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The Shriveling Middle Class In California
By Wolf Richter www.testosteronepit.com
An ominous trend picks up speed: the middle class is shriveling. In 1980, 60% of Californians lived in middle-income families. By 2010, only 47.9% did, according to a study by the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC), a non-partisan research organization (24-page report PDF, 2-page summary PDF). Main culprits: declining incomes and disappearing jobs.
From 2007, when the recession began, through its end in 2009, family incomes across the spectrum dropped over 5%. But then, instead of going into recovery mode, they continued to go south for another 6% through 2010—the end of the timeframe of the study. Given the astronomical cost of living in California, the study defined a middle-income family as one that earned between $44,000 and $155,000 in 2010.
But the declines weren’t spread evenly across the income spectrum. Families whose incomes were in the top 10% saw their incomes decline 5%. Those at the bottom 10% of the spectrum, the poorest families in California, saw their incomes plummet by 21%.
In a further indictment of income inequality in California—something that is clearer than daylight if you walk or drive around with your eyes open—the upper 10% enjoyed incomes that were higher than those of their counterparts in the rest of the US, while the lowest 10% earned less than their counterparts elsewhere. And income inequality between to top 10% and the bottom 10% doubled since 1980, to where in 2010, the top end earned 12 times as much as the bottom 10%.
Family income is a factor of wages, hours worked, underemployment, and unemployment. The main culprit for the loss of family income during and after the recession was unemployment which, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, peaked at 12.5% from September through December 2010. It has since edged down but still hovers at 11.7% (preliminary, October 2011).
However, the BLS percentages of unemployment are a form of statistical hocus-pocus that distorts and understates the actual unemployment problem. Here are the raw numbers of employed people in California:
Peak employment in California occurred, according to the BLS, in January 2008, when 17,023,322 people were working. At the trough in August 2011—that’s correct, August 2011, that’s not a typo—only 15,830,729 people were working. During that period, 1,192,593 jobs had evaporated. Where the heck is the jobs recovery?
Maybe it’s in the future. Maybe it has started a couple of months ago. But there are certainly no signs of a jobs recovery in California before September 2011—and even that may turn out to be a fluke.
And if there actually is a jobs recovery that would raise family incomes? The PPIC warns:
If previous post-recession patterns repeat themselves, it is likely that lower-income families will recover much more slowly than those at the high end, potentially worsening income inequality that is already at a record high.
A thriving economy based on the American model requires a thriving and growing middle class. However, the current conditions—a shriveling middle class and rising income disparity—mark the transition to a banana republic.
Meanwhile, corporate tax dodging in California and elsewhere in the US puts the finger on the strenuously hushed-up Basic Flaw In The Tax Code.
Wolf Richter www.testosteronepit.com
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Can intelligent people please stop fucking this chicken? Please?
Yup, this article was just what was needed.... Needed by fools that want to blame all their problems on mexicans/acorn/progressives,* or whoever else they are TOLD to blame by their right wing radio overlords.
*Oh... and 'moonbeam' too....sure is too bad we couldn't have elected that billionaire bitch, she would have used good ol gop values to make CA great again...Ubetcha!
This article does not explain anything. There aren't any arguements as to the cause of the declining middle class only that it is happening. What information contained therein is making the case that illegal aliens aren't a burden to the state? What information contained therein is making the case that liberal social engineering is not causing a flight of the middle class? What is someone supposed to take from this article? The only thing I can see is that the author l;eans to the left side of the political spectrum, flogging "income inequality" is a dead giveaway...
The king of scumbags speaks.
http://www.realecontv.com/videos/banking-malfeasance/the-king-of-the-scumbags-speaks.html
Some misconceptions here. Latinos are NOT all liberals - far from it. Texas will soon become a majority Latino state, Anglos are already a minority right now, but the state is still deeply conservative.
BernankeHasHemo...
Anglos are not QUITE the minority yet, almost, by 2015 yes,and your correct, the longer latinos are here, the more conservative they become.They learn quick, and they will figure out whats free cost them a fortune.
They are very family oriented, and friendly,they have a great work ethic, and their chicks are hot.
They work hard, and they are a religious peoples, Texas will be in great hands whe the the Hispanincs become the majority.
They already are more of them than blacks,or any other race.
We are so conservative, honk at us over twice, and we shoot your tires out.Peacful bunch.
