Recent comments
ADHD: Hunter in a Farmer's World
Thom Hartmann has written a dozen books covering ADD / ADHD - Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder.
Join Thom for his new twice-weekly email newsletters on ADHD, whether it affects you or a member of your family.
Thom's Blog Is On the Move
By webmaster
Hello All
Thom's blog in this space and moving to a new home.
Please follow us across to hartmannreport.com - this will be the only place going forward to read Thom's blog posts and articles.
All right, now I'll move on to the next bogus point in Matt's recent post. To further illustrate Thom's alleged "hypocrisy", Matt points out that Thom's books are printed on wood pulp paper and transported via diesel-burning trucks. Again I ask, where are the alternatives?
Matt weakens his own argument by choosing these very examples, either of which could better support my point about corporate fascism. For example, wanna know why our cars run on fossil fuel? Because nearly a century ago, at the dawn of the "automotive era", this oligarch named Rockefeller got in Henry Ford's face one day, literally threatening him with bodily harm if he didn't design his cars to run on fossil fuel. Just so happened that Rockefeller had substantial interests tied up with fossil fuel… surprise!
There's a similar scenario behind the use of wood pulp paper. Hemp makes superior paper, much stronger and more durable than wood. Processing raw materials to make hemp paper does not require the use of toxic chemicals that are necessary for manufacturing wood pulp paper. But back in the 1930s oligarchs like DuPont, Hearst and others had interests staked in materials competing with hemp in the marketplace, so they saw to it that hemp cultivation was criminalized just to thwart the competition. This was what kept Hearst's timber in demand at a premium price, for example, while creating and maintaining demand for DuPont's wood processing chemicals.
Therefore we don't rely solely on certain energy sources and types of raw materials because they are the only possible options that could have been utilized; we rely on them because of decisions made by oligarchs with their own best interests at heart, not the interests of the public or the environment. And since our entire infrastructure is designed around things like fossil fuel and electricity, we are forced to use them whether we like it or not. Which makes us "hypocrites" just functioning day to day, doing what survival in this century entails. Therefore, a bogus argument. - Aliceinwonderland
Thanks Loren! I concur. - AIW
As I say almost every week in Outside Agitator's Notebook (my blog), "austerity" is nothing more than a euphemism for genocide: the deliberate extermination of the Working Class. albeit without the odium of death camps.
Such is capitalist governance: absolute power and unlimited profit for the Ruling Class, total subjugation for all the rest of us. In other words, fascism.
chuckle8 ~ On a side note servicing an HP laserjet is really easier than changing the oil in your car. If you feel up to the task remember that HP designed these boxes to be user serviceable. Many kits don't even require tools to install; and, come with the complete instructions on how to do the job in the kit. At worst you might need some common hand tools like a #2 philips head screw driver. Additionally, if you buy your own kit you will save on the dealer markup. That could save you an additional $100-$200 alone. There are plenty of printer parts available on the internet. The maintenance interval on your average laserjet is about every 300,000 prints. You might also want to vacuum up loose toner when you have the box open. Don't use air. Airborne toner can cause other problems.
The worst thing that can go wrong is you'll have to call us; which, you will have to do anyway.
Finally, make sure you get a kit with a fuser core return. You will have to send in the old core to get your deposit back but will end up saving another $100 in the process. If you follow these instructions you can reduce the cost of a full service from $600 to around $100-$150.
Happy printing!
Aliceinwonderland/ChicagoMatt ~ The CEO's already know that. That is why it is called "a disposable labor force." At $800 to train someone new what is that really? Maybe two weeks of the cost of paying a livable wage. It is still far cheaper in the long fun than paying a livable wage which is why if left to their own McDonald's will never change their wage and hiring policy. They need to have their arm twisted and the only entity capable of doing that is Uncle Sam.
PS Now with our double digit unemployment rate there are a plethora of people in the labor force who already have experience and need a minimum of training; thus, reducing this "problem" to a minimum that was never seen during the tenure of Matt. More reason than ever to raise the minimum wage.
Aliceinwonderland ~ I'll never forget when some tea brained little fascist, who calls himself, "Soc", called the Stephanie Miller show and threatened to kill her. She handled the whole thing so profoundly professionally I have to tip my hat to her for creativity. She actually incorporated the guy into bits in her show giving him a job. Just like that former KKK leader in Texas that Howard Stern interviews periodically this guy is a wealth of laughs. Then she even had her crew write the guy his own theme song.
"It's nice to have a special friend who wants' to get you into heaven,
A special friend with an AK-47
He's a retired insurance man,
With way too much time on his hands,
Oh, speaking of time, just look at the clock!
