Author: rebelwillfarnaby

How to tell if you have a Gluten problem?

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Suspect you might have a gluten sensitivity or celiac? 

DON’T MOVE A MUSCLE! Go get tested for celiac before you cut anything out of your diet. I know this isn’t convenient, my wife was in such bad shape by the time she got to the doctor to get tested, she was told she would have to eat gluten again before being tested. There was no way she could willingly make herself sick for 2 more weeks eating gluten. However, without any gluten in her system, the test will not work(in unscientific terms). SO if you think that at all, go to the doctor to get tested before you cut it out or you will never get the answer. 

Feel like you get sick all the time but can’t tell if it is gluten or dairy? 

Many, many more people are lactose intolerant than care to admit. Some kind of Freudian thing with lust for ice cream. Just kidding, most people just aren’t ever told about the effects of dairy and that your stomach should not hurt every day or a few days out of the week. Another little-known fact about celiac is that if you have it and eat gluten, it will damage your stomach until you start having sensitivities to things like dairy, even to the point of becoming lactose intolerant. 

To be clear here, the pool of people who are just lactose intolerant is way way bigger than those who have celiac or gluten sensitivity. Even in the USA, the dairy capital of the world 15-30% of people are lactose intolerant. 

The short answer here is to cut out dairy first and see what happens. Do you get intense stomach and back pain when you eat bread or drink a beer? What about saucy things that aren’t dairy? 

Commonality and differences between Gluten and Dairy sensitivity experience.

Commonalities–

Stomach ache 

Diarrhea 

Gas

Difference–

Celiac- vomiting, potentially hives, intense stomach, and back pain(potentially feeling like appendicitis), whipped out for days after intense gluten encounter.

Dairy- Intense gas, like an air compressor, is in your belly. 

Tale Tale sign you have a gluten issue–

Big-time hangovers and excessive vomiting from drinking.

 When my wife and I were in college and first started dating, it would always shock me that she was such a lightweight at drinking. Two to three beers for a night and she was puking the next day and hungover for a day or two. This continued until she virtually quit drinking. Every once and while she would drink vodka and have a great time and wake up fine the next day. Sadly we had no idea what was going on for 2-3 years. Once her stomach issues got so bad we learned that nearly every form of alcohol including red wine has gluten in it. More on drinking gluten-free coming soon. 

Fried foods really wreck you-

I’m not talking about getting gassy, I’m talking about being nearly bedridden, can’t finish the day at the office. There is a big difference between eating some greasy cheesy Mexican and the squirts and a full-body gluten pain. A greasy meal typically goes by quickly 1-3 hours, if you have gluten sensitivity and eat a fried chicken sandwich, you will be down for the day. 

Chinese food declares war on your gut-

Does take-out Chinese food have a similar effect on you? That’s likely because of the gluten in soy sauce. Yep if you are eating any kind of store-bought soy sauce, it has gluten in it. Total opinion here- this is likely what is happening and some people think that soy or msg is just totally bad for everyone when likely it is the gluten in those ingredients hurting a few people’s stomachs. 

Anything saucy-

Any sauce is likely made with gluten. Weird right? Makes you wonder, what the heck is gluten? Well, the reason nearly every sauce has gluten is to act as a thickening agent. Think about gravy, just water, sausage grease, and flour. Sauce of nearly every kind from every culture has gluten, especially in the food additive days we live in. 

Basically all gas station snacks-

Today every pre-packaged snack is some combo of wheat and soy plus preservatives. Not being high brow here, I love my junk food as much as anyone, but most snack foods are all gluten. Take a gander at the labels of some of your favorite snacks.

Need to Heed #3

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When someone tells you who they are, believe them.

Washington DC can drive corruption into any man’s heart it seems. As lobbying efforts grow more complex it can become impossible to determine where candidates really stand. However, even when candidates like President-Elect Joe Biden have sworn to cut social security in the past and has told lobbyists that fundamentally, “nothing would change.” Yet camp Bernie was still in total shock to see him appoint nothing but corporate individuals from Lyft, Amazon, and Air B’n’B. The big lesson here, when someone tells you who they are, believe them. Maybe if we would have believed that Biden and the other Corporate Dems really hated Bernie like they said they did we would have been prepared on Super Tuesday. Why do we constantly get got by this group? We assume they care about the people of this country the same as us. When in reality they hate us and only seek and serve power and the powerful. How long will we let Republican candidates run the democratic party? 