Texas will be as bad as CA in the near future. Texans always say there illegals are nice illegals. Total BS.
Wolf,
Where is the recovery in CA.? There isn't ever going to be one as long as 1) liberal Democrats run the state, 2) the entitlement mentality is shared by a large and growing minority, and 3) the vilification of those [the evil rich of course] that provide jobs and rising incomes.
Nobody in their right mind would open a new business in California. Anybody that would subject themselves to the endless bullshit regulations, extremely high taxes, and a work force that is growing more remedial every day, deserves what they would get. Which is a business that cannot make money or hire new people without bankruptcy on the immediate horizon.
There can never be a solution given what is there now. You can't make chicken salad from chicken shit, know matter how much cinnamon you add to it. Any state that has "Moonbeam" Brown as Gov pretty much sums up the whole fucking mess that is California.
http://vegasxau.blogspot.com
How can this be? In a state where they pay lifeguards over $150,000 a year with a Fat Pension to boot! How can their "middle class" be poorer?
According to a city report on lifeguard pay for the calendar year 2010, of the 14 full-time lifeguards, 13 collected more than $120,000 in total compensation; one lifeguard collected $98,160.65. More than half the lifeguards collected more than $150,000 for 2010 with the two highest-paid collecting $211,451 and $203,481 in total compensation respectively. Even excluding benefits like health care and pension, more than half the lifeguards receive a total salary, including overtime pay, exceeding $100,000. And they also receive an annual allowance of $400 for “Sun Protection.” Many work four days a week, 10 hours a day….
On face, the compensation packages for these guards are staggering. But take into consideration the retirement benefits being paid to currently retired lifeguards and lifeguards who will retire at these pay levels in the future and the problem is further compounded. Lifeguards are able to retire with 90 percent of their salary, after only 30 years of work at as early as the age of 50.
http://www.calwatchdog.com/2011/05/12/paywatch-200000-lifeguard-salary/
California is the state where over $12,000 a year/pupil is spent for K-12 education. Of course, only 25% of that makes it to the classroom. The rest supports a mammoth bureaucracy the likes of which would stun even the DoD. Here in my town in Southern California the Unified School District needs to "apply for funding" from 87 agencies. This requires hundreds and hundreds of administrators, compliance experts, inspectors, regulators, overseers, and strict adherence to the vast numbers of rules that come with each pot of money. The color of paint, number of windows, type and character of counselors, languages spoken, food served, color of the cafeteria trays, etc. etc. must all comply with the funding agencies. Teachers must be able to speak Spanish but do not need to speak English. 30% of the students drop out before graduation. All in all, education for the next generation is a disaster. California can only get worse.
CA: But...but...Jerry Brown was supposed to change all this for us.
USA: But...but...Obama was supposed to change all this for us.
I'm NorCal and in 2011-12 year they again increased class size, decreased teachers, decreased maintenance and janitors, and anything extra like PE (fat 3rd graders) so they could "save" the administrators making 200k+ a year. I kid you not, there is the Superintentent of Schools, and two Asst's, and no one except them know what they are doing. The whacked several low paying positions to save this high flyer idiots. And the skool has the nerve to keep asking us paretns for more "donations" because they can't seem to obtain enough funding.
California is a nightmare to do business with, with very complicated rules and regulations. Not surprising that their manufacturing base is a joke. Only "good" thing economically they have going for them is Silicon Valley, where businesses are started--and fail...which is healthy. On the other hand, most of these are "web jobs" that have much smaller capital requirements (and ultimately produce less overall economic benefits, including jobs) than a widget manufacturer. Unless you are a large company with a vast amount of capital resources, start your company in a state other than California.
Goddamn. Are we just fucked or what? I've actually been trying to spend less time dealing with this situation and more time trying to make money, surviving etc. Have I given up? No. Problem is this is all so advanced now that I believe it's going to run our asses over regardless. In other words....good luck stopping the train. It is what it is, the process is in motion and I really don't think there's anything that can be done now to stop it. No one is safe.
If there were any solutions it would require majorities, which is near impossible and it would also require politicians for the people not the corporations. There's simply not enough time for a redo.
The race to the bottom was never more intact, I have to say im one of the first to reach the bottom. $40hr to unemployment to nothing. My savior is a paid off house. But even that's not good enough because in race to the bottom there are those that are still on their way down and they are kicking and screaming all the way. Those at level 3 can't touch those in the top level 4 to protect themselves, so they steal lie and cheat from those below.
