A family is no Substitute for an actual social safety net ! Due to over whelming credit card debt my father took out a reverse mortgage and I Really do not know how I am going to have place to stay since I have been out of work for over two years and even when I was working I never made a living wage !To begin with My brother essentially views me as an undue burden and will mostly likely have me thrown out of his residence for the most trivial and frivolous reasons . He once tried to convince me he was turned down from an apartment because I was out of work !So living there will be jumping through his hoops and walking on egg shells . The prospect of having to live with an individual of whom I have no respect for or trust in fills me with non stop dread . Although as of yet I have to yet to muster up the courage to commit suicide ! It is quite possible that in time the horror of living with this highly undesirable individual will surely overwhelm any cowardice that kept me from ending my horrific existence ! The stress of living with him has drained the life out of me and has greatly contributed to an over all deterioration of physical and mental health! The idea that pills will rectify this situation greatly evades reality and does nothing to make things right ! He has mocked me being out of work and thinks I am supposed to get job at his abusive and hostile carcinogenic laden work place that evades OSHA regulations regularly My brother has let unsavory persons take advantage of him on numerous occasions . Some specific examples are as follows 1 He has spent tens of thousands of dollars on credit on at least one individual 2 Due to his gross negligence somebody got a hold of his personal information and opened a false account at Comcast and Verizon costing him altogether thousands of dollars . He only be came aware of this when a friend ran a credit report on him ,and never perused the manner seriously 3 Another individual got ahold of his debit card on at least four occasions and on one occasion his checking account was cleaned out . 4 The same individual who got ahold of his debit card when had a yard sale and only raised fifty dollars stole what little money he got from the yard sale ! The height of irony is he told me when I move in with him he will not tolerate a book shelf when I reside with him or having any of my hand tools around ,but not only highly tolerates , but seems to openly invite others making a fool of him ! On a few occasions I demonstrated fixing things around the house he thought were impossible for me to accomplish ! 1 I fixed the handle to the toilet 2 A Kitchen drawer he thought was beyond repair! 3 I installed a receptacle underneath a window so it could be readily accessed by a window fan or Ac! He does not respect me on one or a few occasions has said go ahead and hit me so I can call the police .. He said he desired to go the worst part of town because of cheaper rental rates and stated we have nothing to be afraid no violence will happen to us because we have nothing to steal ! His failure to recognize he can be a victim of violence regardless of whether he has anything of value is yet another example of he not only regularly exercises poor judgment but has ran a marathon of it !
When comparing/contrasting salaries......what employees are they comparing CEO's to. The entry level workers who, by the way, can be replaced by anybody off the street?
Who is anybody to say how much a CEO of a private business should earn. They are in place to make money for their shareholders or their owner. Period.
There will always be a pay gap, just as there will always be an intelligence gap and a motivation gap etc.....
As long as you're at it it seems that looks play some part in life.....it's always the good looking guys that get the good looking girls (and visa-versa) i think that we should all be made equal. Plastic surgery for everyone so that we all have equal beauty. All men should be overweight with bad teeth and terrible hair. And women should have small breasts, a fat ass and the voice of troll.
The way I explain Net Neutrality is with an analogy to a toll road.
A toll road can charge the cars that travel on it, but the toll booth operator cannot ask the drivers where they're going, and then send a bill to everybody's destination for the privilege of making the stores and homes accessible by that road.
Without Net Neutrality, the "toll road" would be charging both sides of the interaction (the traveler and the destination), getting paid twice to do something once. And if the road is allowed to ask where you're going, then it can start charging different types of destinations differently.
hater22 ~ That is really a great idea. One solution that I recently heard was to impose salary caps --like they do with athletes in professional sports--on CEO's. Lets say no CEO can make more than 100 times what his lowest paid employee make. Still, a very fair dispersion. Once capped, the only way that CEO can give himself a raise or bonus would be by shelling out raises and or bonuses to all his lowest paid employees. I like that idea.
The pay gap of 350% is a very big gap. The payment of a CEO will be more than employes, but not at that big %. There will be equality between employers and top management. This decline the moral of the employes. This gap has to be filled up.
