Conquering the World:
How the 1%ers Keep the 99% Fighting for Fun and Profit:
Part One – They got you by the hair!
They are laughing at you. They are laughing at me. They are laughing all the way to the bank with our money. And we keep giving it to them.
Why? Because they want our money and they are willing to do anything to get it.
Let’s start small. Most of us with hair wash our hair at least once a week. We use shampoo that we buy at the store. The number one shampoo – right now - is ‘Head and Shoulders’ brand and a 13 oz bottle is about $6.00 in most stores. This brand has been around for a while. According to hair dressers, you massage a small amount into the scalp, work it down to the ends and then rinse – starting at the roots and working down. A person with shoulder length hair needs a teaspoon or less to get their hair clean. However, when the company that makes this product advertises it – they ALWAYS show a person with a HUGE HEAD of BUBBLES. It takes almost two tablespoons of shampoo to create that many bubbles and that much shampoo not only cleans your hair but also strips it of oils, keratins, and proteins that keep your hair healthy and strong.
So, this is the math: a tablespoon is about a liquid ounce. A tablespoon also equals 3 teaspoons. If you use the shampoo correctly you will get almost 39 washes from a bottle. If you use it like the commercials ENCOURAGE you to…you will only get 6 – 6 ½ washes. If you wash your hair twice a week you are buying a bottle every 3 weeks instead of every 18 or 19 weeks. 17 yearly purchases of $6 is $102.00. if you buy a bottle every 18 weeks you are only making 3 yearly purchases of $6.00 each. You are not giving the big corporation that makes the shampoo an extra $84.00 every year. And that Big Corporation is owned by rich people who want your money so they can become richer.
But that is not everything that is happening here. If you use lots of shampoo, you strip your hair of things it needs. So, your hair becomes…like ALL OF THE COMMERCIALS SAY: ‘Limp and lifeless’. The commercials say you need conditioner for your hair so you go out and buy some. It works, of course. It works by coating your hair with the stuff you ruthlessly stripped out of it. So, you use it over and over. You strip your hair and then you put it back. All of the damage is never repaired so you look for other treatments to get your hair looking like the TV model. And you spend, and spend and SPEND money to get something that really is not achievable with the products you are buying.
And the people who own the corporation sit back and count their earnings as ten million people spend an extra $84 or more a year on products they are encouraged to ‘over use’. And while they count their earnings…their only thought is: ‘What can we tell these people to make them buy and use MORE!
From Under the Purple Mustache:
Crisis Mode
With the world economy grinding to
a halt the 1% must team up
with the other 99% to prevent chaos.
It wasn’t so long ago that the 1% used the media to divide the people into ‘Millennials’ and ‘Boomers’ to further fracture us into factions. The more factions there are the less chance for the type of Economic Change that would disturb the lifestyles of the 1%.
When those lifestyles involve the limitation of necessary services due to the 'need' to profit from them, it is easy to understand why the 1% would encourage the divisions.
AND as a result, NOW you see that the people who were most vulnerable, and most at risk were also the people excluded by the ‘Pay to play’ attitudes of many corporations. These are some of the same corporations who oversold opioids. They are protected by the government institutions that allow the 1% to continue to funnel disturbing amounts of cash out of the economy,
These are the same government controlled institutions that won’t hire or promote the Millennials. These are the same companies promoting economic policies that make it impossible for the Boomers to retire. In most cases the working boomers are supporting not only their children (Generation X) but Gen X’s children and those children tend to be Millennials. These people should not be at each other’s throats!
If you ask a working ‘Boomer’ (a person on the 60 to 75 year old age range) when they plan to retire, they laugh. They laugh because they are so far into debt paying education costs and housing costs to ‘help out’ their children and grandchildren, they are working two jobs. In many cases they are also caring for their elderly parents, too. In fact the Boomers and Millennials need to band together instead of being adversaries.
During the Great Recession, the ‘Boomers’ tended to be the lucky ones with enough tenure and/or creativity to keep their jobs even though many accepted pay cuts or stagnant wage arrangements to prevent being unemployed . Their adult children moved in with them, and then, as nursing home costs went up, they moved their parents in. Just because the economy was bad, didn’t stop the Gen-Xers from copulating and reproducing and soon you had mom and dad; grandma and grandpa; great grandma and/or great grandpa…and all the little children in one house – just one big happy family.
Except it wasn’t - When the economy came back, the political agenda shifted to favoring the wealthy and preserving their wealth and ignored the fact that a whole sector of employment – for the most part- did not. So, the boomers have their jobs, but, health insurance is a weeks’ salary for most, and their grandkids need help to afford college, so, to make ends ‘meet’, Boomers are driving Uber and Lyft after work.