Happy Warriors – Harnessing The Franklin D. Roosevelt Mentality

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One of TAR’s founding principles states that we will not follow the breaking news cycle, but instead write pieces on political history, principles, and strategy. However, the recent event at the capitol, like the rest of the nation, has made us stop and think. Another founding principle states that we call out our own side. CNN has got the conservative bashing on lock, it occupies 100% of their content. Due to the sheer volume of misinformation that the Corporate Dems have spread about Bernie and his policies, we engage in extreme language, primarily directed at the enemies of the Progressive movement within the party. This is primarily due to them being the gatekeepers of power, holding the keys that lock us up. That being the case, calling out phonies in our own party often becomes item #1. However, that fervor must be matched with integrity and values. We can’t criticize the mayor Pete’s of the world being cynics ourselves. See, as a cynic, you opt-out of participating in the solution. Moving forward let’s carry the demeanor that has built this movement, the cheerful FDR, the never-mud-slinging-always-on-task Bernie Sanders, the intellectual drive for equality of Eleanor Roosevelt.

The scene of protestors becoming terrorists and overtaking our capital yesterday was horrible. So perplexed, I at once found myself feeling vulnerable that it was possible for them to waltz right in. What if Trump would have told them to hurt people, would they have started shooting? We saw one photo of a man holding zip-tie handcuffs as if he planned to take captives. After the initial shock, it sank in those now terrorist live sad lives. They will face up to 20 years in prison over a massive lie told by a man who could not care less about them. How have we come to a place in America where people are so hurt and in such bad shape that they risk their lives for conspiracy theories? During COVID we must all be aware of the pressures people face. Mental illness and substance abuse were running rampant, COVID was the icing on the cake. As a publication of any kind, we must have a sense of decency for others and society at large. While we really don’t like Mayor Pete, we respect him as a fellow human being and American. These events highlight the importance of a core American principle- settling disagreements with conversation, debate, and elections. We must avoid hateful speech. It is dangerous. It is a losing strategy. 

Did you know the media hated FDR more than any President in American history!? Yep, he received fewer newspaper endorsements than Donald Trump! How did FDR respond? Did he flip out like Trump, and start spreading propaganda of his own? Nope, FDR smiled and laughed his way to becoming the greatest President in American history. For his positive attitude and sheer effectiveness, they called him the Happy Warrior. With every big business and every media outlet against them, he never lost his cool or went down to their level. Time and time again he outwitted and like a comic sleuth exposed them. Perhaps the sentiment is best captured in his speech defending his dog, Fala, whom the papers and Republicans claimed he had recently left him on a trip and got a massive naval destroyer to go back and get him, wasting taxpayer dollars- 

After any political event that the media is hyping up, it is always best to check in with the human litmus-test Bernie Sanders. Bernie’s most admirable trait is his discernment. The man has never wavered on his positions and as the news cycle breaks, he knows where he stands. While other politicians take the easy route and engage in extreme partisan rhetoric, Bernie will only discuss the issues. And we mean only, like literally just issues. After the riots at the capitol, Bernie called out the President and the lawbreakers, confirming his main line of attack on the President since 2017, “the most dangerous President in the history of the United States”. Yet, the next day, Bernie immediately presses into the Biden administration calling to pass $2,000 stimulus checks. Notice how Bernie takes control of the narrative by reframing the conversation, Cuomo is trying to score a dramatic sound bit by luring Bernie into calling Trump names. In the end, he always brings it back to the most important issues, people need healthcare, childcare, and decent jobs. 

