I combine two different segments of John and Ken discussing California’s #FakeNews regarding straws and the environment. (The first segment is from Thursday’s show, the second is from Wednesday’s show [starts at the 7:15 mark]) Some funny and frustrating stuff.
Crazy Dems
N.Y. Democrat Candidate Calls Trump Hitler
The Denver Post runs a “Letter to the Editor” where a Democrat candidate for office (Perry Gershon is a 2018 Democratic candidate seeking election to the U.S. House to represent the 1st Congressional District of New York.) says:
- “In the video, Perry Gershon, who previously worked as a lender in commercial real estate, recalls paying a visit to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington during the 2016 presidential race. ‘I was struck by the parallels between the rise of Donald Trump today and the rise of Hitler back then,’ Gershon says.” (RUSH LIMBAUGH)
Media Madness BEFORE President Trump’s SCOTUS Choice
Michael Medved discusses the nomination of Trump’s Supreme Court choice BEFORE Trump announced who it is (was, see my post on Kavanaugh). The media madness is just but a taste of what we are in for. And the horrible understanding of what the Court does is evident in the first caller’s concern. The second caller brings up a statement made by “candidate” Trump that was unfortunate, and that he later repudiated.
Here is Nina “HIV” Totenberg joining the misdirection:
- “On Sunday’s MSNBC Live, NPR legal affairs correspondent Nina Totenberg again showed her blatant double standard in being quick to label conservative justices as ‘very conservative’ but painting liberal justices as being more ‘centrist’.” (NEWSBUSTERS)
Dear Ex-Friends… by Julie Kelly
(This comes from a post on another group I am in on Facebook, and is not my writing, but I agree with it and posted it on my RPT Facebook Page. Text below the linked graphic.)
Dear Ex-Friends… by Julie Kelly
5/30/2018
I think the last civil conversations we had occurred just days before November 8, 2016. You were supremely confident Hillary Clinton would win the presidential election; you voted for her with glee. As a lifelong Republican, I bit down hard and cast my vote for Donald Trump. Then the unimaginable happened. He won.And you lost your freaking minds.
I knew you would take the loss hard—and personally—since all of you were super jacked-up to elect the first woman president. But I did not imagine you would become totally deranged, attacking anyone who voted for Trump or supported his presidency as a racist, sexist, misogynistic, homophobic Nazi-sympathizer.
The weirdness started on social media late on Election Night, as it became clear Hillary was going to lose. A few of you actually admitted that you were cradling your sleeping children, weeping, wondering what to tell your kindergartner the next morning about Trump’s victory. It continued over the next several days. Some of you seriously expressed fear about modern-day concentration camps. Despite living a privileged lifestyle, you were suddenly a casualty of the white patriarchy. Your daughters were future victims; your sons were predators-in-waiting. You threatened to leave Facebook because you could no longer enjoy the family photos or vacation posts from people who, once friends, became Literal Hitlers to you on November 8 because they voted for Donald Trump.
I admit I was a little hurt at first. The attacks against us Trump voters were so personal and so vicious that I did not think it could be sustained. I thought maybe you would regain your sanity after some turkey and egg nog.
But you did not. You got worse. And I went from sad to angry to where I am today: Amused.
As the whole charade you have been suckered into over the last 18 months starts to fall apart—that Trump would not survive his presidency; he would be betrayed by his own staff, family, and/or political party; he would destroy the Republican Party; he would be declared mentally ill and removed from office; he would be handcuffed and dragged out of the White House by Robert Mueller for “colluding” with Russia—let me remind you what complete fools you have made of yourselves. Not to mention how you’ve been fooled by the media, the Democratic Party, and your new heroes on the NeverTrump Right.
On November 9, you awoke from a self-induced, eight-year-long political coma to find that White House press secretaries shade the truth and top presidential advisors run political cover for their boss. You were shocked to discover that presidents exaggerate, even lie, on occasion. You became interested for the first time about the travel accommodations, office expenses, and lobbyist pals of administration officials. You started counting how many rounds of golf the president played. You suddenly thought it was fine to mock the first lady now that she wasn’t Michelle Obama. Once you removed your pussy hat after attending the Women’s March, you made fun of Kellyanne Conway’s hair, Sarah Sanders’ weight, Melania Trump’s shoes, Hope Hicks’ death stare; you helped fuel a rumor started by a bottom-feeding author that U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley slept with Donald Trump. You thought it was A-OK that Betsy DeVos was nearly physically assaulted and routinely heckled. You glorified a woman who has sex on camera for a paycheck.
