#people need to pay us. because our salaries are already so low and our education is long and the process of interpreting complicated as fuck

[eoin-mcgonigal]

again. sign language interpreters should get paid for their job. we're not Deaf people's helpers, nor hearing people's helpers. we are a profession who provides society with a service with an extremely complicated mental process behind. we deserve to be recognised and financially compensated.

[mesetacadre]

Re: flexibility, I've been wondering - what is there to say about the impact of remote work on productivity and profit, inasmuch as it can be measured?

I can only comment on the IT sector, and only superficially: multiple employers have cited the transition to remote/hybrid work as the primary cause of the not-insignificant decrease in efficiency currently observed in companies worldwide. On the managers' end, it's being portrayed as e.g. a shift in priorities, with younger people especially being more willing to change jobs frequently and not feeling tethered to a single employer - at least according to recent Microsoft Work Trend Index reports that I (unfortunately) had to analyze LOL. Does flexibilization yield tangible profits in the "white collar"* department, too, or is it primarily and exclusively a tool of exploitation of "unskilled"* laborers, migrants, et cetera?

Asking this because the surge in popularity of remote work is certainly an unprecedented development, I'm trying to find the correct framework within which to assess its importance. (Unless this is outside your area of interest/expertise...)

Hi Adam, first I would be cautious of what some employers attribute to be the cause of lost productivity, they can lie as much as they want. It is well known how, for example, retailers in the US state of California assign loss from imagined future profits as well as actual losses from other causes to shoplifting when actual lost sales from shoplifting is as significant as a small accounting error. Taking them at face value still, I'd argue that the context of remote work is far from neutral, having been instituted rashly during the economic slowdown that the pandemic forced. I've also heard the complete opposite from other employers, such as my mother's, which has instituted a hybrid work regime *after already having established the required infrastructure and protocols* and it seems to increase productivity by the same mechanism that a shortened work week increases productivity, worker morale.

A well-implemented hybrid or completely remote work regime does increase productivity, not only because of better employee performance in some cases, but also because it can allow the capitalist to cut down on costs, a very intuitive example of this could be having to afford less physical space for an office, since not everyone has to be present to work, and there could not even be an office. Flexibilization, when done well for the employer, always increases profit margins because it makes the worker more subservient to the needs of the capitalist, it allows them to choose when and for how long the worker works, for example, or to never have to pay the salary corresponding to a full work week.

I'd also tell you not to confuse the general trend for what a subset of workers want. The trend towards flexibilization and the higher mobility of young workers between jobs is imposed on them by this trend, by shortening average contracts (Taking again Spain as an example, the average contract for people younger than 30 got as low as 17 days last year, and nowadays 0-day contracts are becoming more common). Nobody wants to work for less than a week for a salary lower than the minimum wage, it is being imposed in the name of "flexicurity", as they call it. Look it up, the European Commission avows it.

Perhaps traditional office jobs can benefit less from this very rapid hiring-firing process because of the needed education for some positions, but as long as there is a reserve labor pool of people who have worked at multiple of these places, and as long as they can continue to play with work schedules and regimes, they very much still benefit from flexibilization.

If things like the 4 day work week or remote work are popular within the general working population it still doesn't change that the class who ultimately benefits from it is not our own, and our efforts should be directed to educating workers so they understand that no benefit can be gained within capitalism that does not benefit the bourgeois class 10 times as much, and that it still does not change the immutable exploitative nature of salary work.

[leam1983]

As a Canadian, and as someone living in a country that has a UBI framework, I think a lot of people misunderstand just how basic Universal Basic Income is.

TL;DR: I agree on principle, but identifying greed as a problem doesn't solve deeper systemic issues.

I see some armchair social theorists on here say that UBI is enough to fight more pressing social battles; that it empowers you to demand better rights as a worker, as a citizen. I've been on UBI and, well - no. UBI is enough to allow you to survive. If you want to invest in a project, if there's a worthwhile cause you want to get involved in that requires some involvement or some capital injection (even something as simple as buying supplies to fashion picketing signs) - that's on you. In Canada, UBI is calculated based on median income, which means that it isn't enough to kickstart some people's Post-Work-Era Roddenberry-Powered Magical Socialism where nobody works and everyone contributes out of sheer passion and drive.

UBI is there so you can survive, and so you can eventually have the resources and skillsets needed to contribute to Society without UBI lining your pockets. More importantly, UBI is there to ensure that there are no "bad jobs" to speak of, because even the fast food joint's janitor who's on Minimum Wage starts with better conditions than a UBI beneficiary. In Canada, a kid with no diploma who makes a living manning a Tim Hortons' cash register doesn't have to fight with the system to obtain credits related to his living conditions. The real problem has three prongs:

Welfare kings and queens who make it harder for legitimate demands of financial assistance to go through;

The corporate world that's forgotten that the very first rung past UBI needs to be 100% livable and needs to allow for at least some measure of savings to be something that can be planned for. UBI should facilitate survival, what happens when even minimum wage doesn't allow you to live right?

Slum lords who buy off properties initially set aside for Affordable Housing programs and who drive market values so far high that entry-level workers have to settle with living several hours away from their place of work.

But Sweden and Norway - Hold it. Sweden and Norway are filthy fucking rich. Sweden and Norway are Petrostates. Canada? Not so much. Year after year sees Affordable Living programs or revisions to UBI being floated that would turn it from a lifeline to an actually workable form of remuneration, but year after year sees my local politicians butt their heads against the fact that any kind of serious Social Security net can't just pay for itself; and Canadians are already sadly renowned for living in a country choked by taxes - all because our already-present pro-Social infrastructure is complex, inefficient and sadly vital for most low-income residents.

Imagine how insane implementing it would be on a per-State level, on the American side. Imagine the work that needs to be done; not just in terms of greater education, but also in the sense that there's an entire infrastructure you guys never put in place. Some of my colleagues are American expats, and their first big shock came in the form of their first tax bill on Canadian soil. Free healthcare isn't free, the load is just spread across the country's residents. It also means that UBI and Free Healthcare programs can only cover so much, seeing as even if you put the load primarily on those above a certain income level, those below it are still going to feel the pinch. God knows I do, every tax season, and even if it's for a fundamentally good cause.

So. Beyond harping that UBI is a basic right and that we all deserve to rest, ask yourself how wealthy your State is, first. Try and model the kind of help you'd be getting. Try projecting it as a deferred hit on your salary or your savings - one that you need to account for year after year, forever.

The social model where none of us work and all of us effectively play with shelter and rest being in-built facets of our social contract would require a total upheaval of our current system - and something tells me most people wouldn't like the transitional period between the two. Would people really maintain power stations or work hospitals just because it's the right thing to do?

Call me cynical, but I've been alive long enough to really, really, seriously doubt that logic. Sooner or later, someone's going to want to look out for Number One. The USSR fell for that very reason, and my own country's very pro-Social policies are rife with examples of what happens when someone with good intentions gets unfettered access to a chequebook, supposedly for the good of all. Remuneration is a great control system, in that respect, especially when we know that in an Egalitarian system, there's always going to be one or two chucklefucks who think they're more Egalitarian than the rest.

Greed is in all of us; the only thing that keeps you or me honest is our lack of power. Money, as they say, is the root of all Evil. Remove money from the equation and something else will take its place. Social status, most likely.

Then let's make all of us equal! Communism FTW!

you're likely American if you're reading this, how do you think most people will react to that kind of assertion?

even in an ideal system, the Overseer would have more power. That, right there, is enough of an imbalance for unfair treatment to surface.

Again, we've seen what happened with Soviet Russia, and I'm not saying this to be a bootlicker. Open a history book: Lenin barely managed to approximate Marx's idea of an Egalitarian state and Stalin identified the cracks in the system and pushed them wide open, priming it for collapse.

UBI needs to happen. via antiwork

[accidentallyadramablog]

Review: Down With Love (2010)

I felt a little nostalgic this week and decided to rewatch Down With Love, a romcom out of Taiwan featuring Ella Chen (from Hana Kimi) and Jerry Yan (Meteor Garden).

This is more of a brain dump as opposed to a real review. More below the cut.

Let me just start with the fact I love dramas with tomboys, gender benders, and gender non-conforming women and girls in general. I'm a 40 yr old gnc bi-woman, so some of these storylines really resonate with me - despite the trend of making those female characters glaringly stupid and pitiable.

Tags: Nanny, Love Square, Tomboy, Male Chases Female First, Sismance, Rich Man/Poor Woman, Pretends To Be Gay, Single Parent, Sisterhood, Boss/Employee Relationship

Our girl Ella Chen plays tomboy Yang Guo. Yang Guo works, has friends, and a shitty boyfriend of 5 years. She acts naïve, but she actually has a lot of life experience due to a *tragic backstory*. After her mother died, her father ruined the family business. Their family plunged from riches to rags and their father abandoned them. Yang Guo is 6 when this happens and it falls on her older sister Yang Duo to raise them both while homeless, starving, and navigating the homeless camps in the parks of Taipei.

Yang Duo (Kelly Huang) has raised her little sister by herself, beginning from poverty and homelessness to having a house and making a life for themselves. They bicker good-naturedly, but Yang Duo is very protective and supportive of her sister. She's managed to earn a job at a prestigious law firm as an admin assistant with strong accounting skills. She is seen as frugal, clever, and competent. Several characters make comments throughout the series about how it was a shame that she didn't go into certain careers because she's so accomplished despite not having a formal education. It's obvious that Yang Duo has put her own dreams and happiness on hold to make sure that she and Guo have financial security. Yang Duo is my favorite character btw. She is a supporting character that is multi-faceted and has her own character arc. I really like seeing her growth in this drama, and she gets some cute side couple action later in the series. Skip the last episode.

Due to growing up in poverty and scrabbling to lower-middle-class, the two girls work nonstop. After Guo is fired from her job waiting tables, Duo gets Guo a job as a nanny for her boss Xiang Yu Ping by lying and saying Guo is a lesbian.

Xiang Yu Ping (Jerry Yan) owns his own law firm and is seen as cold and overbearing. He is raising his dead brother's kids and none of the nannies he's hired have lasted either due to being chased off by the kids (a la the Sound of Music) or by trying to seduce him because he's a rich handsome lawyer. Relieved to have found a nanny who definitely wouldn't seduce him (because he thinks she's a lesbian), he just pays an unreasonably huge salary to keep her there with the kids despite their abuse.

Supporting characters: Amanda Chu as the best friend Yan Ling with the messy dating life is also delightful, but I've enjoyed all her roles. I may rewatch Lion Pride for her, now that I'm walking down memory lane. The office of 'just some lawyer dudes being dudes' are funny. I love when they gather around to watch drama and place bets on what's happening. They're also slackers. I would love/hate to work with them.

So that's the setup.

Honestly, I hate the 'pretends to be gay' plots. It's typically really offensive and this was no exception in a lot of places. (It's not at the same level as Personal Taste, but it's bad.) One of the cases Yu Ping takes on is unlawful termination and blackmail of a gay teacher and he asks for Yang Guo's advice to help the man. Taiwan was trying in 2010, but it wasn't exactly good representation to have a fake lesbian help an actual gay man faced with employment discrimination and blackmail over his orientation. When I compare this with Love is Science (2021 twdrama) that has two out lgbt characters employed in their office with significant roles, I'm just so happy that lgbtq media representation is still progressing.

I don't care about Yu Ping's best friend Qi Ke Zhong or Yu Ping's ex-girlfriend Ding Hui Fan because they're both terrible people that don't deserve forgiveness and their only purpose was to drag out our leads getting together. Since this was a rewatch, I knew how much I hated their scenes and skipped them as much as I could. You're not missing anything. Someone on YT needs to just make a Yang Duo/Xiang Yu Ping cut, tbh. Also? Go ahead and skip the deadbeat father.

