There’s no shortage of amusing stupidity in the lies told to the poor naive tea baggers. From today’s mail box, the honorable (convicted felon criminal) former mayor Roger Hedgecock spews lie after lie after just plain stupidity. Check out how low this man goes in deceiving the poor scared tea baggers. Why do you still listen to those you know are lying to you? Wake up tea baggers. There are real problems we ALL need to be addressing and we can’t while you’re distracted with these silly foolish lies.

Here goes — watch out, be scared, wet your pants, Obama wants to steal your retirement.

The idea to confiscate your retirement money came (no surprise) from academia.

Do you get that? Mr. felon criminal Roger Hedgecock warns you about how Obama wants to confiscate your retirement. Does anyone really believe this filth? Well, obviously a few here and there will be inclined to follow this garbage. It’s sad, but some people don’t have the critical thinking skills required to know up from down. But this is just sad to be taking advantage of the poor Americans that don’t know any better than to believe this nonsense.

Just think about that for a moment. An American president wants to confiscate your retirement? Really? And what’s next? Is he having an affair with an alien from outer space? It’s sad, but yes, some poor people don’t know any better than to believe this stuff. Shame on conservatives like Hedgecock for taking advantage of the less fortunate. Shame on them for taking advantage of our friends and neighbors.

Some people don’t remember much past last week, but about 30 years ago employers used to provide pensions for retirement benefits to their employees. A pension is like an insurance program. The longer you live the more you take out. The shorter you live the less you take out. In the long run, the same amount is taken out as is put in and everyone gets paid until the day they die.

The conservatives have brainwashed us all into thinking 401Ks are the way to go. Think for a moment about your 401K. If you are lucky enough to live a long healthy life, you’ll run out of retirement money and end up homeless or on Social Security or Welfare. Nice! Thank you Republicans for the 401K.

If, on the other hand, you die early, then you don’t get to use all the money you saved up. Thank you again, Republicans, for the 401K.

In other words, you lose either way. Who ever thought up such an awful retirement plan and who sold this lie to us? But, that’s another story.

So, Theresa Ghilarducci (repeat after me, OBAMA’S name is OBAMA, not Theresa), suggests many possible changes to the handling of 401Ks. For anyone alive today and who still has a brain cell, our 401Ks are worthless! The current Republican Depression has wiped them out. Theresa’s recommendations would prevent this from happening again and again. Shame on her for trying to come up with solutions. Let’s all hope the Republicans in Congress continue to obstruct everything that can possibly help us.

Yes, my dear tea baggers, Obama is after your worthless 401Ks and he plans to spend them on dinner and a night out with his favorite alien from Mars.

Oh, and by the way, Hedgecock’s bribery case and lying under oath was mysteriously tossed out by an appellate judge on a technicality. Do you really want to take the word of this man?

From the Las Vegas Review Journal:

Nevada’s budget outlook is so bleak that lawmakers doubt whether state government can remain afloat without drastic cuts to everything from prisons to schools to state parks and services for the poor and elderly.

Legislators met Tuesday with Republican Gov. Jim Gibbons to discuss how they will cope with a short-term deficit of about $900 million during an upcoming special session of the Legislature. Some Democratic lawmakers acknowledge options to bridge the gap probably won’t include tax increases.
…
Assemblyman John Oceguera, D-Las Vegas, said pay cuts and layoffs for state employees are probably inevitable.

“These are drastic, drastic cuts. I would be surprised if some folks didn’t lose their jobs,” Oceguera said.
…
Taylor said such a cut would hit lower-wage employees extremely hard, especially because some lower-paying jobs are held by single parents raising children. There had been talks that salary cuts would be made only to employees earning more than $40,000 a year.

Oceguera was uncertain whether it would be considered “a socialist type thing” to tailor pay cuts according to earnings.

A Chamber of Commerce study released earlier this month found state and local government employees in 2008 earned an average pay of $55,657 in 2008, sixth highest among states and $6,800 higher than the national average. For state employees alone, the average pay was $55,266.

Teacher pay in Nevada averaged $48,257 a year in 2008, below the $50,852 national average, according to the chamber study. University and community college faculty members in Nevada earn $69,282 on average, compared with the national average of $72,959.

The study also found that Nevada has the fewest number of public employees on a per capita basis in the country, at 43.7 per 1,000 residents.

But Gibbons, who sets the agenda for the session, has long said he would veto any tax increases.