I call it my 4 tier system. Tier 4: Not affected yet but see it coming Tier 3: Something happens like loss of job etc Tier 2: effects from the loss start rolling in Tier 1: You're fucked.
The problem with being in Tier 1 are all those above you that refuse to come to you level. For example.......I have no insurance now. Do you think hospital bills are going down? Doctors don't want a paycut. And they won't get one until too many of us are in Tier1. Then doctors move to Tier 3. Do you think my property taxes have gone down? Oh hell no, we'll just sell your house. That will also collapse eventually then all the county workers will be degraded to a lower level.
I've been saying for a long time every one of us, or a majority, will be reduced to tent city status before this is over. There's not gona be major reset in the place of days or months, this will take years and the suffering will be huge. The only thing that speed things up would be a world war. Which im seeing more likely as time goes on.
A lot of people in your situation and many more are becomming a paycheck away from complete financial disaster. I think the the masses are slowly beginning to awaken. But the wheels are already in motion and this train can't stop on a dime. It may slow down but will run many over before coming to a stop. Eventually the tide will turn, but not before many more people join the "Tier 1" and 2 ranks you describe.
Sell your house while there's still a market and move to a small town with cheaper cost of living. Hopefully you can weather the storm until things improve.
Absolute liberal Democrat insanity in California. The state has oil offshore, nat gas, it HAD a great university system, smart workers (many have left). Now it is just a liberal Democrat third world hell hole filled with illegals with an astronomical cost of living and a lousy quality of life. You still have shitty Hollywood spewing crap and their B-team industry a few blocks away in the "valley" spewing out porn. Usually watched by Democrat govt workers and regulators on their govt computers.
Both parties suck but the Dems are pure evil. There have been no Repubs in control of CA for 2 decades. Moonbeam's old man bankrupted the state (just like Corzine did to NJ) and then Reagan turned it around. The fools keep electing Browns. Corzine, Democrats and many Californians love the muslim.
What I have discovered after having my balls busted is that the hits never stop coming. I'm in my own mini boat filled with holes. I finally decided it was pointless. I got my own stash, nothing matters anymore. I'm a firm believer the US is finished, caput, ruined. I gave up trying to get this msg out to friends and have actually alienated a lot of them. Years later some of them are starting to see the light finally as they too have been downgraded. LOL, im really not crazy btw it's just that the truth seems crazy but we're never told the truth to begin with. Everythings just glorius, when they can get away with convincing large numbers of people that were in a massive economic recovery it's time to realize im surrounded by a large number of complete fucking idiots and it's game over.
Wow that graph looks like slide at Coney Island.......wwwwwweeeeee
CA problem is due to transplant shit from the east coast of NY and the east coast. Pelosi, Boxer, Waxman, Goldberg, Feinstein and all these lib Dem scum destroyed CA.
Diversity.
LA police may not be so different than other US police. They have been militarized. Many in their ranks come with the overseas experience of kicking down doors at night and meting out “justice” to so-called suspects and suspected sympathizers.
Unfortunately, it may be rather Pollyannaish to expect the police to “join us”, or even to respect Constitutional rights.
They have been subjected to a barrage of statements by politicians and leaders, as well as propagandizing on movies and television, to mock “legal” guarantees and to at least tolerate, if not directly abuse prisoners.
Predictably, anyone who opposes their “right” to “do “whatever is necessary“ to “protect” the legal status quo must be considered “enemy”.
I strongly urge watching the short video about the Miami police found linked in this article:
Miami police
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=28103
?
(and many, even at ZH, will support the police, even as they “support the troops“, because they have “nothing in common” with their victims, and the protesters are merely “dirty hippies”, “foreigners” or a maligned equivalent.)
LA police have always operated in a para military manner. Gates was the one that really pushed a top down follow orders type of organization. In all fairness, the ratio of police officers to residents is one of the lowest in the nation. No time to be nice to offenders - just shoot or beat first - ask questions later.
Who cares? I have nothing in common with the Spanish speaking Hispanics that inhabit Mexifornia. They are not my people, and I care not about their plight.