The nanny bit only lasts three episodes (the kids are adorable), but it's long enough for Yu Ping to catch feelings and think his lesbian nanny is cute. He actually is not cold and overbearing as episode 1 makes him out to be. Yu Ping is supportive and tries to be a good friend to Guo. When he thinks her 'girlfriend' is cheating on her, he absolutely flips out because he feels she deserves to be respected and loved in her relationship. He learns about her family. He learns about her friends. He knows where to look for her when she's upset. He knows how to cheer her up and later, he knows how to make the perfect date. When he finds out she lied about being a lesbian, he's not even mad. He admits it was his fault for making certain demands in the employment contract. He's just upset that he's lost chances to flirt and court her.

Listen. It's a dumb premise in this drama and the misunderstandings suck. But it's so refreshing to see male leads be decent to women that are romantically and sexually unavailable to them. The bar is so low, in RL and in dramas, that Yu Ping belongs in the top tier of male drama leads. This dude was just going to continue in a supportive friendship for an undetermined time, both when he thought she was a lesbian and later when his shitty weasel of a best friend dated her under false pretenses. He didn't burden her with a confession until her relationship was over. And whenever she asked for space, he gave it to her. And when she confronted him on instances of jealously, he apologized and gave her space.

Yu Ping never tries to change Guo. He doesn't give her a makeover. She has a makeover scene that is instigated by another character and all he does is try to make her comfortable when she's so obviously uncomfortable. Then he cheers inwardly when he sees her overcome her awkwardness and have confidence. But by the end of the drama, she is still dressing and acting the same as in act 1. It honestly reminded me a little of Coffee Prince in that the fancy male lead is still just as enamored with his gnc woman by the end and the way she presents herself doesn't have an effect on their romantic relationship. Again, this is content catered to me as a bi & gnc woman in a relationship with a cis-het man. I often am mistaken for a man when I go out with my spouse and he's still super into me so let's normalize gnc people with gc people already it's 2021.

Anyway, if you watch romances for kisses, there's really only a couple of pecks and one nice passionate kiss and they're all in basically the last 3 eps of the series.

The last episode sucks. Stop at episode 15. Seriously. Don't watch episode 16. Why oh why do you let terrible people back in your life? Qi Ke Zhong and Ding Hui Fan are toxic and should but cut out of their lives. The end of ep 15 had a happy ending with a family-style breakfast for our two sisters with their boyfriends. Ep 16 threw in some more misunderstanding, jealousy, and separations followed by a time skip for no reason and brought back my two least favorite characters.

Anyway, I will live in my little world with Yang Duo and her sweet lawyer boyfriend Liang Zhi Hao (Ian Yim/Cyran Yan/Yan Yi En yeah, this actor has three stage names) that supports her interests and self-determination while they save money on mass transit by using his motorbike. And they build her dream home that she designs. Perhaps they put aside funds for her to pursue a degree in what she's passionate about.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

June 8, 2021

Heather Cox Richardson

After Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) announced this weekend that he would not support either the For the People voting act or an attempt to break the filibuster for a voting measure, but would work to get bipartisan agreement on the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, today Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell pulled the rug out from under him.

McConnell said today that restoring the provisions of the 1965 Voting Rights Act that protect minority voting would give too much power to the federal government and that such protection was unnecessary anyway. “The Supreme Court concluded that conditions that existed in 1965 no longer existed,” McConnell said. “So there’s no threat to the voting rights law. It’s against the law to discriminate in voting on the basis of race already. And so I think it’s unnecessary.”

To say there is no threat to the voting rights law is delusional. The reality is that In 2013, within 24 hours of the Supreme Court’s Shelby County v. Holder decision ending the Justice Department’s oversight of certain states’ voting requirements, Texas enacted a strict voter ID law. Other states quickly followed suit. And now, in the wake of the 2020 election, Republican-dominated state legislatures across the country are drastically curtailing voting access.

Today, more than 300 “advocacy, civic, faith and labor groups representing nearly 2.5 million Americans from 43 states and the District of Columbia” asked the president and vice president to fight for the For the People Act. “[F]air representation and voter access in America are under direct attack,” the letter read. “We are extremely worried about the very survival of our democracy.  We ask that you place the urgent passage of this bill at the top of your administration's agenda.”

This afternoon, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said that the Senate will still vote on the For the People Act, as scheduled, in late June. He says he is open to changes to the measure if they will help get Manchin on board. But he is going to force senators to go on record for or against voting rights.

Gone are the days when McConnell could protect his caucus from unpopular votes simply by refusing to bring anything to a vote. Republicans have had to vote on the bipartisan, independent January 6 commission, which was popular, and voted to go before the country as a party protecting insurrection. Now they will have to take a stand on other popular measures like voting rights and, if the Senate breaks up the bill, getting big money out of politics, which is even more popular, and so on.

Today, Republicans filibustered a measure designed to prohibit discrimination in pay based on sex. The bill would have limited pay differentials to things like education, training, and experience, and would have prohibited employers from retaliating against workers who compared their salaries. Blaming the Democrats for advancing what he calls “partisan” bills, McConnell pointed to the equal pay act as a sign that the "era of bipartisanship is over.”

In fact, we had an illustration of what “bipartisanship” means in today’s Senate when the Senate Rules and Administration and the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committees that investigated the January 6 insurrection today produced a bipartisan report on the events of that day. Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee chair Gary Peters (D-MI) told reporters: “There were significant, widespread and unacceptable breakdowns in the intelligence gathering. . . . The failure to adequately assess the threat of violence on that day contributed significantly to the breach of the Capitol… The attack was, quite frankly, planned in plain sight.”

To gain bipartisan support, the report focused on communications failures. It did not explore the roles of government officials, including former president Trump, in the January 6 crisis, and it did not use the word “insurrection” apart from quotations of witness testimony. The result was a curiously sanitized rendition of the events of January. Representative Ted Lieu (D-CA) commented: "January 6th didn't happen because there were security failures, it happened because there was a violent mob that attacked the Capitol, and we need to know why that happened."

McConnell’s comment about the end of bipartisanship was a sweeping declaration that he would lead Republicans in opposing the Democratic program, and that includes the American Jobs Act, the extensive infrastructure bill that President Biden initially pegged at $2.3 trillion. Biden has been negotiating with Republicans, led by Senator Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, on the measure, but today called it quits after they refused to raise their offer more than $150 billion despite his offer to cut more than $1 trillion off his initial ask. Republicans blamed Biden for ending the talks.

Biden has not, in fact, ended the talks, though: he has handed them to a different group of lawmakers who have shown a willingness to work across the aisle. That group includes Joe Manchin and Krysten Sinema (D-AZ), who might be persuaded to be more reliable Democratic votes if they have a bigger hand in the infrastructure bill. If this group does manage to hammer out a bipartisan infrastructure package, a vote on it could undercut McConnell’s ability to hold his caucus in opposition to the Democrats.

The biggest sticking point in negotiations is that Democrats want to fund much of the American Jobs Act by increasing corporate taxes from the lows of the 2017 tax cuts (although not to the level they were before those cuts), while Republicans are adamant they will not sign on to any such increases.

The Republican position took a hit this morning, when ProPublica published an investigation based on leaked tax documents. It revealed that America’s 25 richest people—some with more than $100 billion in wealth—pay remarkably little in federal income taxes…sometimes nothing. They can avoid taxes through various accounting methods, while ordinary Americans pay full fare.

Also this morning, Biden tweeted: “I’m working hard to find common ground with Republicans when it comes to the American Jobs Plan, but I refuse to raise taxes on Americans making under $400,000 a year to pay for it. It’s long past time for the wealthy and corporations to pay their fair share.”

—-

Notes:

https://www.propublica.org/article/the-secret-irs-files-trove-of-never-before-seen-records-reveal-how-the-wealthiest-avoid-income-tax

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/06/08/ultra-rich-taxes-prob-hikes-democrats-492133

https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/08/politics/us-capitol-riot-senate-report/index.html

https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/policy-solutions/effects-shelby-county-v-holder

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mQKvy0Wc6mV-hPoGEhxu_vYwiJOEJ67lcvOr9dUIkJ0/edit

https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/08/politics/us-capitol-riot-senate-report/index.html

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/06/08/for-the-people-act-vote-492159

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/07/us/politics/democrats-filibuster.html

https://www.politico.com/amp/news/2021/06/07/joe-manchin-voting-rights-bill-492072

https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/557457-senate-gop-blocks-bill-to-combat-gender-pay-gap

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/08/us/biden-capito-infrastructure.html

https://www.vox.com/2021/5/3/22406391/hr1-poll-for-the-people-act

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[lanaisnotwool]

406 Why You Need Masterminds - Interview Alex Pardo

http://moneyripples.com/2020/07/10/1597/

Chris Miles, the "Cash Flow Expert and Anti-Financial Advisor," is a leading authority on how to quickly free up and create cash flow for thousands of his clients, entrepreneurs, and others internationally! He’s an author, speaker, and radio host that has been featured in US News, CNN Money, Bankrate, Entrepreneur on Fire, and spoken to thousands getting them fast financial results.

Listen to our Podcast here:

https://www.blogtalkradio.com/moneyripples/2020/06/05/406--why-you-need-masterminds-interview-with-alex-pardo

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Chris Miles (00:00): Hello, my fellow Ripplers! This is Chris Miles. Your Cash Flow Expert and Anti-Financial Advisor. Hey guys! I'm going to welcome you out for another show this week. A show that's for you and about you. Those of you that work so freaking hard for your money, and you're ready for your money start working harder for you. Now! You want that freedom. That cash flow. That prosperity. Today! Not 30 or 40 years from now, but right now. So you work because you want to. Not because you have to. So you have that life that you love being with those that you love doing what you love. But it's not just about your own comfort and convenience, right? It's not just about having that life of your dreams, where you can just sit back and sip on some lemonade or whatever. But it's so much more than that guys, because as Ripplers, you guys actually want to create a ripple effect through people's lives. Not just your family, but through your community and across the world, because as you become free yourself, you can help others do the same too.

Chris Miles (00:58): And I'm excited to be a part of that ripple effect because you guys allow me to create the ripple effect through you. And guys, I appreciate it so much. I appreciate you guys being a part of this. Of this movement. You guys are becoming a part of something that's amazing, and it's allowing me to express it and get that bigger impact and reach that I've always wanted. So thank you for being a part of this, sharing it bingeing on these episodes and everything else you do.

Chris Miles (01:21): Quick reminder, check our website, MoneyRipples.Com There's great stuff on there as well. You can also reach out to me if you've got questions in addition to that. All right, guys. So today I want to bring on a special guest, a guy that I've come to really respect in one of my mastermind groups that he's in a part of a high level, real estate mastermind group, Collective Genius that we're together in. And Alex Pardo. He's the guy that's always impressed me, right? One, I mean, not just an amazing entrepreneur and a real estate professional himself and investor and a coach and everything else. Right? But he's also a family guy. He's like a real person, which as you guys know, I like to bring on genuine, authentic people. You know, not like the slick, you know, snake oil, salesmen of sorts. Like this guy is the real deal. By the way, he's also got another podcast you can check out called FLIPEMPIRE. It's awesome! And that's also his name of his company. He also has a parent company called Creative RE-Solutions. He's flipped well over 300 properties. So even after you graduated from college, but you know, almost 20 years ago, he decided to go work for GE at the time. He's like, you know what, even though I've become a CEO, I'm changing that direction.

Chris Miles (02:27): And so this is where he ended up starting going down that path. No more working 75 hours a week. Moved over towards doing real estate and have a life of freedom. And so guys, the main reason I brought him on today is because, you know, many of you will ask me, they say, Chris, you know, I hear you're part of these great groups, these masterminds, you know, how do I find people like that? Because right now, now more than ever, you need a support group. And so, Alex, love having you on the show, man. Thanks! Thanks for coming on.

Alex Pardo (02:55): Chris. Thank you so much for the opportunity. I'm excited to be on and to share some thoughts with Your audience. So thank you for having me.

