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TruthSeeker24's 3rd Millennium Tidbits
Saturday, November 15, 2014
More Links about Conscious Information
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Saturday, October 25, 2014
Other News
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Tuesday, October 14, 2014
Conscious Words
Actually, you can find the Cornel West interview in DEMOCRACY NOW with Amy Goodman. I think it happened on October 6. I learned that Cornel West was arrested yesterday in Ferguson. The BOOK is called BLACK PROPHETIC FIRES, and involves an interview between West and a progressive German Christian and scholar. Unfortunately, I forget the German guy's name. -Savant _____________________ Peut-etre le choix de Mossadegh. La lute pour la liberte CONTINUE Dans tous le pays un chemin de la liberte est possible, mais difficile. Paths to freedom must be found in every country, Islamique et non-islamique Tous les hommes are destinied for freedom, though there will be setbacks and defeats as well as victories and great advances. Meme a Egypt, hardly had the Muslim Brotherhood taken power than there was already popular resistance. Where do you think it came from? Not solely from the Christian or secular minorities. Popular resistance in a Muslim country means much resistance is coming from Muslims themselves--in some cases even from Muslims who foolishly voted for the loony Brotherhood. (A sign of the times? In Christian Germany there was no almost immediate popular resistance within less than a year of der Fuhrer taking power. There would be now, and we also see it now in the Muslim world. Hegel has a point even if I cannot fully embrace his metaphysics: World history is the progress of the consciousness of freedom. The Zeitgeist, the spirit of freedom spreads over the whole earth. But what Hegel calls the Zeitgeist is actually the spirit of man. Freedom isn't some mere property or faculty that we have. It is what we ARE. It constitutes the being of the human--les Mussulman compris.. What has remained is for human beings to develop ever higher awareness of freedom as their destiny as well, growing awareness of the dignity of the human being. I am not naïve. This will involve an PROTRACTED struggle. But I am not pessimistic. The liberation of every man, woman and child on earth will be the fruit born of that struggle. We human beings are so constituted that it can hardly be otherwise. We will be free or we will not be. Human beings will never stop striving for freedom. And in every corner of the globe freedom will rise like the dawn).The only question is : How can I aid its rising? -Savant ________________________ In post# 895 I quoted your exact words, you stupid g___. Go read what you wrote! LOL! And credibility with YOU? LOL! That is funny. At any rate, I won't waste more words on you. Your four year old nephew would probably make a more intelligent interlocutor. And your obtuseness may be infectious. Au revoir. Countering the war against Black America--for it's not just against men--and the war against the poor, the working classes and other oppressed groups is what everybody should be talking about. Mass demonstrations are happening in Ferguson and elsewhere. Militarized police--who look like Yankee versions of the gestapo--are setting upon NONVIOLENT demonstrators with mace and gas. Not long ago they used rubber bullets. ARRESTS are mounting in an atmosphere which is becoming more and more fascistic. And it hasn't helped that the Supreme Court during the summer of 2013 gutted the Voting Rights Act of 1965--once regarded as the crown jewel of civil rights victories of the time. And throughout the nation conservative state government are enacting stiff you requirements for voting which disproportionately work to disfranchise Black and Brown folk. So, while Capree, SBT and others continue their Jerry Springer level chatter, the more mature and socially conscious among us must face the growing shadow Fascism spreading across the land. Now this gets us back to the real issues. And I insist that the war is against Black America. It extends to other oppressed groups as well. And the more conscious and committed must figure out how to prepare our defenses. And also how to strategically mount an offensive. -Savant
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Sunday, August 31, 2014
Trojan Pam's Words
TrojanPam says:
August 20, 2014 at 7:59 pm @ Courtney H.
I believe the media/government is using black people and STAGED RIOTS to not only demonize us as a group but also to set the stage for larger society. It's like we're a dress rehearsal for what is coming. Now, there's a new 'black' movie coming out where a black male is terrorizing a black female and her child ALONGSIDE a movie with Denzel Washington where he becomes a superhero "The Equalizer" saving and assisting white people. I try to warn people that ANYTHING YOU SEE ON TV AND COMING FROM HOLLYWOOD is promoting white supremacy and anti-blackness (which amounts to the same thing) and while we're sitting in these movies we never ask "How come there are no movies where a black man protects black women and black children?" coming out of Hollywood?
