Revolutionary Dems

Contact Tracing (Why George Orwell Is Still Important)

Published by Papa Giorgio

From reality TV show Big Brother to warnings about surveillance, George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four has had a lasting impact on modern society.

Person speaking is, Dorian Lynskey, author of, “The Ministry of Truth: The Biography of George Orwell’s 1984“

Authorities have found a new excuse to delay reopening America: The need for hundreds of thousands of so-called ‘contact tracers.’

Bill Gates suggests mass surveillance of Americans to combat coronavirus pandemic.

The Covid-19 pandemic is likely to have a long-lasting impact not just on the world economy and the global population but also on the way we use our gadgets. To keep up with the changes brought by the pandemic, tech giant Apple has released iOS 13.5 with Face ID enhancements, Exposure Notification API and more.

iOS 13.5 speeds up access to the passcode field on devices with Face ID when the user is wearing a mask. Several users who wear masks, were facing difficulty unlocking their handset with Face ID. The Face ID would reject the login attempt multiple times and then the option to enter passcode will appear, causing significant delay.

With iOS 13.5 update, the iPhone will detect when the user is wearing a face mask and the passcode field will now be automatically presented after swiping up from the bottom screen.

The feature is only available on devices with Face ID, that is, iPhone X, iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, iPhone XR, iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, and iPhone 11 Pro Max. This also works when the user is authenticating with the App Store, Apple Books, Apple Pay, iTunes and other apps which support signing in with Face ID.

iOS 13.5 also comes with an Exposure Notification API, which supports Covid-19 contact tracing apps from public health authorities. The exposure notifications, for the uninitiated, are alerts that users will receive on their phones if they have been exposed to someone who has tested positive for or is highly likely to test positive for Covid-19….

(emphasis added)

The original post (OP) on this second strain was a graphic. I will link to the Kent County (Michigan site through it. Here is my FB description of the following: “A person named B.M. wrote on a friends Facebook wall the following regarding “contact tracing.” (The original post had to do with hiring government employees to trace citizens with Covid.)”

(See also this BRIDGE article)

  • [A reader of JP’s noted] Actually, contact tracing sounds like a legitimate work of government. Rather than quarantining the healthy, quarantine the sick and monitor those exposed to the disease.

JP responded:

Sorry in advance for the novel! Heh, I started thinking of other interesting things to add and just decided to run with it.

Contact tracing might work for illnesses that don’t spread very easily (it probably would have exterminated HIV, according to what I’ve read; I’m no expert but it seems reasonable), but for upper respiratory stuff like colds and flus (and the Wu Flu), it’s pretty much doomed, especially with up to 10% of the whole country already having the it.

The original point of the lockdowns (which don’t seem to have worked; lockdown and non-lockdown countries and states have almost identical statistics) was to slow the spread to prevent hospitals from being overwhelmed. It wasn’t to stop spread, since even the CDC admits that after about 1% of people are infected with a contagious disease, you can’t really close the door on it anymore. Contact tracing is a relatively invasive way of closing the door on a virus, so I don’t think it will work here**.

The data points to a much less lethal bug, though. Stanford’s meta analysis of all of the large-scale antibody testing shows an IFR (Infection Fatality Rate) between 7 times less than the seasonal flu and 2.8 times more. It’s probably in the middle, making it slightly less lethal than regular seasonal flus. And since we know it has been in the US at least since January (probably since December or earlier), the R? (Basic Reproduction Number or Rate) is also much lower than people originally thought. So it spreads like the flu and is as deadly as the flu.

The main difference seems to be the 24/7 media terrorizing of citizens, the complete ignorance most of us (that’s me, too) had in the real pneumonia/influenza deaths each year, and the downright evil policy of many Democrat governors of sending the sick to recover (while contagious) at nursing homes, boosting the deaths by up to 50%.

Sorry for the novel!! Reading every little bit about this thing has become an unfortunate hobby of mine. I’m of the mind now that the best strategy is to fight the fear instead of the virus and to get back to normal in virtually every way. If this is anything like it’s older brother SARS, it will die out in the next couple of months. But if not, keeping everyone from immunity just means extending the risk.

** I think contact tracing may -appear- to work because I think we are naturally bottoming out cases. Same, in my mind, for other measures.

One final bit: I’ve followed lots of different predictions to see who might get things most accurately to see what they did differently. This guy’s been right on (it’s been almost scary) using SARS as a comparison instead of the Spanish Flu (since this bug is SARS 2). This is a really good visual of the whole thing:

(Click to enlarge)

ALSO, a short bit from Bruce Carrol:

“If you are waiting for a “cure” for COVID-19, you’ll never leave your home again.