The Gen Xers long ago gave up ever leaving their parents’ house again and are working as management at two retail or fast food outlets to get enough money to pay bills and their children, Millennials, are popping out of college with great educations, positive attitudes and the drive to get things done, but, because their Boomer grandparents can’t survive on Social Security alone, and their boomer grandparents spent ALL of their retirement saving s on their Gen-X children, they can’t retire until they are dead.
Now, there is a health crisis that is largely a result of the selfish politics of selfish politicians. And it is quickly turning into an economic crisis as people are affected by entire countries shutting down. Everyone is packed into their homes together, worried.
The 1% seem to have health supplies
Even after the crisis begins to wind down, whether that is in 8 weeks or 18 weeks, whole industries will have shrunken and huge numbers of people will never be able to come back to work. When those few who still have jobs are back to work, the government retirement fund – Social Security, will have been heavily hit.
This can be fixed now by doing the following:
Right now, offer everyone who is 63 years and older as of July 31, 2020 the chance to retire, using their ‘full retirement age’ benefits.
Make that benefit level equal to what the person would have received had they worked to age 70, but that payout would be frozen at that monthly level for 24 months
Offer everyone who agrees to retire and claim Social Security benefits a one-time $10,000.00 payment to stay out of the workforce for 2 years. This simple step would ensure security for people aging out of the workforce: They would have the extra money to keep contributing to the economy. This step would also open up hundreds of thousands of good paying jobs to the Millennials who are trained to take them. Once they are employed, their contributions to the tax base will be enormous. Well employed people buy homes, cars, take vacations and find other ways to spend money.
Raise the FICA taxes by 2% from their current level by instituting a 0 0.25% per year increase over the next8 years to fund it.
These simple steps will avoid anger, chaos and hatred and ensure secure and happy citizens and a dynamic workforce going into the future instead.
This simple step would ensure security for the people. People aging out of the workforce would have the extra money to keep contributing to the economy. People coming in will make enormous contributions to the tax base and well employed people buy homes, cars, take vacations and find other ways to spend money.
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Essays from the
Sensible Man
Let’s Get Sensible about Food Resources
How Will the World Feed Itself in 2050?
Any sensible person can see that we humans are not currently doing a good job of it, so what is going to happen in 2050 when the world population could reach 9 billion people?
9 billion people: that is a troubling thought without food in the equation, but that number is why we, on this planet need to guarantee more of a food supply down the road. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations – the FAO, recently predicted that food production must increase by 70 percent before then.
This is all at a time when the worldwide sea levels are rising and creating salt marshes where there used to be farm land. So not only can these people not farm, but they have to move to cities and no longer work in food production – resulting in less net production, not more.
Throughout history, scarce resources have been a concern. Civilizations thrived or declined because of access to resources due to drought or other calamity. We have a worldwide civilization now, and huge amounts of that civilization are living in places where the ground is poisoned and resources, such as fresh water, have to be trucked in for their continued survival.
Worldwide, food processing companies have been very successful at creating foods and meals that can be packaged on one day, and still be edible weeks, months or even years later. This allows them to give huge agribusiness concerns free reign to create, grow, fertilize, de-bug, harvest, process, vitamin fortify and preserve for us to eat later.
Recently, an increasing amount of these foods are little more than reclaimed cellulose fortified with vitamins and minerals and mixed with corn syrup, sugar, sucralose and salt and shaped into something their advertising tells us we can eat. If it proves indigestible the ‘apologize’ for problems at the plant and then try a different mixture with more ‘natural’ ingredients.
And they stick to those ingredients until our systems adapt and then they add back in the additives.
What happens if there is a future where, the general worldwide population will be used to eating the filling, fortified, but ‘fake’ foods while only the people who can afford to, will have access to the fresh ;’organically grown’ foods?
This is not a good outlook for the future at all.
Sensible people worldwide need step up and ‘grow their own’ food. Whether it is herbs, beans or even a small lettuce in a window pot or a raised garden bed full of onions, tomatoes and cabbages, growing some of your own food to supplement, or even replace what you buy, is a step in the right direction for food sustainability and food security on this planet for the future.
The No Douche Bag Mission -
There is a problem in the world today, and that problem is people who do not know how to behave. Folks have become rude, offensive and mean, They throw trash around the planet and they just do not care. The worst part of all: they are stupid about it. ...continued...