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More of Savant's Words
HEDY EPSTEIN I want to send a shout out to Hedy Eptein, German Holocaust survivor, who was recently arrested in protests against the injustice in Ferguson, MO. It seems she has had a long history of progressive struggle ever since she arrived in this country. Apparently, this German Jewish lady whose parents sent her to England (thereby saving her life, though not their own) has been involved him human rights struggles since at least the 1940s. It seems she was shocked to learn about the realities of racial segregation in this country during the 1940s. And many of the racially repressive laws directed against Blacks at that time reminded her of similar measures in Germany just prior to Hitler's the "Final Solution." I am perturbed to learn that she has a long history of activist solidarity with Black freedom struggles, but that it was only with her recent arrest that I learned of her. When I began this thread years ago to both elicit the voices of progressive whites, and to celebrate their contributions to emancipatory struggles, it was people like Ms. Eptein that I had in mind. She belongs to that tradition of the Tom Paine, Grimke sisters, the whites of the Mississippi Freedom Summer and many others who have sought justice even if it had to be at the expense of white privilege. Of course, as a European Jew in the Third Reich she belonged to the most detested and persecuted race in Europe---as we have long been in America. I can only imagine that when she saw those militarized police pitted against the Black community ---against NONVIOLENT protestors---she was reminded of the gestapo cops who turned Europe into an inferno. And perhaps she reco9gnized that the fascistic tactics directed against our people must eventually become the commonplace way in which America as a whole would be ruled if it is ignored when done in the Black community. For some Jews--unfortunatel y not all--"Never again!" never again only for the Jews. But never again can atrocities be accepted against ANY human community. She may not represent the majority of white America, but she does represent the BEST of white America....the best in all of us. May she and others like her live ad prosper until the rivers run backward
learned long ago not to take what you say at face value. Suffice it to say that some African Americans might find a TRIP TO DENMARK quite pleasant. And even though I know that there is racism in Europe, I doubt that Denmark or any Western European country is more racist than the good ole USA. -Savant
Probably PEOPLE saw the dangers of Fascism in the 1960s because of the repression against movement which intensified in the late 60s. Students shot by National Guard, Panthers killed and railroaded, the atrocities of Mayor Daley's police during the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago, the trial of the Chicago 7, etc. George Jackson actually believed that America was ALREADY Fascist, not just moving in that direction. But we have seen that it could get even worse, the Neoconservative movement has tried to undo the progressive accomplishments of the 1960s. So, our struggle must CONTINUE before America does become Fascist, totally and for real. In some collection of his writings, Noam Chomsky stated that if police were allowed to operate throughout the WHOLE of America as they do in Black and Latin communities, the USA would already be regarded as a fascist or police state. Take that as a warning!!! Some whites--like Hedy Epstein--have seen the writing on the wall. We had all better unite soon in defense of what freedom we have left before it's too late. Death to Fascism!
Submitted by Brutal Truth on Tue, 09/11/2012 - 16:20.
Obama had 2 years from January 2009 through January 2011 when this country had a Democratic supermajority in the Senate, a sizeable Democratic majority in the House plus an ostensibly Democratic president. Golden opportunity to actually get off their asses and do something about the minimum wage, the Employee Free Choice Act, single-payer health care... What do we have to SHOW for it?
Minimum wage stuck at $7.25/hour -- great for business owners but absolute sh___ for the average low-wage worker. No Employee Free Choice Act because it would give the capitalist ownership class acid reflux. No single-payer health care, not even a public option, no ability to reimport affordable pharmaceuticals from Canada because that would cut into Big Pharma's profit margins. No, instead what we got was a health care "reform" bill that only Big Pharma and the HEALTH INSURANCE COMPANIES could love. If you don't believe me ask yourself why did the stocks of big insurance companies skyrocket as soon as word reached Wall Street that the "reform" bill was going to pass in Congress? We also have had an administration that floated a trial balloon in the Washington Post a couple of years ago suggesting they want to privatize public housing. If a white Republican president had suggested that they'd run his a___ out of town on a rail and call him the biggest racist since David Duke. But an African-American Democrat president suggests it and I hear crickets chirping. If a Republican president had ramped up the failed natural gas pipeline war in Afghanistan the anti-war protesters would have come out of the woodwork... but Obama does it and the left doesn't make a sound.
