** Warning: Today's posting will be dealing with a controversial topic in a most honest, mature and bluntly frank matter and that includes language and terms that some may find offensive or objectionable, and wilt like frail daisies when exposed..
If you are one of those, please skip this post, have a lovely weekend and we'll see you Monday.
Otherwise, let's begin..
Growing up as a child, one of the first television shows that I used to watch via syndicated repeats was 'The Jeffersons' starring Sherman Hemsley as George Jefferson. The show was a spin-off of 'All In The Family'
George was black and a bigot. He referred to whites as 'Crackers', 'Honkys' and 'Whitey'. He got pleasure slamming the door in the face of his white neighbors and the concierge.
His closest neighbors, the Willis's were an interracial couple. He would refer to their daughter who would eventually marry his son as a 'zebra'.
Everything George said got big laughs.
Ha Ha Ha.
Black America loved hearing George stick it to those evil 'Whiteys' even though all the whites on the show treated George with friendliness, kindness and respect.
A few years into the series, an episode took place where George and 'Weezy', his wife were trying to adopt a child; a black girl. In her presence, George called his neighbor a 'damned honky'.
When the little girl mimicked the phrase to her white foster care caretaker and it was found out it came from George, he was prevented from adopting her and for the first time in the show, George learned humility and that he was racist.
For the rest of the series, George never uttered another anti-white slur and whether connected or not, the show lost its edge, ratings plummeted and it was cancelled.
George was allowed to say whatever he damn well felt..
Others had to watch their P's & Q's..
And that's the way this society is.. That's the way the black community and the white guilters want it to stay..
We are told this 'N' word is offensive, degrading, reprehensible and vile.. The same word that many blacks use to greet each other...
We guess the adage of 'Sticks & Stones may break my bones but Words will NEVER hurt me' only apply within one's community...
~ Real movie title to Blaxploitation Flick
This supposed poison word is spoken by blacks in affection...
"Yo nigger, what up?"
Or criticism..
"Dayum Nigger, catch the ball!"
Or admiration..
"All Righhhttt!!... That's my nigger!!"
What other race, ethnicity, religious affiliation, gender or even sexual orientation does that??!!
~ Another real movie title from the early 1970s
Ever hear two Italians do it?
"Yo wop.. what up? "Hey goomba, just relaxin'!"
How about Never.. EVER!
And yet the double standard exists with blacks...
We as Americans have allowed a group of people under the guise of being offended and experiencing historical pain to hijack and control that specific offensive word for their own personal pleasure and sadism toward others.
As we said earlier this week, in the film Django, the word 'Nigger' is uttered 213 Times!! And even now, worthless Coward corporations like Target, Wal-Mart and Sears will happily sell you the DVD or Blu-Ray, yet cut ties with Paula Deen.
~ Quentan Tarantino wrote & directed 'Django'
Hypocritical cut-throat greedy corporations run by little white bastards scared to death of enduring the wrath of the Rev Jacksons and Sharptons of the world..
Now some would say the word is shunned out of respect...
Isn't saying 'spic' or 'slope' or 'dyke' just as offensive?
And what about those hate filled people who use 'clever-clever' terms naively believing their masking their evil.. for example, those who repeatedly criticize Israel, 'Illuminati', 'banking cartels' and those "Zionists" when its obvious the meaning is 'Jews'..
~ Jodie Foster & Danny Glover came to Mel's defense after he said the following to his former wife and threatened to beat her up again... People didn't seem to mind the anti-Semitic stuff
And yet you don't hear those words bleeped on TV or used with asterisks in print, do you... Only one word.. one special hijacked word...
And others would say its guilt emotions because the whites have owned slaves and oppressed the blacks for so long..
That is rather pathetic when you think about it...
~ Real book.. was later changed to 'Ten Little Indians"
The Vast majority of Americans today have ancestors who originally came to this nation After the Civil War was over (1865) meaning they did not own slaves or in any way engage or profit from the slave trade...
In addition there is not a single person living today nor their parents who can say they have owned a black person as a slave.
And yet people feel guilt for actions they did not take part...
Everyone has been made fun of, mocked and verbally degraded at some point in our lives. It could be based on race or ethnicity/religion or sexual orientation or disability or handicap.. Or height or weight or intellect or athletic ability...
And those who survive and thrive in this world are the ones who develop tough skin. They take the attitude of 'Fuck these haters! I've a right to be here like anyone else and I'm going to succeed in spite of them!'
They are the Winners in life.
Losers wallow in the mud and the muck and get bent out of shape every time a word is uttered they take offense to...
Losers try to manipulate and control language as a source of perverse power over other people
Losers seek to destroy others' livelihoods and reputations; to tear down in seconds like a pack of animals what takes others a lifetime to create and sustain... Guilt free.. With a snicker...
