I’m sick and tired of all this swine flu nonsense.
The following is the result of my research into the origin of this “pandemic” and why the media is licking their chops.
So, if the swine flu “pandemic” is indeed being inflated by the media, what is our attention being drawn away from? Well… who says it has to be drawing attention away from something? Fear-mongering means attention, and the newsmongers love attention. And ad revenue. Don’t forget the ad revenue. When people are afraid, they are glued to their TVs. We know this thanks to 9/11 and Katrina.
There is most certainly fear-mongering taking place in the media right now. I just saw a local news “special report” titled: “SWINE FLU DEATH”. People love to hear about scary bad news… and these high ratings lead to more revenue for media outlets that focus on these sorts of things.
I think the issue here is not about “is swine flu dangerous”, but about a misuse of language. Remember those nutty creationists who used a different word definition when they said “evolution is just a theory?” Same thing here.
Medically, a pandemic means above normal transmission and/or mortality rate. The 1918 flu pandemic had a 2.5% mortality rate, for instance… but “2.5%” doesn’t sell newspapers. “Pandemic” does. What would you do if you were a failing newspaper?
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I’m also surprised no one has mentioned this: Swine flu, like avian flu, just happens to be cured (or at least hindered) by a single medication; Tamiflu. Tamiflu has sold millions of units that would otherwise have rotted on shelves or never been produced, and almost all of them just end up expiring. Whichever pharmaceutical company owns that thing is blatantly taking advantage of media and the idiots who believe it.
Well it turns out that the name of the pharmaceutical company that produces Tamiflu is called Gilead Sciences, Inc.
OK, well, now we know the company that would financially benefit from a pandemic, real or fake, but who individually would stand to benefit? Well, for one…
Donald Rumsfeld.
Donald “I was so retarded that I got fired by George W. Bush” Rumsfeld.
Don’t believe it? Here’s the SNOPES.COM ARTICLE that completely explains his ties to this company. Here’s my favorite part:
“It is true that Donald Rumsfeld does indeed have stock holdings in Gilead Sciences, Inc. Rumsfeld was a member of Gilead’s board of directors between 1988 and 2001… until he joined President George W. Bush’s cabinet as Secretary of Defense. According to federal financial disclosures filed by Rumsfeld, he has Gilead stock holdings valued at between $5 million and $25 million.”
Ok, people. All sorts of words are flying about this stimulus package.
Let me explain it to you using facts only. Here goes nothing…
WHY IS THE STIMULUS NECESSARY?
We’re in this crisis because people aren’t buying things. With me so far? Good.
For every job that is lost, that means someone has less money to buy stuff… which means less stuff gets bought. Still with me? Awesome.
Less stuff being bought is bad for businesses, which means MORE layoffs.
It’s a vicious cycle we’re in. Just ask anyone who was alive in the 1920’s.
This is why timing matters… there is urgency here. There’s literally a scientific and economic need to hurry… it’s not a matter of perception, it’s the truth.
WILL THIS BILL HELP?
The short answer? Maybe.
The long answer?
The bill that passed today was approximately 42% tax cuts and 58% spending. If you are concerned about the future of this country, you should be furious that it is not 100% spending.
Republicans may not like it, but the way to create jobs fast is by spending… by giving money to people who will spend it in an economy that needs people to be spending in it.
That is the fucking definition of economic stimulus. Look it up.
Oh, and anyone that says ‘tax cuts’ when talking about a stimulus should be stripped of political office immediately and forced to re-take Economics 101 because they clearly weren’t paying attention the first time they took it.
How many of you spent your $600 check last year? Putting it in savings or paying down debt does not count. That’s why tax cuts are not the best choice.
Every dollar spent on tax rebates generates about $1.02 of economic activity. Infrastructure? $1.59.
Why waste 57 cents on-the-dollar?
Why waste taxpayer money on tax breaks when actual spending works better?!?
This is where I’m really pissed at Obama. He put those tax cuts in to make the republicans happy… and they still gave him the middle finger. So why not just take them out? They’re bad for this plan and this country.