The final patron saint of the movement and perhaps the most overlooked is Eleanor Roosevelt. While FDR was the face of progress, the truth was that he was a moderating force between Eleanor and the country. She was easily 100-120 years ahead of her time. If we passed the legislation she wanted today it would be an advancement. A natural intellectual drive to solve problems paired with a Mother Teresa like respect for other humans made her a powerful force. It is extraordinary to have someone with pure morals and high intelligence, guiding the most powerful country on earth. Who knows how many times it has happened, 2-3 times possibly? Many don’t know that back in the ’30s and 40’s Eleanor was pushing for marriage equality for the LGBT community and pushing the voting rights act before it even existed. Unfortunately, the country was not as progressive as Eleanor. However, for everything else that FDR did pass where he went big, was him splitting the difference with what Eleanor thought. She also created the model of the first lady that we see today. Before her, the First Lady was a symbolic role, merely acting as hostess, wearing nice clothes, and being polite. When Eleanor arrived she immediately started leveraging her role for good! FDR wasn’t the only one to make radio appearances, one could argue Eleanor had more success with over 300 appearances. Beyond the first lady, Eleanor paved the way for women in broadcasting and media. Her impact today is incalculable, she is the deserved hero of progressives, women, LGBT, and all of her generation. 

Warriors are required for tasks like winning the white house, not warriors that carry firearms, but smiles. Warriors like Nina Turner who rally on the mic to uplift, instead of tear down. Warriors armed with solutions, not conspiracies. 

Need to Heed #2

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The Four-second rule.

Have you ever been in a heated discussion where neither side is listening? Both sides think up their next talking point as the other is speaking. Chris Voss, the FBI’s top hostage negotiator, calls this the dueling schizophrenics, both parties speaking to themselves in their own heads, without listening. These conversations are what our divided nation looks like at the most micro level, the inability to communicate with each other and show respect. All it takes is the person we are conversating with to mention one point of view that helps us identify them as “the enemy” according to our source of news. Challenge yourself every time you communicate to really listen and care about what others have to say. Anger isn’t the only thing to inhibit listening, it can be excitement as well, we think “oh boy, what they just said leads so beautifully into what I am about to say!” then you proceed to interrupt and vomit all over them. How do you stop yourself? Try using the Four-Second Rule! Originally from Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People, Carnegie suggests that once someone seems to finish a thought or stop talking you pause for 4 seconds before speaking. This will seem like an eternity, but it is extremely powerful. Try asking someone how their day was and wait four seconds after they say “Good”, they will elaborate every time,” well there was this really annoying moment at work, then I had a good call with a client we were worried about”. This one habit will unlock sensitive political conversations and ease tensions. When someone feels listened to instead of attacked, they will be open and honest. Most shockingly, you will find that people don’t buy into extreme beliefs 100%. For example, a conservative thinks you are about to attack them so they preemptively throw out a “Pelosi and Democrats are so corrupt and owned by china!” ….. four-second rule…. “ Well look I know Trump has done plenty of bad things as well I just don’t see the Democrats doing anything to help.” Now that they tamped down their own rhetoric you can ask a targeted question, “haven’t done anything to help?”. 

What to expect from TAR in 2021

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After three months of writing, we are looking forward to what 2021 holds. As a Progressive organization, it is so important to make use of all the time between elections. While this might be the presidential off-season, right now is when the strength of a campaign or movement is built. Just like pro sports those who excel during the season put in the most work during the offseason. Our goal throughout has been to become the hangout or destination for the supporters of the Sanders campaign, while also serving to expose Corporate Democrats. While our founding has been exclusively text-based we are excited to build upon our foundation with content to suit everyone’s preferences. We are excited to be adding two new forms of content to supplement our written pieces.

2.)  Audio Book Style recordings for all Articles! 

Starting after the new year we are excited to offer an audio version of all articles! For those who prefer audiobooks, we are recording all past articles to have at the click of a button!

1.) Podcast!

Now that we have laid a decent foundation of topics we are going to release in-depth conversations elaborating upon each topic! Make sure to get the full story on each article as we will go in-depth on books, movies, and speeches that have influenced us! 

Written Content

Following the New Year, we will continue to cover the topics we enjoy most. However, will be doing so with more consistent but less frequent posting. 