Losers develop self-hate for their own background and willingly exude powerlessness and submission to others who don't really like or respect them in the first place...
All words of hatred and degradation are horrible... All of them..
And no one should Ever be allowed to control words or language, or set up double-standards. We give away Far too much power when we allow that.. And no one should Ever.. we mean Ever lose their livelihood over words...
Actions-- yes. Words-- Never..
The First Amendment is meant to give freedom for people to say not only what we wish to hear but the freedom to say the things we prefer not to hear.. That is a free society.
~ Yes that's Ted Danson.. he was married to Whoopi at the time..
And there can never ever be a sincere discussion on race and mutual understanding between black and white; the kind of understanding not based on phoniness and political correctness, until fears are allowed to be set aside and True dialogue occurs
This means each side admits intolerance toward the other
And blacks are no longer allowed to make whites feel evil because they use a word they use Constantly in their daily communications and in their entertainment, particularly rap music.
~ The singer Kelis with rapper Nas
Then you will have whites not say the N word out of true respect...
Not out of fear of losing their job or some sponsors..
You can control what one says publicly but you can't control what one thinks and does privately.. and if the goal is a tolerant, racist-free society, there has to be honest, free flowing dialogue..
And blacks Must suffer the same economic repercussions as whites who utter that terrible word... Or better yet, stop using it at all!!
Friday, June 28, 2013
Thursday, June 27, 2013
Good is Good & Bad is Good: Explaining this week's Market
What a BS trading day Wednesday was..
Where to begin.. Oh, where to begin ~shakes head..
On Tuesday the market broke a 5 day trading losing streak based on poppycock and pollyanna good news in housing and consumer expectations that was all fluff
On Wednesday, the market continued going upward, this time based on downward revisions that instead of an anemic 2013 1Q growth of 2.4%, it turned out growth was an abysmal 1.8%
And that was celebrated of course by the rats & roaches on Wall Street because it meant the assumption that the QE infinity gravy train could not be tapered now, No Sir (or Ma'am!)
Of course if you think about it objectively, between January and March, the F'ing Fed spent $255 Billion which is over a quarter of a Trillion dollars of your money and got 1.8% growth..
That's not much bang for the buck is it..
And the evil ones rejoiced...
The Big Boys may use the word 'recovery' a million-billion times a day to hoodwink the populace but they know we're not in one, and they absolutely do Not want to see a recovery any time soon...
Recovery = no more QE and that means no more free ride
So before we get into the nitty gritty, the lesson to take is that when when something is 'Good' the market goes 'Up' unless it negatively impacts QE, in which case, what is 'Good' is 'Bad' and market goes down
And when something is 'Bad' its treated as 'Good' unless it has no impact on QE, in which case its kept as 'Bad' and ignored so market can continue to rise...
Got that? Good..
Back to the specifics...
GDP growth in the US over the 12 month has been 1.6%
That is Pathetic, folks... A slow down compared to 2010 & 11
And that's with the $85 Billion/month ($2million per Second) Fed money spigots running at full release.. Four years of QE and this nation can't even sustain continual +2% growth!
Then again its that money that's a big part of the problem.
Absolutely no incentive for companies to hire people and expand their businesses when they're generating quality profits simply by buying up their own stock dividends with the free money
Another reason is personal consumption dramatically decreased. Guess that's what happens when wages stay stagnant or decrease while prices go upward and personal credit dries up..
Make it hard to continue buying shit we all don't need with money we truly do not possess..
Guess those 5,000 phone survey participants of the Consumer Confidence Board who mostly said they feel very confident about the economy in June, have it better off than most..
Or they're on drugs.
But hey, at least there's housing, right... that's strong as ever yes?
Americans selling their homes.. Wonderful.. Of course we really don't care if its Americans who are the ones doing the buying, or if its investor-speculators or despicable house-flippers...
As long as the media has some thread to cling to when writing their propaganda..
And yet, it was announced yesterday that mortgage applications collapsed to their lowest level in 19 months!
Specifically, mortgage applications are now down for 7 of the last 8 weeks and have collapsed a stunning 29% over that time. - the biggest overall plunge in 30 months!!
Thank God for the Brazilians, Russians, Indians & Chinese, yes?
They're the ones buying up US real estate-- too cheap to pass up
Get used to it.. the BRIC nations are on the economic rise as we and the rest of Europe & Asia continue sabotaging our economic policies for the greater good of the few.
Hard to plot a course to sustainable economic growth when Captain Ben has steered us into quicksand... The Fed is forced to keep QE ongoing and not simply because of the vile vermin who will purposely crash the market the second it ceases...
See, the Fed has no choice but to continue buying up mortgage assets, government bonds and other toxic sludge..