Aliceinwonderland ~ (Reply to #30) Thanks so much for sharing that heartfelt and touching letter. What a great way to remind some people that we are all humans; and, as such, all entitled to certain inalienable rights. If we aren't free enough in this country to give away things that belong to us to whomsoever we chose, who are we to claim we are free in any way? That's just the notion of freedom--lets not even get into the notion of being a "Christian" nation.
Anyway, I just wanted to say that I couldn't wait to sign that petition; however, when I clicked on that link all I got was my own GMail inbox. I did my own websearch and this is the link I found. Consider it signed; and, thanks for sharing:
In some of those side-bar threads is a wealth of examples to illustrate the maliciousness of conservative ideology Loren has been ranting about. I cite this one thread begun by a conservative who goes by the name of “Dexterous”. It’s the one titled “Obamacare Architect Lack of Transparency Was Key…" blah-blah.
Post #3: “I saw no problems with the system as it stood before…” No problem with a system that bankrupts and kills! Way to go Dexie.
Post #5: “Nothing is for free pal.” This is Dex’s response to Legend’s post #4 where some of the many pitfalls of our for-profit healthscare system are described.
Post #19, in Kilo’s response to me: “Health care is not a human right regardless of how many times you shout it.”
UGH. Disgusting. Beam me up. - AIW
Aliceinwonderland ~ You might want to provide the link for that thread in case anyone else would like to weigh in. Oh, wait a minute, here it is:
Quote Loren Bliss:Marc, if you had ever been physically assaulted by your schoolmates for being a "brain," or as an adult denounced by your alleged colleagues for being "a goddamn intellectual" -- and I have had both experiences more times than I can count -- you would understand that membership in Moron Nation is indeed a conscious, deliberate, malicious choice.
Loren Bliss ~ (Reply to #17] Well, you've definitely got me there. Very well said. As much as I'd like to I cannot disagree. How truly sad. Point well made!
Hey my friends, speaking of inequality, take a load of this! I got it off change.org and it is written by someone named Nailah:
It’s illegal to feed homeless people in public in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. Earlier this week 90-year-old Arnold Abbott was arrested and now faces 60 days in jail for offering food to the homeless with his church. Ft. Lauderdale police should drop the charges against Mr. Abbott and repeal the law against feeding homeless people in public.
My children and I were homeless for 6 years. It wasn’t easy, but luckily I had the kindness of strangers to lend me a hand from time to time. They would buy me meals, give me hope, sometimes stop to see how I was and it showed me that I wasn’t alone and that although I was homeless, I wasn’t invisible. It was in large part because of them that I got off of the streets and can now proudly say I have a place to call my own, a husband and 5 beautiful children.
I remember my time on the street often. That’s why I was so upset when I learned that not even a 30 minute drive from where I live, 90-year-old homeless advocate Arnold Abbott, along with two Christian ministers were arrested for violating a new Ft. Lauderdale ordinance that virtually bans public feeding of the homeless. Now Mr. Abbott and his companions each face 60 days in jail and a $500 fine! It's outrageous to think that someone’s kindness could land them in jail.
As an ex-homeless person I take every chance I get to repay the goodwill strangers afforded me. I give what I can to those in need and I teach my children treat others as they wish to be treated and that means being compassionate and understanding. I’m sure many of you do the same. Just imagine being arrested and thrown in jail for 60 days for buying a sandwich for a person in need!
I want the Ft. Lauderdale City Council to repeal this disgraceful ordinance and drop all charges against Mr. Abbott and his companions. All of us deserve to be treated with kindness whether or not we have a home. City officials should encourage it rather than ask us to turn a blind eye.
If this ordinance is allowed to stand and the charges are not dropped, many homeless will lose a vital source of support and precedents could be set for other cities to follow suite.
Join me in signing this petition and demand that Ft. Lauderdale repeal this cruel ordinance and drop the charges against all those involved. - Nailah
What greater depths of depravity must we reach before finally realizing what a soulless culture capitalism and Ayn Randism has left us with!?!
The idea that the post office should get swiped and hijacked by privatizers driven to make a profit is disgusting and horrifying. I brace myself for the additional damage we and our country stand to suffer now that these psychopaths have taken over our entire Congress. We're in serious trouble, folks.
