Friday, July 29, 2016

#Anonymous And The Disruptors Within

TY to #IntelGroup for publishing this ♥
#Anonymous And The Disruptors Within / Kitty Hundal
"I’m writing this post as an educational FYI to Anons. The more you know about how the disruptors behave and the kind of activities they engage in, the better equipped you will be to address these issues when you are faced with them. And remember, one of the strategies that appears most frequently, at this time, is to have legitimate social activists persistently and viciously attacked by people claiming to be Anons but whose goal appears to be to disassociate those activists from Anonymous. The union of Anonymous, social activism like Occupy, and Whistleblowers, is a powerful one. In my opinion, it’s this union that is being targeted. " ~KH
Read the full article published by IntelGroup here: #Anonymous And The Disruptors Within





Thursday, June 16, 2016

We Have Failed Our Daughters. From the 2d Wave to the 3d Wave

The Freethinking Woman: We Have Failed Our Daughters. From the 2d Wave to the 3d Wave:


I've been watching 3rd wave feminism and the havoc it has wreaked in the last few years with dismay. It reminds me of an out of control toddler.

It truly breaks my heart to see the issue of womens' rights, an issue that has always been very close to my heart, turned into one of shallow bigotry against men, hatred against anyone who disagrees, and whining, bitching and moaning over the most absurd of issues (manspreading? seriously?) like children running to the mommy / daddy state and begging for support. When the support doesn't come the usual temper tantrum ensues.

The 3rd wave doesn't understand the concept of rights, especially women's rights and the role that concept plays in society in general. They seem to see it as a means to brow beat and abuse those they don't like (especially if they're male) or to support self-serving goals/agendas. They also don't understand how to achieve rights.

It just makes me shake my head.

And then I realize, it's my fault. It's the fault of my generation of women's rights activists. The 2d wave.

We did this to our daughters because we didn't teach them the most important aspects of women's rights.

We didn't teach our daughters that:

1. Women's rights are directly connected to Human Rights, to Civil Rights. Our rights must exist within that context. They cannot exist independent of that or they become Special Rights, the rights of a privileged (or underprivileged) group. Gaining rights for ourselves by taking away the rights of others benefits the divide and rule game of the elites and not us. The 2d wave fought for women's rights as well as the rights of the disadvantaged, the poor, the children.

2. Men are our allies in our fight for women's rights. Not our enemies. They are not our problem. Any state/government which diminishes our rights and freedoms is the problem. We should be focusing our attention on them and the numerous ways that they are removing ALL of our rights as well as those rights specific to women such as the right to control our bodies.

3. a. Rights are not given to us not matter how much we beg, stomp our feet or scream about it. Protest, screaming out on the Internet, writing blogs, doing any of these things by themselves accomplishes little or sometimes it accomplishes the wrong things.

3. b. Rights are won. They are won through organized systematic community-based actions. They are won by organizing at the grass roots level (online and IRL), helping people to understand the issues and why they matter and winning their hearts and support. They are not won by brow-beating those potential allies into submission using trite PC phrases, irrational arguments and initiating hate campaigns and deceptions against them when they dare to disagree. Patience, tolerance, understanding the issues, having open rational discussions is what wins us allies.

4. As strong women, we must assert ourselves, assert our rights, and act to defend them in both the legal arena and society at large or, in the case of anarchists, in an appropriate way that fits into your belief system. I'm not an anarchist so I don't know what that would be. The main point, irrespective of belief systems, is that if we don't act, then any problems that result are on us. No-one else. We have to shoulder that responsibility. Passivity, going along, accepting discriminatory and harassing environments without taking action is what the 2d wave fought hard against. As women, we are not weak, passive creatures and victims of happenstance. We have to act and in order to do that we have to take our strength, assert it, and never back down when we are acting to defend our rights. The blame game is simply a means to avoid taking a stand and rationalizing our own inaction. It's a way of avoiding responsibility.

The job of the 3d wave was easy at the beginning of the new millennium. All you had to do was defend and protect the rights that the 2d wave fought for and won. You didn't do your job because we didn't teach you what needed to be done. We assumed you knew. Of course, as the old saying goes, assuming things makes an 'ass' out of you and me. It certainly has done that in spades.

Now, today, in 2016, thanks to our Whistleblowers, we are seeing terrible erosions of rights. Erosions that impact everyone including in the areas of women's rights. As women, we are losing the right to control our bodies such as weakening of or elimination of abortion laws. The laws such as sexual harassment as well as labor laws are becoming ineffective because people (men and women) are not asserting their rights. There are many reasons for this including the fact that it's gradually becoming more difficult to do. Especially for the poor who don't have the means or resources to hire lawyers and assert their rights in the courts.

We are ALL responsible for that. For taking our rights for granted and for not acting to defend them.

Tuesday, February 02, 2016

UBI vs GBI

UBI vs GBI
What is a Universal Basic Income?

Everyone, irrespective of need or income, gets a cheque of the same amount (working or not and including the 1% wealthy elite and upper middle classes - 150K+). This is pointless, expensive and unsustainable. Why?