From a topics perspective, these are a few of the intensely critical topics we will continue to cover, in no particular order-

The value of morals based politics

The opposition Progressives face from Corporate Democrats

The inherent Americaness of Progressive Ideals

The dangers and effects of Inequality

The Struggles of small business and Entrepreneurs 

The hypocrisy of the media

The global threat of social media

The destructive power of monopolies

&

Solutions.

Progressive Political Tactics Vol. #1 – Leveraging Sales Tactics

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Watching the democratic primaries since 2015 Progressives have seen hopes dashed before their eyes, over and over and over again. While there are a million different reasons for our losses, the media blacking us out, a smaller movement than we thought, the list goes on. One thing we can unanimously agree on is that the group we are up against definitely out gamed us. They knew and used the system, and to no fault of our own many of us were new to politics. It is now long past due to all brush up on our tool kit, we need to be sharp to keep the Sanders coalition from fracturing. Primarily we need to have the ability to talk confidently about our candidates and learn how to make their case. Sadly being the most caring group with the most morals leads us to be bulldozed by Corporate Elite Democrats that will do anything to keep power. We don’t have to be nasty, we just have to work harder. We know how badly people need Medicare for All, we just can’t sell it. If Corporate Dems can sell an agendaless party to the country, getting buy-in for real solutions should be simple!

Here are three simple lessons from sales to ease tension and have open conversations with anyone. 

1.)It’s all about listening, not speaking! 

The common misconception about sales and salespeople is that the person who talks the loudest and the fastest would make the best salesperson. The truth is the opposite, the best salespeople are those who are genuinely curious and ask great questions. When the questions are being answered they listen intently. See it is the opposite of human nature to buy from a pushy person. It robs your freedom of thought and choice, making us want to buck like a wild Broncho. It is also very rude. However, most people have plenty of reasons why they could benefit from supporting your side, but they must come to that conclusion on their own. You cannot actually control/persuade people of anything. With great questions and an open and pleasant attitude, they can reach their own conclusions. 

2.) Find a pain point and determine the consequence.

When selling a brand new product that is a never before seen solution, you face some very tough challenges compared to established products like the Democratic party. The toughest challenge is finding a pain point. For example, every American hates their insurance but they are unaware that it is a problem. We’ve never had a reason to think there was an alternative. If someone knocks government-run health care, respond with a question, “Do you like your health insurance?” “Have you or your family ever had a bad experience with the healthcare system?” They will then think about the pain of the reduction in their paycheck. That pain becomes real when you know there is an alternative. Switching would put $1200/month in your pocket, here is the consequence. “What difference would $1200/month make for your household?”

3.) Whoever controls their emotions wins! 

Ok, the goal isn’t ultimately about anyone losing, this is a negotiating lesson. Perhaps the most valuable sales to life lesson is learning to control your emotions. Many people who end up buying from you and being long term partners started the conversations with you completely uninterested. Every time you lose your cool on someone and return the favor, they will never work with you, this requires having more emotional control. This is a golden rule in debates as we saw with people like Biden getting flustered into gaffe after gaffe, whereas someone like Mayor Pete was slicker than Clark Grizwolds non-choleric-silicon-based kitchen lubricant. Pete was unflappable on that stage and danced his way out of every attack with a smirk. Talking politics requires emotional control, people will say things that really press your buttons. We have all been on both sides of flipping out in a conversation, you feel like an immature jerk and immediately regret it. Remember you will never regret taking the high road! 

Are Progressive Policies Bad for Small Business Owners?

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During the last two election cycles Bernie Sanders ideas were slowly heard by nearly every American Conservative and Liberal alike. Shockingly his ideas seemed to gain steam across the Democratic party then started gaining popularity across the aisle as well. However, the idea of so many radical changes seemed to scare small business owners. The Conservatives narrative of low taxes being the savior of small businesses has been extremely successful. Despite the fact that Conservatives couldn’t care less about small business owners, they are feeding large corporations, with the rest of us begging for table-scraps. Let’s do a play by play on each supposedly “Radical” idea of the Sanders campaign.