You have learned all kinds of new things that those of us who didn’t willfully ignore politics for the past eight years already knew. For example, we already knew that illegal immigrants were being deported and families were being separated.
We already knew about misconduct at the Environmental Protection Agency. We already knew that politicians gerrymander congressional districts for favorable election outcomes. We already knew that citizens from certain countries had restricted access here.
But American politics became a whole new thing for you.
Some of your behavior has been kinda cute. It was endearing to watch you become experts on the Logan Act, the Hatch Act, the Second Amendment, the 25th Amendment, and the Emoluments Clause. You developed a new crush on Mitt Romney after calling him a “sexist” for having “binders full of women.” You longed for a redux of the presidency of George W. Bush, a man you once wanted imprisoned for war crimes. Ditto for John McCain. You embraced people like Bill Kristol and David Frum without knowing anything about their histories of shotgunning the Iraq War.
Classified emails shared by Hillary Clinton? Who cares! Devin Nunes wanting to declassify crucial information of the public interest? Traitor!
But your newfound admiration and fealty to law enforcement really has been a fascinating transformation. Wasn’t it just last fall that I saw you loudly supporting professional athletes who were protesting police brutality by kneeling during the national anthem? Remember how you fanboyed a mediocre quarterback for wearing socks that depicted cops as pigs?
But now you sound like paid spokesmen for the Fraternal Order of Police. You insist that any legitimate criticism of the misconduct and possibile criminality that occurred at the Justice Department and FBI is an “attack on law enforcement.” While you once opposed the Patriot Act because it might have allowed the federal government to spy on terrorists who were using the local library to learn how to make suitcase bombs, you now fully support the unchecked power of a secret court to look into the phone calls, text messages and emails of an American citizen because he volunteered for the Trump campaign for a few months.
Spying on terrorists, circa 2002: Bad. Spying on Carter Page, circa 2017: The highest form of patriotism.
And that white, male patriarchy that you were convinced would strip away basic rights and silence any opposition after Trump won? That fear has apparently been washed away as you hang on every word uttered by James Comey, John Brennan, and James Clapper. This triumvirate is exhibit “A” of the old-boy network, and represents how the insularity, arrogance, and cover-your-tracks mentality of the white-male power structure still prevails. Yet, instead of rising up against it, you are buying their books, retweeting their Twitter rants and blasting anyone who dares to question their testicular authority. Your pussy hat must be very sad.
But your daily meltdowns about Trump-Russia election collusion have been the most entertaining to observe. After Robert Mueller was appointed as Special Counsel, you were absolutely convinced it would result in Trump’s arrest and/or impeachment. Some of you insisted that Trump wouldn’t last beyond 2017. You quickly swallowed any chum tossed at you by the Trump-hating media on MSNBC, the New York Times and the Washington Post about who was going down next, or who would flip on the president.
For the past year, I have watched you obsess over a rotating cast of characters: Paul Manafort, Donald Trump, Jr., Jared Kushner, Carter Page, Reince Priebus, Jeff Sessions, Michael Flynn, Steve Bannon, Sam Nunberg, and Hope Hicks are just a few of the people you thought would turn on Trump or hasten his political demise. But when those fantasies didn’t come true, you turned to Michael Avenatti and Stormy Daniels for hope and inspiration. It will always be your low point.
Well, I think it will be. Each time I believe you’ve hit bottom, you come up with a new baseline. Perhaps defending the unprecedented use of federal power to spy on political foes then lie about it will the next nail in your credibility coffin.
The next several weeks will be tough for you. I think Americans will learn some very hard truths about what happened in the previous administration and how we purposely have been misled by powerful leaders and the news media. I wish I could see you as a victim here, but you are not. I know you are smart; you chose to support this insurgency with your eyes wide open.
Now, I shall sit back and enjoy your pain.
Your Ex-Friend, Julie
IRONY | Maxine Waters Is Violating the KKK Act of 1871
Professor John Eastman notes that Maxine Waters may in fact be violating the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871. Here is a posrtion of the HISTORY CHANNEL article on this:
…After 1870, Republican state governments in the South turned to Congress for help, resulting in the passage of three Enforcement Acts, the strongest of which was the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871.