Chris Miles (03:01): Yeah. So tell us a little bit more about the path, fill in the gaps for me a little bit, cause I know you're an adventurer. I mean, you've backpacked all over the world and done cool stuff. I mean, but tell us a little bit more about you.

Alex Pardo (03:11): Yeah. I'll try to keep it super brief cause you on a lot of it, but you know, sometime around college, first of all, ever since I was 11, 12 years old, I would buy and sell baseball cards. I would buy packs of cards and boxes and I would flip them. And at the time I didn't know, I was essentially wholesaling like, but I was learning some of the, just the fundamentals of buying low and selling high. And so I think I've always been wired with that in me. And something changed there on college. When I was in college, I, I think it was the prestige or maybe it was the ego, honestly, that I wanted to. I saw like the Jack Welch's of the world and all these big time CEOs. And I'm like, I want to be that guy. Until I got hired by general electric in their financial management program.

Alex Pardo (03:51): And I moved away from Miami for the first time. And I'll never forget, you know, three and a half months into that job. I was averaging about 70 to 80 hours a week. I didn't enjoy anything I was doing. And the defining moment for me, Chris was I would look at my boss. I would look at their boss and then I would keep going up the chain all the way up to the CFO of GE capital. And I looked at them and I said, I don't want to be that person. I don't want to be working around the clock. And I just didn't enjoy it at that decision. At that point, when I made a decision, I'm going to finish the two year program, but I'm going to start educating myself about real estate. I had read Rich Dad, Poor Dad. I had read a bunch of these books, but I had never taken action.

Alex Pardo (04:30): Right? So long story short, I finished that two year commitment. I went backpacking around Europe to "Find myself. Figuring out what I wanted to do." And I was in an internet cafe in Ibiza and a friend of mine sent me an email and he said, Hey, I'm going to this camp. Marketing for deals Boot-camp. It's 997 bucks. It does. It might not sound like a lot of money to a lot of people, but for me at the time I had funded my entire three months backpack, triple my credit card. I didn't really have much money and it was a fork in the road. Well, thank God. I decided to take him up on that offer. I spent a thousand bucks on my card, went to the event, pulled out a letter. They were teaching us how to market for pre-foreclosures. This was in late 2005 and I started handwriting envelopes and sending out mailers to Pre-Foreclosures. A couple of months later, I closed my first deal and almost made exactly what I was making as a salary at GE. So, I've been doing that ever since 2005.

Chris Miles (05:28): That's awesome! You know, I can know a lot of people here can relate cause there's lot of people here that work really, they do really work hard for their money, right? And some of them make great money. But it comes with a price, you know, and some people will actually even believe that you have to do that. Like somehow you just have to work those long hours to get that kind of money. And that's just not true. That's a whole paradigm shifts that everybody needs to have. Right?

Alex Pardo (05:50): That's right! A hundred percent. I mean, I think you hit the nail on the head. I see. It's really unfortunate when I see people sacrificing time with their family or whatever they value, whatever it's important in the pursuit of money. Because as cliche as it might sound, forget tomorrow, the next minute is not promised to us. And unfortunately, sometimes it takes a tragedy or it, sometimes it takes, it takes you hearing about someone passing away for it's reminding you, like you have to enjoy life. And that's not to say that, you know, you don't pay attention to the responsibilities and end generating income and bringing in the finances. That's important, but you can have both, you know, I learned years ago from a mentor that this is an end world. It's not an either/or. In other words, you can have both things. You just have to be very intentional and strategic about it.

Chris Miles (06:35): Yeah. That's that's, I love that! That whole abundance mindset and realize not either/or, but it's a, how would I have both. Right? How do I have my cake and eat it too. Right?

Alex Pardo (06:44): Right. It's possible.

Chris Miles (06:45): It's sure is. Yeah. Well, tell us, like in your journey, like what's been some of the biggest ways, what are some of the biggest factor for your success?

Alex Pardo (06:55): Great question, Chris. I wish I had a sexy answer for you. I wish it was a story with a chance encounter with some celebrity where I got an opportunity. It wasn't that at all. It was, I've, a couple of years into my journey. As an entrepreneur, I tried to do everything alone. I was a lone Wolf and I had some success, but I also had some pretty big failures and those failures kind of shaped me. And one of the things I realized is I don't have to reinvent the wheel. If I can find the right people, put them into my life and have the right inner circle. I can, essentially success leaves, clues, right? And then I have to follow their exact path because I'm on my own unique journey, but I don't have to make mistakes that these people have already been through.

Alex Pardo (07:35): So the two years, it took me losing $51,000, $52,000. In 2007. Right as the market was shifting, I lost just over 50 grand on a deal. And I vowed to that point. I said, I'm not going at this alone anymore. So I hired a coach at that time. And through that process, I got exposed to masterminds. And so for the last, I don't know, whatever, it's been 12 years, 13 years, I have been coached by a couple of people at the same time. I've invested in myself as you have. We were just talking how we're both a part of multiple mastermind groups. And I could not imagine, Chris, especially with everything going on with COVID-19, I couldn't imagine going at this alone or without having a network, a community, a mastermind. Where I could just pick up the phone and call someone like you, Chris, and Hey, this is my challenge. This is what I'm going through. Or I need your insight. I need your perspective. So that's completely changed my life, you know, not just coaching, but being a part of the right communities, being a part of the right groups, people that are gonna walk alongside you, people that are going to help you to think bigger and challenge you and hold you accountable. It's been a game changer for me.

Chris Miles (08:41): Yeah. I'd be curious to know. Cause I know a lot of people ask me this. They're like, well, how do you find a good group like that? Like how do you find the one that's the right group? Cause there's lots of groups out there. Right? And there's tons of posers out there. There's tons of people that are kind of charlatans. Right? And they tend, and some of them are some of the biggest marketing people out there. Right? And then you get in their groups, you're like, this group stinks, you know, it's like this, isn't like, this is all hype and no real content or no real like, you know, real muscle to it. You know? So for you, like, what's been your experience like how you found the right groups.

Alex Pardo (09:13): Yeah. Well, first of all, phenomenal question. And I think this can be really, really helpful for people that have gotten to the point where they've said, okay, I see the value in being in a mastermind. I see the value in plugging into the right community. Now I go online, how do I even start the process. And one of the things I always say is, you know, do some research. Find out. Look at the leader. Who's running the group? And chances are, you know, most masterminds. You're going to go through some sort of interview process. And in some cases that's kind of a marketing gimmick type thing, a sales thing. In other cases it's legit. Like they, you know, if the leader is vetting, who is being put in the group, that's the kind of group I think you want to be a part of, not just somebody that can stroke a check or send a wire or make a certain investment in themselves.

Alex Pardo (10:00): But you want the group to have some sort of qualifications. And that doesn't necessarily mean X amount of volume or X amount of dollars you make. That could be a part of it. But you want to connect with the leader. They're going to probably interview you. You want to interview them. Ask them about their core values. Ask them about why they started the group. What's their intention? What's their, why are they doing this? Is it a business? And if so, that's fantastic! Absolutely nothing wrong with that because masterminds can be very lucrative as you know, Chris, but I would want to be a part of a group where it's more than just a business for them, right? Where their hearts in it, where they have a heart for service and for giving. And so you want to find out what makes up the DNA on that group, right?

Alex Pardo (10:41): Is it a group of go givers? Is it a group of people or is it a group of just like, you know, ego, chest pounding people that it's all about, Hey, I'm bigger and better kind of thing because there's both groups out there. So find a group that resonates with you. I think the second thing you want to ask yourself is, what direction do you want to take your life in your business? Do you have a vision for your life and for your business? Because depending on what you want to accomplish and the direction you want to go could really dictate what type of group you get into. To your point, Chris, there's no shortage of masterminds out there. It feels like they're popping up left and right now. Now, the flip side is, don't do so much research and don't get into analysis paralysis that, you know, 12 months later, you still haven't joined the group. The right group is out there. I think you can figure out just by having a conversation or a couple of conversations with the leader. And maybe even get some referrals, find out, Chris, you know, who's in that group? Who can I connect with? And gain an unbiased opinion on that group.

Chris Miles (11:37): I think that's a great idea for sure. Essentially. Cause like, you know, I always took the, you know, as a coach right. And consulting people, I always took kind of more of the group model for a few years. And then I realized that people didn't really need a guru model. They needed a guide. Right? And obviously I still give, you know, help and advice and guidance and stuff. But I realized that one of the biggest shifts for me was after I started to look into mastermind groups myself. And start to see the value when I started to apply that element to my own clients. Cause I had them come out to my house, for example, you know, twice a year. And, and we just have this very intimate group. And a lot of the members of the group said, you know, they'll even say at the end, they'll say, you know, the biggest thing I got out of this, like, sorry, Chris, like your stuff is awesome.

Chris Miles (12:19): But I love talking to people that were at my level, like people that were dealing with the same thing I'm dealing with right now. Like I've learned so much from talking with other people, even just during the breaks or lunch or whatever. Like I have learned so much from that. And it blew my mind. Like my ego was kinda rocked for a little bit. I was like, wait a minute, like I'm supposed to be your mentor. And then I realized, no, this is good. This is awesome. Like it's such amazing, it was such an amazing perspective shift for me and seeing how it really benefits people.

Alex Pardo (12:49): Yeah. And I always tell, I think to that end, Chris, you know, when we interview people and when we, and we have a pretty small intimate group through a sense, but when we interview people, we tell them, look, you're going to get the X's and O's and the strategy, and you're going to get a lot of content. But that's not even where the real value is. That's extremely valuable. But it's the relationships. The relationship capital is priceless. The fact that you and I are in a group and now we're doing this and there's ways that you can collaborate with people and the friendships and the fact that I can pick up the phone and call anybody in our group. Chris is, to me, it's just, it's priceless. So while I get a lot of value at the actual masterminds, to your point, it's the side conversations at the bar at the restaurant or at the break, it's the connection.

Alex Pardo (13:36): I mean, again, everybody's heard, you know, your net worth is your net worth. And I've also heard, it's not, it, it's not what, you know, it's who, you know, I'll take it a step further. It's who knows you. And so to me, that's, if I was weighing it out, that's probably 70%, 75% of the value is the relationships. And yeah, I've learned a ton and I've implemented systems and marketing strategies. And I bought properties from people in our group. And so there's been a lot of business that has come out of it, but the relationships is really what it's all about for me.

Chris Miles (14:07): That's, amen to that man! So, you know, I'll tell you like, and like you said before too, you like even mentioned like, it's, you kind of went to the question, I was already gonna ask you already hit it. Right? Which was, how would somebody know it's the right route for them? Right? And that kind of leads me to your group. You have a group named Ascend, right? So Alex, tell us more about Ascend, you know, what it is and who would be the right fit for that kind of group.

Alex Pardo (14:29): Yeah. Yeah. Thank you so much for the opportunity to kind of briefly share about it. And I don't want this to be sound like a sales pitch or anything. It's just, honestly, I've been doing real estate now for 15 years. This is what I'm most passionate about. I realized my calling is to pour into people's lives and to work with them. So, because I've been a part of a lot of different mastermind groups and I've had a lot of coaches, I never found the group that brought them both together. So when I got together with my partner, Steve Cavanaugh, last year, we said, how can we create an experience where we mastermind? And we also get the coaching component. So it's a hybrid mastermind and coaching group for entrepreneurs. We have two groups of 15. So it's very small and intimate. We were talking about this offline.

Alex Pardo (15:08): It's not a group where there's hundreds of people and you, you kind of get lost in the shuffle. And not to say that there's anything wrong with that. There's some really valuable groups. We're a part of one that's pretty big and it's awesome, but we want it to go on a little bit of a different direction. We want the right people in there and you know, and so yeah, we, you know, every four months we get together in South Florida and we mastermind in a small intimate setting. It's an experience. We have a lot of fun while we're doing it. And then there's monthly one on one coaching. And then we get together as a group on Zoom. And we mastermind on Zoom. And ever since COVID hit we've been doing that on a weekly basis. So the level of accountability, the level of just transparency that's in the group is amazing.