You have fallen for the new age propaganda that states that all humans are interchangeable and anyone that says otherwise is a "racist" to be exhiled from your glorious multicultural utopian society. History will prove you wrong once again. You cannot maintain European standards of living in the absence of European people.
Enjoy your beheadings. Enjoy your cartels. Enjoy your declining education scores. Enjoy the revival of communicable diseases that were eliminated hundreds of years ago by Europeans.
If the U.S. is destined to become majority Hispanic like California then I wish nothing but misery upon the U.S. Hispanics are not my people, they are invaders, and I do not care what happens to them. I'll be overseas in a country where my people are still thriving. I've written the U.S. off as a lost cause.
I too wonder the impact of illigal immigration on the employment stats. Are illigals now holding the 1mm+ jobs that would be otherwise held by a legal citizen. Don't know, but I suspect that component should be factored into the stat.
About invaders in CA, same argument can be made for Spanish, Mexicans, Europeans taking land from Native Americans. I guess we can all be described as "invaders" in one form or another.
Agree with your interchangable comment, in that people follow different cultures based upon race, religion etc. While I can tolerate another persons culture, it doesn't mean I choose to actively follow it. But USA is the melting pot and that certainyl adds to our diversity, and some say why we are a strong nation.
Name one place that wasn't inhabited by other people before Europeans and to which they did not bring their communicable diseases.
Guess what...noone gives a shit about 4th generation descendants of uneducated white europeans either.
But, but, California has the most "progressive" tax the rich state income tax in the nation. That place ought to be a social welfare utopia, right?
On individuals. Corporations run rough-shod over the tax code and could easily make stories about CA budget issues a thing of the past, but politicos keep falling for the "we'll move to the awesome high-tech talent pool of bumfuck, redstateland".
There's also the problem of the initiative process which was co-opted by business over a decade ago and now you can't get into the grocery store for all of the signature-gatheres on their payrolls insuring that their biz-friendly legislation gets a fast-track with or without politicians help. CA leaks like a sieve especially after you consider the majority required to enact any revenue changes to balance the idiotic spending.
It is no small coincidence that Jarvis et al were allowed to fuck CA by getting their bullshit onto the ballot through the initiative process as well.
Pure democracy (warning: only works when your people aren't motherfucking morons).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tw49mm-CmNo
dup
Despite the rough language, it sounds like you actually know what you are talking about. Wow thats refreshing. A lot of the comments here sound little better than angry racist diatribes from people who don't even live in California.
As my Russian friend told me once, Democracy is a very expensive form of govt. It took me a while to figure out what he meant. Mostly its the cost of edumacatin the motherfucking morons.
You need to compare the relative cost of educating vs not educating your populace; the price of ignorance can be steep.
Forgive the brutish prose, it's frustrating to watch the stupidity...I refer to some lyrics from Mike Doughty, "I love my country so much man, like an exasperating friend."
You overlook the fact that most people can’t be educated. This becomes even more of a problem when technology enables the educable to grow in leaps and bounds while the dumb fucks suck up all the resources. In typical California fashion the pols will cave to the special interests and they’ll keep throwing money at the parasites until it bankrupts the state.
I left beautiful Laguna Beach ten years ago because I was sick of forking over 10 percent of my income to the beaurocrats. It wasn’t a lot of money at the time but it was the principle. Now when I have to deal with Californians they are usually whining about their disability payments, Mello roos, or illegals. Ridley Scott had it just about right in Blade Runner.
Most people are not, thanks to the public school system and the msm, educated. They are conditioned, brain-washed, trained -- like animals. They are trained to be morons. TPTB like it better that way.
My name is Patrick Meighan, and I’m a husband, a father, a writer on the Fox animated sitcom “Family Guy”, and a member of the Unitarian Universalist Community Church of Santa Monica.
I was arrested at about 1 a.m. Wednesday morning with 291 other people at Occupy LA. I was sitting in City Hall Park with a pillow, a blanket, and a copy of Thich Nhat Hanh’s “Being Peace” when 1,400 heavily-armed LAPD officers in paramilitary SWAT gear streamed in. I was in a group of about 50 peaceful protestors who sat Indian-style, arms interlocked, around a tent (the symbolic image of the Occupy movement). The LAPD officers encircled us, weapons drawn, while we chanted “We Are Peaceful” and “We Are Nonviolent” and “Join Us.”