Just what exactly do you expect the billionaires' puppet and corporate (___) Obama to do in the next four years? When he has absolutely no pressure whatsoever from having to face another election? If he didn't do jack nor s____ these last four years knowing he'd have to face progressives at the BALLOT BOX in 2012 what the h___ kind of leverage do you think we'll have with him over the next four? Get real buddy, as Glen Ford and others on this blog have said before Obama is not the lesser of two evils but the more effective evil. Don't be an enabler for him. Vote for none of the above. Refuse to give your endorsement to a transparently phony and meaningless process. Refuse to lend it undeserved credibility. Otherwise you're part of the problem.
Has anyone noticed that Assdurratin's postions here are identical with those promoted by far RIGHT wing racists. Those Voter ID laws are actually more like the poll taxes and other measures which politically disfranchised our ancestors after Reconstruction. It is no coincidence that most people blocked from voting by the new voting restrictions are Black and (increasingly) Hispanic citizens. Also notice Assdurratin's RHETORIC: "Obama the MARXIST." Only a philosophically and politically illiterate simpleton could think that Obama is a Marxist after reading Obama's writings and speeches. But then again, only a political or philosophical illiterate could read Nkrumah and not see that he was a Marxist, though Assdurratin (who claims he's an Nkrumahist) vehemently denies Nkrumah's Marxism. What a phony he is: an a___ kissing Uncle tom reactionary pretending to be a follower of a left revolutionary African statesman. And now he's DEFENDINGmeasures by his right wing white masters to disfranchise us again, a ,mere 50 years the Civil Rights Act, and 49 years after the Voting Rights Act of 1965. "Traitor go to h___!" -Savant ________________
Thanks. Now something interesting happened at my university last week. No classes yet, just some faculty meetings. In one session I an a few others were asked to share our experiences as faculty who were first time or first generation university graduates. There was myself, a brother from the "hood" of east Baltimore, and son of parents who had left the Jim Crow South, a white working class woman from a poor family for whom it was uncommon even to complete high school. A woman from Africa living in the USA, from the lower rungs of the Nigerian middle class, but whose family had never gotten anywhere near a UNIVERSITY EDUCATION. And then there was the organizer of the panel---the daughter of Holocaust survivors. All first time educated folk from underprivileged backgrounds. After telling my story, my family's struggle to secure a decent education for me and my little sis, the lady who organized the panel stated to the audience "I can really relate to Dr. Savant's story because I am also a first generation college graduate. And like Professor Savant, I am a child of people who had to escape racial persecution, and long years of poverty. My parents were also Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany, like Ms. Epstein of whom Savant speaks so eloquently. They were not as poor as Savant's parents--not until Hitler took from them everything they had. And they remained poor for some time after they got to America. But they, too, had that passion for education, the same passion for at least the education of their children that Savant tells us his family and that most people in his community once had." I suggested that with the Jewish people, a "people of the book", learning (or at least love of learning) was also an ancient tradition which she inherited. At one time--not so sure about now--education was virtually a religious devotion in Black America, commonly seen as a key to collective freedom as well as personal advancement, and partly because so many whites (beginning with slaveholders) were so determined that we not be educated. But it's important that we continue to advocate education, not merely for personal economic advancement, but for personal and social liberation and freedom. Education for freedom.
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Wednesday, August 27, 2014
Controversial, but Interesting Words
Submitted by Brutal Truth on Tue, 09/21/2010 - 23:03:
True communists are not dictators but in favor of a truer democracy than you've ever experienced with the flaccid, pale puppet SHOW that is American bourgeois "democracy". You don't seem to understand that I'm not talking about a bureaucratic government ownership of the means of production but rather a system in which there is direct worker ownership of the means of production, i.e. businesses being owned jointly by all of its workers (except for those that are small enough to be worked entirely by its owner like hot dog stands or newsstands) which would itself be worker ownership because he or she would be doing all the work on their own. If you think you can reform a system that is built around greed and screwing over everyone else in order to enrich a tiny clique and somehow transform it into something that really represents what's best for everyone who isn't rich then you're tilting at windmills. Capitalism is doing what it's designed to do and the whole American system including its constitution written by the elite slaveowning planter class in the interests of the elite would be laughable for its irony were it not for the immense HUMAN suffering it overlooks being obviously no laughing matter. It mouths nice and high-minded principles but they have never been lived up to and since the 9/11 false flag operation the mainstreaming of police state measures and descent into overt fascism have been plain for anyone to see.