Chris Miles (15:46): That's awesome, man! And like you said, when you're talking about business owners or you're specifically saying those that are going in the business of real estate, right?

Alex Pardo (15:53): No, no, by the way, thank you. Because I didn't, I didn't clarify that. No! This group is for entrepreneurs. Now having said that because of the content I produced to the podcast, because I've been in real estate, I'd probably say 80%, 75%, 80% of our members are in real estate, but we do have some members that have different businesses. We didn't want it to just be a group about real estate. And I think the other thing that, that makes it unique, Chris, is that we don't just talk business, but we actually start with the life component. At the foundation of what we do is, what's the vision for your life? And then let's help you either tweak, modify and or create a business that supports that lifestyle. So at our mastermind retreat, sometimes we're talking about, you know, Hey, my business, I need to generate more revenue and we're talking about marketing. And then juxtapose that we, you know, we had a situation in our group where somebody is dealing with an addiction. And so we, we really dove into that. So it covers life and business because my belief is that they're connected and one impacts the other. It has a ripple effect. Pun intended on each other. So...

Chris Miles (16:57): That's right. Well, awesome! If people want to find out more information about that, how would they go about doing so?

Alex Pardo (17:03): Yeah, it's super simple. AscendYourSuccess.com AscendYourSuccess.com Short five, six minute video on there. And then it's just an application process. And it's really just a conversation to see, you know, if it's a fit, answer questions and us to find out more about you. So it's a pretty simple process.

Chris Miles (17:20): That's great. Yes. There we go. You'll check that out, man. We'll put that link in the show notes for you guys to, just to go look at or check it out, you know, apply if you want to apply. Obviously I can vouch for Alex. Alex is amazing, man. Like, he's both on and off camera, so to speak, right. You know, or off the mic. He's a great guy. So definitely check that out and also check out his podcast. You wanna get to know him more through there. Check out FLIPEMPIRE as well. So anyways, Alex, appreciate you being on today.

Alex Pardo (17:49): No! Again, I really thank you for having me on. Again, it's for me, it's friendship. I'm grateful for the relationship. I know we have a mutual friend in Armando. And so anything you ever need, brother, I am here for you and same applies to anybody listening to this. If I can answer any questions or if you just want to connect again, I love building relationships. And if I can add value in any way, you know, feel free to reach out Alex@FlipEmpire.com.

Chris Miles (18:14): Awesome! Appreciate it, Alex, man. Everybody else you've heard it like reach out to Alex, check out his stuff. It's good stuff there, but right now is the best time, more than ever to stay connected. If I would have learned anything from the last recession that I went through, I thought I had to suffer alone. And that was not the case guys. Like if, if I would have learned quickly that it was actually reaching out to people and associated with people and looking for help, I would have not have suffered through the recession as much as I had. So guys, I recommend you. Don't fall in that same trap that I did as well, that you learn from our mistakes and from our successes too. So everybody, I'll be making a wonderful prosperous week. We'll see you later.

[newstfionline]

Saturday, October 24, 2020

Migration has plummeted during the pandemic (Economist) If there is one thing that people remember about the covid-19 pandemic, it is the experience of sheltering in place. Those looking to move abroad have had little choice but to stay put, too. A new report from the OECD, a think-tank, shows that travel restrictions introduced in response to the pandemic caused migration to rich countries to fall by half in the first half of the year, compared with 2019. The sharpest declines occurred in East Asia and Oceania. Rich countries there have succeeded better than most at stopping the spread of covid-19. This is in part because they were quick to recognise the threat and institute strict travel restrictions. Some countries in the region, including Japan, South Korea and New Zealand have just about stopped accepting new immigrants entirely.

Couples doing fine (Washington Post) While lots of the early pandemic and quarantine led to speculation about a spike in divorces that would ensue following couples being crammed into close quarters for extended periods, couples are actually doing pretty okay according to the latest edition of the American Family Survey: 58 percent of married men and women aged 18 to 55 said the pandemic made them appreciate their spouse more; while 8 percent said that the pandemic weakened their commitment to one another, 51 percent said it’d deepened it. The numbers bear it out too: five states report divorce stats in real time, and on balance filings are down for 2020. Year-to-date, divorce filings are down 19 percent in Florida, 13 percent in Rhode Island, 12 percent in Oregon and 9 percent in Missouri. Only Arizona, as of now, is up.

Faulty password security (Foreign Policy) A Dutch “white hat”—or ethical hacker—claims to have logged in to the Twitter account of U.S. President Donald Trump … simply by guessing his password. Victor Gevers, a security researcher, discovered the vulnerability last Friday before alerting U.S. security authorities. Gevers allegedly gained access using the password “maga2020!” but did not succumb to the temptation of tweeting to the president’s 87 million followers. Gevers attributes the lack of account security to Trump’s age. “‘Trump is over 70—elderly people often switch off two-step verification because they find it too complicated. My own mother, for instance.”

IMF concerned over post-COVID social unrest across Latin America (Reuters) The International Monetary Fund is concerned that social unrest will make a comeback in “lots of countries” across Latin America once the COVID-19 pandemic recedes, a top IMF official said on Thursday. Economies across Latin America and the Caribbean are forecast to contract as a group by 8.1% this year, with an uneven 2021 bounce at just 3.6%, and most countries are not seen returning to pre-COVID output levels until 2023, the Fund said earlier on Thursday. “Some of the determinants of social unease are going to worsen and that generates our concern for the region, for lots of countries in the region,” Alejandro Werner, the Fund’s director for the Western Hemisphere, said in an interview with Reuters. “Coming out of the pandemic, we will have a level of economic activity and employment that will be much lower than before, a level of poverty and income distribution that is worse,” he added. Protests that sometimes turned violent rocked countries including Chile, Ecuador and Colombia even before the pandemic hit, fueled by anger over inequality, corruption and government austerity policies.

In hard-hit Peru, worry mounts over both COVID-19 and dengue (AP) PUCALLPA, Peru—Two of Lidia Choque’s close family members had already gotten sick with the new coronavirus when the mosquitos arrived. The 53-year-old woman lives in a wooden house near the airport of a Peruvian city in the Amazon rainforest. City fumigators usually visit several times during the rainy season to eliminate the pests, but this year, because of the pandemic, they were absent. When she went to a hospital after coming down with a fever and body aches, doctors delivered a double diagnosis: COVID-19 and dengue. “I couldn’t even walk,” she said. As Peru grapples with one the world’s worst SARS-CoV-2 outbreaks, another virus is starting to raise alarm: dengue. Health officials have reported over 35,000 cases this year, concentrated largely in the Amazon. The rise comes amid an overall dip in the number of new daily coronavirus infections, though authorities worry a second wave could strike as dengue cases rise.

French PM says 2nd virus wave is here, vastly extends curfew (AP) French Prime Minister Jean Castex announced on Thursday a vast extension of the nightly curfew that is intended to curb the spiraling spread of the coronavirus, saying “the second wave is here.” The curfew imposed in eight regions of France last week, including Paris and its suburbs, is being extended to 38 more regions and Polynesia starting Friday at midnight, Castex said. It is likely to last six weeks before a review, he said. The extension means that 46 million of France’s 67 million people will be under 9 p.m.-6 a.m. curfews that prohibit them from being out and about during those hours except for limited reasons, such as walking a dog, traveling to and from work and catching a train or flight.

Putin: Russia-China military alliance can’t be ruled out (AP) Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday there is no need for a Russia-China military alliance now, but noted it could be forged in the future. Putin’s statement signaled deepening ties between Moscow and Beijing amid growing tensions in their relations with the United States. The Russian leader also made a strong call for extending the last remaining arms control pact between Moscow and Washington. Asked during a video conference with international foreign policy experts Thursday whether a military union between Moscow and Beijing was possible, Putin replied that “we don’t need it, but, theoretically, it’s quite possible to imagine it.” Russia and China have hailed their “strategic partnership,” but so far rejected any talk about the possibility of their forming a military alliance. Russia has sought to develop stronger ties with China as its relations with the West sank to post-Cold War lows over Moscow’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea, accusations of Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and other rifts.

China hopes for change if Biden wins, but little likely (AP) Chinese leaders hope Washington will tone down conflicts over trade, technology and security if Joe Biden wins the Nov. 3 presidential election. But any shift is likely to be in style, not substance, as frustration with Beijing increases across the American political spectrum. Both Republican and Democratic lawmakers and their constituents seem disinclined to adopt a softer approach toward China, possibly presaging more strife ahead, regardless of the election’s outcome. U.S.-Chinese relations have plunged to their lowest level in decades amid an array of conflicts over the coronavirus pandemic, technology, trade, security and spying. Despite discord on so many other fronts, both parties are critical of Beijing’s trade record and stance toward Hong Kong, Taiwan and religious and ethnic minorities in Tibet and Xinjiang, where the ruling Communist Party has detained Muslims in political re-education camps. The American public is equally negative. Two-thirds of people surveyed in March by the Pew Research Center had “unfavorable views” of China, the highest since Pew started asking in 2005.

Myanmar’s second lockdown drives hunger in city slums (Reuters) After the first wave of coronavirus hit Myanmar in March, 36-year-old Ma Suu closed her salad stall and pawned her jewelry and gold to buy food to eat. During the second wave, when the government issued a stay-home order in September for Yangon, Ma Suu shut her stall again and sold her clothes, plates and pots. With nothing left to sell, her husband, an out of work construction laborer, has resorted to hunting for food in the open drains by the slum where they live on the outskirts of Myanmar’s largest city. “People are eating rats and snakes,” Ma Suu said through tears. “Without an income, they need to eat like that to feed their children.”

Bloated public salaries at heart of Iraq’s economic woes (AP) BAGHDAD—Long-time Iraqi civil servant Qusay Abdul-Amma panicked when his monthly salary was delayed. Days of waiting turned to weeks. He defaulted on rent and other bills. A graphic designer for the Health Ministry, he uses about half his salary to pay his rent of nearly 450,000 Iraqi dinars a month, roughly $400. If he fails to pay twice in a row his landlord will evict him and his family, he fears. Iraq’s government is struggling to pay the salaries of the ever-swelling ranks of public sector employees amid an unprecedented liquidity crisis caused by low oil prices. September’s salaries were delayed for weeks, and October’s still haven’t been paid as the government tries to borrow once again from Iraq’s currency reserves. The crisis has fueled fears of instability ahead of mass demonstrations this week. The political elite have used the patronage system to entrench their power. A major part of that patronage is handing out state jobs in return for support. The result has been a threefold increase in public workers since 2004. The government pays 400% more in salaries than it did 15 years ago. Around three quarters of the state’s expenditures in 2020 go to paying for the public sector—a massive drain on dwindling finances. “Now the situation is very dangerous,” said Mohammed al-Daraji, a lawmaker on parliament’s Finance Committee.

Israel warms to Sudan (Foreign Policy) An Israeli government delegation visited Sudan on Thursday, in the latest sign of warming ties between the two countries. Israeli officials reportedly met with Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, Sudan’s head of state during its transitional government. Reuters reported on Thursday that Sudan’s Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok is ready to normalize relations with Israel as long as the country’s parliament approves the move. That approval may be some time in coming, as Sudan has yet to form a transitional parliament.

Gunfire and barricades in Guinea as President heads for third term (Reuters) Gunfire rang out across Guinea’s capital Conakry on Friday and security forces dispersed protestors after results showed President Alpha Conde winning re-election in a poll that the opposition says was unconstitutional. Conde won around twice as many votes as his nearest rival, opposition candidate Cellou Dalein Diallo, with 37 of 38 districts counted, preliminary results from the election commission showed on Thursday night. The president’s decision to run for a third term has sparked repeated protests over the past year, resulting in dozens of deaths, including at least 17 in skirmishes since Sunday’s vote. Conde says a constitutional referendum in March reset his two-term limit, but his opponents say he is breaking the law by holding onto power. Diallo’s camp said it has found evidence of fraud and will contest the result in the constitutional court.