As we sat there, encircled, a separate team of LAPD officers used knives to slice open every personal tent in the park. They forcibly removed anyone sleeping inside, and then yanked out and destroyed any personal property inside those tents, scattering the contents across the park. They then did the same with the communal property of the Occupy LA movement. For example, I watched as the LAPD destroyed a pop-up canopy tent that, until that moment, had been serving as Occupy LA’s First Aid and Wellness tent, in which volunteer health professionals gave free medical care to absolutely anyone who requested it. As it happens, my family had personally contributed that exact canopy tent to Occupy LA, at a cost of several hundred of my family’s dollars. As I watched, the LAPD sliced that canopy tent to shreds, broke the telescoping poles into pieces and scattered the detritus across the park. Note that these were the objects described in subsequent mainstream press reports as “30 tons of garbage” that was “abandoned” by Occupy LA: personal property forcibly stolen from us, destroyed in front of our eyes and then left for maintenance workers to dispose of while we were sent to prison.
When the LAPD finally began arresting those of us interlocked around the symbolic tent, we were all ordered by the LAPD to unlink from each other (in order to facilitate the arrests). Each seated, nonviolent protester beside me who refused to cooperate by unlinking his arms had the following done to him: an LAPD officer would forcibly extend the protestor’s legs, grab his left foot, twist it all the way around and then stomp his boot on the insole, pinning the protestor’s left foot to the pavement, twisted backwards. Then the LAPD officer would grab the protestor’s right foot and twist it all the way the other direction until the non-violent protestor, in incredible agony, would shriek in pain and unlink from his neighbor.
It was horrible to watch, and apparently designed to terrorize the rest of us. At least I was sufficiently terrorized. I unlinked my arms voluntarily and informed the LAPD officers that I would go peacefully and cooperatively. I stood as instructed, and then I had my arms wrenched behind my back, and an officer hyperextended my wrists into my inner arms. It was super violent, it hurt really really bad, and he was doing it on purpose. When I involuntarily recoiled from the pain, the LAPD officer threw me face-first to the pavement. He had my hands behind my back, so I landed right on my face. The officer dropped with his knee on my back and ground my face into the pavement. It really, really hurt and my face started bleeding and I was very scared. I begged for mercy and I promised that I was honestly not resisting and would not resist.
My hands were then zipcuffed very tightly behind my back, where they turned blue. I am now suffering nerve damage in my right thumb and palm.
I was put on a paddywagon with other nonviolent protestors and taken to a parking garage in Parker Center. They forced us to kneel (and sit--SEE UPDATE) on the hard pavement of that parking garage for seven straight hours with our hands still tightly zipcuffed behind our backs. Some began to pass out. One man rolled to the ground and vomited for a long, long time before falling unconscious. The LAPD officers watched and did nothing.
At 9 a.m. we were finally taken from the pavement into the station to be processed. The charge was sitting in the park after the police said not to. It’s a misdemeanor. Almost always, for a misdemeanor, the police just give you a ticket and let you go. It costs you a couple hundred dollars. Apparently, that’s what happened with most every other misdemeanor arrest in LA that day.
With us Occupy LA protestors, however, they set bail at $5,000 and booked us into jail. Almost none of the protesters could afford to bail themselves out. I’m lucky and I could afford it, except the LAPD spent all day refusing to actually *accept* the bail they set. If you were an accused murderer or a rapist in LAPD custody that day, you could bail yourself right out and be back on the street, no problem. But if you were a nonviolent Occupy LA protestor with bail money in hand, you were held long into the following morning, with absolutely no access to a lawyer.
I spent most of my day and night crammed into an eight-man jail cell, along with sixteen other Occupy LA protesters. My sleeping spot was on the floor next to the toilet.
Finally, at 2:30 the next morning, after twenty-five hours in custody, I was released on bail. But there were at least 200 Occupy LA protestors who couldn’t afford the bail. The LAPD chose to keep those peaceful, non-violent protesters in prison for two full days… the absolute legal maximum that the LAPD is allowed to detain someone on misdemeanor charges.
As a reminder, Antonio Villaraigosa has referred to all of this as “the LAPD’s finest hour.”
So that’s what happened to the 292 women and men were arrested last Wednesday. Now let’s talk about a man who was not arrested last Wednesday. He is former Citigroup CEO Charles Prince. Under Charles Prince, Citigroup was guilty of massive, coordinated securities fraud.