The 42% of the bill that is tax cuts, is a WASTE… at a time when we cannot afford waste.
Also, did you notice what the republicans wanted to cut from the stimulus package? Spending on food stamps.
POP QUIZ: What is the single most productive stimulus that we know of?
I’ll give you one guess.
$1 spent on food stamps = $1.73 economic activity. Food stamps are something that get spent. On goods. Made by companies.
The fact that they want to cut this from the stimulus is proof that the republicans aren’t even trying to fix things… or they just don’t fucking get it.
CONCLUSION
As civic-minded Americans concerned about our future, now is the time to take the step of favoring correct information over incorrect information. The stakes are too high.
If you are in congress and are favoring political nonsense over facts, you should lose your political potency. You have every right to believe whatever bullshit you want to, but get out of the way of the people who are actually trying to save this country.
Take Tuesday off and sit back and enjoy the ride. I’ll be downtown Chicago at the Obama (hopefully) celebration. No matter who you’re voting for, just go do it. There’s no room left for apathy in this country… it’s simply un-American.
OK, so, here’s a great example of the kind of people McCain has working for him this week.
CNN’s Rick Sanchez catches McCain spokesman Mike Goldfarb lying out of his ass.
At the end of the clip, Sanchez somehow THANKS Goldfarb for his time. If it was me doing the interviewing, I would have told this piece of shit to fuck off and die. So much for that “liberal media”, eh?
What kind of person allows a spokesperson like this to work for them? A desperate one.
Also, here’s a nice roundup of just a few of the McCain advertising lies found so far in his campaign:
I was fresh out of college, living in Scottsdale, Arizona, and was not too concerned that I was in a red state… hell, the famous senator from my state was the “maverick” who pissed off a lot of Republicans.
Ohhhh how things have changed. Not only has McCain’s brain flipflopped and morphed into some kind of neo-conservative chewing gum, but he is getting CREAMED by Obama in the latest polls. Sure, we all have heard that… so what’s the big deal?
The big deal is that McCain might lose Arizona.
Yeah.
All those stupid fucking maps on CNBC and Fox News penciled the RED into that state since day one… not so fast.
Merrill’s brand new poll, taken from sampling over the weekend and Monday, in it’s entirety, is to be released tonight at 7:00 pm local Arizona time and has McCain up by two little itty bitty points: McCain 46% Obama 44% and Obama still seen as closing with a full week left and undecideds still expected to break significantly Obama!
Holy shit.
Bruce Merrill is a native Arizonan, has been teaching at Arizona State since 1971, and has been doing the absolute finest and most accurate polling of Arizona races for many decades. He really is the gold standard here.
This is fantastic news! Unless, of course, you are John McCain…
I’m headed to Grant Park downtown Chicago on election night to (hopefully) see one hell of a historic acceptance speech from Barack Obama at his rally. I sure hope I’m home in time to see that big red blob of Arizona turn blue on the tv maps.
Yesterday I voted for Obama/Biden, Dick Durbin, a few representatives, and voted to remove all incumbent judges on the Illinois ballot.
I thought that voting early would lift a weight off my shoulders… and it did, but not for long. Leaving the polls I immediately had the feeling of “well, I did my part”. Which is remarkable, because I’m in Obama’s home state. He’ll probably get 60-65% of the vote here… so why did I feel that my vote mattered so much? Maybe it’s because for the first time in my life I feel that the choice is clear. Sure, in 2004 I voted for Kerry but that was just a vote against Bush.
So why don’t I still feel good? It’s clear to me that the mainstream media is in FULL FORCE to set up Obama for an upset by John McCain. They’re very sneaky about this… let me help expose them.
Example #1: Colin Powell
There has been major buzz the last few days all over the media that Colin Powell will be endorsing Barack Obama soon. The media sees this as such a huge deal because Powell is a republican and a highly respected one at that… oh yeah and he’s a black guy.