Less money goes to the impoverished. Current proposals (like Finland) actually reduce the income and benefits which those living in poverty currently receive, while putting additional money in the hands of those who don't need it and will NOT spend it on goods and services. Therefore there is no boost to the economy because the poor are still living at the subsistence level with even more hardship.

What is a Guaranteed Basic Income?

Those below a LIVING income level are the only ones who receive it and it's graduated as you reach the living income level. Everyone is eligible to receive it but only those who qualify by being below the set income rate receive it. 

$40K in Toronto, Canada, where I live would restore a persons purchasing power to what we had in the 1950s with a minimum wage. This results in the money paid out, being spent on goods and services which is what the economy needs in order to restore itself.

The entire welfare system could be scrapped. The money is guaranteed based on income level which could be administered by the Tax departments since it's only a question of sending out a cheque based on current income. This alone would result in huge savings making money available for the BGI.

Full benefits such as health, prescription, eye and dental care could now be provided for free to BGI recipients as well as a tax free status because that would also be affordable and it would maintain and enhance the social service benefits people currently get.

THIS design is affordable, will put money in the hands of the people who actually need it which will result in a boost to the economy especially if the taxes are increased on the Corporations and the wealthy elites. 

Those Trillions currently in offshore bank accounts are not contributing anything to the economy.

To those who think the poor are lazy and greedy and 'will take advantage', let me just say that the Welfare Fraud rate in my province of Ontario is 4% while over 60% of Corporations in Ontario have either not paid tax by 'taking advantage' of tax law grey areas, evaded paying taxes owed, or engaged in tax fraud. How could this possibly occur without the active collusion of the provincial and federal government? Now tell me again who the lazy, greedy, fraudsters are. The facts speak for themselves.

In addition, an experiment was conducted in Canada in one town where people received the GBI for 5 years. This experiment was successful, and there was no indication of any problems of 'laziness and greed.' This is just another reason why this payment should NOT be Universal but rather targeted to those living in poverty and raising their income to a living income with benefits and a tax free status.

A Canadian City Once Eliminated Poverty And Nearly Everyone Forgot About It

A Silicon Valley entrepreneur says basic income would work even if 90% of people smoked weed instead of working 

The entire point of this program is to solve the problem of economic inequality and kick start economies by providing the poor with additional purchasing power. 

Someone described it as a Trickle Up effect. The GBI design I have described will have this effect and address this problem. The Trickle Up effect offers a real benefit to the corporations as long as they don't gouge. Allowing corporate gouging will eliminate any benefit over the longer term and we'll end up right back to where we are today.

A UBI will do nothing to solve either the problem of income inequality or increasing the purchase of goods and service. However, MSM, the politicians, and their Corporate masters can all pat themselves on the back and talk about how they tried but they can't continue because it doesn't work, is unaffordable, and unsustainable. This, of course, is something we already know and it isn't what people have been asking for. It's the MSM and Politicians spin on it as well as various economists. You know, the ones that used the Trickle Down nonsense to justify the creation of the corporate welfare bum scam of handing out billions of taxpayer dollars.

Given the demonstrated, repeated problem with Corporate Gouging (price increases based on 'what the market will bear' rather than what is a reasonable profit margin will become a problem which will also need to be addressed to avoid inflationary costs in the areas of food, clothing, transportation and shelter.

This could be addressed by establishing regulations on how prices are set. Or, it could be addressed by tying increases in the GBI directly to price increases in food, clothing, shelter, and transportation only. Those are the prices that will have the greatest impact on the purchasing power of those receiving the GBI. If increases in those prices are directly reflected in increases to the GBI any damage from greedy corporate gouging can be mitigated in those key areas. Tying increases to COLA or general inflation are useless because those rates are usually much lower than the real inflation experienced by those whose purchasing power is low in the first place. We've seen the result of this already. None of our social services benefits, pensions, etc. have kept up with increases in those critical areas and that's been a huge part of the problem.

In the 1950s, the Corporations and wealthy elites paid 90% of their income in taxes and lived extravagant and luxurious life styles. That tax rate level didn't hurt them. They now pay far less, if anything and have become Corporate Welfare Bums receiving billions in handouts paid from the taxpayer purse. They no longer need to run competitive, productive companies which offer quality goods and services. 

In addition, it was this tax money we used to provide tax payer services, social services, education, health, etc. and build our infrastructure and maintain it. It's this tax money we've lost which is resulting in the crumbling of our infrastructure today, the creation of fee-based taxpayer services, draconian cuts in social services, education, health, etc. Increasing the taxes on the Corporations and wealthy elites will also allow us to restore those services and rebuild this aging infrastructure, which will provide jobs and reduce the number of people who require the GBI.

Ending corporate handouts will force corporations to run competitive, profitable companies which provide quality goods and services or go out of business if they can't cut it. Instead of corporate handouts, the money is distributed to the unemployed through the BGI. They can either use their experience to recreate a more profitable version of the business or move on into other areas of interest.




It's time to END Socialism for the Rich in the form of handouts and tax breaks and turning a blind eye to their tax frauds. They should be taxed appropriately in accordance to their income. The higher the income, the higher the taxes. 

It isn't rocket science. Really.