  1. Medicare for All

Perhaps the most debated and lied about program of all time. This is undoubtedly due to the insane amount of lobbying by insurance and large pharmaceuticals to both Republicans and most successfully to democrats. People like Pete Buttigieg and President Elect Biden took this money and spouted talking points from the Lincoln-Project(Conservative think tank). Before we get into the corruption weeds lets talk small business. 

First, Warren Buffett has voiced support for the plan, but more importantly he views the current system as a massive competitive disadvantage for American businesses. Not only does this hurt every large business, other than Insurance companies, it is often largest deterrent from starting a business. If you have a family the risk is so great when leaving a large company because you will likely pick up $1000-$2000/month in healthcare with the worst plan on the market. One medical emergency will bankrupt the family. Then think about the entrepreneurs who are successful, having to provide insurance to workers can literally be the difference in being profitable and making a living. With M4A small business would flourish as risk lowered and growth would accelerate as the burden was lifted of medical expenses. Keep in mind we are choosing to pay more than any other developed nation just to fund the millionaires and billionaires that own these healthcare companies. Oh yeah, and we don’t even make the top 10 for quality of care!

  1. Making Public Universities and Colleges Tuition Free.

First lets be honest here, if you are the older retired person with no children, this wont directly benefit you, other than by improving society at large. However this can impact small businesses in two big ways. This would really blow the doors off opportunities that have only been available to a small elite group of the country(since the 80’s or so). Essentially anyone with the drive and tools to make it in the college environment would no longer be held back by their parents financial situation. We understand there are still many other factors that will leave even the ambitious no chance to really make through college(poor primary schooling). However, taking money out of the picture would allow many ambitious potential small business owners to expand their knowledge and skills.

On the back end of this is the crippling cost of send children through college. If you are a small business owner with inconsistent income or even consistent income, paying for 3 kids college tuition is going to devour your savings, if you have any! Most small business owners don’t have the luxury of a company matching their 401k retirement plan. Not only do you have to be a great business owner or craftsmen, but also a financial advisor to navigate shark infested waters. Taking the burden of paying for children’s college would be a massive boon to the economy. Imagine all the baby boomers and gen Xer’s cash that would be distributed through the system. And holy sh*t not to mention student debt. You think someone will take the risk of starting a business with $300-600/month student loan payment, forget about it! 

3.)Free Child-Care and Pre-K

Maybe you hadn’t noticed but most other advanced nations have acknowledged this is the most critical time in child development and provide quality child care to working parents. If you don’t have a college degree and can’t earn over $30,000 it will not even justify taking the job to pay for childcare. Imagine starting a business paying the highest possible rate for insurance and $1,000-$7,000/month in child care. One down month and you are absolutely screwed. Not only would we see many more workers enter the work force, their checks would circulate in the economy.

When you really step back and compare all the expenses put on individuals in America vs. other nations there is no comparison, we are extremely disadvantaged. Today in Germany, France, Japan and countless other countries their citizens are not footing all these bills without benefits. They pay taxes but the personal gains are enormous. On average M4A would save the average house hold $1200/month. Then take away anywhere from $80,000-$500,000 in student loans that a given family/individual will pay(already the case in so many countries). Then take away the $1,000-$5,000 in child care. To be conservative a small business owner will have an additional $3,000/month. Their retirement fund will have $100,000 more in it from not paying for two children’s college. Or their children will be able to buy a house after college because they don’t carry that student loan debt. 

5 Ways the Sanders Coalition can Win Friends and Influence People.

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5. Talk politics with everyone.

People say they are sick of it, not the case. Here is the most important lesson from Dale Carnegie’s book, the best conversationalist or most interesting people ask thoughtful questions and listen. The key here is that they do not talk the most! Start being genuinely curious about why people believe what they believe.  Even if you are completely underconfident in your beliefs you don’t have to say everything you believe, use the opportunity to listen and learn. One of the easiest actionable tips is to employ the four-second rule. This means when someone else is speaking you wait four seconds after they get done speaking before you speak. They will usually keep talking adding more info and triggering the self-disclosure loop.

