Stupid Math Tricks

My friends on facebook have been passing around this stupid math trick:


A lot of the math here is slight of hand. I'm working it out right now on the back of an envelope.

You can reduce the equation to (250(80a+1)+2b-250)/2=x

The "+1" is cancelled out after you multiply by 250, when you subtract 250 at the end (250*1=250). So you can just eliminate both of those.

Then you have 250(80a)+2b

Using 111's as your numbers and isolating the parts of the equation you can see the sort of effect that they have.

So if a=111 and b=1111 you can see the following:
250(80*111) = 2,220,000 Or twice the first three digits in your phone number.

When you "+2b", you just get twice the last four digits in your phone number.

When you then divide all those numbers in half, you get your phone number. It's a roundabout way of just entering your phone number into a calculator and then being surprised that you got your phone number.

You're welcome.

The Capitalism Story: The Whole Fucking Thing Is Coming Down

So I keep resharing this video on my facebook page.

There's a reason for that. I can't believe how close to being true this video is now.

Let me explain:

When I wrote this song, it was back in August of 2011. There had been a successful occupation of the Wisconsin State Capitol building, but Scott Walker kicked everybody out. Paul LePage here in Maine had taken down the Labor Mural, and was pushing through anti-human legislation, such as lifting the ban on cancer-causing chemicals in toys and baby bottles, trying to make Maine a right-to-work (for less) state, cutting taxes on the wealthy, cutting services on the most needy, all in the name of being pro-business.

(hence the inspiration for this graphic)


Occupy Wall Street loomed on the horizon as an exciting protest, but I, like many, didn't think it was going to end up being much more than just a week long endeavor, and hoped that I would be able to get down there to attend before it was over, just to say I was there and did my part.

I was working in a factory between 40 and 50 hours a week as a "seasonal hire"-- just the latest of a series of jobs where I was working full time, but being compensated as a "part time seasonal employee" aka no benefits, no bonuses, nothing that isn't mandated by law. Except for maybe the occasional balsam fir scented car freshener, or corporate logo-emblazoned baseball cap. ("Cuz' here at the corporation, we're all on the corporation's team.")

The lyrics of the song were my life at the time. The refrain of the song "And the whole fucking thing is coming down" wasn't coming from optimism like it may seem to now. What it felt to me, is that eventually the working class were going to be so completely crushed, that Capitalism would finally and entirely eat itsself, plunging our country into chaos and civil war.

This had long been a feeling of mine. This sentiment inspired the following fable which I wrote in October of 2010:

They told us when they took our jobs overseas, "No hard feelings. It's just business, you know?"
They told us when they destroyed our 401ks through gambling with our money, "No hard feelings. It's just business, you know?"
They told us when we fell behind on our mortgage and foreclosed on our house, kicking us to the street, "No hard feelings. It's just business, you know?"
As more and more people were forced on welfare, the government's budget started to look grim. When they cut welfare spending entirely so that they could enjoy bigger tax cuts to "stimulate the economy," they told us, "No hard feelings. It's just business, you know?"

Then the poor had nothing left to eat, and no place to go.

So they had to kill and eat the rich.

They descended on Wall Street by the millions, stopping all traffic.

Their numbers were so large, the police couldn't do anything to stop the massive crowd of the disenfranchised. They flooded the buildings of Wall Street, the halls of DC, of the McMansions of Texas, and like a horde of zombies, they tore into the flesh of the horrified wealthy, who screamed and shat themselves, knowing that they were powerless to stop the oncoming mass of gnashing teeth and hungry mouths.

And as the poor picked the bones clean over the burning piles of money, the poor said to the bones:

"No hard feelings. It's just business, you know?"

And my youtube mentor Dennis Trainor Jr made this video in Dec 2010:


But back then, we were just pissing in the wind. Just frustrated, angry, and impotent, spewing our rage into the internet, and our message didn't really find purchase in the collective consciousness of the public.

So the refrain to my song

"The whole fucking thing is coming down, the whole fucking thing is coming down" that wasn't coming from a place of empowerment. That was coming from a place of complete and total desperation. It was coming from total hopelessness. It was coming from a place where too many people spend their ever dwindling paycheck at Wal*Mart, and too few people know how their State Budget works.