Thom please read this on the Post Office: The section of the constitution that talks about the Post Office is the section where taxes are discussed. The idea that the Post Office should "make a profit" moves the discussion about it to Republican turf. The USPS is just that a service, a utility. There is nothing wrong with have public utilities that are owned by the people and others that are regulated by the people. The Republicans want to drive the discussion of the USPS around profits so they can eventually sell it to UPS or FedEx or Amazon. Then the only part of the USPS that will be left is the part that delivers to areas that are unprofitable for UPS and FedEx. That is the Repulican vision. Do not argue on their turf. The USPS should deliver email and mail and keep it private that is one of the mission of the USPS. It could be expanded to providing high speed internet access everywhere. Banking, voting and other service could be rolled into the service to make it a wonderful public utility. Don't argue on the Right's turf because they have unlimited money to create talking points and will never lose if it comes down to that.
Inconsequential indeed, CK. Democracy is dead in America. I wish I could answer your question; I don't know any better than you how to get the attention of our so-called representatives. We're living under fascism now. Corporate fascism. They've taken over our media, our schools, our food supply, our healthcare system... next on the chopping block is the post office. So then what; our water supply? Where does privatization end? If they could, they'd hijack the air we breathe. - AIW
The essential question at this point is what can the citizen do, either individually or collectively, to get the attention of our so-called representatives? Whether the issue is economic inequality, climate change, electoral reform, police-state behavior, net neutrality, healthcare or any of dozens of other neglected issues, have we exhausted all means of recovery of our democracy? Currently 80-90% agreement on an issue by the electorate is inconsequential at the state/federal levels.
I am now more than a half century old, and find myself so dismayed by the ease of conditioning the majority of Anmericans into voting and support ideas that are clearly against their own self interst by using false interpertations of all religious doctring and the use of misinformation for the sole purpose of creating fear in the low informed population in America, and thus using that fear of taking responsibilty to doing the right thing is used to assist those living by denying fscts can easily blame the press and everyone else except for them selves for the plight they are living with in today's society.
What a great show you offer. I been listening to you each evening when I get ready to retire for the day. I enjoy the show immensely. However the other night I was outraged to hear you say that Bush released his new book on Veterans Day. I'm retired from the army and I simply don't understand how both he and Obama violated the constitution with these wars. I really won't knock Obama to any degree that I will Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and even Colen Powell. Lying to THE WORLD. As a devout Progressive Ultra Liberal and a strong believer with the constitutional amendment process on the Citizens United matter, and a number one priority in resolving this threatening democracy issue. Unfortunately it is a process which will take time, however perseverance has to be the word.
Sorry to keep bouncing back like this, folks, but Thom addresses an issue that really resonates with me. This stuff doesn’t just stick in my craw; it freaks me out. That whole conservative “you’re-on-your-own, every-man-to-himself” philosophy is so toxic, their messages so dangerous. Health care not a right…. Really?! - AIW
In some of those side-bar threads is a wealth of examples to illustrate the maliciousness of conservative ideology Loren has been ranting about. I cite this one thread begun by a conservative who goes by the name of “Dexterous”. It’s the one titled “Obamacare Architect Lack of Transparency Was Key…" blah-blah.
Post #3: “I saw no problems with the system as it stood before…” No problem with a system that bankrupts and kills! Way to go Dexie.
Post #5: “Nothing is for free pal.” This is Dex’s response to Legend’s post #4 where some of the many pitfalls of our for-profit healthscare system are described.
Post #19, in Kilo’s response to me: “Health care is not a human right regardless of how many times you shout it.”
Appreciated Thom's column. I am finding that some conservatives in my social and work environments are beginning to see this problem. Even though recent election was discouraging, maybe more education through the media will help.
War = hate, rage, inhumanity, evil, destructive, genocidal, hunger, depravity, damage, injured, mutilated, tortured, refugee, subversion, propaganda, dehumanization, pacification, murder, mayhem, destabilization, death, crime, rape,onslaught, slaughter, camps, homeless, displacement, enemy, terror, savage, cruel, cripple, domination, bombing, casualty, prisoner, target, occupation and the most important thing PROFIT.