Even the flu vaccine (not vaccine, flu shot. There is a vaccine for the Polio, not HIV or SARS) results in 60-80,000 deaths every season.

We have to stop the fearmongering and start learning to live with a new virus in a string of new viruses that have emerged for tens of thousands of years.

Boomers and Millennials aren’t that special of a species.”

— Bruce Carroll (Co-founder of the gay Republican group GOProu, and founder of GAYPATRIOT)

Obama’s Radical Path for Bernie Sanders

Published by Papa Giorgio

(Editor’s Note) With Bernie Sander’s winning the New Hampshire primary… the below is VERY TIMELY!

I truncated the conversation a tad in order to flesh out the important issues discussed from Karin McQuillan’s article, “Bernie Owes Obama Big Time”. The earlier opening of the interview can be found at Dennis Prager’s Channel. The subtitle of the article gives a bit more meat to the title, I will included the first paragraph that Prager read as well:

  • Barack Obama set the stage for the Vermont socialist’s rise to national prominence. But the Democrat’s Marxist coming-out party happened too soon for America…. Those who are surprised by Bernie Sanders’ power in the Democratic Party primaries of 2016 and 2020 have not been paying attention. The self-styled “democratic socialist” from Vermont has inherited what President Obama sowed. Sanders is riding a wave of well-funded and highly trained young Marxists weaponized by President Obama. It is Obama’s hard work that allowed Bernie to jump from fringe character to viable presidential candidate….

Needless to say this is a must read article. See more at AMERICAN GREATNESS’ TWITTER.

Whistleblower and Schiff Staffer In 2017 Coup Talks (UPDATE)

Published by Papa Giorgio

(UPDATE: I had to edit out the name of Eric Ciaramella in the description in order for YouTube to publish this audio. The monolithic thought is amazing to me, and the 1984 beginnings are unmistakable. Obviously no Federal or State law says a person’s name cannot be used… and, in fact, the “whistleblower” statute merely protects the person from on the job harassment by superiors. Not to nix his name from the public. Weird.)

Real Clear Investigations and Red State (linked below respectively) have great stories on these two colleagues (comrades?) discussing how to remove Trump from office 2-weeks after he was inaugurated — insurance policy 2.0 two-weeks after Trump was inaugurated (!):

RED STATE:

……Source 1 said, “Just days after he [Trump] was sworn in, they [Ciaramella and Misko] were already talking about trying to get rid of him. They weren’t just bent on subverting his agenda. They were plotting to actually have him removed from office.”

Sources told Sperry that Misko had been the Schiff staff member whom Ciaramella had “reached out to” for “guidance” before submitting his complaint with the Intelligence Community Inspector General, Michael Atkinson.

Sperry writes:

The coordination between the official believed to be the whistleblower and a key Democratic staffer, details of which are disclosed here for the first time, undercuts the narrative that impeachment developed spontaneously out of the “patriotism” of an “apolitical civil servant.”

Two former co-workers said they overheard Ciaramella and Misko, close friends and Democrats held over from the Obama administration, discussing how to “take out,” or remove, the new president from office within days of Trump’s inauguration. These co-workers said the president’s controversial Ukraine phone call in July 2019 provided the pretext they and their Democratic allies had been looking for.

[….]

Source 1 said, “They were popping off about how they were going to remove Trump from office. No joke.”

[….]

He had also heard Ciaramella tell Misko, “‘We can’t let him enact this foreign policy.’“

Source 2 said he reported what he’d overheard to his superiors. “It was so shocking that they were so blatant and outspoken about their opinion,” he recalled. “They weren’t shouting it, but they didn’t seem to feel the need to hide it.”

The co-workers, [sources 1 and 2] didn’t think much more about the incident…..

Orwell vs. Huxley (Big Tech Update)

Published by Papa Giorgio

George Orwell’s fictionalized world where Big Brother reigns supreme is no longer a figment of the imagination, but a prophetic vision of present-day threats. Brent Bozell, founder of the Media Research Center, explains how and why Big Tech is making Orwell’s 1984 a 21st century reality.

OLDER POST…. (1/2016)

Someone recently said:

  • Why is it that the left loves to rewrite history? My theory is that to them the end justifies the means ironically in history that has led to genocide here and there.