If the Fed were to reduce its purchases of this debt paper, nobody else would buy it. The reason the Fed buys the quantity it does in the first place ($85 billion-a-month) is that nobody else would touch it at the offered zero interest rates.
The US Treasury and the mortgage bundlers could only sell the stuff if they paid higher interest rates. But the US government would choke to death on higher interest rates because its aggregate debt is so huge...
That's why we can never default on our debts.. its not China or Japan that owns the bulk.. It is us.. Well, the Fed..
The scheduled interest payments are SO gigantic that a one percent increase would destroy even the fantasy of economic equilibrium.
Thus the Fed is trapped into being the buyers of first and last resort.
Think of it like going to an auction house. Behind the auctioneer are hundreds of items for people to bid.. One time after another, the auctioneer starts bidding at $5... No takers.. So a 'fake' bidder who really works for the auction house steps in, bids the $5, then 'wins'...
The auction bought its own items to save the embarrassment of no one ever bidding...
The Fed works similar when it comes to the purchase of Treasury bonds which is a fancy way of saying the their IOUs by the government for future repayment based on immediate money to run the government and keep the plates spinning.
When you really understand what's going on behind the scenes and how truly fragile and weak this economy is, its utterly frightening...
In a way, we can't blame the ignorant for keeping their heads buried in the sand...
Then again, you bet we can...
Information is knowledge which is power...
Power leads to making the best decisions for you and yours when things ever run amok.
This BS market - it will go up and down and up and down...
And all the dirt-dogs will make their little profit...
But here's the key:
When you see the price of gold begin a genuine and continual rise, then you will know to dump all your stock and hunker down, because it will mean a panic buy; people fleeing for financial safe havens and to use a nautical expression, battening down the hatches
No need to thank us for the forewarning.. Spreading the word about us to others is thanks enough.
Tuesday, June 25, 2013
Cellphones & A Surefire Way to Prevent Government Spying
Before we get into today's very important post topic, just want to do say we were once again right about the market for Tuesday..
We expected it to go up for no real rhyme or reason and mentioned this in our previous post which it did, making for happy rats n' roaches.. um.. we mean Investors.
Well, OK what really happened was this: China's stock market, known as Hang Seng has dropped dramatically in the last month causing a 6% decline and the market was in free fall late last night which was their Wed. trading day..
Within a 3 hour window of time it had dropped over 500pts so China's central banking version of our personal liar Bernanke, told everyone that everything is fine and the central bankers have everything under control..
Then China calmed and the US calmed..
God forbid traders ever learn to accept risk in trading...
Then there were the utter BS news stories that consumer confidence for June is the highest ever (remember they only survey 5,000 people by phone in a nation of 315 million) and housing is strong (which it isn't)
Speaking of surveys, did you know 76% of all Americans are living paycheck to paycheck with 27% not having a single penny in real savings!
46% of Americans have less than $800 in savings and less than 25% have enough $$ to cover expenses for more than six months in case of a true emergency... Also 62% have stated they had to reduce household spending this year (year 6 of the current recession-depression)
Wonder if they're the same ones polled who are telling the Consumer Confidence Board how absolutely giddy they are at the state of the economy and excited to spend..
Doubt it...
Hope the market loses another 300-500 points tomorrow... And if it doesn't, well... there's always Friday..
Now on to more important things...
Did you know the government can spy on you using your cellphone?
Of course you did.. that's not breaking news..
Did you know they can spy on you when you have it turned OFF?
Nope.. not a conspiracy theory from wackos...
From ABC News, reported on Dec 6th 2006 (in blue font):
"Cell phone users, beware. The FBI can listen to everything you say, even when the cell phone is turned off.
A recent court ruling in a case against the Genovese crime family revealed that the FBI has the ability from a remote location to activate a cell phone and turn its microphone into a listening device that transmits to an FBI listening post, a method known as a “roving bug.”...
“The FBI can access cell phones and modify them remotely without ever having to physically handle them,” James Atkinson, a counterintelligence security consultant, told ABC News.
“Any recently manufactured cell phone has a built-in tracking device, which can allow eavesdroppers to pinpoint someone’s location to within just a few feet,” he added.
“Any recently manufactured cell phone has a built-in tracking device, which can allow eavesdroppers to pinpoint someone’s location to within just a few feet,” he added.
According to the recent court ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Lewis Kaplan, “The device functioned whether the phone was powered on or off, intercepting conversations within its range wherever it happened to be.”
The "roving bugs" were approved by a judge after the more conventional bugs planted at specified locations were discovered by members of the crime family, who then started to conduct their business dealings in several additional locations, including more restaurants, cars, a doctor’s office and public streets.
"The courts have given law enforcement a blank check for surveillance," Richard Rehbock, attorney for defendant John Ardito, told ABC News."
Let that sink in a minute...