So why is the media covering this before it even happens? They want you to start believing that Colin Powell SHOULD endorse Obama. What happens now if Powell comes out and supports McCain? The media will call it a slap in the face Obama. Based on what? Based on their own premature hype.
Also, if Powell does endorse Obama it will be much less of a shock and will be perceived as an expected ‘we told you so’ event rather than front page news. This is how the republican machine and mainstream media beats down a major headline that does not fit their agenda.
Powell is scheduled to appear on Meet the Press this Sunday morning. He is expected to announce his endorsement for his candidate of choice on this show. I guess we’ll see.
Example #2: Joe the Plumber
Am I the only one that is already sick of this fucking guy?
It turns out he isn’t named Joe, isn’t a Plumber, isn’t an undecided voter, and doesn’t even pay taxes. Seriously.
The mainstream and right-wing media are all over this story like it was some sort of Britney Spears vagina flash. It is not Joe’s character that matters, but what Joe is SUPPOSED to represent. McCain wants us to believe that Joe is an average American that has been successful to the point where he can afford to buy a business and live the good life but Obama just wants to drag him down.
How fucking stupid do they think we are?
Could they not even find ONE example of a person that actually fit their agenda? This is 2008, most of us have the goddamn internet and are capable of fact-checking and/or relying on unbiased non-mainstream media to get real news. Maybe right-wingers should do this too.
MYTH #1: Joe makes $250k+ a year and would highly benefit from McCain’s tax plan.
FACT: Joe made $40k last year and would benefit more from Barack Obama’s tax plan. Hypothetically, let’s say Joe did made $300k instead of 40k. Under Obama’s plan he would only see a 3% tax increase (from 36% to 39%) ON ONLY THE AMOUNT OVER $250,000..
Let’s do some math. $300,000 minus $250,000 = $50,000. $50,000 times 3% = $1,500. All this goddamn stink over $1,500 more taxes on a person making $300,000 income.
Big. Motherfucking. Deal.
I’m pretty sure he’ll still be able to afford everything he already can when he’s taking home about $200,000 instead of $201,500.
MYTH #2: Joe is an undecided voter.
FACT: The McCain campaign would LOVE to have an example of an upper-middle class, white, undecided voter to help them frame Obama as a bad guy. The problem is… Joe is none of these things… ok, ok, he is white… I’ll give you that. He voted in his first primary on March 4, 2008, registering as a Republican.
So what does this all mean?
A lot.
The reason the story is so popular is almost certainly connected to the national, established media’s continuing fetish for socially conservative whites as the dominant demographic for swing voters in America. This obsession has a long history, with an almost uninterrupted lineage dating from the silent majority, through the southern strategy, Reagan Democrats, soccer Moms, and on to “values voters” in our own decade.
It is an obsession that came out frequently in this campaign in the hundreds of stories about Obama’s supposed problems with socially conservative white Democrats, and how those problems posed a barrier to winning the Presidency. If you can’t win the socially conservative white vote, you supposedly can’t win national elections. I call bullshit. Joe the Plumber is just the latest instance of this type of story, which grants an absurd amount of power to socially conservative whites in our national political discourse.
Here’s a nice video clip I’ll leave you with to ponder. Open up your minds and stop relying on the lies and propaganda of the mainstream media. You’ll thank yourself.
This clip shows about 30 seconds of Bill O’Reilly being pretty clear what he wants. He wants us to shut up and bend over. The last part of the clip is from a movie called “Network’ from 1976. It is frighteningly accurate.
Yesterday, senile candidate for the presidency John McCain was supposed to appear on David Letterman.
He didn’t.
Why? Well, he personally called Dave to tell him that he was headed to Washington DC to help with the financial crisis. The problem is, they don’t NEED his help with this crisis… and he didn’t even leave New York! He went to do an interview with Katie Couric instead.
Dave was rightfully furious. The good news for us is that Couric also works for CBS, and around there Dave is king. He got a live feed of the McCain interview and called him out for lying to him: “Hey John, do you need a ride to the airport?!”