It's time for Soc!"
Oh, how I so do love Stephanie!
PS I'm really going to miss Randi Rhodes too. She rocked! I learned a lot from that lady.
ChicagoMatt ~ I'm happy to hear that you don't support that idea. It is reprehensible and Rahm Emanuel should be ashamed of himself. No leader should ever put anything above the good of his subjects. What a tool!
ChicagoMatt ~ That is a good point. I've had a few Doctors in my old age and have found that the vast majority of them to be foreign too. Good thing too! By far the worst Doctors I and my friends have had have been Americans. A friend of mine was so misdiagnosed by one in the emergency room once that I, he, and his family and friends--including an off duty EMT--were convinced the head Doctor--an American--was intentionally trying to kill my friend to spare the hospital a fortune in convalescence care. If it wasn't for the EMT friend of his, and all the on-duty nurses ganging up on the head Doctor, my friend would have died right there in the emergency room. He was bleeding to death and the head Doctor put him on liquid restrictions.
Personally, when I landed in the emergency for a hernia an American doctor widened my hernia by forcefully shoving his hand into it. Apparently if you can force the intestine back into the wall you can be put on a waiting list. Unfortunately, the action turned a minor hernia into a debilitating emergency hernia. However, because he successfully pushed the intestine back in the hospital refused to acknowledge that it was anymore of an emergency. I turned to a Chinese Doctor in another out of town hospital who did the job right and saved me. Again, when I suffered from Carpal Tunnel syndrome, the first Doctor I saw was Chinese, but American educated. He performed the surgery that completely cured my right hand. Our insurance changed when I needed the same treatment on my left hand and we got an American Doctor. His results left a lot to be desired. After almost two years my thumb is still numb and now I suffer from trigger finger. When I was diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis I was referred to another Chinese Doctor. This one graduated from the University of BeiJing, China. She was wonderful and now I am in full remission.
Though I hate to admit it I have to confess that you make a very good point. Also, I have to advise, you just might not want an American Doctor. That could be due in a large part to that "profit motive" we so ingrain in our people in this country. It totally flies in the face of the Hippocratic Oath.
Of course our healthcare system in this country is so dysfunctional it is hard to say where the blame for anything really belongs.
Sharing his experience working for McDonald's years ago, Matt describes how the "higher-ups" would say employee turnover was the company's biggest problem, along with the cost of training new workers. Well, duhh!
Like virtually anything, Matt, ya git what'cha pay for. Overworked and underpaid employees (at least some of whom, beyond underpaid, also happen to be victims of wage theft) are not gonna stick around for long. They will continually be seeking better opportunities elsewhere, while swarms of new applicants keep showing up to pound at the gate. - Aliceinwonderland
Kend ~ No! She wasn't political at all. She was a gorgeous blond who couldn't see past her curls. Hence, my ex.
Kend ~ You raise the tariffs to the point that the shelf price here on foreign goods is only slightly lower than domestically manufactured goods. You know like it was in the 50's, 60's, 70's, and 80's. That way American's will have the choice, buy American and get something built to last while supporting your own economy; or, save a few dollars, buy foreign, and get junk. There will still be a market for foreign goods; however, with higher incomes per capita because of the return of our manufacturing base, Americans will have those extra few dollars to invest in America. It would be a win win for all Americans. Only China will feel a drop in exports. Who cares? That's their problem!
chuckle8 ~ I would discourage you from refurbishing any toner cartridge. When most aftermarket suppliers suggest "refurbishing" what they actually mean is just replacing the toner. Aftermarket toner is not completely compatible with OEM toner. You can see the difference by observing the toner under a microscope. If the edges and dimensions are the same you probably could get away with it. However, if the edges of the aftermarket toner have sharp edges, or the dimensions are slightly different you risk damaging other parts in your printer including dusting in the paper feed path and ruining the teflon surface of the upper heat roller of the fuser. You will also coat your feed tires with toner causing feed jams and coat the slit glass of your laser optical unit causing light copies. The long term damage can add up in premature failure of these parts. You will also cause premature failure of gears and bearings. Not to also forget, toner is conductive and can also cause shorts blowing your PCB's. In our service contract we specify in writing that the use of any aftermarket toner voids the service agreement for just this reason.