For the first time, the Ku Klux Klan Act designated certain crimes committed by individuals as federal offenses, including conspiracies to deprive citizens of the right to hold office, serve on juries and enjoy the equal protection of the law. The act authorized the president to suspend the writ of habeas corpus and arrest accused individuals without charge, and to send federal forces to suppress Klan violence. This expansion of federal authority–which Ulysses S. Grant promptly used in 1871 to crush Klan activity in South Carolina and other areas of the South–outraged Democrats and even alarmed many Republicans. From the early 1870s onward, white supremacy gradually reasserted its hold on the South as support for Reconstruction waned; by the end of 1876, the entire South was under Democratic control once again….
The #BlueWave Turns To Drowning (Rush Limbaugh)
Rush Limbaugh discusses how the Dems thought they were sitting pretty just a couple months ago, and then… their world came crashing down. While he lightly passes over the possible future actions of the Dems (riots), Democrat leaders and Leftist orgs are actually calling for violence. (I added a scene from Matrix on my VIMEO version)
A comment at my LIVELEAK noted this:
It has been a crushing week for the poor demokkkrats. If you see one, be humane and offer water to them, they are probably dehydrated from tear loss.
- Their hopeful for the replacement of Pelosi got beat by a 28 yr old Socialist
- Supreme Court rules in favor of Trump travel restrictions
- Supremes rule unions cannot force workers to pay union dues
- Justice Kennedy announces retirement
- CNN viewership takes another nose dive
Larry Elder discusses Chief Justice Roberts excoriation of non-sequiturs… here is LAW & CRIME’S partial comment:
…Chief Justice Roberts took no small measure of offense. The majority decision notes:
- Finally, the dissent invokes Korematsu v. United States, 323 U. S. 214 (1944). Whatever rhetorical advantage the dissent may see in doing so, Korematsu has nothing to do with this case. The forcible relocation of U. S. citizens to concentration camps, solely and explicitly on the basis of race, is objectively unlawful and outside the scope of Presidential authority. But it is wholly inapt to liken that morally repugnant order to a facially neutral policy denying certain foreign nationals the privilege of admission.
The chief justice wasn’t quite finished and almost took the opportunity to overrule the Korematsu decision–but stopped just short of doing so. He wrote, “The dissent’s reference to Korematsu, however, affords this Court the opportunity to make express what is already obvious: Korematsu was gravely wrong the day it was decided, has been overruled in the court of history, and—to be clear—’has no place in law under the Constitution.’…
The Owners of The Red Hen in Virginia Are the Real Bigots
- “Once Sarah and her family left — and of course Sarah was asked to please vacate, Sarah and her husband just went home. They had sort of had enough. But the rest of her family went across the street to a different restaurant,” Huckabee said on “The Laura Ingraham Show.” “The owner of the Red Hen — nobody’s told this — then followed them across the street, called people and organized a protest yelling and screaming at them from outside the other restaurant and creating this scene.” (WASHINGTON EXAMINER)
Here is something I have been saying the past days… and now PJ-MEDIA has a wonderful article stating it as well. Here are my bullet points and then an excerpt from the article:
- Both the Masterpiece Cake Shop and Sweet Cakes, as well as Arlene’s Flowers are examples of Christian owners serving everyone who comes through their door. The gay couples were regular customers of both businesses, for MANY years. These two Christian business owners would sell and did offer to sell anything in the shop for the event (the same-sex marriage/wedding event), but merely chose due to conscience to withhold participating in managing and contributing their artistic expression and free speech to the EVENT. Blanket service was never denied. (See more here: “Having Your Cake and Forcing Others to Eat It Too“)
- The Red Hen restaurant decided to do just the opposite of every example these Christian store owners did. They denied BLANKET service to an opposing point of view. The Huckabees did not ask the restaurant to cater a political or religious event celebrating something that the owner’s conscience would not be able to participate in. Rather, it is an example of Jim Crow type laws, being reinstated by the same party that establish them to begin with.
