sure that we had best educated our children first. These Republicans are not following the history of the party and don't care about Americans, only profit.
PandoDaily - Revealed: Apple and Google’s wage-fixing cartel involved dozens more companies, over one million employees. Apple is as anti-American as you get. All there manufacturing jobs are in Communist China. I am happy to say I have never owned an Apple product and don't plan on owning one. Bill Gates gives his money to Charities, Jobs gave his profit to the Chinese.
Apple and Google and other high tech companies conspired to fix the salary of their employees so they didn't move from one company to another. Think about that. These companies have been fixing salaries and want to bring in foreign citizens to compete with Americans; but, pay them less.
I prepare French food, Japanese Food, Italian food, Cuban food, Mexican food and of course American classics. While I do make some Chinese dishes, I don't consider them restaurant ready. I will put my braised ribs or mustard crusted rack of lamb up against anyone; but, not my Chinese food. The fact is that I used to really love cooking and stopped when I was ill. It is nice to be cooking again and I am getting crazy about it.
Tonight I made a Lobster bisque with clams that I cooked in a French manner separately. It was fantastic and if my doctor knew what I made he would probably chastise me; but, it was good. I also made a meal for a couple of days from now, I made Cuban shredded beef an a Cuban barbeque sauce from a reduction, that only took about 10 hours. It was completely made from scratch. I had never made the Cuban shredded beef before, ended up spending a hundred dollars on spices and it was the best shredded beef I have ever had in my life.
I am finding myself more and more drawn to Cuban food. I used to make Cuban sandwiches on Sundays when we would watch the show Dexter. There are different approaches to making Cuban sandwiches and the one I use involves marinating the pork tenderloin overnight after it has been given a special rub that includes lime zest. The flavor is amazing and very distinctive, it just takes two days to make the sandwiches. There is a famous Cuban restaurant in Southern California and the few people that have had both mine and theirs agree my mine is better. It isn't it is just a little more flavorful for a different part of Cuba.
The point is, I like cooking and do it the best when I am feeling well and I am feeling better and better. I like that it shows in my cooking, cooking is love and joy and hope. There is actually someone who reads this blog that has had a complete 5 course meal made by me for around 15 people, in a foreign kitchen, in a distant town for people I barely knew and they all asked that I publish some of my recipes to them and I did. I am much more limited in scope and abilities than my sister; but, I am pretty good at the ones I do know and fairly inventive. I should also say that I detest baking because it is so measured.
Now, lets talk about the news. I am an American and am not in favor of electing Anti-Americans; but, more and more the Republican party is becoming anti-American and it really annoys me. Too many Republicans believe that it is more important for companies to make a profit than whether or not they hire Americans. Reagan believed that the reason jobs were being sent oversees was because this country had too much red tape to get things going, thats why he de-regulated industries; but, he was wrong, de-regulation only led to more jobs being shipped overseas.
FoxNews - Humans are the true wealth of nations. The article from the notoriously right wing Fox news says that the most valuable asset of a nations is it's human capital. There conclusion is that we should let more intelligent Asians move to America, read through the nonsense and understand who we are putting in our universities and you will see that it is Chinese students. I disagree with the article, what if we invested in the most innovative workforce in the history of the world, Americans. What if rather than allowing in the best from other countries, we made sure that we had best educated our children first. These Republicans are not following the history of the party and don't care about Americans, only profit.
PandoDaily - Revealed: Apple and Google’s wage-fixing cartel involved dozens more companies, over one million employees. Apple is as anti-American as you get. All there manufacturing jobs are in Communist China. I am happy to say I have never owned an Apple product and don't plan on owning one. Bill Gates gives his money to Charities, Jobs gave his profit to the Chinese.
Apple and Google and other high tech companies conspired to fix the salary of their employees so they didn't move from one company to another. Think about that. These companies have been fixing salaries and want to bring in foreign citizens to compete with Americans; but, pay them less.
Friday, March 21, 2014
Some More Media Misdirection at Fox
This is the third version of this blog and still goes back 4 years. I don't even know how much I wrote the first few years because I destroyed the past; but, the stats say I started the blog in 2007. I find it amazing that I have been writing this blog for 7 years and still find news to write about. I find it even more amazing to know that there are people who have been reading it for that long. I also find it odd that I have been giving sermons for about 3 years. My mother used to say that I began talking at 9 months and never shut up.
As I look forward to retirement this year, I am constantly thinking about what I want to do next. Firstly, there is a good possibility that I will move back into the Mojave desert, I like the desert and it is good for my arthritis. I am also considering putting my doctorate to use and teaching; but, recently I had a new idea. I am thinking about doing a radio show in the desert in the early am when nobody is listening. I would basically talk about the same things I talk about in this blog; but, take calls from other night dwelling desert rats and the random trucker. I have already found a channel that will put on such a show for a relatively modest amount and the truth is, it is cheap enough that I can make it my hobby without having to rely on advertisers or contributions, sort of a self funded deal.