Additionally you risk damaging the drum. Which leads to another problem, most laser jet toner cartridges are very expensive because they contain not only the toner but the drum, main charger, and developer assemblies. That means that there is a lot more replaced when the toner runs out than just the toner. If your printer is such your best bet is to replace the toner cartridge with an original OEM one and spare yourself the grief. In addition to the toner your drum, drum blade, recovery blade, side seals, developer, main charge corona, charge grid, developer bearings and bearing seals are also at their end of life. In essence your machine is ready for a Preventive Maintenance service. HP laserjets make this service very cheap and labor free by building all these parts into their toner cartridges. You replace one and you do the PM service at the same time. In essence the toner cartridge contains the main components of the print cycle. It seems expensive, but it's much cheaper in the long run to just follow the manufacturer's directions with an OEM cartridge.
Flip your cartridge over. If you see a green roller on the bottom just replace the whole thing. That green roller is your drum and if it is incorporated in your toner cartridge it is the most expensive consumable in your machine. That $9 cartridge refill will cost you much more grief down the line. It just will never last as long as a fresh OEM cartridge will: unless, your intent is to drive your machine into an early grave or drastically increase the cost of it's maintenance.
Of course we'd be more than happy to come by and clean up the mess for you. We charge $140 for the first 45 minutes and $35 for every additional 15 minutes. The cost of a kit replacing your fuser, transfer roller and feed tires runs about $300-$450 plus tax bringing your total cost to about $600. Mind you, if you don't discard that generic aftermarket toner at the time of service and replace it with an OEM cartridge there is no warranty. It has been a pleasure doing business with you!
Ink cartridges on the other hand only hold ink. The problem with them are the head. They get clogged up over time and can't be used anymore. If your cartridges are fresh go ahead and get them refilled. I wouldn't suggest refilling them more than three times because the tiny openings in the head simply aren't going to be reliable beyond that. Also, old cartridges aren't reliable enough to bother refilling. On some printers, especially the newer ones, the cartridge has a chip with a diode that blows when it is inserted into the machine the first time. That diode resets the toner counter in the printer. That counter affects electrical charges in the printing process. Most printers with such a circuit shut down if that counter isn't reset within a specific number of copies. If you have such a printer just save your money and buy a new cartridge.
Marc just curious was you ex a Republican?
i agree restore the mfg. base sounds good but how when you can pay someone in China a dollar a day. to build the same thing. When I was in Phoenix I saw a coffee pot in Walmart for $5.88. It has a element, glass pot, plastic everything and a clock and timer not to mention all the packaging and freight. The Chinese dollar must be artificially low even at a dollar a day you couldnt build it that cheap. With it that low priced you will never have a mfg base again. The worst part is that crap in filling your dumps because it only lasts a year or two And they where lined up to by that crap. I think you need to tax or put tariffs on that junk As well.
America is subsadising your mfg base a lot in the solar and wind business. The problem is there is no money in them. They are shutting down every day it seems. I guess from this blog you do the same with oil companies but at least the show a profit and hire millions of people And pay well.
WOW Marc, thanks for sharing all that about Stephanie Miller. I never cease to be amazed at how different people can appear after you learn certain things about them. It really is fascinating at times, this being one of them.
Randi Rhodes is retiring this month. She's one of my favorites, way up there with Thom and Papintonio (sp?), so I'm kinda bummed... and a little envious. - AIW
ChicagoMatt ~ Personally I love Stephanie Miller, at least as a comic. I actually saw her live at the Student Union theatre in SFSU when I was a student there. That was in the '80s and she was 180 degrees different than today--a staunch Republican/Conservative. (Luckily it was a free show.) She actually incorporated her support for Ronald Wilson (666) Reagan in her standup routine. I'll never forget how disgusted I was with the material. Nevertheless I was also struck by her awesome talent as an entertainer. She reminded me of a very young Carol Burnett. (Carol might be before your time but was very popular in my time.) I knew I would be seeing more of her in the future.
Stephanie is the daughter of a former Republican vice Presidential candidate. Her entire family is very political; and, now with her political flip flop she has somewhat become the black sheep. I have to admire her personal honesty.
Nevertheless, I also have to agree with your assertion about her demeanor. I've witnessed the same impatience and disrespect on her show both now and when she was a Republican. It's just her personality. I let it go because she is really biting off a lot with what she does. She is trying to entertain and inform all at the same time. It stands to reason that she is going to fall short in both areas from time to time to one degree or another. For what she is trying to do I think she is doing a great job of it. How many other political commentary/comedians do you know of who pull it off so successfully?
Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert come to mind. Yet that is quite an exclusive group. Also, Jon and Steve don't have to deal with taking callers.
Kend ~ Good point Kend. I agree, the money must be going somewhere. But where. Maybe to support all the massive layoffs incurred by free trade? Maybe to fund all our military activities all over the world? Maybe to subsidize minimum wage so Corporations can continue raping their employees? It certainly isn't going where it is supposed to be going and austerity certainly isn't helping the national debt. I've never seen such mismanagement of money since I saw my ex's credit report.