What you don't seem to grasp is that myself and people like me don't advocate some kind of tyrannical police state with a nightmare of a bureaucracy but the opposite, a transparent, widely decentralized (council communist) government which can be recalled at a moment's notice if it strays from representing the interests of the proletariat. Debate should be encouraged, not curtailed. And the underlying laws governing society would be based upon advancing and bettering society as a whole and transitioning to a classless society; part of this includes being able to do what one wants to do as long as it's not violating anybody else's civil liberties, in other words an adult could choose to smoke herb or choose not to without fear of legal punishment but someone couldn't kidnap a person and force them to smoke it. Likewise someone could work where he or she pleases but the old ideas of (bourgeois) property relations would be discarded , meaning it would be impossible for a citizen to be in a position to economically oppress others in an employer-employee relationship.
Instead it would be a beautiful paradox: Nobody in the bourgeois sense of the word would be a BUSINESS OWNER but at the same time everyone would be a BUSINESS OWNER by being a worker and part-owner of whatever business in which they work. The betterment of the proletariat is what true communists work towards and that is why we always bring forward the property question. We want a world in which the worker owns his or her own home but not a world in which a person can personally own his own homebuilding business unless he can do all the work himself. Otherwise it would be owned by its workers and whatever would be its profit margin rolled back into payroll. FREE HEALTH CARE, free education through college, a good opportunity from birth for everybody. These are the things that true communists want. To answer your question, if they differ from these things that I mentioned then they are not true communists.
Submitted by Brutal Truth on Wed, 09/22/2010 - 00:48.
Anyone can claim to be working in the interests of something but the proof is in the pudding. As I stated, when Lenin dissolved the workers soviets (councils) from that point onward it couldn't be considered a truly communist state so any comparison isn't valid any more than someone could consider crusaders claiming to be operating in the name of Jesus then beheading villagers in the Middle East to be genuine Christians. It's only a problem for small minded people who can't understand that someone claiming to be something doesn't necessarily mean they are what they claim. Read what I just posted if you want to know what true communists are in favor of and what we aren't then get back to me. You're repeating points like about bureaucracies I already explained to C.N. Regarding religion however I think that while national and international church hierarchies have no place in a socialist SOCIETY because they have always been used as a mouthpiece for the elite in whichever country one finds them there should be no problem with churches at the local level and attendance should neither be encouraged nor discouraged. Some communists definitely need to be less dogmatic regarding religion and realize that it isn't religion that is evil but the abuse and manipulation of people by using religion by the establishment that is evil. Again, read what I posted above and you'll see what I am saying about non-violation of others' civil liberties underlying the new SOCIETY'S laws. As long as someone isn't violating anybody's civil rights or oppressing others, including economically oppressing them in an employer-employee relationship, then they aren't breaking the law. Debate should be encouraged, I noted that already. "disregarding culture and viewing HUMAN societies to be merely a series of class relationships is universal? "
What's universal is that proletarian socialism is UNIVERSALLY APPLICABLE to any people's situation because in the capitalist economic model the problem is always the same everywhere, the workers are everywhere enslaved, just in varying degrees of wage slavery. In other words a worker in a maquiladora in Los Angeles has infinitely more in common with a worker in a sweatshop in Cambodia than either of them has in common with the bourgeoisie in their own country. To answer your question about why systems such as the Soviet Union or P.R. of China have betrayed their originally-stated or at least purported intentions is that by their own weakness the ones originally leading the SOCIAL revolution become corrupted through an over-centralized format of government in which they are the center of it, they lose sight of working in the people's interest and (this is key) the people didn't ensure that they were installing a transparent government that can be recalled if it starts to go off the rails. I already addressed how transparency is absolutely critical and this is why. The Soviet Union became what it hated, a SOCIETY with classes only in their case the ruling class was the pseudo-communist bureaucracy enjoying privileges and wealth unobtainable by the average citizen. It goes without saying that such a system doesn't adhere to communist principles any more than a Muslim theocracy would be a genuine Muslim theocracy if it encouraged everyone to eat pork and get drunk.