(By the way, I truly believe every business owner should be allowed to refuse business to whomever one wishes… and this is why Barry Goldwater was right: “The American Experiment Wanes ~ Indiana and Religious Discrimination” | BUT by trying to meter out who has rights or what political or religious position holds precedence… we are in the beginning stages of chaos for our legal system.)
Here is a portion of PJ-MEDIA’S excellent post:
…Of course, these people who were outraged that Christian bakers wouldn’t make custom cakes for gay weddings think somehow that outrage over what happened to Sarah Huckabee Sanders makes conservative hypocrites, while their enthusiastic approval of her being kicked out of The Red Hen restaurant in Lexington, Virginia, doesn’t make them hypocritical in the least.
But, I’m going to explain why what happened to Sarah Sanders and her family is actually worse, and why the people who celebrate that denial of service are the real hypocrites and bigots.
The key difference here is that baking a custom cake for a gay wedding is not the same thing as blanket denial of service at a restaurant. None of the Christian bakers ever denied service to gay customers — they just didn’t want to make custom cakes celebrating a lifestyle they believe to be sinful. Media coverage of various incidents has likened the cases of Christian bakers not wanting to create custom cakes for same-sex weddings as refusing to serve homosexuals. However, this is simply not true.
Masterpiece Bakery, owned by Jack Phillips, the complainant (and victor) in the recent Supreme Court case, never refused to serve gay customers.
…from the beginning, Jack has seen his business as an expression of his faith (hence the name), and that has led him to reject business throughout his career. For example, he’s refused to make custom cakes for Halloween and divorce celebrations, and he’s turned down requests for lewd cakes for bachelor and bachelorette parties.
Back in 2012, two men asked Jack to design a cake for their same-sex wedding. Now mind you, back in 2012, the state of Colorado didn’t even recognize same-sex weddings. Jack told them that he would gladly sell them any item in the store—including cakes—but that he could not, due to his religious convictions, use his cake-design talents to participate in the celebration of their ceremony.
So Mr. Phillips went out of his way in an attempt to accommodate the gay couple. This was not a case of denial of service.
How about Sweet Cakes by Melissa, the Christian-owned bakery in Oregon? In this case, the lesbian couple that had wanted a custom cake for their wedding had been customers before the incident that resulted in the bakers being fined $135,000 (which ultimately forced them to shut down the business). There was no refusal of service by owners Aaron and Melissa Klein. The Kleins, in their own words, “declined to create a custom cake that would have required us to express a message our faith teaches against.”
How about 111 Cakery in Indianapolis, Indiana? 111 Cakery, formerly owned by Randy and Trish McGath, was forced to close its doors in 2015 after three years in business. But they weren’t guilty of refusing to serve gay customers, either.
McGath said he and his wife, who attend a Baptist church, were well aware of the neighborhood’s gay culture when they opened their bakery there in 2012. They served the gay community gladly for several years but “just didn’t want to be party to a commitment ceremony” because such an event reflected “a commitment to sin.”
[…]
“There was zero hate here,” said McGath, who is now selling recreational vehicles. “We were just trying to be right with our God. I was able to speak to many homosexuals in the community and to speak our opinion and have a civil conversation. I’m still in touch with some.”
Despite all the news stories that accused these bakers of refusing to serve gay customers, nothing could be further from the truth. That’s why what happened to Sarah Huckabee Sanders and her family is so much worse….
The owner is related to a Hollywood defender of child rapists
Forget Deplorables, You’re All Nazis Now |Updated|
Update BELOW
What is interesting to me is that with all the use of NAZI and comparison to Fascism, that those who hate fascism… real fascism, are missing the historical connection of the actions taken in pre-war Germany? Here is the latest use of NAZI for those that are voters for Trump:
- “If you vote for Trump then you, the voter, you, not Donald Trump, are standing at the border, like Nazis, going ‘you here, you here,’ ” Donny Deutsch said. (THE HILL)
Firstly, I documented the MANY instances of violence against people known to be Trump supporters:
- Totalitarian/Fascist Fits – Violence from the Democrat Left
- Exactly Like The NAZI Youth
- Do Conservatives Riot?
- ANTIFA – Premeditated Violence
- Democrats Cannot Be Racist or Ableist (Saay Whaaat!?)
- Trump Is Right – Both Sides Violent/Racist/Radicals
- The Continued Call for Violence from the Left
…I could go on, but you get the point.
