Background: 
Violent Rhetoric In The US Is Common BUT Often STARTED By The War Party {2 Late 2 Stop It Now}

The media consistently treats Ron Paul like 'he's the thirteenth floor in a hotel', yet he is the one that planted the grassroots that the establishment republicans are benefiting from now. Why is that?:

Watch the first 50 seconds of the following video and you will notice that one particular person (Ron Paul) is ignored even though he came within 200 votes of winning the straw poll... 

Media basically goes through two types of phases - the goal of both is to make money (first version of this published here and second here):

Type 1 - Easily Distracted

Easily distracted like the dog in UP.

The media really does act like the dog in UP!

Squirrel!


Type 2 - Manufacturing Conflict to Attract & Keep Viewers

Because of a 24 hr news cycle one of the problems is that conflict MUST be manufactured to keep viewers.

Media manufactured 'race card' scandal creation. (They can also go the other way and make a racial case seem non-racial)

An Example of "Manufactured News": The Chris Christie said no but the media was bored so created his candidacy.

Chris Christie's media manufactured candidacy had gone on for a while.

The Rock Block
Cable news networks seem to think their viewers need a hot, thumping beat to absorb basic information.  (04:21): 

By starting off with rocking beats the news media is trying to attract viewers no matter what the cost in bad taste:

When you hear stuff like "rockin news" or the type of music being played you expect something allot more exciting than news stories that are serious with music set to it. This way it seems more like the media is celebrating people's misery. Anything to make a buck. Basically they are saying: Hey, if AXN can attract people with cop chases then we can too. Forget about appropriateness. Or as John Oliver puts it

... that cacophonous noise can help people process information... well, let me put it this way: You've sucked the fun out of rock and the weight out of news.

All News In Fox News, MSNBC & CNN Is scripted & often coordinated:

All the news is scripted and the anchors are often required JUST to read what they are told to.

A situation where the script catches a script reader by surprise.

Moment of Zen - Bernie Goldberg Calls Jon a Racist: Fox News contributor, Bernie Goldberg, calls Jon a racist, but not because he believes it.


Fox News Is Run My Rupert Murdoch ... who manages to stay out of scrutiny of all three channels (Fox News, MSNBC & CNN) despite the extraordinary amount of news about him in the UK. Though if the story is too big to ignore then it will get a short play time on air and is removed. Like the recent Rupert Murdoch scandal which seemed to disapear before it even broke.

On Topic - Cable News - Fox News: The O'Reilly Factor, Fox & Friends and Glenn Beck are just a few of the programs Jon has to thank for keeping him in business.

Horrible Bosses - Fox News Won't Dumpster Dive: Instead of wasting its time with the epic scandal consuming Britain's journalistic establishment, Fox News investigates whether NPR is an agent of jihadist inquisition.


MSNBC is right next door to Fox News. Fox News & MSNBC BOTH qualify as "lamesstream media", especially when you realize that even Obama says NBC is not fully truthful. 

On Topic - Cable News - MSNBCJon explores the horrible segues, questionable guests and mediocre stories that make MSNBC almost unwatchable.

Moment of Zen - Underwear and LattesMSNBC reports on what underwear and lattes tell America about the economy.


CNN is just horrible with occasional flashes of news that rarely lasts longer than the light of a firely.

On Topic - Cable News - CNN:Terrible segments, inappropriate stock footage and anchors who don't want to be there are a few reasons why CNN can't connect with viewers.

Moment of Zen - CNN's Choose the News: CNN viewers decide by text message which news stories they want to see in detail.


Nobody watches C-Span. Not even the media (whose job it's supposed to be).

On Topic - Cable News - C-SPAN: Putting people to sleep and tightening viewers' anuses are just some of the ways C-SPAN distinguishes itself

NOTE: US Media is interconnected either directly through friendship and shills or indirectly through advertising/board-members to the GOP and thus follows it's wishes. If it didn'tthis electoral fraud cover-up by the GOP could never have been accomplished. Havinga voice on the left to get people to hate Ron Paul also helped allot. I remember cause I was there. Here rather. But it's gone. So nevermind. 