Though it would be patently obvious that the latter situation was false it somehow eludes many people that a system that entrenches a new class division in place of the old one and doesn't allow the workers to remove the government if it becomes counter to their interests is (gasp!) not what genuine communism is about at all but 180 degrees away from it. Basically you're arguing the same exact argument that certainly Leonardo da Vinci had to endure if ever he showed his plans for the flying machine with flapping wings to anybody. "That thing will never fly and it SHOWS that people were never, ever under any circumstances meant to fly through the air. People being able to fly is an unnatural concept and will simply never happen!" But lo and behold in 1903 people were able to take off in a heavier-than-air fixed-wing aircraft and humanity didn't look back. Humanity's advancement will eventually catch up with its visionaries.
Communism is both economic and political in that politics cannot ever really be DIVORCED from economics. "...in favor of a bureacracy which was supposedly focussing only on the class relationships(as if this was the most important thing). " The class relationships/class struggle is most certainly the most important thing. You need to understand the historical nature of the struggle and how history MOVES in a certain pattern. All of it comes back to one central issue, that a thread running through all of recorded history is class oppression. It was true when feudalism was the in thing and all the bourgeois epoch has done is substituted a simplified and more overt version of class oppression for the multitude of sub-class gradations of the past like feudal lords, guildmasters, journeymen, serfs, slaves; all that has been simplified into two great opposing classes: the bourgeoisie (the wealthy, ownership class) and the proletariat (which should be considered everyone else who isn't rich.) Until you realize this universal truth that applies to every capitalist society from the U.S. to Poland to Nigeria to Syria, then you won't be able to grasp where communists are coming from when we talk about the universality of capitalism's oppression. Do you honestly think that a guy flipping hamburgers in the hot ass kitchen of a fast food restaurant has more in common with some bourgeois pig in his own country living in a gated community sipping mint juleps and bitching about how inefficient his servants are, than he has in common with someone spinning yarn in a sweatshop in some other country? If so there's not much for us to talk about.
I'm not in favor of eliminating cultures. Someone's culture should be embraced as it's a part of them and part of what makes them who they are. Great, no problem. But that doesn't mean that we should allow the world's (and each individual society's) cultural differences to balkanize us into acting like HUMANITY is more than one species. When we do that we are just doing the work of the bourgeoisie. They want us to remain artificially divided with this ethnic group distrusting that ethnic group because it keeps us from coming together and kicking the shit out of them. Who benefits from white workers living in trailer homes fearing and loathing African American workers living in apartments who make the same starvation wages? The working class whites and AAs? Or the PARASITICfilth that keeps both of them living from hand to mouth? We have to remember who the real enemy is.
Submitted by Brutal Truth on Wed, 09/22/2010 - 19:05. Russell Means is way too caught up in narrowminded cultural-nationalist thinking to be able to see the forest for the trees so to speak. The answer isn't to distrust everything that doesn't originate within one's own community. Again, that's just lending a helping hand to the ruling elite by ensuring that no one group gains a critical mass of PEOPLE and that everyone remains divided into tiny ethnic enclaves. He fails to comprehend the big picture and seems too hooked on cultural exclusivity. What's the difference between a white bigot claiming that white-oriented culture is superior to all others and a Lakota Indian claiming that indigenous native culture is superior to all others? The solution isn't to try to revert to some prehistoric Luddite wet dream of a social order where we all worship "mother Earth" and shun advances in TECHNOLOGY and new ideas if they originate with someone who grew up speaking a different language or having a different culture. Likewise Means falls into the same philosophical trap that you seem to be falling into regarding condemning all Marxist thinking by the examples of societies like the Soviet Union that blatantly deviated sharply from genuine Marxist teachings. For example, in Means's railing against Soviet destruction of the environment he overlooks that they were doing so explicitly counter to Marxism. Consider that it states in chapter 2 of the Communist Manifesto that one of the goals of a truly socialist society is "the bringing into cultivation of wastelands and the improvement of the soil GENERALLY IN accordance with a common plan." Nowhere does it say to rape the environment. It would be like me criticizing Christianity for advocating the beheading of people that refuse to convert to Christianity when the crusaders were obviously acting completely 180 degrees against what Christ's teachings were. The actions of the crusaders no more condemn Christ's actual teachings than societies claiming to be acting in the name of Marx but pervert and ignore his precepts could be used to condemn Marxism. If I claim to be a radical environmentalist and in the name of the planet decide to go to an oil refinery and EXECUTE everyone then cause a giant explosion that destroys the surrounding town then does that mean that environmentalism is ipso facto evil because of what I did?