To which I replied, “I agree.” (And I continued, as I am wont-to-do):

Another reason is that history is a giant mirror reflecting their failed paths to equality. From the French Revolution, to segregation and eventually the Civil War, to their terrorist arm of the Party (the KKK), to pouring water and oil into a pot and calling it a “melting pot” (multiculturalism in leftist terms is really segregation all over again). From the Fabian Socialists to Bernie Sander “types,” from the founder of Planned Parenthood having guest columns in her newsletter by NAZI doctors to allowing gender abortions and legislating to make it legal to leave a baby on a table to die from the environment… it is all an embarrassing mirror that they need to change and obfuscate. (And, there is nothing analogous.)

In reading an excellent book, early on there was this nugget:

We were keeping our eye on 1984. When the year came and the prophecy didn’t, thoughtful Americans sang softly in praise of themselves. The roots of liberal democracy had held. Wherever else the terror had happened, we, at least, had not been visited by Orwellian nightmares.

But we had forgotten that alongside Orwell’s dark vision, there was another—slightly older, slightly less well known, equally chilling: Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. Contrary to common belief even among the educated, Huxley and Orwell did not prophesy the same thing. Orwell warns that we will be overcome by an externally imposed oppression. But in Huxley’s vision, no Big Brother is required to deprive people of their autonomy, maturity and history. As he saw it, people will come to love their oppression, to adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think.

What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture….  As Huxley remarked in Brave New World Revisited, the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny “failed to take into account man’s almost infinite appetite for distractions.” In 1984, Huxley added, people are controlled by inflicting pain. In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure. In short, Orwell feared that what we hate will ruin us. Huxley feared that what we love will ruin us.

This book is about the possibility that Huxley, not Orwell, was right.

Joshua Charles, Liberty’s Secrets: The Lost Wisdom of America’s Founders (Washington, DC: WND Books, 2015), XIV; that is a large quote itself from Neil Postuman’s book, Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business (New York, NY: Penguin Books, 2006), XIX-XX.

While Charles and Neil take the “Brave New World” route… I think we can split the horns of the dilemma a bit (so-to-speak) and say yes… a small percentage of dedicated persons (to their faith or ethos) are feeling the boot mentioned in Orwell’s epic tale. From fining people out of business by taking their bank accounts because they refuse to make cakes for celebrations they wish not to support, to $250,000 for people who wish to call people by their real gender.

However, outside of this smaller percentage who is feeling the [sarcasm] equality of State [/sarcasm], there is a much larger percentage who do not want to be bothered as they amuse themselves to death (totalitarian bents ignored in political theories).

They do not want to be bothered by what would have in our history brought people to arms. All they care about is the next text on their iPhone or another round online with friends playing Call of Duty, or who got injured in the last NFL game that impacts the chances of their team winning. THESE people who have replaced worldviews with entertainment will one-day get a rood awakening when their toys are gone.

Liberals — especially — want this amusement to curtail knowing about history so they can get another radical candidate in office who likewise thinks the Constitution is a living/breathing document.

Sorry for the rant… but you got me thinking.

That’s Not Democracy, That’s Robotics

Published by Papa Giorgio

The Robacylypse is closer than you think.

Greg Gutfeld reacted Friday to video of “robotic” anti-Kavanaugh protesters accosting lawmakers and chanting in the halls of Congress. One video showed a group of protesters repeating a man’s instructions through chant, until one protester realized he was instructing them to engage with the office of a lawmaker who was “on their side.” — “Let’s go watch the vote,” the man said. “Let’s go watch the vote,” the protesters responded. “In offices you wish to (unintelligible) with,” the man said, with the crowd continuing to repeat his words back to him. The man said he was going to visit North Dakota Sen. Heidi Heitkamp’s office, until a protester interrupted to remind him that the formerly on-the-fence Democrat had announced her intention to vote against confirming Judge Brett Kavanaugh. “Why?” the woman asked. “She’s on our side.”

DNC Chair Says Socialism Future of Democrat Party

Published by Papa Giorgio

This will ALL server to splinter the Democrats.

WESTERN JOURNALISM writes about the exchange:

…“What does this tell you about where the Democratic Party is going today?” Press said.

Perez responded by saying his daughters “were both texting me about their excitement over Alexandria, because she really, she represents the future of our party.”

The 28-year-old Ocasio-Cortez is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, who want to abolish capitalism in favor of an economy run by the state or “the workers.”…

RUSH LIMBAUGH discusses what the turnout for this young socialist REALLY says:

CALLER: It’s just amazing that the Democratic Party is literally turning itself inside out now because of this one primary election. And I don’t know what the numbers were in terms of the turnout, but it can’t have been very large in an election where —

RUSH: It was a sizable — she beat this dinosaur by like 15 points, and the polls had him winning by 35. It was a shocker, there’s no question.