Related:

• Amanpour On Iraq: Where were the journalists?

• From Bill Moyers: How big money and big media have The US into Disneyland

• CNN: The Most Busted Name In News

• US TV News Media: Echo Chambers

• US TV News Media: Fox News Echo Chambers 

• So Wrong for So Long: Greg Mitchell on Iraq War
• Phil Donahue on His 2003 Firing from MSNBC

• Fox News IS A Part Of The Federal Government! (AND They Are Making Up Polls & News!)
• • Understanding The Roots of Despotism

More links:

NSA Poker Tells, Secret Service Prostitution, O Reilly's & The Conservative Senate's/Congress's "Trixie" & Newt Gingrich's Open Marriage

Breaking Scandal: Newt Gingrich's Blatant Hypocrisy... Backed by Sarah Palin

Peter King & Bill O ReiIlly's - In Your Face - Hypocrisy

"Establishment Sex-Scandals: Democrats & GOP Have Different Call Girls!"

Guns 2: Is Piers Morgan The "Voice" Of The Left? {& Controlled by Murdoch? See the unified view on the riots. Was Piers Morgan, who has admitted to being friends with anchors of Fox & MSNBC, helping Fox News in starting riots? Or is Piers Morgan as kind hearted as he seems on TV? Kinda like Bill O Reilly but for the left?}

Current "Legend" Series {Began here/here}...

Current "Legend" Series {Began here/here}...

Background:

The Drug War Debate: An Introductory Overview 

The Tea Party & Majority of Libertarians Were Co-opted By The Koch Brothers In 2009 

GOP/Tea-Party Nonsense In A Nutshell: Outsiders are "Nazis"

Goldman Sachs Aluminum Scam Simplified For USA Business Media Folk

Congress Doesn't Care About The Constitution Or Any Citizen Rights, Or So It Seems, As This Proof Proves

James and the Giant Speech: After Jimmy Hoffa Jr. warms up the crowd at a Labor Day rally, the Tea Party and conservatives suddenly develop an allergic reaction to violent rhetoric.  (04:59): 

1. Incitements to violence for motivating the political base; 2. Suppression of individuality and rationality in a large group (and the creation of an effective emotional political response irrespective of facts); 3. Both sides (the somewhat accurate and the almost completely inaccurate) use the same tactics as its necessary in American politics...

The ones promoting violence like the Nazis did are on Fox News but the peaceful folk are the ones they say are the  Nazis. As a comparison they ignore tons of pages of war crimes and focus on the drones strikes of Obama & other  GOP members of the CIA. I got hundreds to thousands of dead for Obama but 1.2 Million as a consequence of Bush, yet the GOP's  channel says nothing about this! And Fox News/Biz gives the GOP a million dollars so it's not like they are not connected, fox news doesn't talk about anything that interferes with it's mission of promoting oil company and war factory interests. Be it giving no-bid contracts to Halliburton, ignoring oil crimes for years, a Texas factory explosion that defies explanation in so many ways it's not funny. And of course, complete silence on the Invisible War in the Military (thus making it invisible to begin with AND FOR GOOD REASON!) - being the "war party" this actually makes sense. It's NOT moral in any way. It just makes sense. War is immoral and so isFox News & Fox Business.

It's what they are.

Related:

Democracy & Despotism: 1940s Encyclopedia Britannica Filmshttp://www.culturesocietyblog.com/2013/03/democracy-despotism-1940s-encyclopedia.html

Breaking Down Society & Social Structures Leads To Anarchy AND Violence http://www.culturesocietyblog.com/2013/03/breaking-down-society-social-structures.html

Rachel Maddow Video: Here is the GOP answering questions on abortion etc. during the general elections (and a challenge to the media, i.e. CNN, MSNBC & FoxNews, which they failed as they are all connected)  http://www.culturesocietyblog.com/2013/03/rachel-maddow-here-is-gop-answering.html

Megyn Kelly Lies & Says "I watch our programming everyday an you are wrong":

BTW, Bill O Reilly then defends Megyn Kelly despite the fact that John Stewart wasn't talking to him... and he was speaking nonsense. Yet, Bill O Reilly felt compelled to speak and make a fool of himself. Why? - Possible answer is here.