The self-disclosure loop is a phenomenon discovered by psychologists. They determined that gathering information as well as sharing information actually triggers the reward system of our brains. Yep, strangers randomly telling you their life story filled with TMI topics is due to the brain’s reward system. The more you tell, the more you want to tell. With a little patience and natural curiosity, you can learn so much about what people believe and why. Eventually, someone will shock you and throw out that they voted for Trump but would have gone Bernie. Not likely, but not impossible. 

4. Read! Competence breeds confidence.

The only reason this is four instead of five is that to prevent complete procrastination on item five. Never let perfect get in the way of good. Often times our belief that we always need more information before acting is our most limiting. If you have the time, do the research! While it is extremely important to not just pull ideas and figures from thin air the greater value is self-confidence. With confidence in our beliefs, we are far less likely to lose control of our emotions when having a political conversation. Plus, when was the last time you ever believed someone who was filled with self-doubt and acted defensive. Remember though the more you study and know the greater your awareness must be of the fact that others are not researching. When confidence is replaced by acting condescending it becomes negative to the cause. 

3. Openly admit the flaws of your party/side.

Look when two voters are talking they are not the politicians voting and enacting exact legislation. The average person has no idea all the different actions their candidate or party of choice has taken. Triggering their ego over every little flaw and hypocrisy will end the conversation immediately. All the while they are thinking in their head, “They think we’re bad when they don’t even have an answer for X, Y,  and Z, they can’t even see what’s right in front of them.” The most disarming comment in a political conversation is to bash your own side, people will relax and open up without fear of backlash. Typically when you admit the faults of your side they will do the same.

2. Trade social media action for real action.

We will continue to write in-depth on the damaging impacts of social media, but for a political movement or campaign, supporters are better off hopping offline. First let’s just go ahead and face the music, posting politically charged articles on Facebook and ‘owning’ conservatives in the comments is actually a politically losing tactic. Spending 100’s of hours a year posting on social media is going to guarantee 5-300 people will never be open-minded to your candidate. Then consider having 1-5 casual conversations a year, in the worst-case scenario one of them changes to your candidate. 

1. Run for office.

While the AOC scenario immediately comes to mind, there is a real possibility here. There are rural districts all over the country where Republicans run uncontested. There are even more seats where incumbent corporate Democrats are the only candidates who have run for the seat in 5+ years. We don’t have to win them all, but we are forfeiting hundreds of opportunities to get the message out. Even a failed campaign gets some amount of media coverage and awareness. And who knows, you could be the next AOC. 

Trickle-Down Economics is Officially a Hoax!

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Trickle-down economics is officially a hoax. You might also know it as Voo-Doo Economics. The idea that you can just give massive tax breaks to the wealthy and because they create all value and job opportunities, it “trickle” down to the rest of the economy. Sounds like a law of nature or something, doesn’t it? This concept was first mentioned by Reagan as he completely dismantled the tax code that led to the most prosperous time in American history. It wasn’t only Reagan who was all in on helping the ultra-wealthy, the Democrats helped him pass it. We saw this same logic tested in the Bush Administration with tax cuts for the wealthy and with the lowering of the capital gains tax. One can picture these Republican ‘Noah’s’ parting the seas of hard work and adversity for these trustafarians. Get daddy’s money tax-free, throw it in the market, and watch it grow! If only there were literally zero taxes these rich people could own the majority of the wealth indefinitely in the exact manner of royalty in the old world. Oh wait, many of them, like Bezos, don’t pay any taxes already! Turns out a 50-year study of tax cuts for the wealthy revealed a shocking discovery, they never trickle-down. 

Ok, let’s not act like this was the most obvious thing ever, we still have politicians pushing it on the American public today with the Trump tax cuts. There is some logic to the argument that the wealthy are employers or owners. So in theory you could take a leap without looking closely that if you gave those employers more money, they will hire more workers and spend more money. This is why it is just a theory and not a factual idea, rich people do not spend the extra money like a normal person. For a working-class person struggling to make ends meet, they can think of countless ways to spend the money immediately. To the non-wealthy group of Americans, the trickle-down logic kind of makes sense because we know we would spend the money, boosting the economy, so it makes sense a rich person could do that at a more impactful rate. However the ultra-wealthy live life utterly alien to ours. They aren’t worried about making ends meet, they are just trying to save and grow their fortune. Plus if your house is paid for, you have every material thing you could want with no debt, getting $1,000,000 more won’t spur a spending spree. It’s pennies in the pile. Let’s take the $1,200 stimulus check, picture someone who makes $500,000/year as a software engineer(not even a billionaire), and then someone making $40,000/year as a server who lost their job during COVID, who do you think spent their money quicker? This is where theory butts into reality or something called the velocity of money, you check it out in-depth here. It doesn’t take a scientist to understand that the more impoverished you are the faster you would spend a stimulus check, this is the classic hierarchy of needs. 

