Merv Liked His Men
Why should that be so uncomfortable to read? Why is it so difficult to write? Why are we still so jittery even about raising the issue in purportedly liberal-minded Hollywood, in 2007? Griffin, who died at 82, stayed in the closet throughout his life.
Merv Liked Cruisin For Surfers
Merv would try to pick up young Surfer dudes with his convertible in Laguna Beach back in the 70's.
The Lawsuit That Shook Hollywood
Merv's secret gay life was widely known throughout showbiz culture, if not the wider America. It gained traction in 1991 when he was targeted in a pair of lawsuits: by "Dance Fever" host Denny Terrio, alleging sexual harassment;
Brent Plott Wanted Palimony
Merv's assistant Brent Plott was seeking $200 million in palimony. Both ultimately were dismissed.
Sunday, August 19, 2007
Friday, August 17, 2007
Mattel's Real Toy Story; Slave Labor In Sweatshops by Eric Clark
Behind high fences, sprawling factory compounds stretch mile after dusty, depressing mile along the congested roads.
Guarded gates control entry and exit.
Adjoining many of the blocks are identical concrete boxes - the washing at the chicken wire-covered windows, adding flashes of colour, is the only indication that these are the dormitories for workers.
Here in the Pearl River Delta, China, the pollution levels are on average two or three times those permitted in the West.
But without places like this, with its swirling red dust, toxic rivers and thick, choking smog that hovers everywhere, stinging eyes and throats, the modern toy industry would not exist.
This is the hidden face of the trade where toys are produced for a few pence each by vast numbers of young Chinese people toiling in sweatshop conditions.
Between shifts the workers, mostly young women, their faces set in exhaustion, shuffle from building to building.
Shifts can last more than 15 hours a day, seven days a week - unlawful but far from uncommon.
The dominance of China in toy production is staggering.
There are about 8,000 factories employing some three million workers spread over six areas, of which the Pearl River Delta is by far the largest.
Virtually all the familiar Western toy names - led by U.S. giants Mattel and Hasbro - are made here. These workers make 80 per cent of all America's toys.
In children's picture books, Santa's beaming elves may still be making the toys, but the reality is that for elves we should read migrants - millions of them who have travelled by bus from rural areas up to three days' journey away, part of the biggest movement of people in human history.
Since the migration began, more than 50 million have passed through the factories of Guangdong province, where the Pearl River Delta lies.
If it is almost impossible to comprehend the scale of the movement of people, it is even more difficult for a Westerner to imagine the daily life of one of these toy workers.
Conditions obviously vary, from the acceptable to the unimaginably awful, but it is possible, from a host of reports and interviews conducted well away from factory premises, to construct a composite of the life and working conditions of one of the workers.
Li Mei is worn out, so she looks older than her 18 years.
Her skin is bad from too little daylight and she has many healing and still-open cuts on her hands.
Her neck, chest and forearms are heavily mottled with the raised red patches of allergy caused by toxic chemicals, which she scratches as she speaks.
She coughs a lot, and has chronic aches and pains, frequent headaches and blurred vision.
All these ailments have appeared during the past two years.
Li Mei is a migrant from the rural province of Western Sichuan.
At first, she is thrilled to be one of the dagongmei - the working girls - and to leave the hamlet where there are no roads and only limited electricity.
But she is frightened because the factories have a reputation as sweatshops.
Many return with disfigurements and illnesses.
And there was the fate of Li Chunmei.
Lin Chunmei, 19, was a 'runner' in the Bainan Toy Factory, rushing stuffed animals from one worker to the next for each step in production.
Mattel recalled thousands of toys over choking fears
It was said she ran 16 hours a day, seven days a week, for two solid months.
Lin Chunmei was paid the equivalent of 7 pence an hour.
She collapsed one night, bleeding from nose and mouth, and was found hours later. She died before the ambulance arrived. Her parents were told it was an 'unknown death' and received a small sum in compensation.
But the villagers said it was the new disease, death from overwork.
Li Mei is certain nothing like this will happen to her: she is strong, accustomed to physically demanding tasks such as drawing water and cutting wood.
Her parents have borrowed heavily to buy the various personal documents she needs.
In four or five years, she plans to go home, buy a house and get married. She thinks about this all the time.
The factory where she toils is one of three buildings in a compound with high fences and a sliding metal gate, where two guards check everyone going in and out.
Beside it stands a warehouse and dormitory block. Li Mei's dormitory is on the eighth floor, a small room about 12 by 23 feet.
There are 32 rooms like it on this floor.
It is lit by a single fluorescent bar - her wages have the electricity costs docked - and the floor is concrete.