This basic business plan lays out expected expenses and income including expected employee expenses, so you can have the figures you need.
Conquering the World:
How the 1%ers Keep the 99% Fighting for Fun and Profit:
Part Two: They got you by the gut!
They are monetizing illness all the way to the bank
Let’s get this straight – here we have a normal person who has a family and works hard
This person pays taxes and- obeys the law-really. Then, because they have several extreme medical emergencies, they have medical bills that are more than they can pay and still have food to eat. So they continue to work hard, buy food and pay as much as they can on the medical bills.
A NORMAL person would think : “…this person is doing a lot better that you would expect in these circumstances”…’..this person is really bending over backwards to do the right thing”.
A Normal person would not say… ”It isn’t enough. Go arrest this person and put them in jail. Make them pay bail and fees and we will split that bail and fees with you.” A Normal person would know that action would be more in line with the ‘Poor Laws’ of the 1800’s and not apply it to today’s society.
But the 1% are not ‘Normal’. They have a way of turning people into figures and then putting a dollar sign in front of it.
Medical facilities are acquired by investment companies. Medical providers are encouraged to use or even move their practices to these facilities in order to reap the benefits of ‘Group Practice’. And, in many cases, it DOES benefit patients by allowing access to more providers and specific equipment.
It does not allow for any negotiation on fees.
Because the Stockholders need their money.
Now, when a person cannot pay their bill in full usually they are able to negotiate a different payment plan. But across the rural USA, where people can least afford it, the investment companies are hiding behind small town attorneys and courts and jailing people for not paying crippling medical bills. No chance for negotiation, just haul the person out of work and jail them until they can pay bail.
If they had bail money don’t you think it would go toward the medical bills?
Then, because it isn’t enough, the court and the attorney get a cut of the bail money -which is supposed to go back to the person who posted it once the court date is met- and then they also get a cut of what is collected on the medical bill.
…WAIT... if they can afford to give away 25% to 40% of what is collected...couldn’t they have reduced the bill by that much to make it AFFORDABLE you the person they imposed it upon?
And now the unfortunate victim in all of this has an arrest record which will make it more difficult to get a job.
And we all know where under employment leads:
More people forced to work multiple underpaying jobs for the over compensated 1% in order to feed and shelter themselves.
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Part 4-(finally)
Goading people to act out for fun and profit
Social Media is overflowing with videos of normal, middle class people having meltdowns and, almost randomly, attacking other people. In the past 18 months, these videos have surged to the top of the ‘most viewed’. The same people who used to coo and giggle over cute animal videos are obsessively watching ‘Karens’ screaming’ and ‘Kevins’ fighting and then deciding they have the ‘freesom’ to do the same thing.
Why? Because social media goads them to. Everywhere you turn you are bombarded with, “It is so wrong that…”; “Don’t you hate it that...?”;” Those people are ACTUALLY doing…” and even more negative messages aimed to incite people to negative action.
It does not matter exactly WHEN the constant background noise changed from : “Our product will make you more attractive/slimmer/ younger-looking/rich” and switched to “Only YOU are the best/get angry/always hate/stop at nothing to get your way”. The fact is...it DID change.
And that change DOES NOT benefit the listeners. That change does not benefit the people who act out those messages. That change does not benefit you or the people you know and like.
That change DIRECTLY PROFITS the people who record these incidents and post them to social media and even more than that, the change DIRECTLY PROFITS the social media platforms and the people who have investments in those platforms. It makes them MILLIONS of dollars a month. Former Facebook Executive – Frances Haugen said as much during an interview in early October 2021. Making people angry allows for a MUCH LARGER profit than people oohing and ahhhing over baby pandas, sloths and golden retriever puppies. Spreading anger incites fights. Fights get recorded and uploaded for people to see. People see them, and share them (hoping to ‘go viral’ and make some money from their ‘channel’). Other people see them and then get outraged and post that outrage…which serves to keep fueling the fire.
Then, just like that – for FREE- social media outlets get millions of views. They don’t have to create a ‘show’ or write a song or sell you a sofa. They just have to show that they have your attention. And that translates to profit for them and their VERY RICH stockholders.
Perhaps it would help to understand this if you look at it this way: Average, normal people are being persuaded by carefully crafted and promoted to ‘act out’ their grievances and frustration in public in an almost ‘gladiatorial’ manner so the rich (and bored) 1%ers can have a bit of boredom removed from their lives.
And that is the BIG Disconnect here: The rich, the 1%ers PLAY with the hearts and emotions of the middle class – constantly playing them against each other in order to preserve the wealth of the 1%.