Here's the link to the article so the cynical and disbelieving do not think we made it up --
There's only one way to prevent this from happening to you:
When not in use, you have to remove the cell phone battery. Without the power source, the device is inoperable and can not be hijacked remotely...
Really not much more to add to this post...
We live in a very scary Orwellian world.. Have been for quite some time.
And it really doesn't matter the President or political party in office-- Government fears its citizens more than anyone abroad and will do anything to ensure it knows every thought you possess to ensure its protection...
Not your protection.. the State's protection.
You either accept this reality or you don't..
We believe in free will so its up to you.. We present the truth and are both 100% free and advertisement-free...
Let others know about us.. They deserve to be informed too.
We believe in free will so its up to you.. We present the truth and are both 100% free and advertisement-free...
Let others know about us.. They deserve to be informed too.
Monday, June 24, 2013
Rationalizing a Downward market and the Right to Profit off It
Caption: "Humpty Bernanke sat on a Wall; Humpty Bernanke will have a Great Fall; And all the Fed's Forces & Globalist Men know Americans will be Broke-- It sure won't be Ben"
Its Tuesday... back to Finance talk..
Yesterday the Dow dropped another 139pts to close at 14,659
As we like to say at A&G... Good...
Subtract 7,659 based on artificial manipulation and that's really where the market should be if accurately depicting the true state of the US economy. For bad math people, that would be Dow 7,000
One week ago-- the closing bell of June 18th, the Dow finished the day at 15,318
In 5 trading days its dropped 659pts or 4.3%
Of course it could jump later today by a couple hundred points for no particular rhyme or reason but that's really not the focus of today's posting..
Its the rationalizations.
No one likes admitting defeat and professional Investors, financial pundits and media don't like acknowledging they're wrong. So like a football coach after a big loss, they make endless excuses and double-talk their way through the explanation process.
Here are just some of the ways financial media and its 'experts' are calling this current market drop:
* 'Summer Swoon' -- Sounds refreshing.. like a mint julep on a hot day; gives the impression its completely normal to see a drop like this every June, thus relax and keep investing...
* A 'Pause' -- Rationalizing that stocks can't go upwards every single day can it? So, just relax and.. well.. keep investing..
* 'Temporary Retreat' -- This gives the illusion that stocks are meant to always go upward and any drop in the market is to be brief and by implication, painless. And so you can relax and.. you know...
* 'Downward revision' -- This is 'Big Boy' chatter for the same thing as a 'Temporary Retreat'... The market is down --its perfectly understandable and logical and thus the Professionals can relax and begin 'buying on the dip'...
* An 'Adjustment' -- This is a more simplified term to help everyday investors feel confident to keep investing... Sometimes the word 'Temporary' will be injected by media for extra Ummphh!
* 'Profit Taking' -- This gives the impression something bad is good. If the market going up is a good thing, and a dropping market means 'profit' which is good, then by the rules of academic practical logic, Every Day in the world of stocks and finance is a 'Good' day...
* A 'Pullback' -- This is also used to calm jittery investors that one can not expect perpetual market growth and there are occasional blips where it goes the other way.. Of course then resumes its upward trajectory as God would want it..
* A 'Price Reset' Opportunity -- This sounds complex but in simplest terms the logic follows like this: That stock that should be valued at $20/share and was $25 a week ago... Well now its $19 so, 'what are you waiting for-- Buy, Buy!!!'
On and On and On...
“However toplofty and idealistic a man may be, he can always rationalize his right to earn money.” -- Raymond Chandler (American Writer of Detective Fiction 1888-1959)
We have to admit..and we know this sounds terrible to say so matter of factly, but we hope the stubborn investor who absolutely refuses to sell and quit this rigged market while believing the lies the Jim Cramers of the finance world spew out, takes an ultimate bloodbath.
See, its not going to get better.. Maybe you'll see a couple hundred point spike here and there based on a Fed rumor, but right now the market is reacting in panic mode on two things:
1) Bernanke hinting the QE party will be ultimately tapered and end
2) Higher interest rates
Even if the Fed is not specifically raising them (which ultimately they will have to do at some point), lenders are taking it upon themselves to raise rates for him.
The interest rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage hit 4.25% on June 20. A month or two ago, it was 3.75%
This means if someone took a $100k mortgage for 30 years back in April at 3.75%, their monthly payment will be $463.12. The person who took out the $100k mortgage today at 4.25% will be making monthly payments of $491.94.
That additional $28.83 may not seem like much but when you multiply by 360 monthly payments, it adds to an additional needless cost outlay of $10,378.80
Credit card interest rates increased on average to 14.96%
Don't worry.. we're sure interest rates among savers will be increasing too.. Instead of getting 8 cents interest monthly for every $10,000 the bank holds, you'll now be getting 8.1 cents meaning you'll Really be seeing that extra penny by month 10!