Double and triple bunk beds made of metal take up every inch of wall space.
During peak periods, when the factory takes on extra staff, girls often sleep two to a single bed.
Under the window, a grubby sink has a single tap. A notice is stuck to the wall, rules which another girl reads to her.
There are many, so she can remember only a few: 'No step on grass, offenders will be fined 50 yuan (£3.30).'
'No male or female staff going to the other gender's dormitory. The offender will be fired.'
Li Mei waits in a long queue of girls for the bathroom that two dozen people use to shower and wash their clothes.
She is still there at midnight, when everyone in the village has long been asleep, but the workers are only just off shift, too tired even to grumble as they wait in line.
Sometimes, the girl beside her says, 'there is no water even to brush your teeth, and the toilet is horrible.' The water (which, like lavatory paper, Li Mei is charged for) is cold.
By 2am she is finally in her lower bunk bed, separated from the hard surface by a straw mat even thinner than the one she uses at home.
Next morning she has no breakfast, for it is a meal she has to buy and prepare herself.
At 7.30am, in factory uniform of blue blouse with a white collar over trousers with her ID card displayed (she would be fined two days' wages if it was lost), she follows her guide through passages lined with cardboard boxes.
The air in the spraying and colouring department is filled with paint dust and smells sourly of chemicals -acetone, ethylene, trichloride, benzene.
The windows are fitted with wire mesh, the exits locked to prevent pilfering.
Noisy ventilators add to the din of the machines so the team leader has to shout to be heard.
Li Mei is given a blue apron and shown how to paint the eyes of the dolls with four pens of different sizes: she has to paint one every 7.2 seconds - 4,000 a day.
By the end of the second day, Li Mei's cotton mask and gloves are thick with paint particles and difficult to use.
She asks for new ones but is refused.
During the first few days, she finds the heat combined with the smell of chemicals repulsive.
She feels sick, has stomach-aches and is dizzy.
Once, when she faints, her section leader tells her to rest, rub on some herbal ointment then return to work.
Li Mei sneezes constantly and her eyes stream.
The bosses move her to the moulding department.
She feels a blast of heat - she is told later it rises to 104F - when the door is opened.
She is told to watch the other workers and then begins to stamp out parts of plastic dolls with repetitive movements performed many times a minute, 3,000 times a day.
Gloves are issued but no one can wear them - it is unbearably hot and they make it difficult to handle the tiny plastic parts: once the production line starts, her hands and eyes cannot stop for a minute.
Li Mei has to learn a lot of rules because she will be fined for any infringement.
Her section leader tells her there is to be no chatting, joking, laughing or quarrelling.
She must not disturb anyone's work, nap, or read a newspaper.
She must not fail to punch her work card, nor must she punch in for another worker.
She will lose two hours' wages for each minute she is late, and for half an hour she will lose a day's pay. For poor quality work, she may be dismissed or fined.
So she works carefully - and that means too slowly, so she is fined two days' pay.
Like most workers, Li Mei knows within a month that she is being unlawfully exploited.
She soon has wounds on her hands and elbows, and burn marks on her uniform.
When she is moved to a job trimming the plastic toys with small sharp knives, she often cuts herself, once so badly that her hand bleeds heavily - but the medical box is locked.
So she binds the wound up in cloth.
Worse things happen: workers in the die-casting and moulding departments lose fingers and even arms, while hole-making workers often have their hands punctured and crushed because they have no reinforced gloves.
With her tiny pay and all her debts, Li Mei cannot save.
She cannot resign from the factory but must apply for 'voluntary automatic leave'.
This means she would be severing the 'work contract' at her request.
As punishment she must forfeit one-and-a-half months' wages.
Without that, she does not have enough for the fare home.
Li Mei says: "I'm tired to death and I don't earn much.
"It makes everything meaningless." All she can do is go on.
"When we are working at the factory, we belong to the factory."
The American toy industry dominates the whole of the globe.
It is a $22 billion business. Every year it puts almost 3.6 billion toys into the home market alone, including 76 million dolls, 349 million plush toys, 125 million action figures, 279 million Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars.
Yet the toy business is no longer fun and games.
It's a harsh, corporate world, driven by social and demographic changes, concerns about stock prices and fierce battles between global brands.
By law, the maximum any Chinese worker should be on the assembly line is 53 hours per week.
But the China Labour Bulletin, a Hong Kong-based journal supporting independent unions and workers' rights, says 80 hours is common.
"Mattel has no way to know the truth about what really goes on here," said one worker. "Every time there is an inspection, the bosses tell us what lies to say."