Here is the video from last night’s show:
Earlier in the day, Barney Frank, who is the House Financial Services Committee Chairman, was asked by David Gregory:
Was McCain’s announcement today political leadership? Or just politics?
Frank answered:
It’s just a stunt. Frankly it sounds like he is setting himself up to take credit for something that is happening without him. We just finished a hearing this afternoon where [the members] agreed on certain things we have been critical of. This is Mr. McCain seeing bad polls and attempting to come in and take credit for something that is happening without him.
Barney Frank on McCain and the bailout:
“Country First?” Sounds to me like CAMPAIGN first.
Yesterday at a rally in Green Bay, Wisconsin, Barack Obama outlined his plans for instituting economic reform.
This was more than a standard stump speech, it was a new vision for government. The content of the speech, not necessary the delivery, was what impressed me, although he speaks with tremendous power and confidence about his ideas. He listed one idea after the other, spelling out his intentions to overhaul the current practices and open up the door to new and better ones.
The way he is looking to open government to the American people to participate and review what he is doing sounds like a dream, but the chance that this could be reality really does excite me.
He truly seems to be on a mission to dismantle the old way of Washington, but will they let him?
There’s a lot at stake and the ideas he’s putting forward will threaten the status quo tremendously. He’s spelling it out clearly and putting them on notice, as of now.
John McCain couldn’t hold a candle to this.
Please take 22 minutes of your time (less time than it takes to watch a sitcom) and see what this man is all about:
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Here’s a summary of the speech:
*Members of the administration will not be able to work on regulation related to the work of previous employers, and when they leave they will not be able to lobby the administration at all.
*Transparency. Make pork barelling impossible. Put bills online for five days before they are passed by the president. Meetings between lobbyists and government agencies should be put online. Tax bills should mention which corporations will benefit and by how much.
*Makes mention of improving health care access, college affordability and energy independence (no details on implementation).
*We are spending $10 billion a month in Iraq, we should be using that money to improve infrastructure here in the US. No mention of how he intends to reduce costs of war in Iraq.
*Reduce Medicare fraud (equals about $15 billion a year). Use money to make prescription drugs affordable.
*End $3 billion in government subsidies to banks for providing student loans.
*Reduce farm subsidies
*Reduce waste -- promised to cut government programs that don’t work (mentions only the Bush reading program but nothing else). Wants government bodies to work better at a lower cost by improving efficiency (by firing underperforming managers and using technology).
*Private contracts are inefficient. Metions story of Haliburton printing logo on towels for the US military because the government is willing to pay whatever it costs.
*Shut down corporate abuse in tax system. Close loopholes and offshore tax havens.
*Income tax -- 95% will get tax cut. Anyone under $250,000 will not pay more tax. Seniors earning < $50,000 will not pay any income tax.
*Financial Regulation: If the government is going to lend money to the banks, they must subject themselves to greater government oversight. Credit rating agencies must disclose conflicts of interest. Streamline overlapping government agencies (which ones?). Regulation needs to be reformed (Mortgage brokers have less regulation than Thrift and Savings with regard to the same things). Stop market manipulation, toughen up SEC. Establish agency that evaluates risk and advises congress and the president so that financial disasters are avoided.
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This isn’t going to be easy.
All the Republicans have to do is mention abortion, gays, and remind their drooling supporters that they alone have a monopoly on patriotism and morality. The US has been split in half over the past 8 years and reason has been cast aside.
Where is John McCain’s detailed plan? He is probably too busy worrying about how he is going to try to pass the lie that he is a regulator and reformer when his entire campaign is crawling with asshole lobbyists and his record is riddled with deregulation (google McCain Keating 5).
In the last couple weeks it has been CLEAR that McCain’s strategy is to play both sides of every argument so he can later say that he was for or against something (whenever it is convenient). This way he can appeal to both is drooling neocon supporters and try to pander to national audiences. I really hope that 51% of my country is smart enough to see this… but I’m not holding my breath.
I’m voting Obama but I’m close to despairing for much of my fellow Americans. They’ve all gone stupid crazy.
If this guy doesn’t make it… the US as a country has failed.