If you ask me the first step to solving our money problems is restoring our manufacturing base. Since the federal government destroyed it by instituting free trade it seems to me to be the responsibility of the federal government to reinstitute free trade to resolve it. Until that is done, the only other solution is to pay the expensive consequences. Weaseling out of that responsibility is not an option; and, if done would be a disaster. Like Thom says, you cannot cut your way to prosperity--all you end up doing is victimizing the poor so the rich can continue receiving higher than normal profits. It doesn't work. It is a recipe for disaster.
You should appreciate the value of good business more so than many. I'm sure you would agree that good business is the best way for everyone to enjoy profit and prosperity.
Matt, I don't buy this argument you conservatives like repeating that we progressives are "hypocrites" because we use electricity, like Thom and his radio show. We are only hypocrites, Matt, if there are viable alternatives getting bypassed. In this case, there are no such alternatives. Our entire infrastructure and its technology are almost completely wedded to electricity, making us all dependent upon it just to function day-to-day. Whether we happen to like it or not, this is unavoidable and therefore, hardly voluntary. Which makes your "hypocrisy" assertion just another lame argument to justify a status quo you obviously are content with.
I've gotta hand it to ya Matt… you've got perseverance, although your logic doesn't quite hold up.
You've made other points I'd like to respond to; but again, I've other fish to fry. Sometime later I'll pick up where this leaves off. - Aliceinwonderland
Matt, many commercials are sold by the local outlet. The national program has no say in the matter.
IMHO, gold's the junk commercial par excellence. Ever try to eat a bar of that stuff? If things ever really fell apart I would maybe be able to trade one for a glass of water to add to my freeze-dryed cache. Have a good day.
He really is! I wish I could sit with him for awhile, drink some coffee, smoke a cigarette (after 12 years without one, I still sometimes crave them), and talk about world affairs.
I responded to that in the post right above this. I've also noticed that he and Rush and Levin have at least one advertister in common: that company that wants us to buy gold because of impending financial doom. But hey, we all have bills to pay, right? Can't blame a guy for making a buck...
True. Giving to the church is optional, AND is a tax write-off. For every dollar I give the church, I get to give the government 25 cents less, according to my tax guy. And, since I work for a parochial school, I suppose giving to the church is like giving to myself, in a way.
He at least accepts callers who disagree with him. The right-wing talkers seem to only talk to people who agree with their message. I suspect that many of the "callers" to Rush's show are actually actors.
By hypocritical, I mean things like lamenting the destruction of the environment, while at the same time hosting a radio show that requires electricity to both send and recieve (most of which comes from fossil fuels), and flying around the country to promote his books - books which are printed on paper and delivered on diesel-burning trucks. But that is true of any environmentalist. In order to really live a zero-carbon-footprint mantra, you would have to go to the forest or something and live off of the land. If you did that, you would fall so far off of the radar that no one would ever know you existed. There may be millions of environmentalists living in the woods, free of modern conveniences, and we would never know.
His books are also sold in evil corporate retail chains who underpay their workers and make the shareholders rich. But I really don't fault him for that, because there is no way around it anymore. I suppose he could sell the books straight off of his website, and us the U.S. postal service to deliver them, but then his message wouldn't get out as much.
The only Progressive talker I really dislike and find very, very mean is Stephanie Miller. I can sum up her entire thought process is one sentence: "If you disagree with any part of what I am saying, you are racist/homophobic/sexist/stupid."
10 k. I live in Alberta a very right wing province the same party in power for 43 years. not all of Canada is like this. Quebec for example is very socialist. Highest taxes in the country but also the highest unemployment. So Kend's Canada is very different then you think. Alberta's population is growing at a unbelievable rate. There is only 3.5 million here and it is expected grow by 1.5 million over the next ten years the cities are scrambling to keep up with building permits.
Why is it so good here? The answer is simple, very low taxes. More money in the our pockets the more we spend. The provinces that believe the government knows how to spend your money better than you do are hurting. It is just that simple.
Back on topic : Let's not forget besides reduction of the surplus population, austerity is also breaking the labor unions. Cutting teachers and other public sector workers everywhere serves to create dysfunction and impossibilities in those workplaces, in other words austerity builds a, "failure timebomb," into public education and elsewhwere. This all to justify takeovers by the for profit scoundrels. As a result, taxes will continue to increase on the local levels while at the same time those with the extreme wealth will continue to see additional business tax breaks and loopholes by convincing light thinkers like Andy Cuomo to believe in the trickle down economic fairy.