This was supported by others who said that managers promised them extra pay if they pretended that they worked only eight hours a day, six days a week.
One government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, revealed that when government officers or foreign business executives visit the factories, the managers are tipped off beforehand and under-age workers are sent home.
In August 2006, the Chinese press carried the story of a female migrant worker who died from brain-stem bleeding after reportedly working non-stop for 21 hours in a toy factory in Zengzheng county in Guangzhou.
But it is unrealistic to expect that Chinese manufacturers will voluntarily improve conditions for workers.
The crux of the problem is this: by demanding that their suppliers produce goods at ever cheaper prices and demanding deadlines, the toy industry is almost forcing them to act illegally, despite the codes of practice it struggles to impose on them.
For consumers, this presents a dilemma which was neatly summed up for me by a couple pushing a loaded trolley down the toy aisles of a large superstore last Christmas.
"They're probably made under awful conditions but what do you do?" they asked.
"Accept it, or leave the kids with nothing."
The answer is not a boycott of Chinese toys.
Forcing factories to close and throwing millions of people out of work would harm the very people it was meant to help.
Instead, we must protest to the toy companies that we won't accept playthings for our kids which have been produced under horrific conditions and at the expense of workers.
After all, as this week's recall of Chinese-made toys shows, we too could end up paying a high price just for the benefit of buying cheap toys.
Guarded gates control entry and exit.
Adjoining many of the blocks are identical concrete boxes - the washing at the chicken wire-covered windows, adding flashes of colour, is the only indication that these are the dormitories for workers.
Here in the Pearl River Delta, China, the pollution levels are on average two or three times those permitted in the West.
But without places like this, with its swirling red dust, toxic rivers and thick, choking smog that hovers everywhere, stinging eyes and throats, the modern toy industry would not exist.
This is the hidden face of the trade where toys are produced for a few pence each by vast numbers of young Chinese people toiling in sweatshop conditions.
Between shifts the workers, mostly young women, their faces set in exhaustion, shuffle from building to building.
Shifts can last more than 15 hours a day, seven days a week - unlawful but far from uncommon.
The dominance of China in toy production is staggering.
There are about 8,000 factories employing some three million workers spread over six areas, of which the Pearl River Delta is by far the largest.
Virtually all the familiar Western toy names - led by U.S. giants Mattel and Hasbro - are made here. These workers make 80 per cent of all America's toys.
In children's picture books, Santa's beaming elves may still be making the toys, but the reality is that for elves we should read migrants - millions of them who have travelled by bus from rural areas up to three days' journey away, part of the biggest movement of people in human history.
Since the migration began, more than 50 million have passed through the factories of Guangdong province, where the Pearl River Delta lies.
If it is almost impossible to comprehend the scale of the movement of people, it is even more difficult for a Westerner to imagine the daily life of one of these toy workers.
Conditions obviously vary, from the acceptable to the unimaginably awful, but it is possible, from a host of reports and interviews conducted well away from factory premises, to construct a composite of the life and working conditions of one of the workers.
Li Mei is worn out, so she looks older than her 18 years.
Her skin is bad from too little daylight and she has many healing and still-open cuts on her hands.
Her neck, chest and forearms are heavily mottled with the raised red patches of allergy caused by toxic chemicals, which she scratches as she speaks.
She coughs a lot, and has chronic aches and pains, frequent headaches and blurred vision.
All these ailments have appeared during the past two years.
Li Mei is a migrant from the rural province of Western Sichuan.
At first, she is thrilled to be one of the dagongmei - the working girls - and to leave the hamlet where there are no roads and only limited electricity.
But she is frightened because the factories have a reputation as sweatshops.
Many return with disfigurements and illnesses.
And there was the fate of Li Chunmei.
Lin Chunmei, 19, was a 'runner' in the Bainan Toy Factory, rushing stuffed animals from one worker to the next for each step in production.
Mattel recalled thousands of toys over choking fears
It was said she ran 16 hours a day, seven days a week, for two solid months.
Lin Chunmei was paid the equivalent of 7 pence an hour.
She collapsed one night, bleeding from nose and mouth, and was found hours later. She died before the ambulance arrived. Her parents were told it was an 'unknown death' and received a small sum in compensation.
But the villagers said it was the new disease, death from overwork.
Li Mei is certain nothing like this will happen to her: she is strong, accustomed to physically demanding tasks such as drawing water and cutting wood.
Her parents have borrowed heavily to buy the various personal documents she needs.
In four or five years, she plans to go home, buy a house and get married. She thinks about this all the time.
The factory where she toils is one of three buildings in a compound with high fences and a sliding metal gate, where two guards check everyone going in and out.