2:30 "The segment was for Megyn Kelly to take offense to not you". Jon Stewart

, The GUY RUNNING FOX NEWS WAS WITH NIXON DURING WATERGATE!!!!!!!!!!! He Says:

Fox News IS The Channel That LOVES  To Demonize (it;s a standard War Party strategy). In fact, "wedge issues" are the very definition of demonization:

"Michelle Obama orders a cheeseburger meal that's the caloric equivalent of eating a live raccoon."  

Later, when Ann Romney became a part of the election cycle, Fox News said, unanimously, that women shouldn't be insulted. It's true. Fox News hypocrisy knows no bounds. Such as when they rebrand a section of thier corporation "Business" and everyone buys it. This brings me to another very serious problem. The dumbing down of the United States. Covered here in detail:

"The Dumbing Down of America" Example 1 - Cartoons

"The Dumbing Down of America" Example 2 - Sarah Palin

"The Dumbing Down of America" Example 3 - Michelle Bachman

The State of US Education and The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America


Violent rhetoric in the US is very common here are a few examples from Fox "Business": 

1. From John Stossel = "I think it will take visible riots to help people focus on this thing" (i.e. he is suggesting to his followers that 'we may have to riot'!)- example of violent rhetoric on the extreme right by its true believers - connects with tea party and ideological economics. http://video.foxnews.com/v/1042453656001/can-the-us-learn-from-greece/

What Stossel is promoting (such as with Iran here) is standard Fox-News/GOP's party line. To cause harm to US Citizens through violence.

Links 

 Glenn Beck advocates violence... 

A look at Glenn Beck & his tendency to promote extreme forms of violence . [People like Glenn Beck having political and social power scare me the most - To understand why please watch this video.] . Instead of violent rhetoric I think the sources of the problems need to be rooted out as I explained here (i.e. aggressively and not the way outlined in GOP funded Liberal Think Tanks).


This will be the result of these violent promotions by Fox News if they achieve thier rioting goal:

1. "He says looting makes "powerless people suddenly feel powerful" and that is "very intoxicating"." -http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-14463452 .

2. Simple opportunity for lawlessness by the breakdown of infrastructure -http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2007/07/dayintech_0713 

3. Normal behaviour motivated by greed or heartlessness or simply living by the law of the streets - an example of a complete breakdown of law http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14456065

4. DAILY SHOW LINK: Compared to discord in Pakistan or even other riots in the US, Britain is very tame - at 2mins and 40 secs, check out the looters standing in line to loot (there were also images of looters helping each other under glass windows etc. - took 2 days for 'batons' to be allowed... no one has guns etc.)

The many perspectives on the Britain riots: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-14483149 - 
The LA riots were much more violent (there is literally no comparison): http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-14501282 
The anger at the violent reaction created its own mass movement: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-14490167 
The problem of the rumor mill that leads to mass hysteria (at local, national or global levels) and is something that the US media does on a regular basis with its fear marketing (though that may have gone down?), Fox news has taken this fear mongering to criminal levels(IMO): http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14490693 
Another look at the origin of the 2 reactions in England; "Are they rioters, which implies a political objection, looters, which doesn't, or vandals, etc? It's interesting too that a lot of the people cleaning up embraced the Sun's 'scum' so readily, a reflexive response of anger." http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-14506159 .