But what is interesting is that groups (mobs) of people chase Trump officials out of normal life activities:
They refuse service to people (and remember please, that this has no correlation to people refusing to celebrate same-sex marriage. In all cases [the flower shop and bakeries] gay people were served in normal experiences. All that was refused was the creative skills to support a wedding. In other words, gays shopped at these places regularly and is why they knew about the people they wished to have do their weddings. The below example is just refusing business… which I also, as a Constitutionalist, support. But THIS is closer to the treatment of Jews in pre-war Germany than anything else the “right” has done.):
Or harassing families at their homes:
The above has happened many times before, one example is this:
All this calling people NAZI’s will get people hurt. Here is an excerpt of an excellent article by ISRAELLY COOL:
When you make the comparison, you not only excuse vile behavior, but you make it an imperative
Imagine if you Hitler was alive. And you had the means to stop him. What would you do? This is a bit of no-brainer – most of us would take him out, and I don’t mean to dinner.
By comparing Trump to Hitler, you are just begging for someone to assassinate him.
Steve Scalise’s shooter already proved the above point!
Here is the latest example of the Left’s call to violence:
Maxine Waters orders MORE public harassment of Trump aides: ‘God is on OUR side!’
….“History will record while he tried to step on all of us, we kicked him in his rear and step on him,” she yelled, whipping up the crowd.
“If you think we’re rallying now, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet,” she warned.
“Already, you have members of your Cabinet that are being booed out of restaurants,” she continued as the crowd erupted, “who have protesters taking up at their house, who say, ‘No peace, no sleep. No peace, no sleep,’” she continued.
“And guess what,” she predicted, “we’re going to win this battle because while you try and quote the Bible, Jeff Sessions and others, you really don’t know the Bible.
“God is on OUR side!” she declared, as the crowd went wild. “On the side of the children. On the side of what’s right. On the side of what’s honorable.”
“And so, let’s stay the course. Let’s make sure we show up wherever we have to show up and if you see anybody from that Cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd and you push back on them, and you tell them they’re not welcome anymore, anywhere,” she yelled.
Waters remarks were then marred by a screeching microphone.
“Mr. President, we will see you every day, every hour of the day, everywhere that we are to let you know you cannot get away with this!” she yelled.
Waters was referring to Department of Homeland Security Kristjen Nielson, who was heckled in a D.C. restaurant, and later had protesters playing loud speakers outside her home.
Michael Eric Dyson Crazy Talk Montage (After Caller Mentions Dyson)
A caller expresses his support for Trump, and in doing so coming up against the Leftist bigotry of low-expectations for blacks. A good portion of this audio is Michael Eric Dyson trying to sound smart but saying nothing.
Swearing An Oath For Office Over A “Malcolm X” Autobiography
Dennis Prager reads about Mariah Parker, a 26-year-old progressive candidate and hip-hop artist… THE BLAZE has more:
[Mariah Parker] …won a local Georgia election by just 13 votes last month — took her oath of office Tuesday not upon a Bible but upon a copy of “The Autobiography of Malcolm X.”
Mariah Parker — her right fist raised — placed her left hand on the book about the controversial Nation of Islam leader who was gunned down in 1965. Parker’s mother held the worn paperback as Parker took the oath of office for the Athens-Clarke County Commission. She then took her seat among the other commissioners.
[….]
“My platform centers around economic and racial justice,” Parker told the Red & Black. “The policies of this town have been structured, deliberately, to ensure that a certain class of people will continue to thrive and a certain class of people will continue to not.”
[….]
“The racists have all the money, still, so it’s economically advantageous to cater to them,” she added to the Flagpole, which noted Parker’s top priority as a commissioner is earmarking 30 percent of Athens’ contracts for black- and Latino-owned companies….
Who Are The 1% | How Much Do The 1% Earn? (OWS Response 2011)
(Originally posted October 26, 2011 — edited slightly)
NEWSBUSTERS Comments on the above video:
According to our friends at Celebrity Net Worth, Moore’s fortune currently totals $50 million:
Fahrenheit 911 raked in $230 million in theaters and another $3 million in DVD sales. After the theaters take their traditional 50% cut, that leaves roughly $130 million. Take away marketing, production and distribution expenses and Moore is conservatively left with $80 million. Moore was able to secure a deal from Miramax which guaranteed him 27% of his film’s net revenues, or roughly $21.6 million. Michael also was entitled to 50% of the profits of Sicko which are estimated to be $17 million.