Beside it stands a warehouse and dormitory block. Li Mei's dormitory is on the eighth floor, a small room about 12 by 23 feet.
There are 32 rooms like it on this floor.
It is lit by a single fluorescent bar - her wages have the electricity costs docked - and the floor is concrete.
Double and triple bunk beds made of metal take up every inch of wall space.
During peak periods, when the factory takes on extra staff, girls often sleep two to a single bed.
Under the window, a grubby sink has a single tap. A notice is stuck to the wall, rules which another girl reads to her.
There are many, so she can remember only a few: 'No step on grass, offenders will be fined 50 yuan (£3.30).'
'No male or female staff going to the other gender's dormitory. The offender will be fired.'
Li Mei waits in a long queue of girls for the bathroom that two dozen people use to shower and wash their clothes.
She is still there at midnight, when everyone in the village has long been asleep, but the workers are only just off shift, too tired even to grumble as they wait in line.
Sometimes, the girl beside her says, 'there is no water even to brush your teeth, and the toilet is horrible.' The water (which, like lavatory paper, Li Mei is charged for) is cold.
By 2am she is finally in her lower bunk bed, separated from the hard surface by a straw mat even thinner than the one she uses at home.
Next morning she has no breakfast, for it is a meal she has to buy and prepare herself.
At 7.30am, in factory uniform of blue blouse with a white collar over trousers with her ID card displayed (she would be fined two days' wages if it was lost), she follows her guide through passages lined with cardboard boxes.
The air in the spraying and colouring department is filled with paint dust and smells sourly of chemicals -acetone, ethylene, trichloride, benzene.
The windows are fitted with wire mesh, the exits locked to prevent pilfering.
Noisy ventilators add to the din of the machines so the team leader has to shout to be heard.
Li Mei is given a blue apron and shown how to paint the eyes of the dolls with four pens of different sizes: she has to paint one every 7.2 seconds - 4,000 a day.
By the end of the second day, Li Mei's cotton mask and gloves are thick with paint particles and difficult to use.
She asks for new ones but is refused.
During the first few days, she finds the heat combined with the smell of chemicals repulsive.
She feels sick, has stomach-aches and is dizzy.
Once, when she faints, her section leader tells her to rest, rub on some herbal ointment then return to work.
Li Mei sneezes constantly and her eyes stream.
The bosses move her to the moulding department.
She feels a blast of heat - she is told later it rises to 104F - when the door is opened.
She is told to watch the other workers and then begins to stamp out parts of plastic dolls with repetitive movements performed many times a minute, 3,000 times a day.
Gloves are issued but no one can wear them - it is unbearably hot and they make it difficult to handle the tiny plastic parts: once the production line starts, her hands and eyes cannot stop for a minute.
Li Mei has to learn a lot of rules because she will be fined for any infringement.
Her section leader tells her there is to be no chatting, joking, laughing or quarrelling.
She must not disturb anyone's work, nap, or read a newspaper.
She must not fail to punch her work card, nor must she punch in for another worker.
She will lose two hours' wages for each minute she is late, and for half an hour she will lose a day's pay. For poor quality work, she may be dismissed or fined.
So she works carefully - and that means too slowly, so she is fined two days' pay.
Like most workers, Li Mei knows within a month that she is being unlawfully exploited.
She soon has wounds on her hands and elbows, and burn marks on her uniform.
When she is moved to a job trimming the plastic toys with small sharp knives, she often cuts herself, once so badly that her hand bleeds heavily - but the medical box is locked.
So she binds the wound up in cloth.
Worse things happen: workers in the die-casting and moulding departments lose fingers and even arms, while hole-making workers often have their hands punctured and crushed because they have no reinforced gloves.
With her tiny pay and all her debts, Li Mei cannot save.
She cannot resign from the factory but must apply for 'voluntary automatic leave'.
This means she would be severing the 'work contract' at her request.
As punishment she must forfeit one-and-a-half months' wages.
Without that, she does not have enough for the fare home.
Li Mei says: "I'm tired to death and I don't earn much.
"It makes everything meaningless." All she can do is go on.
"When we are working at the factory, we belong to the factory."
The American toy industry dominates the whole of the globe.
It is a $22 billion business. Every year it puts almost 3.6 billion toys into the home market alone, including 76 million dolls, 349 million plush toys, 125 million action figures, 279 million Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars.
Yet the toy business is no longer fun and games.
It's a harsh, corporate world, driven by social and demographic changes, concerns about stock prices and fierce battles between global brands.
By law, the maximum any Chinese worker should be on the assembly line is 53 hours per week.