I think that might be fun. Pulling into a radio station in the middle of the night in the dark of the desert, spewing my nonsense and take on the news and letting people who don't have a life themselves call me and give their opinion. To me that seems sort of a romantic ending to my life. I remember what Raymond Chandler said about Philip Marlowe, he said he always saw him living in some drabby little apartment, doing sad jobs for sad people or something to that effect and always being truthful to himself. I like that, I think there is honor in just telling your truth and not worrying about whether or not you personally benefit. As for preaching, I never felt the passion for it, I have been told I am good at it and enjoy it when I am doing it; but, I have always felt that I am a place setter waiting for the permanent assistant preacher to show up. LOL.
Now to some stupid reporters.
Fox News - Kristen Bell tweets 'rich people should pay higher taxes'. The lovely actress Kristen Bell tweeted (I actually used that word) that rich people should pay more in taxes and Fox News brought on someone to ridicule her. The first thing the person said was that if she wanted to pay more taxes than she could make a gift. They said the same thing about Warren Buffet when he suggested the same. Rather than addressing the issue that Ms. Bell raised, they deflect and seek to make the issue about her.
I will start with Ms. Bell's comment and tell you why she is mistaken in her presentation. The problem is not the tax rate, it is the deductions. Over 98% of the tax code is deductions for the wealthy that do not apply to the rest of us. What she should have said is that we should eliminate all tax deductions, then, the wealthy would actually have to pay their taxes. Why should someone who actually works for a living pay a higher tax rate then someone who inherited their money? By the way, Ms. Bell and Mr. Buffet work for a living and are quite good at what they do. Fox doesn't want to talk about tax deductions because the average person doesn't advertise on Fox; but, the grand scoundrels of the finance industry do.
The guest talks about how Ms. Bell is a "savvy" social media user and self promoter whose film "Veronica Mars" is not doing to well. What his comments have to do with the issue of taxation is beyond me; but, then maybe he didn't really want to talk about tax disparity. We should understand that his comments are just bitter over her talking about taxes at all. The fact is that the Veronica Mars movie did not have to make a dime and did. It didn't have to make any money because it was already paid for by the fans of the show who did not invest in the film; but, financed it just to see it get made. I wrote about this when it came out, nothing new on my part. As to being a self promoter, Ms. Bell is not very good at it. In fact, she has gone after the paparazzi for taking pictures of people's children and is making a lot of enemies in the process.
The next part of the conversation is really interesting. The interviewer says that we should consider where these taxes are going when discussing taxes. Hmmm. I can tell you where a lot of it is going, it is going to pay for killing people in other countries and buying weapons. It also goes to the banks. He doesn't really talk about that.
The next game by the interviewer is to say how maybe we should ask what the right rate is, again this is true misdirection. What does it matter what the rate is if nobody pays it. It is the deductions that people should be focused on, not the rate.
The truth is that the whole report was garbage by a station that claims to be balanced and logical. Is the question of whether or not the tax rate appropriate to be decided on whether or not Kristen Bell wants to promote a movie? Is the most balanced and fair manner in which the issue of tax rates can be addressed or is it merely a character smear to avoid the real issues. Fox is completely insincere, pandering and prostituting themselves for the wealthy.
Lets try this, lets talk about how much the wealthy did not pay in taxes, the total valuation of all the deductions that the wealthy and businesses took last year. It is a fair question. What if I told you that American businesses had more in deductions than they paid in taxes, would that interest you? What if the reality was that for ever $100 you made in wages you paid $17 in taxes and got $3 in tax deductions; but, the wealthy paid only $19 in taxes for all income; but, got a tax deduction of $10? Would that seem fair or equitable to you?
Here is the biggest shame. We send the children of the poor to die in wars to profit the war machine (just as the great soldier and former president, Eisenhower, warned us of, and we pay the taxes to send our children to die. We pay to have our children die protecting the interests of oil companies that don't even pay their taxes.
The tax code is corrupt and it is not designed to benefit workers, it is designed to benefit owners. I don't want to tax people, I want to tax income and I don't care who it goes to or how they earn it, I want people to contribute to this nation proportionately to how they benefit from this society. A sales tax doesn't do that; but, an flat income tax does if it has no deductions. If you don't benefit from living here then you shouldn't have to pay. It is a very simple philosophy and the person who introduced it to me was Richard M. Nixon. Yet, that famous anti-communist and Republican was the first to introduce the idea that I know of.
Rabid "liberals" hate Nixon because of Watergate. The fact that Kennedy had help getting elected from the Mafia or that Johnson kept us in Vietnam doesn't seem to bother then as much as Nixon does. Nixon believed in the middle class and no president has since him.
As I look forward to retirement this year, I am constantly thinking about what I want to do next. Firstly, there is a good possibility that I will move back into the Mojave desert, I like the desert and it is good for my arthritis. I am also considering putting my doctorate to use and teaching; but, recently I had a new idea. I am thinking about doing a radio show in the desert in the early am when nobody is listening. I would basically talk about the same things I talk about in this blog; but, take calls from other night dwelling desert rats and the random trucker. I have already found a channel that will put on such a show for a relatively modest amount and the truth is, it is cheap enough that I can make it my hobby without having to rely on advertisers or contributions, sort of a self funded deal.