Side Note: The fall of the currency has been a major drumbeat amougnst the Koch Brother Libertarians. This hyperinflation result was predicted for 2001. Then 2012. Now 2013? We have to accept that the Fox Business Libertarians don't understand the economy anymore than a 10 year old. Who, besides the EXTREMELY old &  decrepit, are the only ones who believe their crap). But yes, in every outright lie there is a kernel of truth. For QE the kernel of truth is this: "As the Bank of England prepares to vote on quantitative easing, a report argues the extra cash 'exacerbates already extreme income inequality'". Which actually helps the Koch Brothers and any oil manipulations they may be up to. So Fox Business needs to re-think their incitement strategy. Maybe even get an education if the most recent news is any measure of their knowledge:

The new form of communist/fascist/socialist government is actually crony capitalism (i.e. people doing WHATEVER thier corporate bosses say) and it looks like this... 

Public Employee Union vs. Wall Street Bonus Contracts... 

In this case you will notice that contract law is supported for Wall Street firms that have already gone bankrupt and only exist because of taxpayer money, while not supporting Public Unions who Ronald Reagan said enhanced freedom as if you don't have the freedom to form public unions then "freedom is lost".

An example of how Reagan is continuously saying the opposite of what the Tea Party/GOP wants: 

Also,

Notice That Judge Napolitano has been following standard GOP policy when trying to incite violence. This violent approach to a possible drone (that could be just a remote controlled kids plane, a pizza delivery from Dominos or a bird - considering GOP follower obervation capabilities, backed by the Supreme Court I might add - is backed by a violent shock jock by the name of Alex Jones (who claims there is some GOP revolution rising but Adam Kokesh proves regularly that that's not the case, it's just some kids who know the truth of Government in this internet age and Alex Jones is trying to help herd them into the arms of the GOP through it's Koch Brother Libertarian outreach program led by Fox Biz Libertarians & people like Alex Jones): 


Judge Andrew Napolitano has warned Congress not to act “like potted plants” regarding the increased use of unmanned surveillance drones without warrants over US skies by military, government, and law enforcement agencies.

Echoing the recent comments of his Fox News colleague Charles Krauthammer, Napolitano also said that “The first American patriot that shoots down one of these drones that comes too close to his children in his backyard will be an American hero.”

VIDEO - From Bill Moyers David Stockman on Crony Capitalism - January 20, 2012-  http://billmoyers.com/segment/david-stockman-on-crony-capitalism/  Moyers & Company explores the tight connection between Wall Street and the White House with David Stockman, former budget director for President Reagan. Now a businessman who says he was “taken to the woodshed” for telling the truth about the administration’s tax policies, Stockman speaks candidly with Bill Moyers about how money dominates politics, distorting free markets and endangering democracy. “As a result,” Stockman says, “we have neither capitalism nor democracy. We have crony capitalism.” Stockman shares details on how the courtship of politics and high finance have turned our economy into a private club that rewards the super-rich and corporations, leaving average Americans wondering how it could happen and who’s really in charge. “We now have an entitled class of Wall Street financiers and of corporate CEOs who believe the government is there to do… whatever it takes in order to keep the game going and their stock price moving upward,” Stockman tells Moyers.


The problem here is powerful, privately owned enterprises, who finance such warmongers as above and who influence the nations wealth by having connections into the Government (which in the case of 2008 involved the biggest theft in history, which the Corporate Media Cronies is helping to cover up) i.e. Crony Capitalism – [Visualized] http://www.thevisualeverything.com/2011/12/crony-capitalism-visualized/

Explanations: 

1. Socialism by Robert Heilbroner (Article From Library of Economics): "Socialism—defined as a centrally planned economy in which the government controls all means of production" http://www.culturesocietyblog.com/2009/05/socialism-by-robert-heilbroner.html

2. What Is Capitalism? http://www.culturesocietyblog.com/2009/04/what-is-capitalism.html

3. Summary of "Socialism", Keynesian Economics & "Road to Serfdom" (by F.A.Hayek)

i.e. USA has a market based healthcare approach (good) made by crony capitalists (bad)