So at its core we know the wealthy will not blow the money they are given on local businesses, what about business owners? Won’t they have more money to employ people? This again seems logical, we all seem to know a small/local business owner that we hear talking about how tough the system is on them. However, the people lobbying for these tax cuts aren’t small business owners that you know. These are large corporations, like Comcast, Amazon, Goldman Sachs, the list could go on all night. So if these large companies provide so many benefits to American society how many people did they hire after the Trump tax cuts? Well AT&T laid off a record number of employees after the tax cut to secure enough cash to purchase Time Warner, making a move away from technician services to streaming. Yet this is not AT&T’s fault, these companies do not have brains of their own sickened by greed. AT&T is forced by shareholder expectations and competition to always make more money the next quarter than you did the last. If you are the CEO and your sole purpose is to be more profitable every quarter, naturally you are going to hire the absolute minimum amount of employees to get the job done. Then imagine that Comcast comes up with some new logistical product that allows them to do installs with half the human technicians as AT&T allowing them to drop their prices. AT&T will have to cut the same amount of workers or go out of business. Pair this with automation and we have drag race to the bottom, who can be the first company with no employees, all profit. We are already seeing this today with the business model of the future, Gig-workers. They aren’t employees, you just get to absorb the majority of their production value with zero risks, a capitalist wet dream. 

So if you are some kind of billionaire that actually wants the system to flourish and see your businesses explode, what would work better than tax cuts and keep the workers satisfied? Direct all of these government programs currently going to the ultra-wealthy(Elon Musk), to your customers. See this is their big mistake, workers are the primary consumers. The healthiest economies see a wide array of people with spending power. Perhaps we should propose trick-up economics? 

This is why programs like Medicare for All would be an immediate boon to the economy. Millions of Americans would spend an additional $300-$1600/month in the economy instead of it sitting stagnant in the accounts of billionaires. Perhaps it is time to rethink our priorities.

Elizabeth Warren is a Dangerous Enemy of the Progressive Movement, Will we Acknowledge it?

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At the risk of alienating potential Warren supporters, it is better to have an open discussion on her past and present actions to determine if we really want her to be part of our future. First, let’s state that there is zero animosity towards voters. Voters have no control over a candidate, they cannot control them behind closed doors or know what they say or do behind closed doors. On paper and at campaign events the appeal of Warren is obvious. A super-intelligent college professor who started the consumer financial protection bureau before even entering Washington sounds like a home run candidate! However, if you align where she stands with a chronological timeline of her actions starting in 2014, you will find a power-hungry politician that changes positions on a daily basis, and perhaps the greatest roadblock to real change from people like Bernie and Nina Turner. 

If we take it from the top, we all remember that super annoying speech of her military brothers being working-class Republicans, so she gets “normal” people. However, most people do not know that for the majority of her life Warren was also a Republican. Not just a Republican, her coworkers at Harvard vouch for the fact that she was the most vocal Reagan supporter in the college administration. So why did she support the Republicans until into her 40’s!? Well, let’s take her word for it here- 

“I was a Republican because I thought that those were the people who best supported markets. I think that is not true anymore,” Warren said. “I was a Republican at a time when I felt like there was a problem that the markets were under a lot more strain. It worried me whether or not the government played too activist a role.”

