A while back there was an interesting tidbit in the Max Keiser show. He described how Wall Street is about to sink their fangs into trailer parks since the growing homeless population will make it the next profit center if they can muster enough money to live there. I guess they have sucked as much of the blood out of the student loans and have to find something new to keep increasing “growth”
Back during my brief life as a State Farm agency owner, I tell you we really lived it up at our various regional meetings. Strictly 5-star - on your dime. Having been a State Farm customer for over 2 decades before becoming an agency principal it really bothered me how the company spent money that, really, doesn’t belong to the corporation. Like you now, I then thought we should be returning it to our members in the forms of annual profit sharing and/or reduced rates.
Really horrid, Adam. And it gets worse as you narrow it further. My chart in comment # 8 shows that the top .01% (about the top 12500 households in the U.S. or the top 40 or so households among the million people living nearest you) fared even better. I wonder if there’s data on the top .001% (1250 households), top .0001% (125 households) or .00001% (12 households).
Imagine a series of billboards. The first shows a simple chart showing how income inequality is growing (something you can digest in 3 seconds). The second has that image of the plutarch quote you ended with:
And maybe a third with an image of a crowd with pitchforks and a quote “Let’s fix this before …”
This evenings TV news and print news are setting the stage. A gun rights rally in Richmond Virginia is scheduled for January 20, MLK day. Who are the players?
A reasonable and moderate toned governor is trying to preserve peace and advance the ideals of civilization and tolerance by banning firearms in the state.
Governor Northam has banned firearms in the park near the capitol building on Jan 20 to thwart the “armed militias” that are expected to gather for the demonstration.
Nazis and white supremacists oppose him and seek to advance their goals of bigotry and starting a race war under the clever rubric of “gun rights.” The FBI has moved pro actively to arrest 3 white supremacists in advance of the rally. This white supremacist group goes by the name “the base,” which is the english translation of al Qaada, clearly a terrorist group. It doesn’t say so explicitly, but it implies that the rally will be full of Nazis and white supremacists, just like what happened in Charlottesville last year. And nobody wants that!
The stage is set. The forces of civilization, peace and reason are aligned against bigots, racists and domestic terrorists who clearly cannot be trusted to own guns. My God. We must protect our children and defend civilization itself.
Agitprop anyone?
Inquiring minds want to know if Gov. Northam isn’t pushing all of this as payback for favorable media treatment he received last year during his “blackface/KKK” debacle.
Gov. Ralph Northam admits he was in 1984 yearbook photo showing figures in blackface, KKK hood (Washington Post)
And how much has Bloomberg and company contributed to his next reelection campaign (or possibly a Congressional run)?
Bloomberg Anti-Gun Group Pumps $2.5M into Virginia Election (Guns.com)
As far as bigotry goes…
Same shit, different day. Great distraction though. Epstein seems to have really rattled a few cages.
In the interim more made for TV drama coming right up. For those who still waste time with CNN and Faux News…don’t forget to keep an eye out for Harrison Hanks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XUYmDRX7GM
A group of families from our community will be attending the MLK, and lobby day festivities at theRichmond VA. state capital. Wishes for our safety and effectiveness are appreciated.
robie,husband,father,farmer,optometrist
I hope you aren’t caught in any traps that have been laid or any false flags.
This is definitely a sad State of Affairs. When I lived in Northern California I knew many affluent people. All of them would have made sympathy noises for these individuals if they had seen this video, however, I can honestly say I don’t know anyone who would have helped these people. Most of them would not even give a dime to their own families. We are doing to other people exactly what the government, the fed, and the elites are doing to us. The United States is a social toilet of inequity. It would better to be impoverished in many Central and South American countries then it would be in the United States. At least in Costa Rica you could live off of the fruit trees and be surrounded by Beauty. Living the standard middle class life is a bit of a slow suicide anyway. These people have lives that have no meaning at all.
My email this morning includes a special request from the director of the Henrico Doctors Hospital Emergency Departments and Trauma Services in Richmond to have emergency and surgery department docs and nurses on call for potential “mass casualty event” in Richmond over the weekend. Trauma care equipment is stocked to a high level.
It includes the governors “declaration of emergency” for the state for the 3 days weekend. Again, I am struck by the way the issue is being framed. There does not seem to include any acknowledgment of the role the governments proposed legislation is playing in precipitating this crisis and bringing it to Virginia. Attention and blame is entirely on the “militias” and those dedicated to “hate.”
The governor’s declaration is here.
The Commonwealth of Virginia is a welcoming state. Virginians understand that diversity of opinion keeps our democracy strong. The more voices involved in our political dialogue, the stronger we are. Civil discourse, even and especially, amongst those who disagree, is critical to our democracy’s evolution and success. When the civility of that political discourse breaks down, the Commonwealth suffers. Three years ago, Virginia and the nation, watched horrified as civil protest was marred by violence and hate. The events that occurred in Charlottesville, Virginia demonstrated what can happen when peaceful demonstrations are hijacked by those who come into the Commonwealth and do not value the importance of peaceful assembly. We lost three Virginians. We must take all precautions to prevent that from ever happening again. Credible intelligence gathered by Virginia’s law enforcement agencies indicates that tens of thousands of advocates plan to converge on Capitol Square for events culminating on January 20, 2020. Available information suggests that a substantial number of these demonstrators are expected to come from outside the Commonwealth, may be armed, and have as their purpose not peaceful assembly but violence, rioting, and insurrection.All firearms and weapons by protestors are banned for the weekend. "Other weapons" banned include padding, sticks, torches, poles, bats, shields, helmets, caustic substances (i.e., pepper spray), hazardous materials, scissors, razor blades, needles, toy guns, toy weapons, fireworks, glass bottles, laser pointers, aerosol containers, baseballs, softballs, UAVs/Drones. Except riot police to be armed and armored by all of the above. How many high power sniper rifles with scopes will be trained on the crowds?) The governor has built for himself a shit-storm. If I were going, I would work out a fall-back rally point for my party, carry photocopies of id but not the originals, carry water bottles and food. I would also quickly move away from unruly sorts holding Nazi flags, as stuff is likely to happen there.