It is time to stop pitting different groups of middle class workers against each other over stupidity. It is time to stop being a tool for the 1%ers entertaining. It is time to STOP the manipulation..
Boiling Over
Let’s Get Sensible
and STOP the World From Going Crazy
Today we started asking, “What in the world is going on, the whole world has gone crazy!” And when any of us look around, that is what we see. Everywhere, every attempt at sanity and love is being attacked by madness, insanity, and hate. It is as if the very gates of hell had been opened and the minions of darkness freed to assault us. There are Christians shooting up churches and Muslims trying to bomb mosques. Teachers are preying on students, Army reservists are shooting at police, and fathers are killing their children. Then the pretty people on the television cry and wail and bemoan the fact the ‘the people in charge do not have enough control on the rest of us and we need more laws.’
Are more laws really what we need, are more laws actually good for us or is the ‘More Laws’ idea just another construct of the privileged rich to protect themselves. To quote Pearl S. Buck, "The rich are always afraid."
What is it the rich could be afraid of? Nothing to eat? Nowhere to live? No medicine when ill? No, the very rich are afraid of the rest of us. They are afraid that we might want them to share the wealth a bit more fairly.
They can't come out and say that, though. But they can divide us and use those divisions to deflect the anger back at ourselves which further divides us.
Remember the 'Occupy Wall Street' movement that began in 2011? That was supposed be a 'people powered' movement to get the mega-financial powers to relinquish their hold on the world and treat people like humans and not tools. It had a fine start in the fall of 2011, and spread across the world.
But, before the end of 2012 Travon Martin was killed, James Holmes shot up a theater, Wade Page shot up a Sikh temple and people high on a new synthetic drug called 'Flacca' were running about naked and biting chunks out of people. They seem unrelated, but in 2012 these 'unrelated events' combined to fracture and divide all of the unity gained just a year earlier, when we, as normal, sensible people turned our attention to the real problem in this world, Wall street and the obscenely rich.
And the more obscene the wealth, the more they connive to make certain that their opposites, the desperately poor, not only have nothing, but have almost virtually no way of moving themselves out of that nothing.
And this is, finally, the basis of the problem, the disparity of educational services based on income levels. Sir Thomas Moore (Aka Saint Thomas Moore) wrote in his book, Utopia, "If you suffer your people to be ill-educated ...and then punish them for those crimes to which their first education disposed them, what else is to be concluded from this, but that you first make thieves and then you punish them?"
The rich make laws designed to punish the rest of us for not being rich. When we can't pay their 'fines' (late fees and usurious interest rates), they take away our homes and make us homeless, and then they criminalize homelessness and let buildings stand empty when they could become homes and throw good food in a dumpster and make it illegal to retrieve it.
It is time to put down the divisions and come back together and focus on the real problem: 99% of the people spend their lives struggling, while the rest seem to be blind to what struggle really is. They have their walls of wealth and bankers to manipulate the rest of us so we never get our act together and stand up for ourselves. It is time to get together, stop killing each other, and make certain we get our fair share in a sane and responsible way. As Pearl S Buck wrote in her book 'The Good Earth' "When the rich are too rich there is a way, and if I am not mistaken, that way will come soon."here.
From Under the Purple Mustache
Sensible Immigration: A Call for Stronger Borders and Responsibility
The United States immigration system, along with immigration systems worldwide, is in a state of disrepair. This crisis unfolds amidst escalating instability in numerous nations, compelling their inhabitants to seek refuge elsewhere. Why do people uproot their lives? They do so out of discomfort or perceived danger. Those who enjoy the comforts of home and the means to provide for their families are unlikely to embark on perilous journeys to unfamiliar lands for mere amusement. The loss of arable land and clean water has plagued us for over a decade, yet many worldwide governments have turned a blind eye to these pressing issues in their own lands. Then they wonder why their people want to leave!
People migrate to places where they envision a better life, rendering the refugee system a mockery. There are SPECIFIC solutions to this predicament:
1. **Border Closure:** All borders, except for those allowing entry to individuals with legitimate passports, must be shut down for a period of 6 months to 2 years. This measure will persist until a sufficient number of immigration judges are appointed, ensuring that the backlog in processing applications is reduced to less than 3 months.
2. **Enforcement of Work Requirements:** Establish and enforce work requirements. Numerous essential tasks in agriculture and construction remain unfulfilled due to labor shortages. Unless immigrants possess specialized skills in demand (such as doctors, nurses, computer technicians, mechanics, etc.), they should be assigned to roles where labor is urgently needed, such as agriculture, sanitation, and firefighting. They must commit to these jobs for a minimum of 2 years or until they pass their citizenship examination.