Obamacare, brought to you by Johnson & Johnson: When push comes to shove, corporate interests will always have the upper hand in determining public policy  (i.e. it was made by a corporation - A CAPITALIST! )
     
 Obamacare architect heads to Big Pharma: Liz Fowler again exemplifies the blurred lines betweenthe healthcare industry and Washington           

Big Pharma Allies: Cigna, Aetna, Blue Cross -- they're allies, not competitors, when it comes to stopping a public plan                   

Lobbyists: Their influence on Washington dates back to the days of Lincoln -- and it only seems to be growing

"Promote, then, as an object of primary importance, institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as the structure of a government gives force to public opinion, it is essential that public opinion should be enlightened."-George Washington

Socialism is when ALL factors of production are provided by the State - basic econ 101 definition - (the healthcare bill is market based from Heritage Institute based on Romney care). The GOP & Fox News call anything that goes against Ayn Rand's business survival fiction "socialist". - But, logic doesn't work. The guy's running Fox News are being investigated for 9/11 phone hacking in England and close associates of Rupert Murdoch HAVE BEEN CHARGED - Also, 

• Ayn Rand & The Beginning Of The End Of Objectivism...

FOX NEWS IS CONTROLLED BY AN OLIGARCH WHOSE ASSOCIATES ARE BEING INVESTIGATED AND BEING CHARGED WITH CRIMES...

Most recently Rupert Murdoch's close family friend was charged with perjury...

Rebekah Brooks...has an interesting history with Murdoch...

In March 2003 she courted controversy -- and hinted at the scandal to come -- when, appearing before a government committee, she admitted that her paper had paid police officers for information. Brooks held the Sun post until 2009 when she was handpicked for the role of News International chief executive by the paper's owner, media magnate Rupert Murdoch.

The pair had been close for many years: Murdoch is said to treat Brooks like a daughter.

Tick Tock...

Updated 8/15/2013:

Better Know a District - New Jersey's 12th New Jersey's 12th congressional district is home to Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, meaning that Clarence Thomas insists he's from there, too.  (02:07) :

Note: In case this is a reference to some frame by the GOP then I would like to say in my defense that I'm against Nuclear Power in every sense of the word (environmentalist).

On Topic - Hipsters: Stephen tips his hat to hipsters and warns Israel that their new problem is suicide skinny jeans.  (03:53):

Notice how Conservatives take things literally (Bill O Reilly representing Conservatives) while Liberals drip with Sarcasm

Context: Stephen Colbert is playing Bill O Reilly above. Also see Instant Self Hypnosis & Hemp.

We Are Who We Are

Daily Show: World of Class Warfare - The Poor's Free Ride Is Over...

Notes:

A. 'We gotta start somewhere... that's a million dollars (that we could save)' - in contrast to the 700 billion we could save to reduce the deficit from the rich and unfairly untaxed (i.e. don't increase taxes on the job creators, eventhough their taxes are lower than everyone elses, just raise taxes on everyone else). 

[The answer is YES, we can start somewhere, such as the solution below or by making the taxes proportionate between rich and poor. For example 20% from a poor person could lead to struggling to survive while 20% from someone with a billion dollars can't possibly leave them struggling to survive. Of course, 20% from a rich person WILL be more money than 20% from the poor person. Be conscious of which modes of measurement the GOP/Fox-News is using to understand where they are trying to fool you - when they aren't throwing you a bone to seem nice!]

B . From fox news: Dont tax the rich but 'broaden the tax base' - ignore/cover over the realty of the tax codes.

C. Taxing the majority (poor) instead of taxing the minority (super rich by comparison) this is the very definition of despotism.

D. Heritage institute (Koch Brother funded) are trying to create the image of poor being wealthy cause they have normal second world amenities. (i.e. this will lower standard of living on a societal level).

Click Here 4 D KEY To Understanding Conservative Arguments


Article: From NY Times: G.O.P. Senators Face Risks Over Proposal on Tax Cuts

WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans will press this week to extend tax cuts for affluent families scheduled to expire Jan. 1, but the same Republican tax plan would allow a series of tax cuts for the working poor and the middle class to end next year.