It came from a place where everything was fucked up, most were pissed, but most didn't bother trying to figure out WHY everything was fucked up, and just watched football instead.

But now... now that Occupy Wall Street has happened, and has been going for 7 months strong coming up on the 17th of this month, when you listen to the refrain of the song, "the whole fucking thing is coming down" imagine the alternative systems that will replace the systems that are around us now. Imagine the better ways we can organize our society- the better ways that those of us in the movement HAVE BEEN organizing our society.

It's been almost two years now that I've been feeling desperate and utterly hopeless; that something has got to give. And now something has given way.

Nobody knows the future anymore. Things that we once might have thought of as important aren't on our Radar-- Romney or Obama? Who gives a shit? They're both Wall Street Puppets. It doesn't matter.

With every incident of young and elderly women getting pepper sprayed, and Iraq War vets getting mortally wounded by police, the legitimacy of the plutocratic regime crumbles. It is a collapsing facade revealing behind it an ugly and terrible face, propped up only by combination of fraud and force. And when the majority of Americans see the regime for what it really is, they'll turn their backs, just like those of us in the movement already have.

The whole fucking thing REALLY IS coming down.

And it's beautiful.

This is an exciting time to be alive.

Occupy Boston- Mass arrests and property destruction by Boston Police

Well, This is certainly going to blow up in the police's face

As you can see from the video a group of Veterans For Peace were standing at attention using their bodies to block the police, using vets for peace, and American flags to help take up more space. Apparently, during the arrests, veterans were thrown to the ground, and the American flag was literally trampled underfoot by police.

What I'm hearing from Lance Matos, who I understand has been at Occupy Boston, the police, about 200 of them, made mass arrests this morning at 2am:

" People's property is being put into dump trucks and destroyed. Tarps, tents, chairs, and who knows what other equipment. Cameras and phone as well no doubt."

The AP reports:

"The protesters, part of the national Occupy Wall Street movement, had tried to expand from their original site in Dewey Square to a second site across the street, along the Rose Kennedy Greenway. A local conservancy group recently planted $150,000 worth of shrubs along the greenway and officials said they were concerned about damage."

Apparently shrubbery is more important than 1st amendment rights.

Dylan Ratigan tears the DNC and GOP both a new a**hole

Sweetness.

Empathy -or- The Myth of "Job Creators"

Bill Whittle is a douchebag.*

Ignore that this douchebag* spouting ad hominem attack after ad hominem attack; against the British, Michael Moore, liberals, et al.

Ignore the fact that he calls Michael Moore a hypocrite for being a millionaire who says that millionaires should pay more in taxes. (And why is that hypocritical, exactly? Shouldn't he have MORE right to talk about how much millionaires should pay, being one himself? Seriously, wtf? Is Bill Whittles idea of an un-hypocritical person a poor person defending the rights of the rich to pay nothing in taxes by sheltering their income in offshore tax havens? Clearly logic is not a big part of this guys day-to-day life.)

IGNORE ALL THAT:
The meat of the video is this: In trying to "blow a hole" in Michael Moore's "money hoarder" argument, Bill Whittle proves Moore's point for him. This video illustrates quite well, even with the narrow scope that it presents it's evidence with, that most of the money is in the hands of the super-wealthy. That we're able to make it through 2/3rds of the year on the salaries of a few thousand people alone is striking.

What he leaves out is that right now they aren't paying their fair share. And at the end of his argument, we're still one day short, so the rest of us get stuck with a whopping $40 in annual federal taxes!

Dear me! I've already had $2,000 withheld from my paycheck, and I'll be lucky to make $16,000 this year. I'd gladly pay $40 in federal taxes as opposed to what I pay now. The elephant in the room here, is that since the ultra-rich aren't paying in, the burden of taxation is falling on working people.

And he doesn't even touch the "dark market" shit on wall street- naked shortselling, derivatives trading, etc.

A Tobin tax of 1% applied to these "dark market" trades would raise 1.7 trillion annually.