3. **Utilizing Educated Talent:** Individuals who have received education in the United States should be mandated to remain and contribute their acquired skills here. Taxpayers have invested in their education, and they should reap the benefits by bolstering the local workforce.
4. **Federal Processing Fee:** Introduce a federal processing fee deducted from immigrants' initial paychecks to alleviate some of the costs associated with the immigration program.
5.**Intervention with migrant producing countries:** The State Department needs to begin working with the countries producing the largest number of immigrants, that will allow those people to remain in their homes and thrive, completely avoiding a long and danger fraught journey in the first place.
Only when the United States and similar nations adopt a pragmatic approach and acknowledge the immense suffering and squandered human potential resulting from lax "enter at will/catch and release" policies will this crisis find resolution. Such policies serve neither immigrants nor lawful citizens, merely inundating struggling cities with a surplus of homeless and destitute individuals. It's time for responsible action to secure our borders and preserve our nation's integrity.
Intro...Continued......
These people are ‘Douche Bags’. We want people to stop acting like douche bags. Douchebaggery needs to stop being tolerated.
In order to rid the world of douche-baggery we intend to expose this bad behavior in all of its shapes sizes and forms. We will put out douche-bags moments and expose them to you in the cold, hard light of truth.
We will offer hints on how to end douche-baggery in your life and of course we will keep you updated on what stores have real good deals and which stores are just practicing douche-baggery.
So, step inside our website and hang with us as we evolve. You are invited to become a member of the elite. You are invited to join mannered society. It is time for you to step forward, take control of your life and say in a firm voice "No Douchbags Allowed!"
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Conquering the World
How the 1%ers Keep the 99% Fighting for
Fun and Profit:
Part Three – They get into your head….
Insecurities are something we all have. We know that there are things we are not quite as good at as other people, and for the most part we are happy to accept that. Yes, it would be nice to sing like Beyonce, dance like Misty Copeland or write like Stephen King but, in the scheme of things, most people tend to be happy being ‘average’ at most of the things they do.
The problem is ‘Being Average’ does not encourage people to spend their money, and if they do not spend their money, the 1%er’s can’t increase their wealth, because the people they get their money from are – ALL OF YOU!
So, you are sitting at home, happy, maybe playing card games with your friends and an advertisement comes on to poke at common insecurities. Things like “Is your hair limp and lifeless…”; Is your skin too rough to touch…”; “Is your butt getting too big…”; “Are your breasts too small…” and the favorite… “Is your partner disappointed in the bedroom and not telling you…” These are the things that play day and night on TV, Radio and all types of media – both print and social. Even if you consciously try to avoid all advertising, this stuff crops up on billboards, magazines at store check outs, direct mail cards, and even the recording we hear when we are on hold.
As Marshall McLuhan once wrote ‘The Medium is the Massage’. What that means is, like in a massage, at first the muscles are stiff and they refuse to relax, but as they are massaged, they loosen and let the massage do its work. When you listen to a message in the media, you may resist or ignore it at first. But the more you hear it and the more you are exposed to it, the more relaxed your brain becomes and soon you begin thinking that it sounds ok. Then you think it could be logical, and then your brain starts to accept it.
So, you buy bottles of the ‘advertised’ hair care. You load up on ‘celebrity’ skin care. You buy diet pills, specialty foods, waist trainers and endless ‘specialty foods. And guys, they got YOU by the balls because people do not want to think they are a dud in the romance department. Every other advertisement is literally for something that will make a guy ‘perform better where it counts”.
The truth behind these products is, in the end, unsavory. 90% or more of these products are not only untested, but many also contain ingredients that can be toxic. Most of these products are promoted by ‘celebrity spokespeople’ who don’t use the products. They are endorsed and advertised by ‘beautiful’ people who are paid to swear that their hair, abs and new car are all the result of a ‘product’ or a ‘seminar’ they paid for. They use weasel words to draw you in and then play to your insecurities to get you to spend money YOU do not need to spend.
So, in the end, you wind up with a yogurt maker, a banana slicer, miracle facial masks that give you a rash, and an assortment of appliances, supplements, equipment and ‘collectables’. They take up space and they remind you of a decision that probably should not have been made.
And then you check your e-mail, visit a website or walk down a street…and the massage starts all over again…..
…because… the 1%er’s…the people who own these companies…. they need to get… more money and they can only get it from YOU!
..