Are Teachers Crazy Union Thugs?

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What’s wrong with Giving $53 billion a Year in Oil Subsidies?

Big Oil buys politicians with that $52 billion a year in government welfare they receive. They own Senator Mitch McConnell and tons of other politicians. Much of that money also goes toward CEO pay, reimbursing already rich members of their boards for participating in meetings sometimes to the tune of $50,000 an hour, or more. The welfare these companies receive also goes toward pushing profits higher, which sends dividends surging and share prices up. This taxpayer money is also used to purchase non-elected government officials and ensures that those officials will never enforce government laws against oil monopolies, which allows oil prices to be increased whenever the big oil corporations decide in tandem to jack up prices. Yes, that $2.4 billion in government welfare buys a lot: more money for the 1 percent, government corruption at all levels and higher prices at the pump for the 99 percent. In other words, these welfare payments are used to redistribute money from the 99 to the 1 percent. That’s your taxpayer money at work. By the way, did anybody mention that teachers are overworked and underpaid? I wonder why?

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Boycott the Oregonian newspaper, A Propaganda Conduit of the One Percent

The Oregonian newspaper is the primary propaganda organ of the one percent in the state of Oregon. The newspaper reported today that the Beaverton School District is going to lay off 344 employees. The district is the third largest in the state. What is conspicuous is what the Oregonian chose not to mention; much of the tax base has been shipped overseas via free trade agreements. It’s true that most school funding in Oregon is derived from property taxes, but it’s equally true that if thousands of jobs have been shipped overseas because of free trade agreements, the people who lose those jobs can’t usually afford a house, or their property taxes. Just look at your country. Where is the housing market going? Down. That’s where.

The same thing occurs when an American based company decides to create jobs overseas, rather than here, when free trade agreements open the door to do so. The people that lose their jobs may get unemployment checks and a foreclosed house.

The Oregonian also doesn’t mention that the difference between the old higher wages here, and the new lower wages there, are pocketed by the one percent via higher corporate profits, enhanced dividends and rising share prices. That’s why the free trade agreements are an income redistribution scam. But the Oregonian staff doesn’t want you to know that. The exact same thing holds true when jobs are created overseas by US companies that normally wouldn’t occur without the free trade agreements.

The Oregonian also hides the fact that they endorse politicians such as Congressman Earl Blumenauer and Senator Ron Wall Street Wyden. Wyden has never met an income distribution trade treaty that he hasn’t liked, because his buddies at the Oregonian and on Wall Street like them. Blumenauer votes for most of them.

Apparently, the folks at the Oregonian think the sole purpose of the US economy is to enrich the one percent at the expense of everybody else. The Oregonian is the Fox News of Oregon. It is the propaganda wing of the one percent in the state. Save yourselves, your school districts, your police and other public services. Save your jobs, save your neighbors. Put the Oregonian out of business by not buying it. Boycott!

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Beaverton School District to Lay off 344

Why Are Teacher Cut Backs Coming? Blame Free Trade Agreements

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Free Trade Agreements Redistributing Income and Wealth from the 99 to the One Percent

(Reuters) – “The number of Americans claiming unemployment benefits for the first time fell only slightly last week, suggesting that job growth in April will not improve much after March’s disappointing performance.”

The economy is weak because demand is weak and that is due to the massive redistribution of income and wealth the federal government has undertaken under sneaky, lying Democrats and their sneaky, lying Republican co-conspirators. The government has redistributed income from working people to the rich for the last thirty years, but nobody wants to talk about how the one percent now steal about 25 percent of total national income compared to about 7 percent under President Jimmy Carter; 12 million jobs were created under Carter’s watch, with real rising wages during his four years in office. No matter what you can say about Jimmy Carter as president, we got to say, “Those were the good old days.” Unfortunately, they were and we didn’t think that back then.

The one percent stole 93 percent of total national income growth from 2009 to 2010, and it’s likely they did pretty much the same from 2010 to 2011, although those statistics are not available, as of yet. The worse thing is that “Wall Street Obama” has knowingly continued to use the federal government to redistribute income and wealth to the rich, and expect even more money to be shoveled toward the rich should “Wall Street Romney” become president. Think in terms of the South Korea, Panama and Colombia free trade agreements. Once jobs are shipped to those nations, or created there because of those agreements, the difference between the old wages here and the new lower wages there go into the pockets of the one percent via rising corporate profits, enhanced dividends and soaring share prices. God forbid!

Actually, God help the American people because with these choices for president we’re racing toward economic disaster, and we’re going to need all the help we can get has we barrel our way toward third world status.

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Why Are Teacher Cut Backs Coming? Blame Free Trade Agreements

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Why Are Teacher Cut Backs Coming? Blame Free Trade Agreements

The Oregonian writer Steve Duin wrote a nice piece about teacher cutbacks at Franklin High School coming in the next few months. He only told the effects, and I asked him to write about what has caused these cutbacks. Below is a link to his well written column, and below that is my response.