Resentment, smoke linger in Nigeria’s streets after unrest (AP) Resentment lingered with the smell of charred tires Friday in Nigeria’s relatively calm streets after days of protests over police abuses, as authorities barely acknowledged reports of the military killing at least 12 peaceful demonstrators earlier this week. President Muhammadu Buhari in his first comments on the unrest didn’t mention the shootings that sparked international outrage, instead warning protesters against being used by “subversive elements” and “undermining national security and law and order” during a national address Thursday night. Soldiers remained in parts of Lagos, Nigeria’s largest city, on Friday. A 24-hour curfew had not yet been lifted. The protests turned violent Wednesday after the shooting as mobs vandalized and burned police stations, courthouses, TV stations and a hotel. Police battled angry crowds with tear gas and gunfire. The looting, gunfire, and street blockades continued Thursday.

[mattginnow]

JFK

Matt Ginnow Matthew Ginnow

President Pitzer, Mr. Vice President, Governor, Congressman Thomas, Senator Wiley, and Congressman Miller, Mr. Webb, Mr. Bell, scientists, distinguished guests, and ladies and gentlemen:

I appreciate your president having made me an honorary visiting professor, and I will assure you that my first lecture will be very brief.

I am delighted to be here, and I’m particularly delighted to be here on this occasion.

We meet at a college noted for knowledge, in a city noted for progress, in a State noted for strength, and we stand in need of all three, for we meet in an hour of change and challenge, in a decade of hope and fear, in an age of both knowledge and ignorance. The greater our knowledge increases, the greater our ignorance unfolds.

Despite the striking fact that most of the scientists that the world has ever known are alive and working today, despite the fact that this Nation¹s own scientific manpower is doubling every 12 years in a rate of growth more than three times that of our population as a whole, despite that, the vast stretches of the unknown and the unanswered and the unfinished still far outstrip our collective comprehension.

No man can fully grasp how far and how fast we have come, but condense, if you will, the 50,000 years of man¹s recorded history in a time span of but a half-century. Stated in these terms, we know very little about the first 40 years, except at the end of them advanced man had learned to use the skins of animals to cover them. Then about 10 years ago, under this standard, man emerged from his caves to construct other kinds of shelter. Only five years ago man learned to write and use a cart with wheels. Christianity began less than two years ago. The printing press came this year, and then less than two months ago, during this whole 50-year span of human history, the steam engine provided a new source of power.

Newton explored the meaning of gravity. Last month electric lights and telephones and automobiles and airplanes became available. Only last week did we develop penicillin and television and nuclear power, and now if America’s new spacecraft succeeds in reaching Venus, we will have literally reached the stars before midnight tonight.

This is a breathtaking pace, and such a pace cannot help but create new ills as it dispels old, new ignorance, new problems, new dangers. Surely the opening vistas of space promise high costs and hardships, as well as high reward.

So it is not surprising that some would have us stay where we are a little longer to rest, to wait. But this city of Houston, this State of Texas, this country of the United States was not built by those who waited and rested and wished to look behind them. This country was conquered by those who moved forward–and so will space.

William Bradford, speaking in 1630 of the founding of the Plymouth Bay Colony, said that all great and honorable actions are accompanied with great difficulties, and both must be enterprised and overcome with answerable courage.

If this capsule history of our progress teaches us anything, it is that man, in his quest for knowledge and progress, is determined and cannot be deterred. The exploration of space will go ahead, whether we join in it or not, and it is one of the great adventures of all time, and no nation which expects to be the leader of other nations can expect to stay behind in the race for space.

Those who came before us made certain that this country rode the first waves of the industrial revolutions, the first waves of modern invention, and the first wave of nuclear power, and this generation does not intend to founder in the backwash of the coming age of space. We mean to be a part of it–we mean to lead it. For the eyes of the world now look into space, to the moon and to the planets beyond, and we have vowed that we shall not see it governed by a hostile flag of conquest, but by a banner of freedom and peace. We have vowed that we shall not see space filled with weapons of mass destruction, but with instruments of knowledge and understanding.

Yet the vows of this Nation can only be fulfilled if we in this Nation are first, and, therefore, we intend to be first. In short, our leadership in science and in industry, our hopes for peace and security, our obligations to ourselves as well as others, all require us to make this effort, to solve these mysteries, to solve them for the good of all men, and to become the world’s leading space-faring nation.

We set sail on this new sea because there is new knowledge to be gained, and new rights to be won, and they must be won and used for the progress of all people. For space science, like nuclear science and all technology, has no conscience of its own. Whether it will become a force for good or ill depends on man, and only if the United States occupies a position of pre-eminence can we help decide whether this new ocean will be a sea of peace or a new terrifying theater of war. I do not say the we should or will go unprotected against the hostile misuse of space any more than we go unprotected against the hostile use of land or sea, but I do say that space can be explored and mastered without feeding the fires of war, without repeating the mistakes that man has made in extending his writ around this globe of ours.

There is no strife, no prejudice, no national conflict in outer space as yet. Its hazards are hostile to us all. Its conquest deserves the best of all mankind, and its opportunity for peaceful cooperation many never come again. But why, some say, the moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask why climb the highest mountain? Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic? Why does Rice play Texas?

We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.

It is for these reasons that I regard the decision last year to shift our efforts in space from low to high gear as among the most important decisions that will be made during my incumbency in the office of the Presidency.

In the last 24 hours we have seen facilities now being created for the greatest and most complex exploration in man’s history. We have felt the ground shake and the air shattered by the testing of a Saturn C-1 booster rocket, many times as powerful as the Atlas which launched John Glenn, generating power equivalent to 10,000 automobiles with their accelerators on the floor. We have seen the site where the F-1 rocket engines, each one as powerful as all eight engines of the Saturn combined, will be clustered together to make the advanced Saturn missile, assembled in a new building to be built at Cape Canaveral as tall as a 48 story structure, as wide as a city block, and as long as two lengths of this field.

Within these last 19 months at least 45 satellites have circled the earth. Some 40 of them were “made in the United States of America” and they were far more sophisticated and supplied far more knowledge to the people of the world than those of the Soviet Union.

The Mariner spacecraft now on its way to Venus is the most intricate instrument in the history of space science. The accuracy of that shot is comparable to firing a missile from Cape Canaveral and dropping it in this stadium between the the 40-yard lines.

Transit satellites are helping our ships at sea to steer a safer course. Tiros satellites have given us unprecedented warnings of hurricanes and storms, and will do the same for forest fires and icebergs.

We have had our failures, but so have others, even if they do not admit them. And they may be less public.

To be sure, we are behind, and will be behind for some time in manned flight. But we do not intend to stay behind, and in this decade, we shall make up and move ahead.

The growth of our science and education will be enriched by new knowledge of our universe and environment, by new techniques of learning and mapping and observation, by new tools and computers for industry, medicine, the home as well as the school. Technical institutions, such as Rice, will reap the harvest of these gains.

And finally, the space effort itself, while still in its infancy, has already created a great number of new companies, and tens of thousands of new jobs. Space and related industries are generating new demands in investment and skilled personnel, and this city and this State, and this region, will share greatly in this growth. What was once the furthest outpost on the old frontier of the West will be the furthest outpost on the new frontier of science and space. Houston, your City of Houston, with its Manned Spacecraft Center, will become the heart of a large scientific and engineering community. During the next 5 years the National Aeronautics and Space Administration expects to double the number of scientists and engineers in this area, to increase its outlays for salaries and expenses to $60 million a year; to invest some $200 million in plant and laboratory facilities; and to direct or contract for new space efforts over $1 billion from this Center in this City.

To be sure, all this costs us all a good deal of money. This year¹s space budget is three times what it was in January 1961, and it is greater than the space budget of the previous eight years combined. That budget now stands at $5,400 million a year–a staggering sum, though somewhat less than we pay for cigarettes and cigars every year. Space expenditures will soon rise some more, from 40 cents per person per week to more than 50 cents a week for every man, woman and child in the United Stated, for we have given this program a high national priority–even though I realize that this is in some measure an act of faith and vision, for we do not now know what benefits await us.

But if I were to say, my fellow citizens, that we shall send to the moon, 240,000 miles away from the control station in Houston, a giant rocket more than 300 feet tall, the length of this football field, made of new metal alloys, some of which have not yet been invented, capable of standing heat and stresses several times more than have ever been experienced, fitted together with a precision better than the finest watch, carrying all the equipment needed for propulsion, guidance, control, communications, food and survival, on an untried mission, to an unknown celestial body, and then return it safely to earth, re-entering the atmosphere at speeds of over 25,000 miles per hour, causing heat about half that of the temperature of the sun–almost as hot as it is here today–and do all this, and do it right, and do it first before this decade is out–then we must be bold.

I’m the one who is doing all the work, so we just want you to stay cool for a minute. [laughter]

However, I think we’re going to do it, and I think that we must pay what needs to be paid. I don’t think we ought to waste any money, but I think we ought to do the job. And this will be done in the decade of the sixties. It may be done while some of you are still here at school at this college and university. It will be done during the term of office of some of the people who sit here on this platform. But it will be done. And it will be done before the end of this decade.

I am delighted that this university is playing a part in putting a man on the moon as part of a great national effort of the United States of America.

Many years ago the great British explorer George Mallory, who was to die on Mount Everest, was asked why did he want to climb it. He said, “Because it is there.”

Well, space is there, and we’re going to climb it, and the moon and the planets are there, and new hopes for knowledge and peace are there. And, therefore, as we set sail we ask God’s blessing on the most hazardous and dangerous and greatest adventure on which man has ever embarked.

Thank you.

Matt Ginnow, Matthew Ginnow

[mr-entj]

Hey Mr. ENTJ. I'm inspired by your life story of making it from humble beginnings to where you are today. I'm also from SE Asia and you have stated that you will not give personal financial advice but can you give us an idea what choices you made when it comes to investments and money?

Combined with the following ask:

Hi Mr. ENTJ, I was wondering if you'd be open to sharing how you think about long term wealth accumulation (or if you could recommend books you've found helpful.) I'm in my early 20's, starting to plan for the long term, and am bumping into a problem I think would be common for ENTJ's - I'd like to have total control over my financial future, but any approach that is more than keeping money in a bank account has risk outside of my control and I'm not sure how to think about balancing that.

Related answers:

Hi Mr-entj. Do you have any advice for becoming more financially literate?

General money management advice

Hi Mr. ENTJ. When it comes to wealth, what is your relationship with and perspective on money? 

Do you have any entries on your blog that covers student loans and how to approach them for someone who is nervous about debt? Thank you!

Sure. I shifted my way of thinking from chasing salary to building equity.

The majority of people in this world are conditioned to think of money measured in the number of hours worked. For example: “My wage is $10 an hour so if I work 8 hours, I’ll make $80! If I work 0 hours today, I’ll make $0.” This mentality will result in working your entire life because the only valuable thing you have to trade for money is your time.

Start thinking about equity, ways to make money and grow wealth that don’t require your time, energy, or presence. This is important because your body will break down and your mind will get slower with age, you won’t always have the same earning potential. I invest in things like:

Bonds (low risk)

Precious metals (low risk) - Gold ingots especially

Property (lower risk) - My brother and I have property in tourist destinations that we can rent out, Airbnb, or use for family

Index/mutual funds (lower risk) - VOO, VTI, VFIFX, VTIAX

Stocks (higher risk) - FANG (Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, Google)

Businesses (high risk) - None at the moment

Whether or not I come to work today, I’m making money because I have assets that appreciate and accumulate interest while I’m relaxing in my pajamas watching Game of Thrones. Money that isn’t being used to pay bills should be invested or placed in a high-interest savings account because it’ll lose value over time.