The average wage at Costco must be pretty high if the CEO salary was capped at 12:1
worker wages. The stockroom must pay in the vicinity of $450,000 / per year
W. Craig Jelinek/President and Chief Executive Officer 2009=$1,835,456 2010=$2,264,059 2011=$3,335,865 2022=$4,810,773 2013= $5,385,475
http://insiders.morningstar.com/trading/executive-compensation.action?t=...
A family is no Substitute for an actual social safety net ! Due to over whelming credit card debt my father took out a reverse mortgage and I Really do not know how I am going to have place to stay since I have been out of work for over two years and even when I was working I never made a living wage !To begin with My brother essentially views me as an undue burden and will mostly likely have me thrown out of his residence for the most trivial and frivolous reasons . He once tried to convince me he was turned down from an apartment because I was out of work !So living there will be jumping through his hoops and walking on egg shells . The prospect of having to live with an individual of whom I have no respect for or trust in fills me with non stop dread . Although as of yet I have to yet to muster up the courage to commit suicide ! It is quite possible that in time the horror of living with this highly undesirable individual will surely overwhelm any cowardice that kept me from ending my horrific existence ! The stress of living with him has drained the life out of me and has greatly contributed to an over all deterioration of physical and mental health! The idea that pills will rectify this situation greatly evades reality and does nothing to make things right ! He has mocked me being out of work and thinks I am supposed to get job at his abusive and hostile carcinogenic laden work place that evades OSHA regulations regularly My brother has let unsavory persons take advantage of him on numerous occasions . Some specific examples are as follows 1 He has spent tens of thousands of dollars on credit on at least one individual 2 Due to his gross negligence somebody got a hold of his personal information and opened a false account at Comcast and Verizon costing him altogether thousands of dollars . He only be came aware of this when a friend ran a credit report on him ,and never perused the manner seriously 3 Another individual got ahold of his debit card on at least four occasions and on one occasion his checking account was cleaned out . 4 The same individual who got ahold of his debit card when had a yard sale and only raised fifty dollars stole what little money he got from the yard sale ! The height of irony is he told me when I move in with him he will not tolerate a book shelf when I reside with him or having any of my hand tools around ,but not only highly tolerates , but seems to openly invite others making a fool of him ! On a few occasions I demonstrated fixing things around the house he thought were impossible for me to accomplish ! 1 I fixed the handle to the toilet 2 A Kitchen drawer he thought was beyond repair! 3 I installed a receptacle underneath a window so it could be readily accessed by a window fan or Ac! He does not respect me on one or a few occasions has said go ahead and hit me so I can call the police .. He said he desired to go the worst part of town because of cheaper rental rates and stated we have nothing to be afraid no violence will happen to us because we have nothing to steal ! His failure to recognize he can be a victim of violence regardless of whether he has anything of value is yet another example of he not only regularly exercises poor judgment but has ran a marathon of it !
When comparing/contrasting salaries......what employees are they comparing CEO's to. The entry level workers who, by the way, can be replaced by anybody off the street?
Who is anybody to say how much a CEO of a private business should earn. They are in place to make money for their shareholders or their owner. Period.
There will always be a pay gap, just as there will always be an intelligence gap and a motivation gap etc.....
As long as you're at it it seems that looks play some part in life.....it's always the good looking guys that get the good looking girls (and visa-versa) i think that we should all be made equal. Plastic surgery for everyone so that we all have equal beauty. All men should be overweight with bad teeth and terrible hair. And women should have small breasts, a fat ass and the voice of troll.
Obion County, Tennessee, was where the fire fighters let a house burn down because the advance fee hadn't been paid.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obion_County,_Tennessee#Other_services
The way I explain Net Neutrality is with an analogy to a toll road.
A toll road can charge the cars that travel on it, but the toll booth operator cannot ask the drivers where they're going, and then send a bill to everybody's destination for the privilege of making the stores and homes accessible by that road.
Without Net Neutrality, the "toll road" would be charging both sides of the interaction (the traveler and the destination), getting paid twice to do something once. And if the road is allowed to ask where you're going, then it can start charging different types of destinations differently.