One final thought on unaffordable higher education....Educated citizens tend to be progressive and thus it's in the best interest of the billionaires to make education unaffordable. How is it... that the rest of the developed world has figured out how to make cradle to grave education and healthcrare a citizens right and a functional reality? Places like Kend's socialist Canada...look how well socialism has worked for him....financially anyway. The answer obviously is Democratic Socialism, where wealth is shared, and citizens tend to be the happiest on the planet.
This reminds me of an op-ed piece in the Chicago Tribune two years ago, during the CPS teacher strikes. The writer (I am sorry I do not remember their name) pointed out, correctly, that the mayor (Rahm Emmanuel) didn't need to care about Chicago's students, because Chicago's universities will always attract the smart and ambitious people from around the country. And those people will, most likely, stay in Chicago post-graduation. So, why invest hundreds of thousands in a single student's 13 years of formal education, if you can just recruit well-trained workers from other places. Let someone else pay for the training.
BTW - I am NOT saying I support this idea.
The end result is a lot of well-paid white-collar types in Chicago, who moved here from somewhere else with better grammar schools. Since, like most cities, Chicago has a majority-minority population, the minorities don't get the investment in education, and the best jobs in the city get filled by out-of-towners, who (I am guessing on this one) are mostly white.
If you take that out to the global scale, I can see why the powers that be might think to themselves, "America's universities will always attract talented students from around the world. America itself will attract the best people from around the world. So why bother investing in the natives?"
Speaking of which, I literally can't remember the last time I had an American-born doctor.
Austerity? America is going into debt over a trillion dollars a year. Obama has spent over seven trillion more then he has taken in Since becoming President. The money is being spent in the wrong places maybe but it is certainly being spent.
Yes. I was in a management position at a retail chain for about four or five years, after getting my B.A. That's what led me to go back and get my M.A. in teaching. I didn't like my retail experience for several reasons, partially because of the way I had to do scheduling. I was in charge of doing the weekly schedule for the 80 or so employees (depended on the season, how many people we had). The way it worked, with this company at least, was they took the average weekly sales for the same week's previous three years, and gave us a certain number of hours we could schedule people based on the expected sales. Typically, I had around 2,000 hours to "give out" each week. Most of our employees made between $9-12 an hour. I was the higest paid hourly emplyee at around $15 an hour. The next step after me was salaried.
If we were over on hours, or under in sales, I'd have to start telling people to go home, which was hard to do when I knew those few hours of work were important for those people. I hated doing that.
That also usually meant that our busiest time - Saturday - was also when we had to cut the most people. If you ever get crappy customer service on the weekends, that might be part of the reason. My management experience led me to become one of those people who writes complain letters to companies for bad customer experience. I've become somewhat of a grumpy old man when it comes to shopping.
The higher-ups always told me that the biggest problem with the company was high turn over. According to them, it cost $800 to "train" a new employee, but 75% of them were gone within a year. But there were always new people to take their place. We did all of our hiring via an online application, which averaged more than 600 applicants in the pool at any given time. (This was in the mid 2000s, and that "pool" was for all of the stores on this side of Chicago.)
I got a lot of inside information because they were grooming me for a District Manager position. If I stayed with it, I'd probably be in charge of a dozen or so stores now. But it wasn't for me. In the five years since I left that store, the entire 80-person crew has been replaced.
I can see your point. The idea that the upper-management's (the salaried people) job is to get the most productivety from their workers for the least price seemed like normal operating procedure. Maybe it's a generational thing, since, again, this is the only system someone my age would know? Teh idea of being an employee being loyal to a company, or vice-versa, seems old-fashioned. I'm NOT saying it's WRONG. I'm just saying it seems like that all changed a long time ago. If I were unable to escape that retail hourly-wage trap. I'd be very disgruntled. I can see some of the corporate side's view as well. If the retail job was automated, which these were (the computer interface was idiot-proof), then why bother trying to retain employees? Know what I mean?
I can see how some people call this a "race to the bottom".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4Stk2yejNk
Interest is made up of at least three factors of cost, Administrative expenses, Profit for the lender (also called rent), and allowance for risk that the borrower will default on the loan. The last item was eliminated as a cost factor when Congress passed the "NO Bankruptcy" for student loans law. this means that the profit for lendors went up, skyrocketed! Social Security has an adminiostrative cost of aboit 1.5% of the benefit (loan principle). Lenders probably meet or exceed this small administrative cost. therefore the8+ percentage presently being charged on student loans is about 6.,5% or over four times the administrative costs and about the same ratio over the present inflation rate and several more times the current Federal Bond rate.