A common complaint I hear is: “How the hell am I supposed to invest in any of that stuff without money?! I’m already struggling every day trying to make ends meet.”

Here’s how I did it:

Step 1: Stop complaining and feeling sorry about your situation. No one cares that you’re poor. Most people in this world have money problems and almost half this planet– 3 billion people– live on less than $2.50 USD per day. Bitterness, resentment, and self-pity are the ultimate barriers to improvement and prosperity. Fix your mindset before you can fix your financial situation.

Step 2: Get financially literate quickly, swiftly, rapidly, speedily, expeditiously, immediately. I did a ton of self-research, consulted with money managers, listened to advice from seasoned investors, and through trial and error developed a money management system that worked best for me. I grew up very poor and quickly learned that I had to seek out this information myself. If you’re poor due to the family you’re born in, don’t depend on the adults around you to teach you financial literacy because the odds are these people have no idea what the hell they’re doing with money either. It’s a mistake to automatically assume our parents, uncles, aunts, and grandparents know better than us. Be proactive.

Step 3: Make money. In the digital age, you can literally go to Google and type in “HIGHEST PAYING PROFESSIONS” and get a million results within seconds. It’s not rocket science to understand that some jobs pay more than others and to learn the paths required to get to them. A huge part of making money was getting my education right– I didn’t screw around in school and I didn’t waste time because I wanted to put myself in the absolute best position to quickly solve this problem.

Step 4: Live within your means and get some self-esteem. Bad money choices are often influenced by social pressures to “keep up appearances.” Stop wasting money on unnecessary things you don’t need like oversized apartments, designer clothing, eating out, the newest electronics, etc. Remember that you’re a miracle of life, a combination of trillions of cells coming together to produce a living and breathing human being, and whose purpose on this planet is far greater than to waste time, money, and effort to impress other people.

Once financially stable, feel free to start buying what you want but until achieving financial independence and financial security funnel that money into step 5.

Step 5: Invest in yourself; invest in your education, learn a trade, and acquire skills that will make you desirable in the work force. This will generate income. There are trade programs, scholarships for low-income students, and flexible + affordable educational options like community colleges, coding boot camps, and online programs to complement a working schedule. I worked during college and only quit my job once I received a full scholarship to a top public university in California.

Step 6: Learn patience and delayed gratification. Building wealth is a long-term process, it doesn’t happen overnight. I started working 15 years ago and it wasn’t until around the 10 year mark that I started seeing huge returns in my investments. Trust your process. 

[impetuouslone]

Let's talk about my failures.

(Please forgive my grammar lapses.)

I am sad, very sad.

I always try to block my mind so as not to drain my entire body, but the pressure of my reality always defeats me.

I was the first person who graduated in the family from my mother's side. No one has ever finished their education in my grandmother's history, not even my mom. Everyone thinks that I am my family's gem, they are wrong.

The pressure in my head is as heavy as the responsibilities I have on my shoulder. Year 2015, I thought was my highest peak. I graduated Bachelor of Science in Tourism as Cum laude. I don't know how I made it, I just want to graduate anyway.

A month after graduation, I worked as a Customer Service Representative. It was a pretty cool job, the salary is quite competitive. My mind was so occupied with too many insecurities at that time. Social media is toxic as ever. I always compare myself with my classmates who are already pursuing a career in the tourism or airline industry. So, I resigned a year and a month after because of pride to follow the same path. That, ladies and gentlemen was my first failure. I was jobless for 6 Months.

February 2017, I got hired. I was very happy that I will finally be able to pursue a career in line with my degree. I worked as a Passenger Service Agent in the busiest airport in the Philippines. It wasn't my dream job, I just want to fill the pride that's killing me. The pay is low but the job demands you to do a lot. Not to mention, the airline you're working with is not very inclusive with their outsourced employee. I thought that it will be my stepping stone to work in the same industry in an international platform, I was wrong... again. The competition is high, physical appearance is a priority more than what's in your nutshell. In 2019, I resigned. Welcome to my most current and ongoing failure!

I felt like it was really my year, hell no! In March, I was hired to work as a PSA in Kuwait. I was proud, because even if the salary is not as high as one would wish to have, to be able to work internationally is everything. Guess what? I backed out. While waiting for my deployment, I applied as a CSR to support myself and luckily, I was hired. Since I know that I'm leaving for Kuwait, I decided to turn down the job offer because I hate to disrespect the people who openly welcomed me in this BPO company. There came another opportunity, Bogota, Colombia! I was hired as a Travel Associate there, so decision making is highly needed. I chose Colombia for many reasons- free medical, no placement fee, we are pioneers, there's house allowance and the country is not as strict as the Middle East.

Joe! That's where heaven becomes hell! It was a legitimate company but they had an issue with the immigration. When we're just waiting for our departure, the table has turned upside down. It's November, and yeah?! I'm still here in the Philippines. Had I chose Kuwait, I could have been doing well there now. Regret comes at the end. We did not let it pass however, we went to the Department of Labor to ask for assistance, the company compensated us for the moral damaged they caused us.

That's where I thought the cursed started. When I was at the peak of my emotion enjoying my luck, who would have thought that it will turn out the other way? I think I was walking the right path but no, I am not. I continued to move forward, kept applying but this time, I always get rejected. There's a failure after another.

I have to pay the bill, I can't simply run from my responsibilities. My father is giving up with the daily expenses he has to shoulder, that makes me sad. My mother is pushing me to work urgently, I can't, because no matter how much I tried I always get a rejection. What's killing me even more is the fact that there's too much pressure on my head!

I was a professional who happened to be the worst version of myself at the moment. I hate to be jobless. I hate the gaps I have on my resume. I hate to see people who's counting on me suffer. I hate that my diploma, hence my medal cannot simply just compensate the things I have to do. I feel so anxious whenever I see people doing fine while I'm living in hell. I hate to see myself fail, but I am failing. I hate to see myself more drowned just because my failures defeated me. I'm trying to live a blind sight because I know one day I'll stand up high and if I fail again, I'll stand up again no matter how many times I thought of ending my life to where it is now. I can't simply die not conquering my own battle!

[noelle-wright]

A Journey Towards Debt Liberation

Working towards paying off my student loans was one of the most scary, liberating decisions that I decided to embark on. When I first took out my graduate school loan and moved to France in 2013, I had no idea what I was doing. I didn't know what interest was and how that would affect the life of the loan. I just went with whatever the Department of Education was offering.

Fast forward to life right after graduate school, the reality of Hawaii public sector wages hit me hard. The thought of paying through almost $60,000 in student loan debt seemed impossible, and I believed I wouldn't be done until I was 40. As a 23-year-old, that was fine, though, because I had no plans to own a home, start a family, etc. However, the reality of this loan was a constant worry.

It was a trip home to visit my sister and brother-in-law that really got me thinking about how I'd been approaching my loans, as they had been aggressively paying down loans. I had heard many podcasters preach about "financial freedom" and paying off $100,000 in two years. I would get bitter inside and thought that doing what they were doing was impossible for myself. However, with the inspiration of my family, I saw that it WAS possible. I realized I was mentally stuck in a limiting mindset, and my bitterness at those paying off their debt was a projection of the insecurity I felt in my own situation.

As I started to reach my later twenties, I moved to a much better paying career and started a long-term serious relationship. I decided it was no longer time to be held down by my debt in order to manifest the life I intended to create for myself and with my partner. For me, there was no better time than now to work on my debt - while I had low expenses and a stable job. I happily traversed into an ABUNDANCE MINDSET. I shifted my thinking from not believing I had enough to believing that I did have the means to get out of this debt, and that everything I had now was all I needed. Money can be so stressful, but when our minds are controlled by it, it blocks us from serving our higher purpose. Financial freedom is also a mindset and a practice in discipline. The more you practice, the more you evolve. My goals were to 1) taking responsibility through hard work and discipline, 2) liberate my mind from the worry of money and feeling of lacking, and 3) turn this journey into part of my sadhana, or spiritual practice - spiritually work on discipline and seeing myself and everything around me as abundant.

Here are a few things that helped me along the way.

Know how much you owe and your interest rate. It can be scary to face how much we owe. I didn't keep track when I was borrowing, only to find out I had initially borrowed $59,410.93. I was so scared to face how much I owed, that I didn't really start paying attention until 2018. Be clear with how much you owe so you can start setting goals that work for you.

Know your monthly spending vs. how much you make. Be completely honest with yourself so you can see your net outflow and what extra you can realistically put towards your loan. This also allows you to cut off expenses that you may not need.

Refinance. It took me five years before I proved I was credit-worthy for refinancing, but it got me a lower interest rate, so keep trying. Do your research when looking at companies (I myself refinanced with CommonBond).

As much as you can, pay your minimum then build to paying over your minimum. When I had a low salary, I applied for income-driven repayment (IDR) to pay lower than my minimum. Even when my salary got higher, I got mentally stuck in an IDR-mentality, but I was actually doing myself a disservice. If you start to make more money, start paying that pre-IDR minimum right away. Even better, start paying MORE than your minimum. Set up automatic payments so you don't know what it feels like to have that extra money to spend. Personally, I paid a portion towards my loan every week.

Make more money. This sounds blunt and I understand everyone has different circumstances. For me, though, moving to a job that paid me $30,000 more per year and gave me much better benefits like, fully paid healthcare, paid transportation, and life insurance really helped. Also, taking on a side hustle changed everything. I work really hard right now and put in the time, but I know that in a few months I can live more comfortably and have more free time. Don't let making more money, though, inflate your lifestyle.

Listen to podcasts and go online for inspiration. Sometimes it can feel like you are alone in everything, but when you enter the online world, you'll see that there are a ton of people in the same boat and with their eyes on the same prize. My favorite podcast has been Afford Anything with Paula Pant and watching Aja Dang's YouTube videos on her own personal journey.

Get a financial planner to help you.  They help you stay accountable, and can provide you with tools to use to help you figure out how much you should be paying to meet your goals.

Live frugally where you can. Discipline. If you can't increase your income, decrease your expenses. I forgo a car because of multiple reasons; I don't have kids, I live in a convenient and walkable part of the city well-served by public transit, I want to lessen my impact on the environment, and I quite frankly just hate driving. Since my company pays for my bus pass, I basically have no transportation costs except for occasionally buying my boyfriend's gas (the rare times he lets me). I also still live at home and get an unbelievably subsidized rent to help my mom out. Ever since I discovered Poshmark, I got rid of a lot of clothes and made over $1,500 on the app. I also now don't buy new clothes; I only buy clothes on Poshmark. I also participate in a yearly "Lent" with my friends that has really helped me break some bad habits (I credit this exercise to me no longer watching TV except for Game of Thrones, and cutting down clothing spending habits by 75%!). It also helps to unsubscribe from newsletters that tempt you to buy more stuff. Living frugally is a mindset. It doesn't have to feel like frugality; think of it as living simply. It could feel more liberating to be freed from ownership of too much stuff. There are less things to think about and less clutter to look at. If you experiment or practice changing your mindset, you may be surprised at what you can let go of materially to live well, while at the same time saving money.

...But don't deprive yourself. When I started my student loan journey, I was definitely overwhelmed by the budget aspect because I wanted to preserve my lifestyle. I didn't want to cut down on the things I valued, especially on food, fitness, and travel. I resolved not to cut corners on the things that mattered most to me. It was important to me to not get into the mindset of deprivation.  Still buying what is nourishing for your soul is crucial in preserving joy throughout the process.

Save for big expenses. Start a separate savings account for bigger expenses, like a trip, car, training, etc. Calculate its estimated total cost and how much could be saved for it per month. Then, establish a savings timeframe and automatic monthly transfer into that account. It's important to not be tempted to dip into that account. Personally, my big ticket items are travel. I don't feel scared to take a vacation because I know I already have the funds for it set aside.

Celebrate the small wins. Whether its setting up that detailed budget spreadsheet or the big-ticket savings account or putting an extra $100 towards your loan, be proud of yourself every step of the way.