Can one person owning a billion dollars be justified?
hater22 ~ That is really a great idea. One solution that I recently heard was to impose salary caps --like they do with athletes in professional sports--on CEO's. Lets say no CEO can make more than 100 times what his lowest paid employee make. Still, a very fair dispersion. Once capped, the only way that CEO can give himself a raise or bonus would be by shelling out raises and or bonuses to all his lowest paid employees. I like that idea.
The pay gap of 350% is a very big gap. The payment of a CEO will be more than employes, but not at that big %. There will be equality between employers and top management. This decline the moral of the employes. This gap has to be filled up.
I must appreciate them for what they are doing. Everyone should learn about this therapy and try this. google plus
Aliceinwonderland ~ (Reply to #30) Thanks so much for sharing that heartfelt and touching letter. What a great way to remind some people that we are all humans; and, as such, all entitled to certain inalienable rights. If we aren't free enough in this country to give away things that belong to us to whomsoever we chose, who are we to claim we are free in any way? That's just the notion of freedom--lets not even get into the notion of being a "Christian" nation.
Anyway, I just wanted to say that I couldn't wait to sign that petition; however, when I clicked on that link all I got was my own GMail inbox. I did my own websearch and this is the link I found. Consider it signed; and, thanks for sharing:
https://www.change.org/p/ft-lauderdale-city-officials-drop-the-charges-against-90-year-old-arnold-abbott-for-feeding-the-homeless
Aliceinwonderland ~ You might want to provide the link for that thread in case anyone else would like to weigh in. Oh, wait a minute, here it is:
http://www.thomhartmann.com/users/dexterous/blog/2014/11/obamacare-architect-lack-transparency-was-key-because-%E2%80%98stupidity-americ#comment-293551
Loren Bliss ~ (Reply to #17] Well, you've definitely got me there. Very well said. As much as I'd like to I cannot disagree. How truly sad. Point well made!
Hey my friends, speaking of inequality, take a load of this! I got it off change.org and it is written by someone named Nailah:
It’s illegal to feed homeless people in public in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. Earlier this week 90-year-old Arnold Abbott was arrested and now faces 60 days in jail for offering food to the homeless with his church. Ft. Lauderdale police should drop the charges against Mr. Abbott and repeal the law against feeding homeless people in public.
My children and I were homeless for 6 years. It wasn’t easy, but luckily I had the kindness of strangers to lend me a hand from time to time. They would buy me meals, give me hope, sometimes stop to see how I was and it showed me that I wasn’t alone and that although I was homeless, I wasn’t invisible. It was in large part because of them that I got off of the streets and can now proudly say I have a place to call my own, a husband and 5 beautiful children.
I remember my time on the street often. That’s why I was so upset when I learned that not even a 30 minute drive from where I live, 90-year-old homeless advocate Arnold Abbott, along with two Christian ministers were arrested for violating a new Ft. Lauderdale ordinance that virtually bans public feeding of the homeless. Now Mr. Abbott and his companions each face 60 days in jail and a $500 fine! It's outrageous to think that someone’s kindness could land them in jail.
As an ex-homeless person I take every chance I get to repay the goodwill strangers afforded me. I give what I can to those in need and I teach my children treat others as they wish to be treated and that means being compassionate and understanding. I’m sure many of you do the same. Just imagine being arrested and thrown in jail for 60 days for buying a sandwich for a person in need!
I want the Ft. Lauderdale City Council to repeal this disgraceful ordinance and drop all charges against Mr. Abbott and his companions. All of us deserve to be treated with kindness whether or not we have a home. City officials should encourage it rather than ask us to turn a blind eye.
If this ordinance is allowed to stand and the charges are not dropped, many homeless will lose a vital source of support and precedents could be set for other cities to follow suite.
Join me in signing this petition and demand that Ft. Lauderdale repeal this cruel ordinance and drop the charges against all those involved. - Nailah
What greater depths of depravity must we reach before finally realizing what a soulless culture capitalism and Ayn Randism has left us with!?!