The Fed pretends to care about the every day person's ability to survive, but they don't.. Their 1913 charter is to represent and protect the banking interests at all times at all costs.
And since banks are so dependent upon the stock market for generating profit, the Fed then has to care and ensure the market is profitable.
We've said this before.. we stand by it -- spinning plates can not be kept artificially spinning forever. Ultimately some stop and smash into pieces.. Something about Laws of Motion and Universal Gravitation..
Hey, don't blame us.. Blame Sir Issac Newton...
Its Tuesday... back to Finance talk..
Yesterday the Dow dropped another 139pts to close at 14,659
As we like to say at A&G... Good...
Subtract 7,659 based on artificial manipulation and that's really where the market should be if accurately depicting the true state of the US economy. For bad math people, that would be Dow 7,000
One week ago-- the closing bell of June 18th, the Dow finished the day at 15,318
In 5 trading days its dropped 659pts or 4.3%
Of course it could jump later today by a couple hundred points for no particular rhyme or reason but that's really not the focus of today's posting..
Its the rationalizations.
No one likes admitting defeat and professional Investors, financial pundits and media don't like acknowledging they're wrong. So like a football coach after a big loss, they make endless excuses and double-talk their way through the explanation process.
Here are just some of the ways financial media and its 'experts' are calling this current market drop:
* 'Summer Swoon' -- Sounds refreshing.. like a mint julep on a hot day; gives the impression its completely normal to see a drop like this every June, thus relax and keep investing...
* A 'Pause' -- Rationalizing that stocks can't go upwards every single day can it? So, just relax and.. well.. keep investing..
* 'Temporary Retreat' -- This gives the illusion that stocks are meant to always go upward and any drop in the market is to be brief and by implication, painless. And so you can relax and.. you know...
* 'Downward revision' -- This is 'Big Boy' chatter for the same thing as a 'Temporary Retreat'... The market is down --its perfectly understandable and logical and thus the Professionals can relax and begin 'buying on the dip'...
* An 'Adjustment' -- This is a more simplified term to help everyday investors feel confident to keep investing... Sometimes the word 'Temporary' will be injected by media for extra Ummphh!
* 'Profit Taking' -- This gives the impression something bad is good. If the market going up is a good thing, and a dropping market means 'profit' which is good, then by the rules of academic practical logic, Every Day in the world of stocks and finance is a 'Good' day...
* A 'Pullback' -- This is also used to calm jittery investors that one can not expect perpetual market growth and there are occasional blips where it goes the other way.. Of course then resumes its upward trajectory as God would want it..
* A 'Price Reset' Opportunity -- This sounds complex but in simplest terms the logic follows like this: That stock that should be valued at $20/share and was $25 a week ago... Well now its $19 so, 'what are you waiting for-- Buy, Buy!!!'
On and On and On...
“However toplofty and idealistic a man may be, he can always rationalize his right to earn money.” -- Raymond Chandler (American Writer of Detective Fiction 1888-1959)
We have to admit..and we know this sounds terrible to say so matter of factly, but we hope the stubborn investor who absolutely refuses to sell and quit this rigged market while believing the lies the Jim Cramers of the finance world spew out, takes an ultimate bloodbath.
See, its not going to get better.. Maybe you'll see a couple hundred point spike here and there based on a Fed rumor, but right now the market is reacting in panic mode on two things:
1) Bernanke hinting the QE party will be ultimately tapered and end
2) Higher interest rates
Even if the Fed is not specifically raising them (which ultimately they will have to do at some point), lenders are taking it upon themselves to raise rates for him.
The interest rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage hit 4.25% on June 20. A month or two ago, it was 3.75%
This means if someone took a $100k mortgage for 30 years back in April at 3.75%, their monthly payment will be $463.12. The person who took out the $100k mortgage today at 4.25% will be making monthly payments of $491.94.
That additional $28.83 may not seem like much but when you multiply by 360 monthly payments, it adds to an additional needless cost outlay of $10,378.80
Credit card interest rates increased on average to 14.96%
Don't worry.. we're sure interest rates among savers will be increasing too.. Instead of getting 8 cents interest monthly for every $10,000 the bank holds, you'll now be getting 8.1 cents meaning you'll Really be seeing that extra penny by month 10!
The Fed pretends to care about the every day person's ability to survive, but they don't.. Their 1913 charter is to represent and protect the banking interests at all times at all costs.
And since banks are so dependent upon the stock market for generating profit, the Fed then has to care and ensure the market is profitable.
We've said this before.. we stand by it -- spinning plates can not be kept artificially spinning forever. Ultimately some stop and smash into pieces.. Something about Laws of Motion and Universal Gravitation..
Hey, don't blame us.. Blame Sir Issac Newton...