Republicans say the tax breaks for lower-income families — passed with little notice in the extensive 2009 economic stimulus law — were always supposed to be temporary. But President Obama had made them a priority in 2009 and demanded their extension in 2010 as a price for extending the Bush-era tax cuts for two years, and both the White House and Senate Democrats are determined to extend them again.

That sets up a potentially tricky issue for Republicans. They have said they do not want taxes to go up on anyone while the economy struggles to gain altitude, but under their plan, written by Senator Orrin G. Hatch of Utah, the senior Republican on the Finance Committee, about 13 million families would see their tax refunds reduced, and some would see their taxes increase. (Read More)

Warren Buffet VS Wealthy FAKE Conservatives...

Notice: Fox-News/GOP talk of percentages for theminority group they protect but numerical figures with examples of piles of money when attacking majority interests. (Get it?)

For more proofs go through these overviews of the GOP's platform on the poor and middle class...

A look at GOP Hypocrisy:

FROM Bill Moyers: "So what do you get when you combine Mitt Romney, expensive horseflesh, fancy dinners and a financial scandal in the City of London? An interesting confluence of people and events that once again raises questions about the wealthy Republican candidate’s ability to relate to ordinary Americans and highlights the overwhelming, caustic influence of big money in this year’s presidential race.

TIP: If you say certain words your GOP relative can't respond to you because their minds function STRICTLY along these talking points (understand what words they use to learn how to communicate with them)

Here are the talking points that a "conservative" mind can comprehend - if you use other words such as 'rich guy' they won't know what you are talking about because to them these rich guys are 'job creators' and most of these guys need a job or think along those lines for themselves or others:

From Forbes: Talking Points for the Class War...[i.e. how to make the bad stuff of GOP policy sound good to people who only watch one news source with any regularity]

Herein, I provide a service to the right-wing dogmatists and those who’d like to understand them by reproducing the top 10 talking points for preserving the status quo. 

1. Whenever anyone brings up distributional issues, accuse them of class warfare.
2. Never acknowledge the existence of “the rich.” They are “job creators.”
3. Tax cuts for the working poor are “budget busters.”
4. Tax cuts for job creators are “incentives.”  See also “competitiveness.”
5. Deficits caused by new spending are harbingers of the apocalypse.
6. Deficits caused by tax incentives are signs of enlightened public policy.
7. Everyone can succeed in America by working hard.
8. Oppose an adequate minimum wage because it kills jobs.
9. Oppose tax credits that help minimum wage earners escape poverty, such as the earned income tax credit (EITC), because they let millions of lower-income Americans escape income tax liability.
10. Support tax incentives that let job creators escape income tax liability.

From Salon: How to debate your crazy uncle at the July 4 BBQ
It's the worst holiday tradition: Political debates with ignorant relatives. Here's a guide for answering the crazyBY SEAN MCELWEE

With the July 4 holiday upon us, you may find yourself gathering with family this long weekend. That might mean a barbecue and fireworks, but it may also mean something else: political conversations with your crazy relatives.

Here, then, is a citizen’s guide to debunking a half-dozen absurdities and myths you may find thrown at you, with an emphasis on the economy (particularly, the inequality debate).


1) CLAIM: “The poor are doing just fine!”

Example: Robert Rector:

In 2005, the typical household defined as poor by the government had a car and air conditioning. For entertainment, the household had two color televisions, cable or satellite TV, a DVD player, and a VCR. If there were children, especially boys, in the home, the family had a game system, such as an Xbox or a PlayStation.