Moore wants to dress and act as if he’s just a regular guy part of the 99 percenters, but he is every bit a multimillionaire doing everything in his power to make more money for himself. He invests his fortune in stocks – including the Left’s most-hated company Halliburton! – and isn’t pro-union when it comes to managing his own business.
The TEA Party embodies the order of a republic, | The O.W.S. embodies the chaos of a “democracy”
This causes a question, the question is, “how much does the 1% earn…. and who are the 1%” Thanks to the Financial Samurai
WHAT THE TOP 1%, 5%, 10%, 25% and 50% MAKE IN AMERICA
Based on the Internal Revenue Service’s 2010 database below, here’s how much the top Americans make:
- Top 1%: $380,354
- Top 5%: $159,619
- Top 10%: $113,799
- Top 25%: $67,280
- Top 50%: >$33,048
— SUMMARY OF FEDERAL INDIVIDUAL INCOME TAX DATA, 2010
Based on a previous 500+ survey study on Financial Samurai in 2009, about 80% of readers are in the Top 25%. Good to know that many of you are doing well. The table also tells us a number of things about equality or inequality, namely that the Top 1% of tax payers pay 38% of all income taxes. You can also see that the Top 50% of tax payers pay practically all of the nation’s taxes (97.30%), which once again shows that 40-45% of American income earners pay zero taxes.
If you do another little exercise and compare your Top 25% of American income to the Top 10 per capita income countries in the world, you can once again see further how lucky most of us are. If only we can get all American wage earns to pay some taxes, it would go a long way to help shoring up our budget. Congress is bickering over cutting $40 billion to $60 billion a year. All we have to do is make the bottom 50% who pay no taxes pay just $43 a month in taxes and we’d raise $60 billion a year right there.
[….]
THE RICH WILL ALWAYS PAY MORE THAN THEIR FAIR SHARE
As the economy continues to recover, it’s likely that the top 1% of income earners will likely pay an even higher percentage share of overall income taxes than 38%. If things were fair, they would only have to pay 20% of total income taxes since 20% is their share of total income. Alas, the rich pay almost double what they owe.
On the flip side, the bottom 50% who earn 12.75% of total earnings only pays a paltry 2.7% in total taxes. Inequality is wrong and we should treat everybody equally. The government should try to fix the imbalance by increasing the breadth of working Americans who pay taxes to 100% so that everybody pitches in. If all working Americans in the bottom 50% paid taxes, the 10% gap in what they should be paying should narrow.
With the economy suffering, It doesn’t makes sense if you are in the bottom 50% who isn’t paying their fair share of taxes to go after the top 50%, let alone the top 1% who are paying way more than their share of income. Trying to squeeze people even more when you’re not paying any taxes, or paying very little is a throwback to tyranny.
Financial Samuri has two follow up stories that are really good:
- When It Comes To Money, Shouldn’t We Trust Rich People Who’ve Been Poor?
- Who Are The Top 1% Income Earners?
Both are good articles that are poignant. But here is a portion from that first one that many do not ask:
It’s trendy to rage against the top 1% nowadays. We’ve discussed how the world will go through further employment pain thanks to the decline in the stock markets, EuroZone debt crisis, US state-level budget problems, and political impotence. Things are not pretty to say the least.
From my rental property article, you discover that the top 1% are a couple who met in law school at 25 and are now 28 year old 2nd year associates making $380,000 combined. The top 1% is also the 28 year old Google software engineer from Caltech who brings in $450,000 a year and has $400,000 in savings. The top 1% is the 35 year old cardiologist who is finally making over $300,000 a year after 11 years of post high school education and 3 years of residency work at $60,000 a year. By the time he’s 45, he will probably make over $1 million dollars.
Where else can we find the top 1%? Oh yeah, MBA grads who join Wall Street firms such as JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs at the standard $150,000 base salary and $30,000 sign-on bonus at age 29-30. But, you knew this already since that’s who so many people are demonstrating against. If they can last through the treacherous ups and downs of the markets, the multiple rounds of layoffs every year, the intense pressure of 60-80 hour work weeks, not to mention all the internal political landmines, they too will make over $380,000 a year by the time they are 35 year old second year Vice Presidents.