But the China Labour Bulletin, a Hong Kong-based journal supporting independent unions and workers' rights, says 80 hours is common.
"Mattel has no way to know the truth about what really goes on here," said one worker. "Every time there is an inspection, the bosses tell us what lies to say."
This was supported by others who said that managers promised them extra pay if they pretended that they worked only eight hours a day, six days a week.
One government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, revealed that when government officers or foreign business executives visit the factories, the managers are tipped off beforehand and under-age workers are sent home.
In August 2006, the Chinese press carried the story of a female migrant worker who died from brain-stem bleeding after reportedly working non-stop for 21 hours in a toy factory in Zengzheng county in Guangzhou.
But it is unrealistic to expect that Chinese manufacturers will voluntarily improve conditions for workers.
The crux of the problem is this: by demanding that their suppliers produce goods at ever cheaper prices and demanding deadlines, the toy industry is almost forcing them to act illegally, despite the codes of practice it struggles to impose on them.
For consumers, this presents a dilemma which was neatly summed up for me by a couple pushing a loaded trolley down the toy aisles of a large superstore last Christmas.
"They're probably made under awful conditions but what do you do?" they asked.
"Accept it, or leave the kids with nothing."
The answer is not a boycott of Chinese toys.
Forcing factories to close and throwing millions of people out of work would harm the very people it was meant to help.
Instead, we must protest to the toy companies that we won't accept playthings for our kids which have been produced under horrific conditions and at the expense of workers.
After all, as this week's recall of Chinese-made toys shows, we too could end up paying a high price just for the benefit of buying cheap toys.
Paris Hilton Meets Jenna Jameson
The world's two most famous porn stars went face to face in Hollywood last night -- in more ways than one! Bow-chicka-bow-wow!
TMZ cameras were outside of Vice last night as ex-con heiress Paris Hilton came out with shrinking porn star Jenna Jameson, the ladies sharing a girl-on-girl kiss for the shooting paps. After telling the star of "Where the Boys Aren't 17" that she'd see her "in a minute," Hilton did the intelligent thing and hopped into a chauffeured limo -- no more DUIs here!
On the way to her ridiculous Rolls Royce Phantom, Jenna showed off some new ink on her shoulders, some curious lips (on her face!) and even revealed a bit more after getting into her car -- lifting up her skirt and doing a quick panty/under-boob flash before driving away.
Glad to see Paris has found some responsible friends.
TMZ cameras were outside of Vice last night as ex-con heiress Paris Hilton came out with shrinking porn star Jenna Jameson, the ladies sharing a girl-on-girl kiss for the shooting paps. After telling the star of "Where the Boys Aren't 17" that she'd see her "in a minute," Hilton did the intelligent thing and hopped into a chauffeured limo -- no more DUIs here!
On the way to her ridiculous Rolls Royce Phantom, Jenna showed off some new ink on her shoulders, some curious lips (on her face!) and even revealed a bit more after getting into her car -- lifting up her skirt and doing a quick panty/under-boob flash before driving away.
Glad to see Paris has found some responsible friends.
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
2008 Presidential Election
The way I see the 2008 presidential election is that you have Ron Paul and everybody else for the Republicans. The Republican Party has become very weird in recent years, very militant and aggressive. Many claiming to be Christians in many cases, yet being anti-poor, for torture of prisoners, and in many other cases opposed to the teachings of Jesus Christ. I think the Republican Party may represent apostate Christianity. The only notable difference is Ron Paul. He is more the old fashioned Dwight Eisenhower Republican that many of them were before they started going crazy. So I support Ron Paul as the Republican nominee.
For the Democratic Party I think there is a question about what they really stand for. Many Democrats think the Republicans stole the elections in 2000 and 2004. But it also seemed that John Kerry kind of took a dive in 2004. Kerry was claiming he was fighting for the working class, but then didn't even bother to wait until all the votes were counted before conceding to Bush. Many thought the Republicans had cheated in several states, including Ohio, but John Kerry never offered any kind of protest at all. Ralph Nader and the Green Party candidate demanded a recount in Ohio, but not Kerry.
So I think many Democrats wish more of their candidates were more like Nader or Cindy Sheehan, really committed to a cause. Many wonder why the Democratic leadership hasn't even brought up the issue of impeachment of anyone in the Bush administration, even though it seems they have violated numerous national and international laws. Many of the Democratic leadership claim to be anti-war, but many seem to be of the "I voted for it before I voted against it" type, so you wonder if they're really anti-war or not. They seem to keep voting in the funding for these wars. Many Democrats wish their leadership was as passionate and sincere about their claimed views as the Republicans are about theirs, even though the Republicans are motivated mainly by money and greed, and are usually on the wrong side on everything.