I'm skeptical of the numbers he has on ending the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Eliminating these wars would reduce our spending every year after we end them from here to infinity, but they are portrayed in this video as being a one-time cost reduction-- which is a misleading error at best, and a deliberative deception at worst. No matter though, because either way, it's bullshit.

If we're spending $170 billion every year on killing people in Iraq and Afghanistan, and our budgeted discretionary pentagon spending is $815 billion, then that leaves an additional $645 billion (that's more than half a trillion) in discretionary pentagon spending we could free up. Keep in mind, this is discretionary spending, not mandated spending for soldier's wages, VA benefits, etc.

What would his little fiscal calendar look like if we shut down all those 737 military bases we have all over the Goddamn planet?

What would it look like if we reduced our nuclear weapon stores by 50%? Between 1940 and 1996, we spent more than 5 trillion on maintaining our nuclear weapons. Just by letting them sit around and making sure that they don't explode on us. And keep in mind, we currently have enough nuclear weapons to replicate Hiroshima 150,000 times over.

The issue here isn't that we want to take everything from the rich. The issue here is that they don't pay taxes, and working people do. If you're rich enough, you can hide your money in tax shelters in the maldives and not pay a goddamn cent.

The issue here is that the richest among us got that way because our society provided them with the means to do so. If they manufactured products, everybody who paid taxes provided them with the means to do so-- electricity, water, sewage, waste disposal, etc-- and if they sold those products, everybody who paid taxes provided them with the means to do so-- we paid for the roads, bridges, and rail-beds that they shipped their products on.

It isn't uncouth to expect that since the wealthiest amongst us became wealthy because of social spending, that they should give back accordingly-- the more wealthy they become, the more they should give back to the society that allowed them to become wealthy. Also, I think we can conclude soundly and firmly, that Bill Whittle is a contemptible douchebag.*

* Not an ad hominem attack-- I've presented solid evidence that this is the case

The Punk Patriot Performs an Experiment

Hi there. It’s been a while.
I’m a little fuzzier than last time we talked. I know you might have liked me better clean-shaven, but it’s cold outside, so I ask that you just put up with it.

So a little housekeeping to start. I want to point out that in a past video, I said that congress would never pass a repeal of DADT. Some of you asked that I make a retraction. So here it is: I was wrong about that, and I’m glad to be wrong about that. Now I can say things like “Shouldn’t all our soldiers be allowed to marry whomever they want?”

However, I don’t feel I’m wrong that both parties use wedge issues to fire up their base, and that neither party actually cares about these wedge issues. When Republicans rail against illegal immigration, and then it turns out that they have illegal immigrants working at their mansions as full time staff, that’s not hypocrisy. That’s just flat contempt for the stupidity of the voting population. When Democrats say that they care about poor people, but refuse to talk about Single Payer healthcare, or a living wage, that’s not their playing to the middle. They just don’t care. They’ve got corporate dollars to chase after so that they can fight the next election battle. Which brings me to another point I would like to develop more in a later video-- the real power center of the USA isn’t in Washington, DC. Those familiar with the term, “Soft Power” will recognize that the place where the bulk of the nation’s decisions are actually made is on Wall Street, in New York City. Protesting in Washington DC to be heard by congress or the President, is like yelling at a McDonald’s cashier about the rain forests being cleared for cattle in Brazil. It might make you feel better, but the kid behind the counter isn’t the person making the decisions for the company. He’s only there because that’s where he gets his paycheck. His job is to sell you on the idea of buying the apple pie... which isn’t even really an apple pie, but some sort of strudel in a cardboard box. and Ain’t that America?

One more item of housekeeping. This video is sort of an experiment. I want to see if actually want me to keep making these videos or not. If you do, please subscribe over at my blog for whatever level is right for you. We can work together on this. If I can get say, 60 people to subscribe at $10 a month (that’s $2.5 a week) I’ll be able to afford to quit my job, where I’m currently working 54hrs a week, and find part time work. I can also start making a Punk Patriot video every week.
Currently, I have 5 subscribers at the $10 a month level. They are awesome people who get it. Thank you to: Maike Both, Patti Ellis, Jason Dawson, Michelle Duffy, and Billie Rae Lucoff.

