rafi-dangelo

Repugntantblicans want to cut food stamps…even though the deficit is shrinking.

Want more proof that Republicans don’t give a damn about you unless your stock portfolio has more chapters than the King James Bible? The deficit is projected to shrink even more rapidly than originally proposed, yet Republicans want to restrict food assistance benefits even more.

Because clearly, cutting $20 billion from monies set aside to help feed people and keep them alive is so vital to reducing our $642 billion deficit that we should just say “the hell with those po’folks…we can lower the deficit by a whole 3% if we just let some of ‘em starve.”

This is how much Congress cares about unemployment.

Hearing on long-term unemployment kicks off with… *one* lawmaker in attendance. twitter.com/nirajc/status/…

— Niraj Chokshi (@nirajc)

April 24, 2013

Washington does not care about you.

I repeat. The people we have elected to represent us in Congress do.not.care.about.you. Because you don’t have millions of dollars to fund their campaigns and they cannot be bothered to deal with your problems.

We need to talk about being poor in NYC.

There are some people who have (oddly) strong opinions about living in Manhattan and what it’s like. Apparently, if you make $35,000 and live in Manhattan you are living in poverty and can barely eat, according to one of the many responses I got yesterday.

All of Manhattan is not created equal and I know plenty of regular 20somethings in entry-level positions doing just fine in Manhattan. I actually take offense at the view that the only people with any decent quality of life in Manhattan are in that fancy echelon of $50 dinners every night, custom-made suits, and private transportation. So let’s talk about what it means to be poor in NYC and why there are a lot of people living happily poor in Manhattan.

Income inequality in NYC by subway line.

The New Yorker tried a fun thing the other day. They posted an interactive map showing each subway line in NYC and the median income at each stop. Go play with it and let’s see if we have the same problem with the data

America, which already collects pennies compared to other countries, wants to pay even LESS in taxes.

Republican talking heads would have us believe that wealthy Americans and corporations are being unfairly targeted for tax increases because they already pay SO MUCH and the rest of us are just living off the teat of their hard work. Right now, some of America’s most visible brands are joining together in the hopes of persuading Congress to alter corporate tax legislation to reduce their burden even further.

I’m tired of these grown-ass crybaby Americans. Get your shit together and learn what paying taxes is supposed to look like.

Another day, another black celebrity lost all their money: Mary J. Blige.

Mary J. Blige is broke.

(that one finger she’s holding up is for the one dollar she has left to her name)

Mary J Blige’s financial problems have worsened after she was hit with a tax lien after allegedly failing to pay $901,769.65 in back taxes.

The 42-year-old singer - who was sued earlier this month for allegedly defaulting on a $500,000 bank loan - owes $901,769.65 to the State of New Jersey.

(source)

Granted, that’s a step up from her childhood upbringing of being poor. Poor is when you have nothing. Broke is when you have a whole lot of stuff you can no longer pay for. But both of them mean you don’t have any money.

Facebook didn’t pay any taxes. And they’re getting a $429 million refund.

And they probably won’t pay any taxes for a few years going forward. And they’ll get enormous refunds each year. And then we’ll all use Facebook to bitch about how horribly unfair that is because we’re struggling to make ends meet and this billion dollar company is getting piles of money handed to them by the government.

This says two things about Americans:

1. We don’t know how to step away from a product we really don’t need even if we hate the company because we just like to whine and not actually make any changes.
2. We don’t understand how taxes work, and why it’s perfectly fine for Facebook not to pay any.

This white girl in Harlem got loud in the deli because they don’t accept credit cards.

I really did think she was about to cry. She was in full-on Entitlement Butthurt Meltdown because the big angry Pakistani wouldn’t take her Visa to buy a pack of Marlboro Light 100s and a Diet Pepsi.