I think that might be fun. Pulling into a radio station in the middle of the night in the dark of the desert, spewing my nonsense and take on the news and letting people who don't have a life themselves call me and give their opinion. To me that seems sort of a romantic ending to my life. I remember what Raymond Chandler said about Philip Marlowe, he said he always saw him living in some drabby little apartment, doing sad jobs for sad people or something to that effect and always being truthful to himself. I like that, I think there is honor in just telling your truth and not worrying about whether or not you personally benefit. As for preaching, I never felt the passion for it, I have been told I am good at it and enjoy it when I am doing it; but, I have always felt that I am a place setter waiting for the permanent assistant preacher to show up. LOL.
Now to some stupid reporters.
Fox News - Kristen Bell tweets 'rich people should pay higher taxes'. The lovely actress Kristen Bell tweeted (I actually used that word) that rich people should pay more in taxes and Fox News brought on someone to ridicule her. The first thing the person said was that if she wanted to pay more taxes than she could make a gift. They said the same thing about Warren Buffet when he suggested the same. Rather than addressing the issue that Ms. Bell raised, they deflect and seek to make the issue about her.
I will start with Ms. Bell's comment and tell you why she is mistaken in her presentation. The problem is not the tax rate, it is the deductions. Over 98% of the tax code is deductions for the wealthy that do not apply to the rest of us. What she should have said is that we should eliminate all tax deductions, then, the wealthy would actually have to pay their taxes. Why should someone who actually works for a living pay a higher tax rate then someone who inherited their money? By the way, Ms. Bell and Mr. Buffet work for a living and are quite good at what they do. Fox doesn't want to talk about tax deductions because the average person doesn't advertise on Fox; but, the grand scoundrels of the finance industry do.
The guest talks about how Ms. Bell is a "savvy" social media user and self promoter whose film "Veronica Mars" is not doing to well. What his comments have to do with the issue of taxation is beyond me; but, then maybe he didn't really want to talk about tax disparity. We should understand that his comments are just bitter over her talking about taxes at all. The fact is that the Veronica Mars movie did not have to make a dime and did. It didn't have to make any money because it was already paid for by the fans of the show who did not invest in the film; but, financed it just to see it get made. I wrote about this when it came out, nothing new on my part. As to being a self promoter, Ms. Bell is not very good at it. In fact, she has gone after the paparazzi for taking pictures of people's children and is making a lot of enemies in the process.
The next part of the conversation is really interesting. The interviewer says that we should consider where these taxes are going when discussing taxes. Hmmm. I can tell you where a lot of it is going, it is going to pay for killing people in other countries and buying weapons. It also goes to the banks. He doesn't really talk about that.
The next game by the interviewer is to say how maybe we should ask what the right rate is, again this is true misdirection. What does it matter what the rate is if nobody pays it. It is the deductions that people should be focused on, not the rate.
The truth is that the whole report was garbage by a station that claims to be balanced and logical. Is the question of whether or not the tax rate appropriate to be decided on whether or not Kristen Bell wants to promote a movie? Is the most balanced and fair manner in which the issue of tax rates can be addressed or is it merely a character smear to avoid the real issues. Fox is completely insincere, pandering and prostituting themselves for the wealthy.
Lets try this, lets talk about how much the wealthy did not pay in taxes, the total valuation of all the deductions that the wealthy and businesses took last year. It is a fair question. What if I told you that American businesses had more in deductions than they paid in taxes, would that interest you? What if the reality was that for ever $100 you made in wages you paid $17 in taxes and got $3 in tax deductions; but, the wealthy paid only $19 in taxes for all income; but, got a tax deduction of $10? Would that seem fair or equitable to you?
Here is the biggest shame. We send the children of the poor to die in wars to profit the war machine (just as the great soldier and former president, Eisenhower, warned us of, and we pay the taxes to send our children to die. We pay to have our children die protecting the interests of oil companies that don't even pay their taxes.
The tax code is corrupt and it is not designed to benefit workers, it is designed to benefit owners. I don't want to tax people, I want to tax income and I don't care who it goes to or how they earn it, I want people to contribute to this nation proportionately to how they benefit from this society. A sales tax doesn't do that; but, an flat income tax does if it has no deductions. If you don't benefit from living here then you shouldn't have to pay. It is a very simple philosophy and the person who introduced it to me was Richard M. Nixon. Yet, that famous anti-communist and Republican was the first to introduce the idea that I know of.
Rabid "liberals" hate Nixon because of Watergate. The fact that Kennedy had help getting elected from the Mafia or that Johnson kept us in Vietnam doesn't seem to bother then as much as Nixon does. Nixon believed in the middle class and no president has since him.
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