Hold the GD phone, this is the candidate who was “just as progressive as Bernie!”? Get real. Actually, let’s get real, Bernie Sanders was a self-declared socialist in his very first run for Mayor of Burlington. If someone tells you everyone changed positions before, that is not entirely true. And yes sometimes it is a sign of a good leader, but that is really a business saying not a political one. Let’s really dissect her response there. She claims she felt that the Republicans were no longer supporting markets and had to switch. That is an admission of the corporate nature of the new Democratic party, she believed they were the more natural continuation of Reaganomics. This really makes sense as we see the party move away from the working class to cater to the coastal elites and exclusively those with a college education. It also makes sense that Mass has the most college grads per capita in the US. It seems Warren has always just been an advocate of college elites, the Dems really moved to her. 

Many are probably in disbelief that the Hyper-Woke-Slay-Queen has been a Republican her whole life, but if you really listen to her this is not such a shocker. Her track record of helping progressive causes isn’t only bad, she actively fights to destroy progressives. Before we are labeled as wounded Bernie supporters let’s take it way back to 2014. 98% of Dem voters have no idea that before Bernie ran he and other progressives were actively pushing her to run for president against Hillary. Not only did she decide not to run, but she did so with a very keen understanding of how flawed Hillary was. Then came her first sin of blasphemy against progressives, she refused to back Bernie. We will never know if a 2016 endorsement could have pushed him over the top. Not to mention that was possibly the most important election of our lifetimes. We all now know that she did so out of the selfish desire to wield power herself, either with a Hillary cabinet position or with the presidency in 2020.

Let’s detour to mention the fact that she claimed to be a native American without actually being one. No wonder the right won’t listen when someone actually does something racist or sexist. If Trump, Rubio, Cruz, Jeb Bush, any one of them did this, they would be canceled into oblivion never to be seen again! Oh, but not one of our own who slams Trump, we can’t call her out for being super racist. Honestly, what is the difference between this and wearing black face? If you don’t know, the Cherokee nation blocked her, she cannot and will never be a member of their tribe. They were also deeply offended by the false claim that she made strictly to enrich herself. She has been a liar her whole life! 

Fast forward to 2020, she declares for the white house. Before we get to her most offensive and nefarious acts of the campaign, let’s analyze her “progressive campaign that accepted big money donations.” So how did it work out for her trying to talk progressive and stay in bed with big business? Here is Krystal Ball on her campaign-” “attempts to co-opt revolutionary rhetoric in service of an establishment campaign, like Disney doing socialism, satisfied no one and left her unable to win more than 1 county in Iowa and an embarrassing distant fourth behind Klobuchar in New Hampshire.” 

In case you forgot let’s rehash, Bernie won Iowa however the DNC delayed the result to look like Pete tied him. Bernie then won New Hampshire and devastated the field in Nevada. By all accounts, he was in the first place. Let’s not forget Warren going for a murder-suicide on Bernie that just so happens to be in front of a hot mic. She claimed that months ago before the campaign, Bernie told her in a one-on-one meeting that a woman could never win the White House. So he said it and she was friendly for months, then when he is leading the race you claim that to the media. Not a private conversation or a debate when he said it, months down the road you drop that during a debate. Sorry, we refuse to believe one of the people who urged you to run in 2016 believes that you can’t win as a woman.  

After that exchange clearly cost Warren, she set her sights on making sure that Bernie was defeated by Biden. In possibly the most corrupt dealing in primary history winning candidates like Pete dropped out immediately to defeat Bernie, but most importantly to secure jobs in a potential Biden admin. And it worked, Pete is now Secretary of Transportation. However, there was one chance to stop the now unified centrist, if Warren just dropped out of the race. She didn’t even have to endorse Bernie, just drop out! She got 3rd place in her own state! Bernie nearly doubled her 16% with 30%! She was a loser up to that point with no shot at victory, yet she stayed to guarantee Bernie would lose. Had she dropped out Bernie Sanders would be the President right now. 

What did Warren get for helping Bernie? Completely snubbed from Biden’s cabinet! See when you abandon real allies for fake friends, no one has your back. If we are to succeed with Nina Turner, we must fight Warren with everything we’ve got. This might seem extreme but we know based on multiple occurrences, she will fight against any progressive that is not her! She is a cynical self-enriching politician just like Pete and Kamala.