HOW TO RESPOND: The idea here is that a rising tide lifts all boats, but as Warren Buffet has noted, in reality, a rising tide lifts all yachts. Even Adam Smith, the hero of classical economists, knows this is bunk: “A linen shirt, for example, is, strictly speaking, not a necessary of life … But in the present times, through the greater part of Europe, a creditable day-labourer would be ashamed to appear in public without a linen shirt, the want of which would be supposed to denote that disgraceful degree of poverty.” The real question is not whether the poor can afford silly amenities, like a DVD player or an XBox, it’s whether they can afford essentials: food, clothing, comfort, shelter, etc. For poor Americans, the prices of these goods have increased dramatically, while the price of consumer goods has decreased dramatically. By singling out only consumer goods that have gotten cheaper, Rector disguises the real costs of inequality: worse health outcomes, worse educational outcomes and decreased social cohesion.


2) CLAIM: “Rich people work harder, they deserve what they’ve earned!”

Example: David Brooks:

For the first time in human history, the rich work longer hours than the proletariat.

Today’s super-wealthy no longer go off on four-month grand tours of Europe, play gin-soaked Gatsbyesque croquet tournaments or spend hours doing needlepoint while thinking in full paragraphs like the heroines of Jane Austen novels. Instead, their lives are marked by sleep deprivation and conference calls, and their idea of leisure is jetting off to Aspen to hear Zbigniew Brzezinski lead panels titled ”Beyond Unipolarity.” Meanwhile, down the income ladder, the percentage of middle-age men who have dropped out of the labor force has doubled over the past 40 years, to over 12 percent.

HOW TO RESPOND: Really? Jamie Dimon works harder than a single mom with two jobs trying to make ends meet? Gar Alperovitz argues that, in reality, the wealthy live off luck, not skill. As Bruce Bartlett, a former conservative, notes, “Only 61.8 percent of national income went to compensation of employees in 2012, compared with 65.1 percent in 2001.” Middle- and lower-class blue-collar workers are actually creating more, but getting less. While productivity has steadily increased by a total of 85 percent between 1979 and 2012, the inflation adjusted wage of the median worker rose by a paltry 6 percent and the value of the federal minimum wage fell by 21 percent. Richard Branson has said, “Yes, entrepreneurs may work hard, but I don’t think they actually work any harder than, say, doctors, nurses or other people in society …” The idea the right promotes is that poor people are lazy, rather than smart, hardworking people who never get a fair shake. Worse, they say that they are “dependent” on government, when it’s really the rich and their cronies who rely on public financing. The middle class that decries poor “welfare queens” is more and more reliant on government largess. Gore Vidal observed that the American free market system is “capitalism for the poor and socialism for the rich.”


3) CLAIM: “America is the Land of Opportunity; poor people just won’t take them!”

Example: Thomas Sowell

Most people start out at the bottom, in entry-level jobs, and their incomes rise over time as they acquire more skills and experience … Ironically, those who make the most noise about income disparities or poverty contribute greatly to policies that promote both. The welfare state enables millions of people to meet their needs with little or no income-earning work on their part.

HOW TO RESPOND: This argument is the most depressing, because it’s often paired with a call to privatize education, and blame teachers unions. But it, too, is false. America doesn’t have as much upward mobility as the Nordic countries, its upward neighbor and most of Europe. Children who are born rich now get better test scores, are more likely to attend college and make more money than poorer children, even those with the same cognitive ability! The second part of Sowell’s statement is problematic for reasons already discussed: Post-Clinton’s welfare reform, most people on welfare are those who are working, but simply aren’t paid enough.


4) CLAIM: “If you tax wealthy people too much, they’ll stop working!”

Example: Bill O’Reilly

If you tax achievement, some of the achievers are going to pack it in. Again, let’s take me. My corporations employ scores of people. They depend on me to do what I do so they can make a nice salary. If Barack Obama begins taxing me more than 50 percent, which is very possible, I don’t know how much longer I’m going to do this. I like my job, but there comes a point when taxation becomes oppressive. Is the country really entitled to half a person’s income?