Of course not. This point doesn't need to be belabored, it's self-evident if you think about it. There are certain universal truths in life. One of them is that if someone who owns a business is allowed to then he or she will inevitably pay his or her workers no more than he thinks he can get away with paying them. Honestly, and this may sting a little but it needs to be said: An African American BUSINESS OWNER with a shop in Harlem employing black workers is no more likely to treat them any better than a white business owner in Bel Air would treat his white workers. It is a class issue, a difference of haves and have nots. Moreover, regardless of ingrained prejudices that affect so many of our white brothers and sisters, a black businessman in the conditions of his economic existence has infinitely more in common with white businessmen than he does with his own black workers. The solution: the abolishing of bourgeois property in the interest of the betterment of everyone who isn't of the propertied class. This is the solution whether one is talking about the economically oppressed here or wherever capitalism is the dominant economic system.
True HUMANprogress can only really be defined in terms of economic equality, of advancing to the stage where nobody is born into poverty and nobody is born into wealth. A society's development has to be measured against how close or how far away it is from that end goal. Maybe I'm ahead of my time, in fact I'm pretty sure I am but that's OK. The world will eventually grow the hell up and the vast majority of its people will eventually decide that what is in their own best interests is also in the best interests of their brothers and sisters of the oppressed proletariat much in the same way that nobody in the developed world sends their kids to work in a coal tipple anymore. It's progress and it can be delayed, it can even be reversed temporarily but it can never and will never be permanently derailed. Progress is inevitable. The bourgeoisie is on borrowed time.
Submitted by Brutal Truth on Wed, 09/22/2010 - 20:47. Yes, the proof is in the pudding as it is very easy to tell if any person or SOCIETY that claims to be Marxist is actually Marxist in the same way that any person that claims to be Christian is actually Christian. It involves nothing more than actually reading their respective literature then comparing and contrasting the actions of the person or society in question with the literature they claim to embrace. Pretty effing simple. Jimmy Swaggart was a con artist. Does that mean Christ and everyone who is a genuine Christian is a con artist? "my disagreements with marxist theory is that it posits that HUMAN societies most important elements are merely economic relationships(thus reducing the HUMAN experience to merely economic relationships(without considering and to the detriment and neglect of the countless other things that make a HUMAN SOCIETY whole) " Well human societies' most important elements that determine its current condition are in fact economic relationships, namely the state of its class struggle. Regardless of national differences, cultural differences, differences in cuisine and religion and its own shared group experiences there is something that is unavoidably present in every capitalist SOCIETY and looming over it: The oppression of about 95% of its population by the other 5%, give or take a percentage point or two one way or the other. In essence it is unavoidable that with capitalism one has two distinct and extremely unequal sets of people, the haves and have nots. We can massage it and try to reform it and make it into something that has some compassion for the have nots but trying to reform it offers no changes beyond the cosmetic. If it wasn't about the "sanctity" of an individual being able to economically oppress others for his own personal enrichment then it wouldn't be capitalism. As an economic model it works great for the comparatively tiny clique that owns the wealth but for the rest of the people? Not so much. That's why the BEST BET for the bourgeoisie is to keep us as ignorant of our plight as possible and keep us as divided against one another as possible. Having a narrow focus or disregarding ideas simply because they were put on paper by a white man/European/whatever is closeminded to the Nth degree and playing right into the enemy's hands.
Ultimately what I'm saying is this: Underlying every capitalist society is the same oppression by the haves against the have nots. Yes there are a multitude of different cultures and religions and nationalities and that's a good thing as it would be a pretty damned boring world otherwise. But those differences in no way whatsoever change the fundamental class struggle that itself is the underlying problem within every single capitalist SOCIETY in the world, just in somewhat varying degrees. That much we all as HUMANS have in common if we live in capitalist countries, that this phenomenon is present. With this economic model it has to be present because capitalism is the polar opposite of anything that places human dignity and worth and the advancement of the average person over the narrow class interests of a tiny well-to-do minority. Anything that says the profit margin is more important than people's lives and well-being is inherently evil to its core and is beyond reforming. Tear it down and start over.