“Our only real option,” Horsford said, “is to eliminate or reduce spending.”

This is absolutely shocking. Gibbons is leading us in a race to the bottom.

Nevada state and local government employees get paid more than the average. That means the local employees get paid more than the average and the state employees get paid considerably less than average. But, that’s not what the Chamber of Commerce says since they might have a little difficulty being objective in this matter. What on earth are they even involved for? They’re the enemy and part of what made our current mess.

This seems so terribly obvious to any casual observer to be a race to the bottom. Nevada has been groveling at the bottom of everything important for so long, we just don’t know what to do if we’re not dead last. We seem to be winning the race to be the first state to resemble Haiti. Let’s all compete to see how low we can pay our state employees. Soon we’ll all be greeted by illegal aliens at the state agencies because they’ll work for less than Americans will. Is that what we want in America?

They’re afraid to affect the rich more than the poor because they’re afraid it’ll sound Socialist? This has to be about the most ridiculous thing I’ve heard in a while. When was it considered Socialist to expect those who benefit the most from society to pay the most? Socialist? If this is Socialism, then America’s founding fathers were all Socialists. They expected everyone to pay their fair share. Shame on you for disparaging the names of our forefathers!

And, if you were paying attention, Nevada is paying our educators well below the average. Obviously we’re dead last in education. We only get back what we’re willing to invest. We should be having a race to see how much more money we can put back in the hands of the middle and lower class and we should be expecting the wealthy to start paying their fair share.

Gibbon, oh what a fine example of Republican principles. No new taxes. We wouldn’t want the billionaires to pay their fair share, now would we? No, let’s just take it out of the pockets of those who need it the most.

When will America start to realize that this Republican approach is destroying our country?

Happy New Year to one and all. May this year bring you the financial relief and medical coverage you so deserve. Let’s take a quick look back at the past decade.

Let’s see, it’s January 2000. The economy is booming, the federal budget is in the black for the first time in decades, we were at a time of relative peace. We trusted our sciences and scientists, we had confidence in our banks. We had some control over our banking sector, even though Gramm-Leach-Bliley act had just been passed but the banking sector insanities hadn’t shifted into high gear, yet.

The middle-class American made almost $1700 more per year than today.

Oh, and did I say that we weren’t in the middle of two middle-eastern wars? Oh I did?

So, what, exactly, can you say that America saw in the past decade that was beneficial? Okay, sure, there were a few Peace Prizes, a few discoveries, oh, and we finally pulled the life support from a long gone dead woman.

You can say it is just a coincidence that these were the Bush years, but no one really believes that it was anything but Bush and the Republican politicians who benefited from everything that is now harming America.

This week I’ve seen a scenario played out in Nevada that I’m sure most Americans will recognize in their their own neighborhoods. In Nevada, we’ve had a week of cold and snow, the same cold and snow affecting most of the country about now. So what have we noticed during this weather?

In Nevada, the ability of the towns to clear the snow has been greatly diminished, mostly because of budget cuts. Many of the businesses are paying fewer taxes and the rich have been paying fewer taxes for 30 years now, and the tax revenues are drying up, so the civic services, like snow removal, are greatly reduced. But, who is getting the services and who is not? Look around your town and you will notice what I see here in Nevada.

The businesses get plowed first, followed by the wealthy neigborhoods. And, if at all, the middle class and lower class neighborhoods get plowed last. Is this because businesses and the rich pay a higher percentage tax than the real Americans? Of course, not, they’re paying considerably less. Corporations now pay less than 7% of the country’s tax burden. Who pays the rest? You and I do. The Rich have seen insane tax breaks over the last 30 years, down form 92% to as low as 15% in most cases.

How much do you pay? 25%? 30%? 35%? Include your income tax and your property tax and your sales taxes and you can bet you’re paying a higher percentage than the corporations or the rich. So, aren’t you glad that your neighborhoods aren’t getting plowed but theirs are?

Isn’t it time to start getting enraged by this theft? Isn’t it time to say enough?

The Tea-Baggers have it right. Something stinks in America and we have to get motivated to get it fixed. Unfortunately for the Tea-Baggers, though, nobody is telling them that it’s the rich that are stealing their money so they think it’s the Mexicans or the Liberals or the illegal aliens to blame. But, eventually they will realize, and we all need ot be ready to stand beside them and demand that this mess get fixed. Or better yet, it’s time we stood up ourselves and let the Tea-Baggers join us. Get motivated!