HOW TO RESPOND: Where do you start? We could start with the fact that in the early 1950s the top tax bracket paid 91 percent of their marginal income in taxes. In the 1970s, they paid around 70 percent, and today, they pay 35 percent. Now, the top bracket pays so little in taxes that many pay less than middle-class taxpayers. Next, research shows that this claim is false. A study by Thomas Piketty, Emmanuel Saez and Stefanie Stantcheva find that “the top tax rate could be as high as 83 percent — as opposed to 57 percent in the pure supply-side model — without harming economic growth.” The authors argue that even using the assumptions of conservatives, we could have a 57 percent top tax rate (13 percent higher than currently) without decreasing economic activity. Further, they find that better assumptions would allow for a more than doubling of our tax rates without any negative impact on growth.  The reality is that tax breaks for the rich don’t make rich people work more and create jobs, but rather the opposite is true. Tax breaks for poor and middle-class people stimulate demand, thereby creating more jobs. Even if conservatives are right, and people like Bill O’Reilly will quit their jobs, that seems like an advantage, not a disadvantage.


5) CLAIM: “We need inequality to drive innovation!”

Example: Gregory Mankiw:

Imagine a society with perfect economic equality … Then, one day, this egalitarian utopia is disturbed by an entrepreneur with an idea for a new product. Think of the entrepreneur as Steve Jobs as he develops the iPod, J.K. Rowling as she writes her Harry Potter books, or Steven Spielberg as he directs his blockbuster movies. When the entrepreneur’s product is introduced, everyone in society wants to buy it. They each part with, say, $100. The transaction is a voluntary exchange, so it must make both the buyer and the seller better off. But because there are many buyers and only one seller, the distribution of economic well-being is now vastly unequal. The new product makes the entrepreneur much richer than everyone else.

HOW TO RESPOND: Mankiw’s argument relies upon what Mark Lemley calls the “Hero Inventor” mythos, the idea that one man or woman upends the current consensus, driving innovation forward. But that’s not how innovation happens. Innovation, according to Mark Lemley, occurs by “incremental improvements generally made by a number of different inventors at roughly the same time.” Mankiw, in many ways, undermines his own argument; after all, Spielberg started making movies under the radically higher tax rates of the 1970s. Take CEOs like Steve Jobs as an example; CEO pay has risen dramatically and yet most CEOs add little value to companies. Recent research shows that the higher a CEO is paid, the worse a stock performs. Further, if pay really correlated to how important an individual’s contribution to society is, why does Justin Bieber make more than Norman Borlaug, who saved 1 billion lives? And what of Rowling? Alan Krueger argues that for musicians and artists, luck influences earnings far more than skill. But this myth leads to its corollary.


6) CLAIM: “Inequality is an inevitable consequence of the information economy!”

Example: Phil Gramm

The vast expansion of labor engaged in world commerce has raised the return on capital and reduced the relative return on labor. The share of income flowing to capital—both traditional and human capital such as education and training—has risen.

In relative terms, the return to unskilled labor has fallen. Short of a crippling reversal in world trade, which would reduce the value of both labor and capital, this effect will dominate world markets for the foreseeable future. Since high-income Americans own more capital and have higher levels of education and training, their incomes have grown faster than everyone else’s.

HOW TO RESPOND: And yet, inequality has not increased in most other developed countries. In fact, income inequality is correlated very highly with lower unionization rates. The OECD finds that the U.S. not only begins with a less equal distribution of wealth, it also redistributes less income downward. Inequality increased dramatically in the United States because of tax cuts, union busting and unequal education outcomes that leave the poor and middle class worse off. Policies in other countries like maternal leave, free college, universal healthcare, high minimum wages and guaranteed vacations could all lower inequality in the United States. Inequality is not inevitable, but rather the result of a political system bought and paid for by wealthy corporations.

There’s no excuse for America to continue on the road of inequality. Plenty of other countries have managed to grow quickly without drastic inequality. Inequality is bad for democracy, health, safety, social cohesion and social mobility. Let’s not let anyone sugarcoat it.

(Video source)

The end of "don't ask, don't tell" forever changes America's perception of its military.  (03:40):