Citigroup spent years intentionally buying up every bad mortgage loan it could find, creating bad securities out of those bad loans and then selling shares in those bad securities to duped investors. And then they sometimes secretly bet *against* their *own* bad securities to make even more money. For one such bad Citigroup security, Citigroup executives were internally calling it, quote, “a collection of dogshit”. To investors, however, they called it, quote, “an attractive investment rigorously selected by an independent investment adviser”.
This is fraud, and it’s a felony, and the Charles Princes of the world spent several years doing it again and again: knowingly writing bad mortgages, and then packaging them into fraudulent securities which they then sold to suckers and then repeating the process. This is a big part of why your property values went up so fast. But then the bubble burst, and that’s why our economy is now shattered for a generation, and it’s also why your home is now underwater. Or at least mine is.
Anyway, if your retirement fund lost a decade’s-worth of gains overnight, this is why.
If your son’s middle school has added furlough days because the school district can’t afford to keep its doors open for a full school year, this is why.
If your daughter has come out of college with a degree only to discover that there are no jobs for her, this is why.
But back to Charles Prince. For his four years of in charge of massive, repeated fraud at Citigroup, he received fifty-three million dollars in salary and also received another ninety-four million dollars in stock holdings. What Charles Prince has *not* received is a pair of zipcuffs. The nerves in his thumb are fine. No cop has thrown Charles Prince into the pavement, face-first. Each and every peaceful, nonviolent Occupy LA protester arrested last week has has spent more time sleeping on a jail floor than every single Charles Prince on Wall Street, combined.
The more I think about that, the madder I get. What does it say about our country that nonviolent protesters are given the bottom of a police boot while those who steal hundreds of billions, do trillions worth of damage to our economy and shatter our social fabric for a generation are not only spared the zipcuffs but showered with rewards?
In any event, believe it or not, I’m really not angry that I got arrested. I chose to get arrested. And I’m not even angry that the mayor and the LAPD decided to give non-violent protestors like me a little extra shiv in jail (although I’m not especially grateful for it either).
I’m just really angry that every single Charles Prince wasn’t in jail with me.
Thank you for letting me share that anger with you today.
Patrick Meighan
-------
UPDATE (12/9/11): Hey all, thank you for the nice thoughts from many folks who have read this account. One necessary clarification about the 7 hours spent by the roughly 100-of-us in the Parker Center parking garage immediately following our arrest:
though we were indeed forced to kneel on that parking garage pavement for an extended period and though we did in fact have our hands tightly zipcuffed behind our backs for that entire seven-hour stretch on the pavement, and though we were barred from standing and moving for that time period, the LAPD officers, in point of fact, did allow us to shift ourselves out of the kneeling position onto our butt-cheeks, our side-legs, etc., as necessary. At the very least, when we began to do so, they did not stop us. I apologize for implying otherwise.
I also want to say that I don't consider my above-described treatment at the hands of the LAPD to be, in any way, uniquely-brutal, or that I was especially victimized. Yes, getting arrested and going to jail was scary and sometimes painful and it generally sucked, but jail is supposed to suck. Again, the point of this blogpost is not that I was treated especially poorly by the LAPD officers who arrested, processed and held us. The LAPD officers were just doing their jobs, as they understood them. The point of the blogpost is simply to contrast the legal response to nonviolent protestors against the the legal response (or, rather, non-response) to the perpetrators of the largest act of coordinated larceny in economic history, for whom the next arrest will be the first one.Best,
Patrick Meighan
Culver City, CA
Hey Patrick - Democrats like you in Hollywood voted for this. I stopped watching Oba TV a long time ago. ALL TV and ALL of Hollywood is sh*t. You make your living writing scripts about comedy with rape,fart and poo poo jokes.