China couldn’t ask for a better plan to divide and weaken the US than this. I wouldn’t be shocked to find CCP money behind this particular effort.
What is Governor Blackface thinking here? Who is pulling his strings?
banking should be a public utility, a wholly owned department of the government. If the people are to pay for the actions of the banks, and guarantee the debt based monetary system, then it should be owned by the people.
I have read many articles, like Shadow Stats, on the perversion of the measurements used to describe our economy. But there is one I have not seen, and would like an answer to, or to be pointed to where I could figure it out myself. I think the middle class has not merely shrunk, not merely decimated, but is magnitudes fewer in number than we are led to believe. If one corrected all the mutated metrics used to measure a middle class lifestyle, and started comparing apples to apples, how much has it fallen in the 40 years since Ronald Reagan began the assault in favor of the rich? If it has not fallen as much as I fear, how many more working hours are required to maintain it now?
observations and video, if interesting, after the Richmond, VA rally. We have no TV so you folk are a big part of our news. Thank you.
Talking about the housing issues in California without talking about prop 13 and the thousands of empty properties owned by foriegn “investors” is pointless. But those are the unmentionable issues that seem to be a third rail.
99% of normal people in VA are not crazed white supremacist just folks that refuse to give up their right to the 2nd amendment. Northam is not reasonable nor is your new state legislator group doing something noble for safety reasons. Criminals and mass murderers will not care about your gun grabbing laws. [Moderator: ad hominem remark removed]
If you are able and willing- there is no shortage of work in Sonoma County. I think this very well done video speaks to the larger issue(s): https://komonews.com/news/local/komo-news-special-seattle-is-dying
One thing that everybody misses is the contribution crystal meth made to creating legions of mentally ill individuals. Meth often causes long term psychosis, even after the addict quits. Oxy doesn’t And the even larger issue here is why there are so many meth addicts to begin with.
People who worked 2 or 3 jobs to get by, turned to meth so they could work longer hours, according to the author, below. I use the past tense as I don’t know if meth is currently being consumed in as large a quantity as it was a few years ago. But…nevertheless, the long term consequences are grim.
“You don’t have to eat, sleep or drink water, so if you’re somebody who works on a manufacturing line or does farm work or meatpacking work, for instance, it’s a drug that can come in handy, in terms of helping you to work harder,” Reding says.
Reding says that the agricultural industry has consolidated over time, and the working class has had to work harder for less — which has made meth more attractive. As an example, he cites a meatpacking plant that was bought in 1987; the new company cut wages from $18 an hour to $6.20.
“If you’re a guy like Roland Jarvis … you’ve got to work extra hard to make less than you were yesterday,” Reding says. “Meth is often seen as a helpful drug in that instance because you don’t have to sleep. You don’t even have to go to bed before working your next shift.”
https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106388550
So KMan, if you think that all of the jobs out there will solve the problem --if people just get it together and apply, you are so off the mark, it beggars belief. I don’t mean to offend. Sorry–but I feel very passionate about this issue.
Wow - our little corner of northern California is catching the nation’s attention.
Just hours ago, CNN issued a video segment reporting on the Joe Rodota Trail homeless encampment. It does a good job raising the complex challenges involved:
@Adam_Taggart
Americans have always, at least in my life time, blamed the people who live in camps like these for their own fates due to flaws in their character. After all, the “reasoning” goes, if they simply worked hard enough and made better choices, they could afford better housing.
I’ve heard that attitude expressed hundreds of times, and I really doubt that it is going to change. You can talk all you want with these people about housing costs outstripping wage growth and about “insurance” plans with $9000 deductibles, but the people who hold the they-deserve-it mindset aren’t going to change their minds.
Abbreviated from a post here that seemed too hyperbolic and rambling:
VA State Senator 72 Hours Before Rally: ‘We Are Being Set Up’
Conservative Sen. Amanda Chase of District 11 took to Facebook on Friday with a warning for every patriot who plans to attend the pro-Second Amendment rally Monday in Richmond. “Sadly, I am posting this, knowing that the Governor of Virginia has declared a State of Emergency in our state,” Chase wrote. “I want you to be aware of how we are being set up.”
“Does the Patriot Act ring a bell? Does the National Defense Authorization Act ring a bell?” Chase argued that these laws could be used to paint pro-Second Amendment activists as “domestic terrorist[s]. The Governor, using the media has already set the stage for this to happen,” Chase wrote. “He has already laid the groundwork to make the entire movement look like insurrection.”
It’s not just militia members and those wearing camouflage who have reason to worry, even military veterans have been flagged as potential threats. “Military veterans were/are even listed as potential domestic terrorist.”
Northam indeed claims to have intelligence that some of the groups attending the Monday rally will be intent on insurrection.
Despite Northam’s emergency gun ban at the rally, it’s unclear how many of the tens of thousands of expected rally attendees will obey his decree. [How many will be carrying guns?]
The Virginia Citizens Defense League and Gun Owners of America, two groups behind the massive rally, attempted to battle Northam’s order in court. They appealed all the way to the Virginia Supreme Court, where Northam’s gun ban was upheld on Friday.
Hopefully, violence can be avoided. But with many rally goers almost certainly unwilling to bend on their right to bear arms and Northam seemingly intent on enforcing his order with state and local police, we can only wait and see — and pray.
You also get the tired, “it’s a mental health issue,” as if poor mental health either occurs in a vacuum or is a choice.