The Cultural Assassination of Paula Deen: Cooking Celeb
Prior to a week ago, we had no idea who Paula Deen was.
Sincerely..
Cooking is not our forte.. If we can put two frozen waffles into a toaster without burning them and setting off smoke alarms, we consider that a success..
That's how much we care about cooking and celebrity chefs much less bother to watch a network like the Food Network (owned 70% by Scripps Broadcasting, 30% by Tribune Co.)
But now everyone knows her-- She was fired from the Food Network we're told because she used the dreaded 'N' word to a former employee...
Shame Shame! No one likes being called a Nerd!
Oh.. it wasn't That 'N' word...
Nonetheless, the more we were forced to read of this distraction from the real news of a dreadfully stalled economy, NSA wiretapping, IRS shenanigans, and a President providing arms to Syrian rebels who are openly Al Qaeda yet having the audacity to say we weren't taking sides...
The more we were forced to care on this, the more we wanted to delve beyond the headlines and understand what the big to-do was involving a woman we honestly had no idea who she was last week at this time...
So the big scandal.. the reasoning for her firing was she used the 'N' word. Of course, her contract was up at the end of June i.e. six more days so one can't really be 'fired' can they?
It simply wasn't renewed.. or was it?
We'll get back to that in a moment...
For now let's address the racism aspect. What makes a true racist-- is it what they say or what they do?
If someone says the 'N' word but employees many blacks and gives them a livelihood and means to pay their bills, is that a racist?
What about a TV network that employs a total of three or four token blacks for all of their 7 day programming week?
What's wrong Food Network, can't a black chef be turned into a brand name to be exploited and profited off of too?!
And let's say you had a housekeeper who was black and it was found out that person stole from you to the tune of over $100,000 before being apprehended and arrested, would not a certain epithet not pop into your subconscious?
From AP Dec 23, 2010:
"Personal housekeeper Mary White, former employee of Food Network celebrity chef Paula Deen, has just been sentenced to 18 months in prison, a $6,000 fine, and 6 months of probation due to the theft of Deen's personal household valuables earlier this year.
White served as Deen's housekeeper from August of 2009 to May of 2010 at her home in Wilmington Island, GA, which is also used as a Food Network TV set. During that time, White procured over $100,000 in jewelry and personal valuables, selling them at pawn shops across Savannah and Garden City according to local police reports."
Funny how a word can be completely hijacked and controlled by a group of people who utter it incessantly both among each other and via their entertainment, especially their music.
Ironically 100 years ago (1912) the first professional baseball strike occurred over that word. Except it wasn't directly at a black person.. It was a white heckler calling a white baseball player that.
And not just any common player but the great Ty Cobb who responded to the insult by charging into the stands 12 rows up and properly pommeling the jerk with fists and feet until being pulled off..
The American League President Ban Johnson suspended Cobb indefinitely. His teammates who really weren't fond of Cobb, nonetheless took his side and argued there is no greater offense to one's dignity than to be called a 'half-N' and to protest the suspension, the Detroit Tigers unanimously agreed to strike.
~ Hall of Fame plaque
After a team of scab players were quickly assembled and destroyed by the Philadelphia A's by a score of 26-2, Johnson threatened long-term suspensions and banishment if they didn't return to playing. Cobb encouraged them to go back to the team and they did.. Cobb was fined $50 and resumed playing along side his teammates.
100 years later, a woman can lose her livelihood and what she spent an entire lifetime to build in a split second over a word millions upon millions of blacks say to one another.
Did you know, according to the Guardian UK, the N word was used a whopping 213 times in Quentin Tarentino's film "Django Unchained"?? That's 7x more than in one of his previous films 'Jackie Brown' where the word was uttered 38 times..
Tarentino not only directed the films but wrote both screenplays...
And he is still earning a living, isn't he?
Now let's get back to the whole brouhaha between Deen and the Food Network....
The firing, dismissal or whatever one calls it was based a legal complaint filed that among other things she said the N word to a former employee..
When was this complaint filed?
Last week? Last month?
No... 16 months ago...
From AP, March 6, 2012:
"Lisa Jackson, the former general manager of Deen's Uncle Bubba's Seafood and Oyster House, alleges in her lawsuit that she was subjected to intense sexual harassment during her five years of employment..."
Maybe its true... maybe its a shakedown.. who knows or cares..
But the Food Network knew of these allegations for over a full year and yet did or said Nothing!
Why didn't they fire her on the spot back in March, '12??
Could it be she was too much of a cash-cow for the network?
And yet she is to be gone presently... what changed?'
Did the Food Network develop suddenly a moral compass?
One of their chefs, Cat Cora was arrested last year for DUI-- an offense that could have killed herself or others.. But she's still on the network, making a very good living doing what she loves with no economic or cultural repercussions...
Funny isn't it...