Here’s the link. Sign the petition! https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?shva=1#inbox/149b8d3b406f3216
The idea that the post office should get swiped and hijacked by privatizers driven to make a profit is disgusting and horrifying. I brace myself for the additional damage we and our country stand to suffer now that these psychopaths have taken over our entire Congress. We're in serious trouble, folks.
Not to mention that apologizing for using spent uranium ammo shoud be on that list.
Thom please read this on the Post Office: The section of the constitution that talks about the Post Office is the section where taxes are discussed. The idea that the Post Office should "make a profit" moves the discussion about it to Republican turf. The USPS is just that a service, a utility. There is nothing wrong with have public utilities that are owned by the people and others that are regulated by the people. The Republicans want to drive the discussion of the USPS around profits so they can eventually sell it to UPS or FedEx or Amazon. Then the only part of the USPS that will be left is the part that delivers to areas that are unprofitable for UPS and FedEx. That is the Repulican vision. Do not argue on their turf. The USPS should deliver email and mail and keep it private that is one of the mission of the USPS. It could be expanded to providing high speed internet access everywhere. Banking, voting and other service could be rolled into the service to make it a wonderful public utility. Don't argue on the Right's turf because they have unlimited money to create talking points and will never lose if it comes down to that.
Inconsequential indeed, CK. Democracy is dead in America. I wish I could answer your question; I don't know any better than you how to get the attention of our so-called representatives. We're living under fascism now. Corporate fascism. They've taken over our media, our schools, our food supply, our healthcare system... next on the chopping block is the post office. So then what; our water supply? Where does privatization end? If they could, they'd hijack the air we breathe. - AIW
The essential question at this point is what can the citizen do, either individually or collectively, to get the attention of our so-called representatives? Whether the issue is economic inequality, climate change, electoral reform, police-state behavior, net neutrality, healthcare or any of dozens of other neglected issues, have we exhausted all means of recovery of our democracy? Currently 80-90% agreement on an issue by the electorate is inconsequential at the state/federal levels.
Reply to #9: Excellent points, Marc! I concur.
The internet belongs to the people. Case closed.
I am now more than a half century old, and find myself so dismayed by the ease of conditioning the majority of Anmericans into voting and support ideas that are clearly against their own self interst by using false interpertations of all religious doctring and the use of misinformation for the sole purpose of creating fear in the low informed population in America, and thus using that fear of taking responsibilty to doing the right thing is used to assist those living by denying fscts can easily blame the press and everyone else except for them selves for the plight they are living with in today's society.
Hi Thom,
What a great show you offer. I been listening to you each evening when I get ready to retire for the day. I enjoy the show immensely. However the other night I was outraged to hear you say that Bush released his new book on Veterans Day. I'm retired from the army and I simply don't understand how both he and Obama violated the constitution with these wars. I really won't knock Obama to any degree that I will Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and even Colen Powell. Lying to THE WORLD. As a devout Progressive Ultra Liberal and a strong believer with the constitutional amendment process on the Citizens United matter, and a number one priority in resolving this threatening democracy issue. Unfortunately it is a process which will take time, however perseverance has to be the word.
Sorry to keep bouncing back like this, folks, but Thom addresses an issue that really resonates with me. This stuff doesn’t just stick in my craw; it freaks me out. That whole conservative “you’re-on-your-own, every-man-to-himself” philosophy is so toxic, their messages so dangerous. Health care not a right…. Really?! - AIW
In some of those side-bar threads is a wealth of examples to illustrate the maliciousness of conservative ideology Loren has been ranting about. I cite this one thread begun by a conservative who goes by the name of “Dexterous”. It’s the one titled “Obamacare Architect Lack of Transparency Was Key…" blah-blah.
Post #3: “I saw no problems with the system as it stood before…” No problem with a system that bankrupts and kills! Way to go Dexie.
Post #5: “Nothing is for free pal.” This is Dex’s response to Legend’s post #4 where some of the many pitfalls of our for-profit healthscare system are described.
Post #19, in Kilo’s response to me: “Health care is not a human right regardless of how many times you shout it.”
UGH. Disgusting. Beam me up. - AIW
Appreciated Thom's column. I am finding that some conservatives in my social and work environments are beginning to see this problem. Even though recent election was discouraging, maybe more education through the media will help.