[….]

RUSH: The turnout in the election of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was under 20%. The caller was right. The turnout less than 20%. That was easy pickings for some dedicated Democrat socialist to take over some district. That’s easy.

[….]

RUSH: So, yeah, the turnout in that race won by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was under 20%. Folks, do you realize that if this clown, Crowley, had just got his base out, that this whole thing would not have happened? She wins this election with less than a 20% turnout. Our caller was right. The Democrats are going bonkers thinking this is the new wave in the Democrat Party.

And if Crowley, the incumbent, if your standard, ordinary, everyday Democrats, I know they’re a dwindling few, but if they had just shown up. But look at this. There’s another thing about this. We’re constantly told the Democrats have all the enthusiasm, right? The Democrats, they’re chomping at the bit! They can’t wait to get rid of Trump!

Now, I know Trump was not on this ballot. I know this was a primary. And I know it was just Ocasio-Cortez versus Crowley. But where was all this Democrat enthusiasm? I’ll guarantee you that Crowley’s voters thought he was a shoo-in because he’s the kind of Democrat that wins elections with nobody voting anyway. Just one of these guys for whom the seat has been eternal and expected.

But here comes this socialist-Marxist exciting a small percentage of that district and they’re the ones that showed up and turned out. But even if they get a hundred percent turnout of all the socialist-Marxists, that’s not gonna be enough to take back the House of Representatives. So they are, I think, what do you say, lying to themselves, fooling themselves. But it’s why the Democrats are concerned.

It’s not just that the Pelosi and the Schumer types would rather have their Marxism and socialism camouflaged. It’s not just that. It’s that they know that that wing of the Democrat Party in terms of raw numbers is really tiny. Not enough to win a national election, I mean, not even close. So you have a turnout of less than 20%, the seat turns, and now everybody’s talking about how this is a revolution in the Democrat Party? Give me a break. What it’s gonna end up doing is dividing and fracturing the Democrat Party.

POWERLINE adds to the fray!

…But most voters apparently aren’t convinced. Rasmussen Reports finds that given a choice between free enterprise and socialism, the overwhelming majority prefer freedom:

[V]oters reject socialism in no uncertain terms.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 74% of Likely U.S. Voters prefer a free market economic system over a socialist system. Only 13% think socialism is a better economic system, and just as many (13%) are undecided.

Of course, it is depressing to think that 13% of voters are dumb enough to want socialism, and being undecided between free markets and socialism is like being undecided between Bar Refaeli and Nancy Pelosi. But I suppose you could find 13% of poll respondents who will say the Sun rises in the West….

Unhinged Party, 2018 (Updated)

Published by Papa Giorgio

The well produced ad opens with Senator Bernie Sanders saying, “a few years ago, ideas that we talked about were thought to be fringe ideas, radical ideas, extremist ideas — those ideas are now mainstream,” over footage of graffiti that reads “revolution or death” and Kathy Griffin holding President Trump’s severed head. (GATEWAY PUNDIT)

Who is really glorifying violence against people with other political views? Many in the entertainment and news media, as well as many Democrats, have tragically been destroying fair political discourse by glorifying violence against Trump supporters.

WND has more (see also, GATEWAY PUNDIT):

…A writer for the popular progressive news website Splinter is warning supporters of President Trump that if they have a problem with the heckling of administration officials in public places, they haven’t seen anything yet.

“Do you think that being asked to leave a restaurant, or having your meal interrupted, or being called by the public is bad? My fascism-enabling friends, this is only the beginning,” writes Splinter senior writer Hamilton Nolan.

Pointing to history, he writes that the U.S. “had thousands of domestic bombings per year in the early 1970s.”

“This is what happens when citizens decide en masse that their political system is corrupt, racist, and unresponsive,” says Nolan.

“The people out of power have only just begun to flex their dissatisfaction. The day will come, sooner that you all think, when Trump administration officials will look back fondly on the time when all they had to worry about was getting hollered at at a Mexican restaurant.”…

Forget Deplorables, You’re All Nazis Now |Updated|

Published by Papa Giorgio

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:

…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.

Shame on you.

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.

 

Swearing An Oath For Office Over A “Malcolm X” Autobiography

Published by Papa Giorgio

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)

Published by Papa Giorgio

(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.

(read more)


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.

(read more)

Financial Samuri has two follow up stories that are really good:

  1. When It Comes To Money, Shouldn’t We Trust Rich People Who’ve Been Poor?
  2. 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?

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