Others are saying, “Wait! Didn’t you get rich with your YouTube Partnership and your thousands of views on your last few videos?”

No. Due to a glitch, google ad-sense never linked with my YouTube channel, and I was never able to collect my massive monthly paycheck of a whopping 38 cents in ad revenue.

And now some of you kids who think everything on the internet should be free, I want to tell you something-- things in real life aren’t free. And if I’m going to work all the time so that I can afford to stay alive, then I won’t have time to make videos. So if you’re okay with that, please don’t donate, and I’ll go away.

DEAR CYNICS- STOP EMAILING ME

You're not going to convince me that all hope is lost and that I should give up. My own life experience, as well as my studies of history, prove to me, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that the only way to persevere is to do what is right regardless of whether or not it will work.

I get about half a dozen of these emails a week. I guess that means I'm doing something right?

Here's one that I got today:

---

From: Atheist Howard
To: punkpatriot411@gmail.com
Sent: Fri, December 3, 2010 4:59:32 AM
Subject: I'm sad to say this, but it's time to give up.

I found your youtube website and blog after viewing your "Fix the Economy" video and while I agree with it, I don't see the point of making such a video in the first place. Nothing you say in there is going to be realized. Progressives have lost, it's time to face the music and watch the destruction of the economy and possibly the country. It's time to face the music, there's no light at the end of the tunnel, it's over with. The democratic party has sold us out, after he put so much momentum and support behind President Barack Obama. And now, look at him, he's a complete disappointment. And the Tea Party is rising up, it will take America and there's nothing we can do about it. Ever heard of Rob Bishop? He's a house rep from Utah who's introducing a constitutional amendment to allow states to veto and not follow federal laws, and the tea party is backing removing so many constitutional amendments, including citizenship rights! And it's all going to happen! We're going to see the economy collapse from their economic plans and the complete destruction of our civil liberties, and seeing people like you thinking we have a chance and there's something to do seems horribly unrealistic and crazy, and I'm here to correct you on it.

Our progressive reforms, our economic strengthening, our civil liberties, came from great leaders who gave it "from the top down" FDR for example, because people voted democrat enthusiastically and they were rewarded for it. Now people don't, and the democrats have become a crappy party standing for little different than old guard republicans. Because of such, we're fucked now and not a single progressive thing is happening on a municipal, state or federal level. As Chris Hedges said, it's time not to vote, not to participate, we're fucked and at least we can send a message of disapproval.

Thanks for your time, hope you understand why I sent this message.

---

And here's my form letter response...

From: punkpatriot411@gmail.com
To: Atheist Howard
Sent: Fri, December 3, 2010 12:11:32 AM
Subject:RE: I'm sad to say this, but it's time to give up.

Hey there. I think I've got you cynics figured out. The reason you spend so much time trying to convince people like myself, the people who have done work to change things for the better, that we're wasting our time, isn't because you're trying to convince us. You're trying to convince you.

If you really believed that everything was without hope, and if you really wanted nothing more than to just sit on the sidelines and watch it all fall down you would be equally amused to watch folks like me struggle as we do, with little help and with little avail.

But instead you make it a point to try to convince us of something other than what our own life experience tells us, something other than what folks like me have found to be empirically true.

You're not actually trying to convince me of anything. My existence, my work, and my philosophy threaten your worldview.
You think you have everything all figured out, but then somebody like myself says something, or does something, that-- at least subconsciously-- calls that into question.

If you really truly didn't care, you'd never have initiated this conversation. You'd have laughed, shook your head, and moved on.

But the truth is, small changes for the better slowly add up to large changes for the better. Just look at Czechoslovakia. Of course, the Velvet Revolution wasn't all good. Nothing in this world is entirely good. Everything has downsides. But some things just suck less. And some governments are less fucked up than others.

To life, liberty, and pursuit of a less fucked-up government,
The Punk Patriot

Anarchy is Bullshit

Anarchy and Anarchism are utter bullshit. Everybody has a different definition for what Anarchy actually is, and most 'anarchists' use it to describe things that the word doesn't even mean. It's a meaningless term and arguments about anarchist political theory are fucking pointless.