At Portland's Franklin High School, the Bell Tolls for…Them

Dear Steve Duin,
I appreciate your nice, but short-sighted, story titled, “At Franklin, the bell tolls for…them.” You quote teacher Portia Hall as saying, “’I’ve been teaching for fifteen years, and I’ve never had a year when we didn’t cut. Even when times were good.’”

Why don’t you tell the whole story about school funding and teacher cut backs? Why don’t you write about how free trade treaties have shipped jobs and much of the tax base overseas? Why don’t you write about how those treaties make it more profitable for American businesses to create jobs in other nations rather than here? Why don’t you write about how the difference between the old higher wages in the US and the new lower wages over there go into the pockets of Wall Street fat cats and other rich people via higher corporate profits, enhanced dividends and rising share prices? The people that lose those jobs wind up searching for work. That’s not a very good trade. This leads to a good question.

What are the federal government and the American economy for? Is it to redistribute more income to the already rich at the expense of working people? That’s been happening for the last thirty years.

These agreements are the primary reason why the rich are getting richer. They’re why the one percent received 93 percent of total US income growth from 2009 to 2010.

Why is the tax base crumbling? Why are teachers being laid off three years after the official end of the recession? Why can’t the economy create over 12 million jobs with rising real wages nowadays, like it did when Jimmy Carter was president and the economy and the population were only about 60 percent the size of what they are now? Why have only 4 million jobs with declining real wages and salaries been created in the twelve years since George W. Bush took office? Why is the economy so weak?

Free trade “income redistribution” agreements are the greatest reasons the one percent receive nearly 25 percent of the total US income nowadays compared with about 8 percent under Carter. The result has been devastating to the 99 percent in lost jobs, declining real income, demand too weak to create jobs in the US at previous levels, evaporating tax bases, teachers voting to strike in Gresham-Barlow and the Parkrose districts. These agreements are also the primary reasons why Portia Hall has never seen “a year we didn’t cut.”

Just open your eyes and look at those free trade treaties and ask yourself what the upcoming Trans Pacific Free Trade Agreement is going to do to 99 percent of Americans. If it’s implemented, the agreement is going to redistribute even more income to the one percent from the 99 percent, leading to more jobs shipped overseas, jobs created in other nations rather than here, shrinking tax bases, cutbacks in education, police, firefighters and all kinds of government positions and programs that the 99 percent rely upon. Are these the results we want from our federal government and our economy? I don’t think so, but that’s what we’ve got.

So I ask you again, Why don’t you write about the causes, as well as the effects? Why don’t you tell the whole story?

Warmest Regards,

John Hively

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The Dow Jones Industrials and NASDEQ is Surging! Thanks to Run Amok Inflation Redistributing Your Income

The US government is hiding the true cost of inflation so that it can it hide an income redistribution scam for the rich. Corporations simply jack up the prices the 99 percent pay for food and energy and the government doesn’t count it when it measures inflation, but corporate profits rise because of those price increases, and the difference between what the 99 percent paid for the items at the old prices and the new higher prices goes into the pockets of the rich via higher profits, dividends and stock prices. That’s a nice scam. It makes the affluent richer and throws a growing number of the 99 percent into the poor house. That includes a lot of professionals, like teachers.

According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, inflation was 3.2 percent for “all items,” in 2011. However, they didn’t count food and energy among those “items.” Real inflation is running close to 10 percent, and it has for the last several years (click here for real inflation).

Do you feel more poor than five years ago? If you earned thirty dollars an hour in 2007 and you’re still paid 30 dollars an hour in 2012, your real spending power has dropped about 34 percent, if you measure your wages against the real rate of inflation. Assuming a real inflation rate of 10 percent per year since 2007, people earning $30 an hour now can purchase only $19.26 worth of goods. But wait! That’s before taxes! But you get the picture.

Do you want to know why the stock markets are surging at record levels? They’re surging via inflation. If you’re earning $30 an hour, the rich are now raping you of $10.74 per hour more than they did back in 2007, and receiving it in higher profits, dividends and share prices. And your government is helping corporate America hide this rape and pillage of the American people. Look at the figures below. For simplicity, I measured your real spending power at $30 an hour in 2007, and then subtracted 10 percent each year since that approximates the amount of real inflation per year. Remember that inflation is not some abstract term. It measures price increases. So if meatloaf goes up in price by a dollar a pound, then that extra dollar is stolen from your slimmer wallet and slipped into the bulging pockets of the affluent.

2007 $30
2008 $27
2009 $24.30
2010 $21.40
2011 $19.26

Click on the link below and check out the story of the overly educated working poor.

click here for working poor in America

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