Don't obsess over it. Oddly, once I started making progress on my loans, I became obsessed with paying them off. I realized the space it was occupying in my mind was large. It's important to not let the whole process consume your life, and be patient with the journey.

if you're comfortable, use a zero-based budget. Put simply, zero-based budgeting allocates all of your money to something. Through the help of a financial adviser, I realized the money I was saving in a savings account yielding 2.2% interest was just sitting there and not doing as much as if I put it towards other things like investments or putting more towards my loan. Through zero-based budgeting, you can actually find ways to better maximize the use of your money. I realize that this isn't realistic, though, for those that might freelance.

[bountyofbeads]

https://www.propublica.org/article/emails-show-the-va-took-no-action-to-spare-veterans-from-a-harsh-trump-immigration-policy/amp?__twitter_impression=true

Interesting how Trumpian nationalism doesn’t apply to immigrants who served the US in uniform. I wonder why that could be.

ALSO FOR U.S. VETERANS: The White House established a phone line for veterans for issues,complaints, immediate assistance needs, including suicidal thoughts; it does work, do take action, have veterans who understand what only veterans can for claims.1-855-948-2311

“No Comment”: Emails Show the VA Took No Action to Spare Veterans From a Harsh Trump Immigration Policy

The VA’s approach differs sharply from the Pentagon’s, which won an exemption for active-duty members of the military.

by Yeganeh Torbati, Isaac Arnsdorf andDara Lind | Published Aug. 19, 1:29 p.m. EDT | ProPublica | Posted August 20, 2019 9:38 AM ET|

Top officials of the Department of Veterans Affairs declined to step in to try to exempt veterans and their families from a new immigration rule that would make it far easier to deny green cards to low-income immigrants, according to documents obtained by ProPublica under a Freedom of Information Act request.

The Department of Defense, on the other hand, worked throughout 2018 to minimize the new policy’s impact on military families.

As a result, the regulation, which goes into effect in October, applies just as strictly to veterans and their families as it does to the broader public, while active-duty members of the military and reserve forces face a relaxed version of the rule.

Under the so-called public charge regulation, which became final last week, immigrants seeking permanent legal status in the U.S. will be subject to a complex new test to determine if they will rely on public benefits. Among the factors that immigration officers will consider are whether the applicant has frequently used public benefits in the past, their household income, education level and credit scores.

Active-duty military members can accept public benefits without jeopardizing their future immigration status; veterans and their families, however, cannot.

The rule, which could reshape the face of legal immigration to the U.S., is one of the highest-profile changes to the immigration system undertaken by the administration of President Donald Trump. An initial proposed version of the rule received over 266,000 public comments, the vast majority in opposition. Three lawsuits challenging the policy were quickly filed: one by a coalition of 13 states and filed in Washington state, one by San Francisco and Santa Clara County in California, and one by a coalition of nonprofit groups in California.

Because the new rule creates a complex and subjective test, it’s impossible to predict precisely how many veterans and their families who otherwise qualify for green cards will now be rejected. (The Department of Homeland Security told reporters last Monday that it hasn’t analyzed how many people would most likely be denied green cards under the new rule.)

However, documents tracking the regulation’s development show that the DOD was concerned enough that the rule would harm military families that it worked with DHS to limit the regulation, ultimately securing the benefits exemption for active-duty military members.

The reasons for the VA’s inaction are unclear. The agency referred all questions to the White House, which did not respond to a request for comment. During the six months officials had to weigh in on the new regulation, the VA lacked permanent leaders in several top positions while juggling several major initiatives, which fell behind scheduleor failed.

“They should be the foremost government agency that’s fighting for protections for veterans,” said Jeremy Butler, chief executive officer of the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. “If they have a ‘No Comment,’ that says to me that it wasn’t given the time and attention and research necessary to understand how it would affect the veteran community.”

Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, who sits on the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, said in a statement to ProPublica, “It’s despicable that the Trump Administration is punishing veterans who sacrificed for our country simply for using the support services they’ve earned.”

He added, “Instead of tearing down military families, the President should be working to support those who’ve done so much for our country.”

In practice, the exemption the DOD won for active-duty military members is a narrow one. While the frequent use of public benefits is a “heavily weighted negative factor” in determining whether to block an immigrant under the new rule, members of the military and their families are still subject to the other factors weighed by immigration officers when applying for green cards.

But narrow as it is, no such exemption exists for veterans and their families, so using public benefits — as well as other factors like having meager savings — will count against them if they or their families apply for green cards.

“If they care about the active-duty people, I don’t know why they don’t care about military veterans who aren’t doing very well,” said Margaret Stock, an immigration attorney with many military clients. Stock helped create a special program called Military Accessions Vital to the National Interest, or MAVNI, which created a pathway for military enlistment for refugees, undocumented young people, foreign students and others who lack green cards.

A spokeswoman for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the DHS agency that is implementing the rule, declined to comment, citing pending litigation.

The new policy is a signature effort of the Trump administration and builds on a long-standing law that bars immigration by people deemed to be “public charges.” But the law does not define the term. In 1999, the Clinton administration narrowly defined it to mean someone who “primarily” depends on the government for subsistence, either through cash welfare or long-term care funded by the government.

The new regulation lowers the bar to be considered a “public charge” by redefining it as an immigrant who receives certain types of public benefits for more than 12 months in a three-year period. If an immigrant receives two benefits in a single month, that would count as two months.

The public charge test applies to people entering the country or those trying to become lawful permanent residents, commonly known as green card holders. It does not apply to those who already have green cards and are seeking citizenship.

Noncitizens have long served in the U.S. military, often contributing specific needed skills such as sought-after foreign language fluency. Census data shows that about 100,000 noncitizen veterans live in the U.S., according to a ProPublica analysis of data provided by the University of Minnesota’s IPUMS, which collects and distributes census data. Most of them already have permanent status, Stock said.

It’s not clear exactly how many veterans do not have green cards or have spouses who don’t. Since 2008, about 10,000 people have joined the military through the MAVNI program, according to the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan immigration research group. But the program is currently not accepting applications.

In practice, the public charge rule is more likely to affect veterans’ families — such as spouses who are undocumented or on temporary visas — rather than veterans themselves. Under federal law, undocumented immigrants and temporary visa holders are generally not eligible for public benefits.

“A lot of veterans end up marrying women or men that don’t have green cards; that happens very often,” said Hector Barajas, who leads an advocacy group called Deported Veterans Support House. “There is a population of people that will be affected.”

The White House began seeking agency comments on March 29, 2018. An official at the Office of Management and Budget emailed officials from 19 agencies, including the VA, attaching a draft of the regulation and asking for comments. The email was sent one day after the VA secretary at the time, David Shulkin, was fired by Trump in a tweet. One week after the White House’s email, a VA official in the secretary’s office responded: “VA submits a ‘No Comment’ response.”

The White House again asked for agencies’ comment in July and September 2018, and each time, a VA official sent the same response.

The White House’s Sept. 4, 2018, email stated that the newest draft included “exemptions for service-members.” In an initial proposed version of the regulation released to the public later that month, DHS made clear that it decided on the exemption “following consultation with DOD.”

The emails obtained by ProPublica do not include military officials’ communications with the White House or DHS. A Pentagon spokeswoman, Jessica Maxwell, said, “DOD was consulted in these conversations,” but she declined to provide further details.

But because the VA declined to provide such “consultation,” an exception for veterans wasn’t considered in the initial proposed regulation in 2018.

Only after members of the public raised the issue during the regulation’s comment period did DHS consider, and ultimately refuse, a veterans’ exemption in the final regulation, which was released last week.

In its justification for the new policy, DHS said veterans aren’t afforded the same exemption as active-duty service members because they have access to special VA benefits, which the new policy doesn’t count against them. Furthermore, the department said, while active-duty service members often need to use benefits to supplement low military salaries, veterans are free to take higher-paying jobs.

But not every veteran receives veterans’ benefits, and the benefits — which include health care for conditions related to military service, education stipends and home-buying assistance — are not a substitute for benefits that make up the broader social safety net like food stamps, Medicaid and housing vouchers. Critics of DHS’ decision say many veteran families occasionally need to use public benefits or fall into poverty.

A VA spokesman declined to say if the agency has any concerns about the new policy’s impact on veterans.

The emails obtained by ProPublica also show that as the White House scrambled to finish the regulation and release it to the public last year, it discouraged federal agencies from arguing against the major thrust of the policy.

“Please do not worry about non-substantive line edits,” a White House official, whose name is redacted, wrote in bolded type. “Please recognize, also, that the decision of whether to propose expanding the definition of public charge, broadly, has been made at a very high level and will not be changing.”

Hannah Fresques contributed to this report.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

#1yrago The GOP tax plan was supposed to gouge high tax blue states with massive hikes, but it'll probably end up making them richer

The Republican tax plan -- more than a 1,000 pages covered in last-minute scribbled annotations and pastebombs, passed without any substantial debate or analysis -- is a fucking mess.

One of its goals was to stick it to blue-state voters by raising their taxes. This would be accomplished by capping the deduction that taxpayers could claim on their state income taxes -- thus people who live in comparatively wealthy, high-tax jurisdictions (which are blue) would have to pay more tax overall, and might even pressure their state governments to lower taxes to the same rates as the comparatively poor, low-tax regions (primarily red states).

The GOP couched this in the language of fairness. By dint of living in high-tax, high-service jurisdictions, Democrats were able to duck some of their obligations to the federal government, while the low-tax Republican taxpayers of the red states were forced to subsidize the shortfall with their own federal taxes.

But this argument runs up against reality's well-known left-wing bias. Because trickle-down economics doesn't work, states with very low taxes are poor, and the people who live there are more likely to rely on federal assistance to avoid starving to death or dying of preventable diseases or treatable injuries.

Meanwhile, states with higher taxes and better services have more productive workforces who are able to buy more things from each other because they spend less money trying to inefficiently pay for vital services out of their individual pockets, instead enjoying the efficiencies of collective pursuit of public health, sanitation, fire prevention, education, etc. They are also more likely to enjoy workplace protections, paid leave, and higher wages.

So blue states like New York and California send significantly more money to the federal coffers than they get back in services, and are net givers; meanwhile, deep red states are totally dependent on federal programs to provide the minimum necessity for the working poor to do the work that keeps their elites in ivory-handled back-scratchers. Those states are net takers.

Nevertheless, the GOP tax plan was supposed to punish those states for not being cruel enough to their poors, by raising taxes on them by capping the state income tax deduction.

However, it was such a fucking mess that they failed to realize that it will be trivial to escape the cap. All that blue states will need to do to protect their tax-payers is convert the state tax from one that is paid by individuals, and turn it into a payroll tax instead. By having employers collect the tax, rather than having employees pay it at the end of the year, the blue states will convert it from an individual tax and into a corporate tax, and the GOP just effectively abolished corporate taxes.

Doing this will also take a huge bite out of the scammy tax-prep industry, which lobbies to prevent the government from offering you pre-filled tax returns showing what it thinks you owe and letting you amend it, insisting instead that we should all pay them to do our taxes for us, despite the fact that pre-filled tax forms work well and only involve the government disclosing to you what it already knows about your finances.

What's more, the psychology of payroll taxes and salary posting means that many employers will raise wages to offset the new payroll tax, putting more money in their pockets.

It turns out that being the party whose ideology insists that governments are incompetent means that you will be incompetent at governing.

https://boingboing.net/2017/12/29/a-fucking-mess.html

[berniesrevolution]

JACOBIN MAGAZINE

“All New Yorkers should be able to enjoy the fruits of their labor,” wrote New York gubernatorial candidate Cynthia Nixon last week. “But right now prosperity and wealth in New York State belongs only to a tiny few.”

With that Nixon introduced her economic platform, which includes several ambitious labor reforms. Among them are a $15 minimum wage across the entire state, a safe-staffing law for nurses, increased safety and training programs in the building trades, and the right to strike for all public sector workers.