Now some will say it was that she admitted she said it under oath during deposition, thus Food Network was warranted to dismiss her...
Could the reason have more to do with this: According to the New York Post, May 3, 2013, "The Food Network shed 17% of its audience during the 12 months through April 30... The average prime time show on the cable channel slipped to 1.06 million."
Thus there was a feeling that Deen was now expendable, especially since she doesn't fit the young and physically fit image being pushed on the channel and its sister network Home & Garden TV (HGTV) which saw its ratings rise due to adding more beefcake.
As the Post states, "America seems to like HGTV’s handy hunks"
Or maybe its more of spiteful revenge on the part of the Food Network.
They've been re-negotiating a new contract with Deen for months and couldn't find an agreement. Maybe Deen wanted too much money or power or influence.
Seems this woman who was at first a Food Network creation has developed into a brand name on her own like Martha Stewart and perhaps she let Food Network know in clear terms she didn't need them..
Plenty of other entrepreneurial 'fish' in the sea-- the Oxygen network, Women's Entertainment (WE Network), perhaps a syndicated deal to appear on her own morning show on one of the big-3 networks...
Sky was the limit... She has books and videos.. Regular appearances on QVC... who needs this little TV network who at best draws in 1 million viewers for a TV show (For comparison purposes, the O'Reilly Factor's ratings are regularly 2.9 which is about 3x the viewers who watch the most watched Food Network show)
So the Food Network basically F'd Paula Deen over.. The classic ''If you don't re-sign with us on our terms, we'll destroy you' move.
Businesses do this all the time. Especially to women.
Say for example you fudge your resume-- you lie on your education or work background, etc. then your employer finds out... Well the good news is in all likelihood you're not going to be immediately terminated.
The bad news is your boss has something over your head. Sue them for sexual harassment or something else legitimate and they can say in court you're a liar because you lied on your resume and thus what else would you lie about..
Or you demand a raise or promotion and they tell you 'Sorry.. we noticed you lied on your resume but tell you what.. we will keep you but at current salary (or reduction of X percent)'
Scorched earth professional warfare but hey, its just business.. nothing personal...
We don't know what will come about from all this.. Hopefully the channel's ratings will continue to plummet until out of existence and Deen will be able to resume a successful career doing what she loves.
Most importantly, we hope and wish for a time when language and word choice is not controlled by any specific group of people for their own agendas and ulterior motives.
It just sets a dangerous precedent with very bad consequences for all.
~ 1970s comedy album title
Sincerely..
Cooking is not our forte.. If we can put two frozen waffles into a toaster without burning them and setting off smoke alarms, we consider that a success..
That's how much we care about cooking and celebrity chefs much less bother to watch a network like the Food Network (owned 70% by Scripps Broadcasting, 30% by Tribune Co.)
But now everyone knows her-- She was fired from the Food Network we're told because she used the dreaded 'N' word to a former employee...
Shame Shame! No one likes being called a Nerd!
Oh.. it wasn't That 'N' word...
Nonetheless, the more we were forced to read of this distraction from the real news of a dreadfully stalled economy, NSA wiretapping, IRS shenanigans, and a President providing arms to Syrian rebels who are openly Al Qaeda yet having the audacity to say we weren't taking sides...
The more we were forced to care on this, the more we wanted to delve beyond the headlines and understand what the big to-do was involving a woman we honestly had no idea who she was last week at this time...
So the big scandal.. the reasoning for her firing was she used the 'N' word. Of course, her contract was up at the end of June i.e. six more days so one can't really be 'fired' can they?
It simply wasn't renewed.. or was it?
We'll get back to that in a moment...
For now let's address the racism aspect. What makes a true racist-- is it what they say or what they do?
If someone says the 'N' word but employees many blacks and gives them a livelihood and means to pay their bills, is that a racist?
What about a TV network that employs a total of three or four token blacks for all of their 7 day programming week?
What's wrong Food Network, can't a black chef be turned into a brand name to be exploited and profited off of too?!
And let's say you had a housekeeper who was black and it was found out that person stole from you to the tune of over $100,000 before being apprehended and arrested, would not a certain epithet not pop into your subconscious?
From AP Dec 23, 2010:
"Personal housekeeper Mary White, former employee of Food Network celebrity chef Paula Deen, has just been sentenced to 18 months in prison, a $6,000 fine, and 6 months of probation due to the theft of Deen's personal household valuables earlier this year.
White served as Deen's housekeeper from August of 2009 to May of 2010 at her home in Wilmington Island, GA, which is also used as a Food Network TV set. During that time, White procured over $100,000 in jewelry and personal valuables, selling them at pawn shops across Savannah and Garden City according to local police reports."
Funny how a word can be completely hijacked and controlled by a group of people who utter it incessantly both among each other and via their entertainment, especially their music.