LA Mayor Villagarosa is a Atzalan, La Raza, MALDEF, Mexico stooge supported by Democrats who love our dear Muslim. I support your OWS efforts but maybe you should use your brain when you vote instead of thinking up new rape jokes for Family Guy.
vote: give it up and go back to writing comedy
vote: gets organized so you aren't such easy targets for the cops
You complain about the police and authorities yet you are a major contributor to the problem. Trying to win friends (and gain sympathy) by telling them you are a writer on a popular tv show... disgusting. You cry when the police attacked you and your friends yet you are the one assisting in creating an America where we no longer talk to our kids, we watch tv with our kids. Kiss my ass, you are creating more children who can not think for themselves and do nothing but take orders (aka - future policemen) due to your contribution in an entertainment industry that promotes stupidity and foolish behavior over intelligence, independence and discussion. What would happen if you started writing family guy episodes where you actually taught people anything of constructive use to society? Or wrote episodes that promoted its viewers to look within for thier answers? You would lose watchers and the show would eventually be cancelled. Keep on dumbing down our children - we don't need a middle class anyways.
The second half of my prose here sympathizes with your plight as "the right to assemble" has just been overthrown. Not good.
+1
All of TV and All of Hollywood is trash. Fox is no better than CNN. They all love the muslim. TV shows with "funny" little "jokes" about rape, feces, pedophilia, and other trash. Screw TV and Hollywood. This Hollywood and TV scum voted for this. F Them. They all love the muslim too.
I believe the key phrase here, the key difference between police and protester, comes down to one word;
nonviolent.
You will not find me at a nonviolent protest because anybody who tried any shit like that on me would be dead, even if it cost me my life.
If you can remain nonviolent, then more power to you.
Cops will be tough to beat. As we have heard repeatedly, they have become highly militarized. Hopefully some will turn against their masters and help the people, but don't count on it.
Try to learn your local cops tendencies and tactics and exploit them. When facing superior forces disengage and retreat.
Good luck!
Sorry to hear about what happened to you. I watched what happened live on KTLA Channel 5 late that night and stayed up as long as I could stay awake to see what was going to happen. As it dragged on into the early morning hours, it was hard to tell exactly what was going on because the press was pushed back from the area and not allowed to show everything. The one thing that did stick in my head was the announcer repeating several times "it's amazing how the police are accomplishing this, with surgical precision", it was quite clear where their sympathies lie.
BTW: We're big fans of FG, and if you really are a writer for this show, you need to find a way to incorporate what happened to you into a story line somehow. If you can't do it directly, make it not as obvious what you are getting at, as writers in the former Soviet Union had to do. It's a long tradtition, as I'm sure you know. I'll be waiting to see something on the show that hints directly or indirectly at this incident.
IHMO, regardless of whether or not people agree or not with OWS/OLA or all their demands, all Americans should fully respect your right to protest and assemble peacefully. It's a sad state of affairs what we have come to, but it is crystal clear now what it really going on in this country. What is your next course of action?
Your tax dollars at work!
LA police have a hard-earned reputation for being among the most brutal and corrupt in the nation. It is hard to tell which is worse: the police or the gangs.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jL6-oFPeNco
did you really just go from
to:
??!!!
I believe that's a subtle admonition to maintain focus on the order givers; this is policy and attributable to the goobers, not random acts of individual officers.
I post my honest appraisal of what's going on here in CA and get 2 negs and 1 pos. WTF?
Okay, one more post...here's why California will NEVER fall into the Pacific. The rest of the United States sucks, okay? California may be going through some shit now, but let me tell you, there's still more opportunity here than anywhere else in this country. Why? Maybe because Californians are too stupid to give up, but also because they're open to new ideas...something the rest of the country hasn't caught on to.
Also because if you're objective you must admit the only other area of the country that has any upside is NYC and that's due to Wall St, and those fuckers are TOAST.
So it's the West Coast or nothing and I include Portland and Seattle in that approximation.
note
Maybe you pissed off two iphone owners in parts of the country which are not open to new ideas.
or maybe he's being a typical pompous ass liberal
China < west coast> style! Campuses and garbage bags.
Bags full of nitrous oxide and the creators of the tech that let's you post here, wanker.
California Muni-Bonds trading near 52-week highs and getting ready to go parabolic
http://clearstation.etrade.com/cgi-bin/bbs?post_id=9437812&usernm=wndysrf
Gasoline prices lower every day this month.
http://66.70.86.64/ChartServer/ch.gaschart?Country=Canada&Crude=f&Period...$/G
Most guys like me who live here would not live anywhere else. This week we had exceptional weather. Guys in my profession make 3x more money here than in any other state.
I don't plan to leave my part of California either. I love where I live, not because of the government or the jobs, but just because of the land. The part I live in is not what most would think of when they think of California though. I live in an extremely unpopulated part of the state.