So as a Democrat I think the best we can do is to support Hillary Clinton and hope that she doesn't take a dive again like Kerry did in 2004. I wish we had some more choices, maybe Al Gore. If Ron Paul could win as the Republican and Hillary Clinton as the Democrat at least we should be getting out of Iraq, because both of them have committed to getting us out of Iraq. Hillary would be a big improvement over what we have now or any of the other Republicans.
For the Democratic Party I think there is a question about what they really stand for. Many Democrats think the Republicans stole the elections in 2000 and 2004. But it also seemed that John Kerry kind of took a dive in 2004. Kerry was claiming he was fighting for the working class, but then didn't even bother to wait until all the votes were counted before conceding to Bush. Many thought the Republicans had cheated in several states, including Ohio, but John Kerry never offered any kind of protest at all. Ralph Nader and the Green Party candidate demanded a recount in Ohio, but not Kerry.
So I think many Democrats wish more of their candidates were more like Nader or Cindy Sheehan, really committed to a cause. Many wonder why the Democratic leadership hasn't even brought up the issue of impeachment of anyone in the Bush administration, even though it seems they have violated numerous national and international laws. Many of the Democratic leadership claim to be anti-war, but many seem to be of the "I voted for it before I voted against it" type, so you wonder if they're really anti-war or not. They seem to keep voting in the funding for these wars. Many Democrats wish their leadership was as passionate and sincere about their claimed views as the Republicans are about theirs, even though the Republicans are motivated mainly by money and greed, and are usually on the wrong side on everything.
So as a Democrat I think the best we can do is to support Hillary Clinton and hope that she doesn't take a dive again like Kerry did in 2004. I wish we had some more choices, maybe Al Gore. If Ron Paul could win as the Republican and Hillary Clinton as the Democrat at least we should be getting out of Iraq, because both of them have committed to getting us out of Iraq. Hillary would be a big improvement over what we have now or any of the other Republicans.
Monday, August 13, 2007
Why the Government Tests Few Chinese Imports
Why the Government Tests Few Chinese Imports
Published on Saturday, August 11, 2007.
By Joel S. Hirschhorn - BLN Contributing Writer
Massive amounts of Chinese imports are threatening public health and safety. Many food and consumer products pose risks. Lead in children’s toys and jewelry. Toxins in foods for pets and humans, and in toothpaste. Unsafe automobile tires. Many prescription drugs made with few safeguards. The list is endless. The federal government is not safeguarding American citizens through thorough testing of imports. Why?
Simple: The Chinese have us by our budget-deficit balls. Our government depends on China for loaning us money and for not dumping the vast hoard of over one trillion dollars it has accumulated by financing our huge deficits and selling us virtually everything. Dumping dollars is called the Chinese economic nuclear option. They can wreck the American economy any time they want. America is being held hostage because of our government’s disastrous fiscal and trade policies. And, yes, all this middle-class-killing free trade globalization favors corporate interests.
It is hard to keep track of all the ways the American public is being sold out by the federal government as our Constitution and rule of law are shredded. Our jobs are sent overseas and shifted to lower paid illegal and special-visa-legal immigrants. There is no economic security. Banks and credit card companies rape us financially through criminal interest rates and fees. Mortgage companies took advantage of millions of home buyers that now face foreclosure and financial ruin. We pay outrageous amounts for gasoline and, in many parts of the country, for electricity and natural gas. And still 15 percent of the population lacks health insurance, and those with insurance face rising costs. And millions of Americans face hunger and homelessness. And by the way our education system sucks.
Yet the vast majority of Americans that are not in the Upper Class and living lavishly are not fuming, screaming and ready to revolt. They may feel cheated and screwed, but they have not yet concluded that they are politically oppressed – that their government is criminally selling them out, with no end in sight – that their democracy is delusional.
The following facts are typical of so many that should help Americans wake up and prepare for the Second American Revolution:
The top 300,000 income earners in America make more than the bottom 150 million combined.
Ninety percent of the Fortune 1,000 companies have set up deferred pay plans that let their top executives set aside, tax-free, retirement income far above 401(k) limits, and 69 percent have set up “supplemental executive retirement plans” that shield execs from company-wide pension cutbacks. That’s how these fat cats obtain tens or hundreds of millions of dollars. All this continues even though an amazing 77 percent of Americans say corporate executives “earn too much” and 61 percent believe wealthy Americans “should be taxed more.” according to a new Harris Poll.
Billionaire Warren Buffet paid just 17.7 percent of his $46 million in income last year, without trying to avoid taxes, compared to his secretary who paid 30 percent of her $60,000 salary.