NO MORE WELFARE FOR THE WEALTHY!

So, is there still anyone out there who doesn’t believe that Fox is just a propaganda network? Check out this case. Fox reporters refused to rewrite their story condemning Bovine Growth Hormone to instead glorify it and were fired for their refusal. Google it if you want more information on Fox Lies.

In a case decided by a jury of their peers, Fox was found guilty. However, when Fox appealed it to a higher court, the judge (mind you, no jury) found in favor of Fox. Sounds to me like an appellate court judge should be investigated.

The bottom line, Fox Lies.

Extrapolating some on David’s earlier post regarding deficiencies in logic and reasoning, I’ll cover a specific shortfall in human thought.

To begin with, humans have a natural curiosity and a natural tendency to group our thoughts and learnings into compartments and to link these compartments together. In other words, once you learn that one stovetop hurts when it’s hot, you don’t have to learn the same for every other stovetop but rather can believe that everything in the compartment is the same.That’s compartments.

The next step is to link these compartments so since you know stovetops are hot and ovens are like stovetops, they just might be hot, too. That’s linking.

When a child learns too many things that can’t be reasonably linked, they learn to skip the linking part. As a simple example, a child may learn repeatedly that Jesus loves us and Jesus is Lord. He also learns, repeatedly, conflicting data, such as examples where God is hateful and destructive. [This isn't about religion, so don't get too excited.]

In order to believe the two conflicting compartments, the child learns not to try to link, or to give up easily on the task of linking. This condition makes it easier for the child to learn falsehoods and outright lies because there is no need to link and to reconcile the differences.

This is a mental deficency that is often a learned behavior.

This condition also arises when a child believes that he cannot question the authority figure that is lying to him or unknowingly misguiding him.

So you should be asking, “what does this mean to an adult?”

Let’s take a look at another example. Ask yourself, are you pro-life? [No, this isn't a rant on abortion rights.]

If you said yes to this question, then it is most likely (statistically speaking) that you also endorse capital punishment. Capital punishment is not pro-life so why do you say you’re pro-life? Okay, maybe you’ll argue that I’m pro-life for everything except for that.

Is that really true? Are you pro-life? Do you think all American, better yet, all people should have free health care? If you’re pro-life, I’ll bet you are saying absolutely no to that question. Now we have three different compartments and you have no way to link them. How can you be pro-life and be against the majority of things that reflect a respect for life?

It’s natural for humans to interpret new data in the context of his understanding of the world around him. Things that don’t fit into this model of the world are rejected or forgotten. When there are too many things to reject, he finally stops and re-evaluates his model of the world.

If he has become an expert at not linking the categories then he can have any number of conflicting beliefs and never lose a night’s sleep.

Obviously this is not only bad for our hypothetical thinker, but for the world around him as well since he is constantly making decisions that are not only wrong but often dangerous.

If you find yourself wondering how to get out of this ditch, it’s easier than you might think. Just start trying to link your compartments. Start slowly and work from what you see to be true around you. For example, are you a kind person? Do you consistently make decisions that demonstrate that you are kind? When you catch yourself demonstrating otherwise, then stop and ask yourself if you’re really a kind person. Every day is full of opportunities to learn and grow.

Take the poll:

We’ve discussed the concerns over our Commons in previous posts, specifically on Reinventing Capitalism.

The Commons were originally defined as the parts of the property of a society that all or most of the people shared. As an example, a small tribe may need nearby grazing lands where they can allow their horses to graze.

As long as the tribe is small and as long as none of the tribe members decides to make a profit off the commons, everything works perfectly. But sooner or later someone will find a way to make money off allowing his cattle to graze and the more cattle he can use to exploit the free commons, the more money he can make at the expense of the rest of the tribe.

This situation typically leads to an agreement (law) that the commons are for everyone equally and nobody should make a profit at the expense of anyone else.

When humans weren’t over-populating the earth, many argued that the commons were limitless and we could always move to a new land once we’ve exhausted the current commons. Back when America was young, we could dump all our waste in the rivers and it would just mysteriously disappear, or so we thought.

This misconception that the commons were limitless caused America’s forefathers to overlook the immense need to protect the commons. They didn’t say we shouldn’t protect the commons but they didn’t explicitly protect them to the level we need today with our over population problems.