This last one, which would repeal the state’s prohibition on public sector strikes, caused a great deal of controversy. Nixon’s opponent Governor Andrew Cuomo, New York City mayor Bill de Blasio, and assorted union leaders all publicly opposed the plan. This public circling of the wagons exposed the anti-worker bias of the state’s Democratic Party establishment and revealed the servility of union officials under its spell.

The New York law against public sector strikes, commonly called the Taylor Law, is far from unique. As researchers Kate Andrias and Brishen Rogers write in “Rebuilding Worker Voice in Today’s Economy,” a new report from the Roosevelt Institute, bosses have basically been on a seventy-year winning streak. Starting with the 1947 Taft-Hartley Act and picking up steam in the 1970s, employers have secured a nearly unbroken string of favorable legislation and court rulings against labor, eroding the power of workers in the economy and the broader society, including the political sphere.

Andrias and Rogers make the case that in order to empower the working majority and promote economic and political equality, we must reverse this trend and make a sincere, sustained effort to reform the country’s labor laws. Their report contains dozens of concrete proposals. Socialist political organizations and candidates should pay close attention, not least because each of these proposals represents an opportunity to advocate for workers — and against capitalists — on the public stage.

Nixon’s commitment to amending the Taylor Law and other labor reforms was inspired by leadership on the issue from New York State Senate candidate and Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) member Julia Salazar, as well as by conversations Nixon had with members of the New York City DSA’s Labor Branch, who say that Nixon adopted nearly all of their suggestions for her platform. Already, the payoff has been significant.

As a result of Nixon’s proposed labor reforms, the familiar narrative that there are two sides to labor politics — that Democrats are pro-union and Republicans are anti-union, and that’s the whole story — unraveled in plain sight. A new political narrative with new contours and battle lines emerged in its stead, pitting workers and their political champions on the Left against employers and their allies, including those in the Democratic Party.

The New York Daily News ran a piece titled “Cuomo and de Blasio actually agree on something: public employees shouldn’t have the right to strike.” Cuomo warned of chaos if public employees engaged in work stoppage. De Blasio was quoted encouraging workers to find other avenues of self-expression. Nixon availed herself of the opportunity by aligning with workers themselves, responding, “We should be standing alongside our brave teachers, not cracking down on them for fighting for fair pay and dignity and better education for their students.”

Other socialist candidates should follow Nixon’s lead, both because American labor law desperately needs to change, and because the US political conversation needs an injection of class consciousness. Because Andrias and Rogers’ report is a detailed blueprint for a pro-worker labor-reform agenda, it offers many avenues for such strategic interventions.

Necessary Reforms

Andrias and Rogers see pro-worker labor-law reform as falling into four fundamental categories. The law should be reimagined and reshaped “(1) to protect all workers, in all segments of the economy; (2) to make it far easier for workers to obtain workplace representation; (3) to provide for sectoral-level bargaining; and (4) to better protect workers’ rights to strike, picket, and engage in other concerted action.”

The report walks through each of these reform areas, assessing the extent of the problem and suggesting specific policy correctives. In section one — “Labor law should provide rights to all workers, in all economic sectors” — Andrias and Rogers observe that labor protections simply don’t apply to vast sections of the American workforce. These include many domestic and agricultural workers, independent contractors, employees of subcontractors, franchisees and temp agencies, low-level supervisors, graduate-student teachers, workers in religious institutions, and more.

The result is that many millions of people who work for a living simply aren’t protected under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) and additional state laws.

New legislation is needed to fix this problem. The law should grant domestic and agricultural workers the same rights as other workers. It should require that all firms “owe duties to workers over whom they hold economic power,” including independent contractors, and broaden the test for “joint employment” so that subcontractor employees are protected.

It should affirm that graduate-student teachers and employees of religious institutions, along with low-level supervisors with limited management responsibilities, are workers. And, they write, the law must extend the right to strike to public sector workers wherever it has been withdrawn — which is exactly what Nixon’s Taylor Law amendment aims to do.

The report’s authors note that while the majority of Americans say they would like to belong to a union, only a small and shrinking percentage actually do. One of the primary reasons is that it’s unnecessarily difficult to organize a union. In particular, even when workers are protected by the NLRA, the elections process overseen by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is overly complicated and time-consuming, and easy for employers to manipulate.

The process of forming a union can take years, during which time employees are not allowed to convene union-organizing meetings at work, but employers are allowed to convene mandatory meetings where unionization is discouraged. Employers aren’t technically permitted to threaten workers with retaliatory layoffs (though it happens anyway), but they can openly “predict” that unionization will force the company to cut salaries, outsource, move locations, or shutter entirely — demoralizing and scaring workers out of forming a union.

(Continue Reading)

[sfbarf]

Bonus Money for Housing

The state of California had been overcharging San Francisco (and three other counties). Our eagle eyed Controller noticed the mistake and clawed our money back - $415 MILLION dollars! These revenues come from property taxes. California cities and counties send most of their property tax revenue to the state general fund. The 4 counties that were overcharged all had rapid increases in property tax revenues.

Reader: Why do property tax revenues go up? Because of new buildings! San Francisco had three great years for building - 2015, 2016, 2017. Building new housing is good not only because we get the housing, but also because we get new tax revenues. Now - What are we going to do with this money?

The SET-ASIDES

All over the internet, many people’s first response to this influx is to say, SAVE IT! The recession is coming! Put some aside for a rainy day! And in fact, the biggest chunk of the money - $130 Million - is going to savings, aka “City Reserves.”

Another popular spending priority is education, and it’s already in there - $35 million for the San Francisco Unified School District and $19 million for workforce development and pre-school subsidies for low-income families.

How about transportation? $38 million for the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency so they can buy over 150 new light rail vehicles.

Finally, $9 million for the SF Public Library, and $2 million for street tree maintenance. The above spending priorities are all mandated in the city charter. These are the famous “Set Asides.” Over the years, San Francisco voters have taken away discretion from the Mayor and the Board of Supervisors over how to spend money in the city budget. Here is part of a memo from the Mayor’s Office describing the mandated spending (emphasis added by me):

The POLITICAL FOOTBALL

The remaining $181 million can be spent at the discretion of the Mayor and the Board of Supervisors! But, 6 Supervisors and the Mayor, or, 8 Supervisors have to all agree on how the spend the money.

All of the (feasible) proposals for spending the remaining $181 million propose using the money as gap funding for the recently passed ballot measures that are being held up in court. The three recently passed taxes that are being challenged are:

JUNE 2018

Prop C - Taxes commercial rents to pay for childcare

Prop G - Parcel tax to pay for teacher salaries

NOVEMBER 2018

Prop C - Taxes gross receipts of big businesses to pay for Housing, Shelter and Homeless Services.

The city estimates that it could be as long as 4 years before the court cases are settled in the city’s favor (or we could lose and never be able to collect these taxes).

The Mayor’s Plan (notes added by me)

The Mayor is proposing spending the surplus according to the November Prop C priorities - half to permanent housing and half for shelter, mental health and SRO master lease programs (for people moving out of shelters).

In public speeches, Mayor Breed has specified that the Pre-development money (item 2) and the Acquisition money (item 4) are specifically for projects in the Mission, and the Substance Use Recovery Beds (aka drug rehab) (item 10) will be located on Treasure Island. The Healing Center Beds (item 9) are where people who are in “conservatorship” will go. One thing that hasn’t been discussed much in the public conversation is that in addition to the state lacking the legal ability (until recently) to commit people who can’t take care of themselves, there is a (surprise surprise) shortage of beds for the mentally ill who do already meet the criteria for conservatorship. The other plans

Three incoming Supervisors, Matt Haney (District 6), Shamann Walton (District 10) and Gordon Mar (District 4), have said that they want to spend some of the discretionary money on the June Prop G priority - teacher salary raises. Matt Haney specified that he wanted to spend $50 million on SFUSD, on top of the $34 million that is already going to be allocated to SFUSD.

Anyone who wants to spend $50 on teacher salaries is going to have to explain what exactly from the above list is not going to get funded. I will be damned if they take anything out of shelter or homeless housing.

Six current supervisors, Aaron Peskin (District 3), Sandra Lee Fewer (District 1), Rafael Mandelman (District 8), Hillary Ronen (District 9), Jane Kim (District 6) and Normal Yee (District 7), have released a plan that would allocate $121 million to the Mayor’s Office of Housing & the Department of Public Health together, $10 million to childcare (on top of the $19 million already allocated), and an inexplicable $50 million to buy electrical equipment from PG&E.

This plan is such nonsense it constitutes professional malpractice. The reason it is such an insult to the voters is that the Supervisors have the sole authority (they don’t need the agreement of the Mayor) to borrow money to buy this equipment. If they actually thought this purchase was a good idea, nothing is stopping them from borrowing the money today to make this purchase and in fact Clean Power SF advocates have been asking for them to borrow this money and buy this equipment, and they have been ignoring those advocates for months.

It’s going to be Housing vs Teachers

Sad but true, the controversy over this surplus is going to come down to whether we are going to prioritize housing, shelter, homeless services or funding raises in teacher salaries. The loudest and most organized constituency is going to win. You, dear reader, are going to have to decide what you think the city should prioritize.

Upcoming Opportunities to make your priorities known:

Sunday January 7th Come hand out flyers at 1:30 - 3:00 Glide Memorial Church Matt Haney community swearing in

Monday January 8th First meeting of the new Board of Supervisors. General public comment is at 3pm. Room 200, City Hall

Monday January 14th 6 – 7:00 p.m. South Beach Harbor Services Building Community Room Pier 40A (between Pier 40 & the Ballpark) 

[jocy-diaries]

02.05.2022

I am so constantly worried that I’m under selling myself when people ask me for employment salaries. Like, could I be making six figures right now and I keep low-balling myself?? I’m legitimately scared of being undersold. And if I can be making such good money then why do I feel the need to continue my education right?? I could be chilling and focusing on well paying work. Am I crazy? Shouldn’t I be making this my priority?? I literally feel so stupid when things like this happen. Like I’m this directionless little child chasing stupid dreams. I’m sure that’s how my father sees me… Am I terrified of being successful because of my archetype? In my worst nightmares I was the successful executive daughter of a CEO who did everything she was supposed to, lived in a luxurious apartment, and became an absolute shell of a person. Having and staying in a high paying job would lead to that. Is it something that I’m so afraid of that I’m willing to sabotage myself? And my possible happiness? …Is this all going back to ‘Father was right’? I guess I actually do have something to speak about in therapy… I will say one thing tho. I love not being committed to any brand or job loyalty. I’ll work for you for the paycheck but I won’t buy into the corporate brand identity. It’s the smallest revolution I could make but at least it feels like something.

So I went to sleep instead of staying up to do homework and I’m feeling ~regret~ Plus with last night’s crisis I’m just wondering if it’s all still worth it. Had to take off my contacts because the left one was bothering me (it’s always the left one) so I’m wearing glasses today. Therapy went well, made me realize some stuff and I have to hit myself over the head because it seems obvious now. Going to work towards those goals… I have to. So bad to homework land we go! ヽ(‘ー`)ノ I don’t know why I want to keep evolving my technique when I’ve already found what works for me. I have a looong list of todos, but hopefully I can get at least two of the three classes done today. Let’s try and get our shit together!

Okay I actually finished some of my homework~ Then I went to the library and that was great and fun~ I saw the weirdest car… Got some McDonalds. Took a nap… Then I got my girlscout cookies from my sister and played DnD! I was a little stiff at first because I had just awoken from a nap, but then it got fun~ The characters are so interesting and there are already relationships forming which is so neat to experience.

Now… I gotta go make coffee and do more homework. I’ve got to finish it all if I can. And hopefully next week will be easier on me ┐(‘～`；)┌ Oh I also finally started Nothing but Blackened Teeth~ It’s pretty short so I’m almost done with it. I’ve been wanting to read it for so long! Anyways, best of luck to us!!