THE TOP 1%: COME OUT, COME OUT, WHEREVER YOU ARE
Public Schools: Public colleges regularly pay their employees hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. The best paid University of California employee is Jeff Tedford, with a salary of $3 million a year coaching football. Not bad for a job many would say they’d love to do for much less. Practically every single Top 25 head coach in football and basketball makes multiple-six figures. The UC’s last President earned $900,000 and UCSF’s Chancellor, Susan Desmond-Hellman made $450,000.
Politicians: In September 1999, President Clinton signed legislation that increased the presidential salary to $400,000, effective January 2001. This presidential pay raise was the first since 1969, when the president’s salary was raised from $100,000 to $200,000. Adjusted for inflation, $200,000 in 1969 would be worth $930,232 today. On top of the salary and expense accounts, both the U.S. president and vice president are given free housing with plenty of amenities. The White House has 132 rooms, 32 bathrooms, a movie theater, bowling alley, billiards room, tennis court, jogging track and putting greens. Pretty good perks!
Online Infopreneurs: Bloggers making over $380,000 a year are a dime a dozen. Here are some that make the list: Heather Armstrong (Dooce), Darren Rowe (Pro Blogger), Michael Arrington (Tech Crunch), Pete Cashmore (Mashable), John Chow (John Chow), J. Shoemoney (Shoemoney), Perez Hilton (Perez Hilton), Ben Huh (Cheezeburger Network), Peter Rojas (Gizmodo), Leo Babauta (Zen Habits), and many top personal finance bloggers. There are hundreds more that we’ve never heard of.
TV Journalism: Anchorwomen and men make well over $380,000 at all the major stations in all the major cities. Katie Couric sealed an eye-popping $75 million, 5 year contract for CBS. Political comedian, Jon Stewart from the Daily Show makes around $15 million a year and has a net worth north of US$50 million. Jon makes his money making fun of politicians and rich people. Documentary-maker, Michael Moore, has made millions from railing against the car, food, and finance industries. Oprah is the queen of them all with mega-billions.
Executives: We then come to all the CEOs of the Fortune 500 companies who on average make a somewhat outrageous $10 million a year. If you include the CFOs, COOs, and all other C-level execs, we’re talking about thousands who make in the multi-millions. These aren’t the top 1%. These are the top 0.1%! Many Directors and VP of Fortune 500 companies all make well over $380,000. You don’t have to be a C-level executive to get there.
Internet Start-Ups: And then there are the founders of all the great internet/tech companies you see today: Apple, Zynga, Twitter, Google, Youtube, eBay and so forth. They are the creators of the tools you use everyday to communicate and entertain yourself with. There are thousands more you’ve never heard of, who get acquired by the gorillas and make millions too.
Professional Sports: Every starting NFL player makes well over $380,000. So do all the members of every NBA team and European soccer league. Men and women who hit fuzzy green balls and whack dimply white balls earn over $380,000. It’s hard for a Nascar and Indy driver not to make over $380,000. Finally, baseball players have incredible multi-year guaranteed contracts that make all other sports envious! They are in the top 1%.
Entertainment Media: When you come home from a long days work and switch on the tube, the stars of your favorite TV sitcoms are well into the top 1%. When you take your significant other to the movies on a Saturday night to watch the highly anticipated Big Momma’s House III, the actors are all in the top 1%. They entertain you and make you laugh, and you go out and support them as a result.
THE TOP 1% ARE EVERYWHERE
The top 1% of income earners are everywhere. They walk among us peacefully, and often times invisible to you and me. Why are we trying to hunt them down? They have worked hard to get to where they are and many of them employ thousands of the rest of us 99%. Many of them entertain us with their movies, or their witty morning banter. Some of us even fix our broken bones. Even more donate a significant amount to charity. Shouldn’t we say “thank you” to the top 1% instead of eviscerating them?
NEWER VIDEOS
Democrats Defend MS-13
Tucker: MS-13 is a living reminder that the Left’s position on immigration is a lie. The media tell you that every immigrant, legal or not, is a future brain surgeon or tech company founder. Therefore immigration controls are unnecessary. If they admit that MS-13 is bad and must be stopped, they’d have to admit that when some countries send their people here, they aren’t sending their best.