Today we are beginning to realize that everything provided by the earth should reasonably be considered the commons and protected as such. Automobile manufacturers are making profits by building cars that spew their waste into our limited atmosphere and not paying to clean it up. Eventually there won’t be any clean air left unless we protect our commons.

Many industries are making a profit while they dump their poisonous waste into our rivers and streams. Eventually there will be no more clean water unless we start protecting our commons.

Many more industries are treating our earth as a dumping ground for their toxic waste, and then moving on to new land when the run out of room. Eventually we will run out of land unless we start protecting our commons.

In present times, we consider our commons to include things like our airwaves. Also, utilities that have a right-of-way across our properties are also reasonably society’s commons.

Another kind of common is that which is required for a successful society. This includes education, the press (or specifically newspapers as defined by America’s founding fathers). Some argue that reasonable medical services are required for a successful society and should also be treated as our commons. That is a whole other topic for a post of another day.

America felt that phones where required for a functioning society so American tax dollars were spent to ensure that everyone could get phone service. The same applied to the supply of energy. These are also commons. That’s not to say that nobody can make money off them, but that no one can have such a strangle hold on them that people die so big business can make more money. Sounds like America’s medical system, doesn’t it?

Protecting the commons is the only way, I repeat, the only way that society can survive.

As we’ve seen, commons can change over time. What is required for a society to flourish today is not the same as what will be needed in the future.

Some of us believe this, and others of us just say the words but don’t believe it, and still others just plain think We the People stink, and we may all love America.

How can this be? Simple. It all boils down to who you listen to.

Take a moment today, during lunch, jot down a quick list of the things America does well and another list of the things it does poorly, and then go through and place a value for the importance of each item.

Here’s my very short list, but really, don’t cheat. Make your own list and grade your country:

Does Well

(5) Protect us from foreign invaders
(5) Protect us from violent criminals
(4) Protect our homes from fire
(4) Protect our environment from greedy corporations
(3) Protect the weak and down-trodden
(3) Provides fair and equitable education for all
(3) Protects us from unethical businesses
(2) Protects us from disasters
(4) Protects our food supply, medicines

Does Badly

(5) Protect us from corporate greed
(5) Ensures access to an unbiased media
(5) Protects us from greedy corporations polluting our information, media, and science
(4) Protects us from the ultra-rich having undue influence in our government
(3) Research to help mankind

Okay, now remove everything from your list that isn’t an actual current function of the government. In my list I’ll remove:
- Protect us from corporate greed
- Ensures access to an unbiased media
- Protects us from greedy corporations polluting our information, media, and science
- Protects us from the ultra-rich having undue influence in our government

Now, add up the two groups, Good and Bad. In my list, I have 33 Good and 3 Bad.

This is a quick look at how good you think We the People are at governing ourselves.

The next time you hear someone say how lousy the government is at doing anything, remember this little test and ask yourself if maybe the speaker has no idea what he’s talking about. If that’s the case, perhaps it’s time to change the channel.

Leave a comment and let us know how good or bad you find America to be.

One last point. Why do we know America is great but still listen to people tell us it can’t run anything successfully? Here’s a quote. Can you guess who said it?

The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’

The next time someone tries telling you how wonderful the “free market” is and how it will solve all our problems, I suggest you stop and take a breath and really question it. Here’s why.

Though I’ve discussed the silliness of the supply side economics, or voodoo economics as it’s called, the “free market” is also based on outright lies.

Going all the way back to Econ 101, let’s revisit the economic structure of the robber barons. A middle class in an economy is something that does not grow or survive without political regulations and pressures. It’s that simple. Without regulations (in other word, a free market) pay for the working class will always reduce to subsistence levels. Always!

In a truly free economy, there are a few wealthy leeching off the misfortune of the rest of society. And then there are the working poor. There is basically nobody in between. In other words, no middle class.

Sure, there is a very small percentage of small business owners, but they are barely a step away from the working poor. Ever read any of Dickens’ stories? That is exactly how England’s free market worked in the 19th century; it’s how any free market works over time. Been to Somalia lately?

Other than the stinking and unethical rich, who would ever want such a society? Well, obviously someone is doing a great job of convincing the uneducated or naive that “free markets” are in our best interests.

There is no shortage of “think tanks” funded by the rich, whose sole job is to fool the gullible amongst us.

A “free market” society is an imoral society. Don’t believe the lies. It only causes disaster for anyone but the elite.