U.S.A.! U.S.A.!

James Verone, an unemployed man living in Charlotte, N.C., attempted to rob a bank of a single dollar so that he would be arrested and would subsequently get health care in prison.  His plan was to do enough time so that when he was released he would be eligible for Social Security.

When it comes to healthcare, the U.S. is barbaric.

California Is Fucked

The budget that Jerry Brown vetoed last week contained $300 million in cuts for state funded universities, a cut they deem necessary to help close the $10 billion deficit we are facing. But how short-sighted is this?

According to the Cal State University system, every dollar invested in their schools has a $5.43 return on investment. So our cutting $150 million from their system (the UC system is also being cut by $150 million) is in effect throwing away $815 million in returns. Stupid.

In fact, of the California Senate Republicans, 2/3 of them (10 of 15) attended state funded colleges:

Doug LaMalfa – Cal Poly SLO
Anthony Cannella – UC Davis
Tom Berryhill – Cal Poly SLO
Sam Blakeslee – UC Berkeley
Sharon Runner – Antelope Valley College
Joel Anderson – Cal Poly Pomona
Tom Harman – Kansas State University
Jean Fuller – UCLA, UCSB (PhD)
Mimi Walters – UCLA
Bob Dutton – Los Angeles Valley College

How can you guys benefit from the system and then subsequently try to bring it down?

Why the Economy Blows

The economic disparity in the U.S. is widening every year, sending the country back to the days before the Sherman Anti-Trust Act and labor laws. To me, this squeezing out of the middle class is the number one problem in the United States today.

Robert Reich illustrates how this come to be in just two minutes:



I will be posting more on this subject, boy howdy.