The top two execs at America’s largest private equity partnership took home over $600 million last year — and paid taxes on that windfall at the capital gains bargain rate of just 15 percent. And Congress shows no desire to close that tax loophole.
Millions of non-wealthy Americans face home foreclosure and bankruptcy, but right now there are five residential properties in the United States listed at $100 million or more
Like some science fiction fantasy, millions of hard-working Americans are popping anti-depressants with abandon to dull the pain of obscene political and economic realities. American puppets, slaves, and victims obediently obey laws, pay taxes, borrow and consume, and endure stress, fatigue and sleeplessness. Meanwhile, the mainstream media feed them propaganda and entertainment. Worst of all, far too many believe they can elect Democratic or Republican politicians that will make things better. Though millions are suffering, bitching and moaning, they remain stuck in a political stupor. They are unready to rebel politically and take back their country from corrupt politicians and the moneyed interests that control them. They have not become political dissidents – the kind that throughout human history rise up and overturn dreadful ruling classes and governments.
Rather than contagious political activism we have compulsive consumerism. Americans keep borrowing and spending, providing about 75 percent of the economy that mostly benefits the Upper Class. That spending is their potential political power. Yet they do not understand that only by using their spending (and debt) as a political force will they get the government to serve and protect them. That means reducing spending to obtain specific political actions, like cutting spending by 10 percent until President Bush ends the Iraq War.
Cheap Chinese products help keep consumers pacified and distracted, even as Americans lose jobs as industry after industry collapses because of floods of Chinese imports. Our delusional democracy produces delusional prosperity. How much worse must life for ordinary Americans become before the masses rise up in rebellion? Apparently, a lot worse.
By then, China will probably become the world’s only superpower, built with the wealth extracted from the USA. The lesson of history is the rise and fall of great (arrogant, self-indulgent) nations. The USA is in free-fall. Soaring economic inequality is just one symptom.
Cheap Chinese products are a powerful and insidious destructive force. Free trade globalism more than violent terrorism or military attack is bringing America to its knees. But no presidential candidate is making this their main campaign theme. Shame on them. And shame on anyone voting for them. Perhaps if voter turnout dropped to, say, 20 percent, then we might stop playing our bipartisan delusional democracy game and take our country back.
Published on Saturday, August 11, 2007.
By Joel S. Hirschhorn - BLN Contributing Writer
Massive amounts of Chinese imports are threatening public health and safety. Many food and consumer products pose risks. Lead in children’s toys and jewelry. Toxins in foods for pets and humans, and in toothpaste. Unsafe automobile tires. Many prescription drugs made with few safeguards. The list is endless. The federal government is not safeguarding American citizens through thorough testing of imports. Why?
Simple: The Chinese have us by our budget-deficit balls. Our government depends on China for loaning us money and for not dumping the vast hoard of over one trillion dollars it has accumulated by financing our huge deficits and selling us virtually everything. Dumping dollars is called the Chinese economic nuclear option. They can wreck the American economy any time they want. America is being held hostage because of our government’s disastrous fiscal and trade policies. And, yes, all this middle-class-killing free trade globalization favors corporate interests.
It is hard to keep track of all the ways the American public is being sold out by the federal government as our Constitution and rule of law are shredded. Our jobs are sent overseas and shifted to lower paid illegal and special-visa-legal immigrants. There is no economic security. Banks and credit card companies rape us financially through criminal interest rates and fees. Mortgage companies took advantage of millions of home buyers that now face foreclosure and financial ruin. We pay outrageous amounts for gasoline and, in many parts of the country, for electricity and natural gas. And still 15 percent of the population lacks health insurance, and those with insurance face rising costs. And millions of Americans face hunger and homelessness. And by the way our education system sucks.
Yet the vast majority of Americans that are not in the Upper Class and living lavishly are not fuming, screaming and ready to revolt. They may feel cheated and screwed, but they have not yet concluded that they are politically oppressed – that their government is criminally selling them out, with no end in sight – that their democracy is delusional.
The following facts are typical of so many that should help Americans wake up and prepare for the Second American Revolution:
The top 300,000 income earners in America make more than the bottom 150 million combined.
Ninety percent of the Fortune 1,000 companies have set up deferred pay plans that let their top executives set aside, tax-free, retirement income far above 401(k) limits, and 69 percent have set up “supplemental executive retirement plans” that shield execs from company-wide pension cutbacks. That’s how these fat cats obtain tens or hundreds of millions of dollars. All this continues even though an amazing 77 percent of Americans say corporate executives “earn too much” and 61 percent believe wealthy Americans “should be taxed more.” according to a new Harris Poll.
