Ken Padgett

  "There was absolutely nothing wrong or illegal about anything that was happening on the part of the army of small investors." Wrong. While many jumped on the bandwagon after it got going, many others coordinated to get it started. Colluding to manipulate the price of a publicly traded stock is securities fraud. It is being investigated and will be prosecuted by the SEC.   And this is not, as it's being portrayed, a victory for the little guy over Wall Street fat cats. Whenever the stock market is gamed, it's the little guys who always get hurt the most. In addition to small time investors investing directly in stocks, many of the institutional investors are investing the money of thousands of small investors.   Some hedge funds will be hurt, but hedge fund managers don't lose any of their money when their funds go down. They share in profits, but they don't share the losses. They don't pay any price for losing their investor's money. If the fund ...

  Contrast the way Americans responded to calls for sacrifice during World War 2 with how they've acted during COVID. It has become painfully obvious that selfishness is now the cause of much of America’s political and economic problems. And worse, mask wearing, social distancing and hand washing have been weaponized by Right-Wing politicians and pundits as partisan issues. Many Americans become enraged at any suggestion that they should take other people’s welfare into consideration. They claim it's a love of freedom, but what they call “freedom” is actually a refusal to accept any responsibility for the negative consequences their actions have on others.  These same people are the ones who elected Donald Trump, who declared in March 2020, “I don’t take responsibility at all,” in reference to the coronavirus .  Will the people who refused to do anything to keep others safe while hundreds of thousands of Americans died miserably and without the comfort of their loved one...

Why do people continue to support Trump no matter what he does? Simple. T hey don't care what he does. They support Trump because he hates the same people they hate. He can do pretty much anything and they'll explain it away. Or they will just laugh it off because they truly don't care what Trump does or they chalk it up to "fake news." How liberals see Trump supporters - it's not that simple   The one core value that Trumpsters celebrate above all others is hatred for weakness. Refusing to wear masks to protect oneself and others from COVID has been turned into "freedom" but it's really about exposing fear. They're playing chicken with nature, and whoever flinches is a "weakling." Their passionate hatred for weakness is what proves to them that they are strong.  Kindness = weakness.  Honesty = weakness. Compromise = weakness. They believe themselves superior in every way to anyone who doesn't hate weakness as much as they...

    In 2008, conservative media went nuts when a video surfaced showing two New Black Panthers at a polling location in Philadelphia. One individual was carrying a billy club and was asked to leave. The other was actually licensed as a poll watcher and had a right to be there. They were both sued by Obama's Department of Justice on claims of voter intimidation . Much later, and after a lot more drama from the Right, all the charges were dropped. Republicans weren't satisfied with that and conducted an investigation into why the charges were dropped. Nothing more materialized and eventually it was forgotten. And now in 2020 we have Trump telling his supporters to "patrol" the polls looking for fraud. He has them stirred up and charged with righteous indignation. It's freakin' scary already, and Trump is just getting started. Trump is not the real problem. It's important to remember that Trump's enablers are the ones making all of this possible. And it...

  “Voting is a meaningless exercise. I’m not going to waste my time with it. These parties, these politicians are given to us as a way of making us feel we have freedom of choice. But we don’t.” — George Carlin After 2020, I won't be voting again for any candidates for President, House, or Senate. Why should I bother, when my vote really doesn't matter? Don't try to tell me "every vote counts." Maybe in some swing states they do, but not in California. I live in a solidly Democratic district in a solidly Democratic state. Gerrymandering has made my vote for representative meaningless, while the Electoral College makes my vote for president meaningless, because California is a "winner take all" state. California will have two Democratic Senators for the foreseeable future, and so my voting for Senator certainly won't ever change the outcome. The System is Broken The ideal of one person, one vote completely disappears in the Electoral College and t...

  There are numerous questionable ways to defend looting; "The media won't pay attention unless there is violence or looting" "Looting rejects the legitimacy of ownership rights and property" "Boston Tea Party" etc. Author Vicky Osterweil mines them all in her new book, In Defense of Looting. But no major change is possible in America without the support of the people who reject violence and looting. Greater violence during protests only leads to repression and marginalization. Non-violent protests will attract media coverage and foster change in America, but only if they are very large, consistent and sustained.   Vicky Osterweil revealed her Marxist frame of reference in an August 27, 2020 interview published by NPR: "It also attacks the very way in which food and things are distributed. It attacks the idea of property, and it attacks the idea that in order for someone to have a roof over their head or have a meal ticket, they have to work for a...

On May 25, 2020 George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, died in Minneapolis, Minnesota after Derek Chauvin, a white police officer, knelt on Floyd's neck for almost nine minutes while Floyd was handcuffed face down in the street. The murder of George Floyd triggered massive protests in the US and around the world. T he police response to the unrest has been very aggressive. T here have been so many examples of wanton police violence against mostly peaceful protesters and the media covering them in so many different cities that it's clear the problem is a lot bigger than rogue cops killing unarmed black men without consequence -- as if that weren't bad enough. The shocking brutality meted out by cops when charging at innocent protestors of all ages is being captured on video.        Respect the Police...or Else? Too many Americans are authoritarians who love it when cops bust a few heads in response to a protest. Even during normal times, i f you are ...