Ironically 100 years ago (1912) the first professional baseball strike occurred over that word. Except it wasn't directly at a black person.. It was a white heckler calling a white baseball player that.
And not just any common player but the great Ty Cobb who responded to the insult by charging into the stands 12 rows up and properly pommeling the jerk with fists and feet until being pulled off..
The American League President Ban Johnson suspended Cobb indefinitely. His teammates who really weren't fond of Cobb, nonetheless took his side and argued there is no greater offense to one's dignity than to be called a 'half-N' and to protest the suspension, the Detroit Tigers unanimously agreed to strike.
~ Hall of Fame plaque
After a team of scab players were quickly assembled and destroyed by the Philadelphia A's by a score of 26-2, Johnson threatened long-term suspensions and banishment if they didn't return to playing. Cobb encouraged them to go back to the team and they did.. Cobb was fined $50 and resumed playing along side his teammates.
100 years later, a woman can lose her livelihood and what she spent an entire lifetime to build in a split second over a word millions upon millions of blacks say to one another.
Did you know, according to the Guardian UK, the N word was used a whopping 213 times in Quentin Tarentino's film "Django Unchained"?? That's 7x more than in one of his previous films 'Jackie Brown' where the word was uttered 38 times..
Tarentino not only directed the films but wrote both screenplays...
And he is still earning a living, isn't he?
Now let's get back to the whole brouhaha between Deen and the Food Network....
The firing, dismissal or whatever one calls it was based a legal complaint filed that among other things she said the N word to a former employee..
When was this complaint filed?
Last week? Last month?
No... 16 months ago...
From AP, March 6, 2012:
"Lisa Jackson, the former general manager of Deen's Uncle Bubba's Seafood and Oyster House, alleges in her lawsuit that she was subjected to intense sexual harassment during her five years of employment..."
Maybe its true... maybe its a shakedown.. who knows or cares..
But the Food Network knew of these allegations for over a full year and yet did or said Nothing!
Why didn't they fire her on the spot back in March, '12??
Could it be she was too much of a cash-cow for the network?
And yet she is to be gone presently... what changed?'
Did the Food Network develop suddenly a moral compass?
One of their chefs, Cat Cora was arrested last year for DUI-- an offense that could have killed herself or others.. But she's still on the network, making a very good living doing what she loves with no economic or cultural repercussions...
Funny isn't it...
Now some will say it was that she admitted she said it under oath during deposition, thus Food Network was warranted to dismiss her...
Could the reason have more to do with this: According to the New York Post, May 3, 2013, "The Food Network shed 17% of its audience during the 12 months through April 30... The average prime time show on the cable channel slipped to 1.06 million."
Thus there was a feeling that Deen was now expendable, especially since she doesn't fit the young and physically fit image being pushed on the channel and its sister network Home & Garden TV (HGTV) which saw its ratings rise due to adding more beefcake.
As the Post states, "America seems to like HGTV’s handy hunks"
Or maybe its more of spiteful revenge on the part of the Food Network.
They've been re-negotiating a new contract with Deen for months and couldn't find an agreement. Maybe Deen wanted too much money or power or influence.
Seems this woman who was at first a Food Network creation has developed into a brand name on her own like Martha Stewart and perhaps she let Food Network know in clear terms she didn't need them..
Plenty of other entrepreneurial 'fish' in the sea-- the Oxygen network, Women's Entertainment (WE Network), perhaps a syndicated deal to appear on her own morning show on one of the big-3 networks...
Sky was the limit... She has books and videos.. Regular appearances on QVC... who needs this little TV network who at best draws in 1 million viewers for a TV show (For comparison purposes, the O'Reilly Factor's ratings are regularly 2.9 which is about 3x the viewers who watch the most watched Food Network show)
So the Food Network basically F'd Paula Deen over.. The classic ''If you don't re-sign with us on our terms, we'll destroy you' move.
Businesses do this all the time. Especially to women.
Say for example you fudge your resume-- you lie on your education or work background, etc. then your employer finds out... Well the good news is in all likelihood you're not going to be immediately terminated.
The bad news is your boss has something over your head. Sue them for sexual harassment or something else legitimate and they can say in court you're a liar because you lied on your resume and thus what else would you lie about..
Or you demand a raise or promotion and they tell you 'Sorry.. we noticed you lied on your resume but tell you what.. we will keep you but at current salary (or reduction of X percent)'
Scorched earth professional warfare but hey, its just business.. nothing personal...
We don't know what will come about from all this.. Hopefully the channel's ratings will continue to plummet until out of existence and Deen will be able to resume a successful career doing what she loves.
Most importantly, we hope and wish for a time when language and word choice is not controlled by any specific group of people for their own agendas and ulterior motives.
It just sets a dangerous precedent with very bad consequences for all.
~ 1970s comedy album title