Billionaire Warren Buffet paid just 17.7 percent of his $46 million in income last year, without trying to avoid taxes, compared to his secretary who paid 30 percent of her $60,000 salary.
The top two execs at America’s largest private equity partnership took home over $600 million last year — and paid taxes on that windfall at the capital gains bargain rate of just 15 percent. And Congress shows no desire to close that tax loophole.
Millions of non-wealthy Americans face home foreclosure and bankruptcy, but right now there are five residential properties in the United States listed at $100 million or more
Like some science fiction fantasy, millions of hard-working Americans are popping anti-depressants with abandon to dull the pain of obscene political and economic realities. American puppets, slaves, and victims obediently obey laws, pay taxes, borrow and consume, and endure stress, fatigue and sleeplessness. Meanwhile, the mainstream media feed them propaganda and entertainment. Worst of all, far too many believe they can elect Democratic or Republican politicians that will make things better. Though millions are suffering, bitching and moaning, they remain stuck in a political stupor. They are unready to rebel politically and take back their country from corrupt politicians and the moneyed interests that control them. They have not become political dissidents – the kind that throughout human history rise up and overturn dreadful ruling classes and governments.
Rather than contagious political activism we have compulsive consumerism. Americans keep borrowing and spending, providing about 75 percent of the economy that mostly benefits the Upper Class. That spending is their potential political power. Yet they do not understand that only by using their spending (and debt) as a political force will they get the government to serve and protect them. That means reducing spending to obtain specific political actions, like cutting spending by 10 percent until President Bush ends the Iraq War.
Cheap Chinese products help keep consumers pacified and distracted, even as Americans lose jobs as industry after industry collapses because of floods of Chinese imports. Our delusional democracy produces delusional prosperity. How much worse must life for ordinary Americans become before the masses rise up in rebellion? Apparently, a lot worse.
By then, China will probably become the world’s only superpower, built with the wealth extracted from the USA. The lesson of history is the rise and fall of great (arrogant, self-indulgent) nations. The USA is in free-fall. Soaring economic inequality is just one symptom.
Cheap Chinese products are a powerful and insidious destructive force. Free trade globalism more than violent terrorism or military attack is bringing America to its knees. But no presidential candidate is making this their main campaign theme. Shame on them. And shame on anyone voting for them. Perhaps if voter turnout dropped to, say, 20 percent, then we might stop playing our bipartisan delusional democracy game and take our country back.
Paris Hilton Confirms Wedding Rumors
Paris Hilton confirms wedding rumors
(ANI)
Updated: 2006-12-18 09:46
Rumors that Paris Hilton is getting set to say 'I Do' are true after all, and the confirmation has come straight from the heiress' mouth.
The Hilton hotel heiress revealed to British paper the Daily Star that she was indeed planning to wed her Greek shipping heir beau Stavros Niarchos.
"It's true. I am going to get married," Contactmusic quoted her, as telling the Daily Star.
And, it seems that all those reports about Hilton being at loggerheads with new BFF Britney Spears don¡¯t hold much truth after all, for Paris wants the 'Toxic' singer to be her matron of honor.
"I want a fairytale wedding and Britney's going to be my matron of honor. She can advise me," Hilton added.
Paris and her on-again boyfriend Stavros Niarchos sparked off rumors about a rekindled romance after they were recently spotted jetting off to an impromptu weekend getaway in Miami.
However, two people who might not be very excited about the nuptials, will probably be Niarchos¡¯ parents, for they happen to think that the reality TV star is just too "tacky".
(ANI)
Updated: 2006-12-18 09:46
Rumors that Paris Hilton is getting set to say 'I Do' are true after all, and the confirmation has come straight from the heiress' mouth.
The Hilton hotel heiress revealed to British paper the Daily Star that she was indeed planning to wed her Greek shipping heir beau Stavros Niarchos.
"It's true. I am going to get married," Contactmusic quoted her, as telling the Daily Star.
And, it seems that all those reports about Hilton being at loggerheads with new BFF Britney Spears don¡¯t hold much truth after all, for Paris wants the 'Toxic' singer to be her matron of honor.
"I want a fairytale wedding and Britney's going to be my matron of honor. She can advise me," Hilton added.
Paris and her on-again boyfriend Stavros Niarchos sparked off rumors about a rekindled romance after they were recently spotted jetting off to an impromptu weekend getaway in Miami.
However, two people who might not be very excited about the nuptials, will probably be Niarchos¡¯ parents, for they happen to think that the reality TV star is just too "tacky".
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