Submitted by Brutal Truth on Thu, 09/23/2010 - 21:48. In Christian literature one doesn't need to go beyond the four gospels and doesn't need to consider anything beyond Christ's actual teachings. Those are pretty straightforward and don't contradict each other. Regarding Marxism, I agree with the vast majority of its tenets but in its application I personally tend to favor a more decentralized approach perhaps somewhat like the anarcho-syndicalist radical leftists in the Spanish Civil War carried out in the territories under their control from 1936-'39. This may just be a problem of interpretation or where the emphasis is placed more than a problem of substance. It isn't the power itself that corrupts a person or a group but the ability to exercise power unchecked with citizens unable to have any recourse or avenue for redress of grievances. This is why I've emphasized transparency in any workers state government. Once the class structure has been smashed it has to be the overriding goal to prevent another class structure from emerging in its place, e.g. a bureaucratic class unto itself that enjoys privileges that the regular citizens do not. This helped sink the Soviet experiment. When Marx speaks of centralizing this or that in the hands of "the State" he's speaking of the ideal, 100% democratic workers state which would represent the will of the proletariat but even so I like yourself would rather place more power in the hands of local elected councils with the central government being nothing much more than a "meeting place" for representatives of these local councils to decide the few POLICIES that need to be decided at the national level.
All of them certainly subject to recall if they stray from the path of what's best for the proletariat. This is true council communism and the Soviet Union would have been a beautiful thing had it maintained this form of government rather than quickly discarding it in favor of their circular logic of "the Bolsheviks always know best and we're the Bolsheviks so we automatically represent the will of the proletariat so there's no need for elections." No way José, that route can't be taken. Obviously there would have to be some kind of equivalent to a federal government if for no other reason than to organize the common defense of the workers state; in that vein I favor instead of a large standing army like seems to be popular among pseudo-communist countries/deformed workers states rather having a military that is sort of like a high-tech militia that can be called out when needed. Sort of borrowing from the Hezbollah model. It would be nothing that could be used to mount a real invasion and occupation of another country but something that is intended for deterrence against foreign counterrevolutionary incursions. Regardless I think the key to the whole thing is transparency and ensuring that any central government that would necessarily need to exist would be 100% subject to the workers councils. The best way to accomplish that would be a national-level "parliament" made up entirely of elected workers who also serve in their local councils. That's how I've always envisioned it as it dovetails nicely with worker ownership of the means of production and exchange.
Decisions affecting a locality, e.g. whether or not to build a broom factory there or convert acres of pastureland into cropland would have to be approved locally with a referendum, with the federal government in a position to advise but not insist. No permanent bureaucracy and no unelected officials. No CAREER politicians. As long as it is transparent and accountable to the will of the people at every moment then I see no problem in a central government being formed. My difference with Karl Marx is in the emphasis, in that I would want the default to be the decision being made at the local level and anything that could not be decided locally would then have to be decided by the "federal" government which in my opinion should be just an extension of all the local governments. Above all else we would have to remain careful to not allow any government to become a class unto itself or else we've defeated the whole purpose. I think you and I agree on most of this anyway. We're definitely on the same side.
Submitted by Enlightened Cynic on Wed, 09/22/2010 - 10:40. You can't conflate Chavez with Castro. Whether you like it or not, Chavez is DEMOCRATICALLY ELECTED. Usually in overwhelming majorities. Your criticisms of "socalism" aside, don't buy the Pentagon, CFR, and Mass Media hysteria about Chavez being a dictator. No more "dictator" than GWB who stole 2 elections. (Where was the UN on that one?) You might aver that Chavez manipulated the Constitution to engineer additional term(s) blah, blah, blah. But didn't the UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT manipulate the Constitution to engineer a Bush win in Florida? Didn't Diebold and the GOP steal Ohio in the subsequent election? How many Black (or other) felons are still denied the right to vote, or work for wages cheaper than those in Barundi under the prison system that incarcerates more PEOPLE than anyone in the world? Try to start a new political party and watch how much money or how many legal obstacles are placed in your path. Americans like to believe we are a democracy, we have freedom of speech, we can own "property," blah blah blah. Bull___. We have manufactured consensus and election results engineered by the Elites.
Freedom of speech? Don't make me laugh. How many times do we need to see peaceful protesters arrested whether on sidewalks or the Halls of Congress for speaking truth to power? If most, if not all of us said what we write here at BAR at work, in our local papers, in our churches, we'd be fired and ostracized to high heaven. The "consensus BUILDING SYSTEM" would punish us economically and marginalize us socially for not adopting American Exceptionalism, the root and branch of global racism. Think 9/11 Truthers.. tell your co-workers you believe 9/11 was an inside job and watch what happens to your PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL. All of a sudden C.N. becomes a "poor fit," "he's not a 'team player' anymore," and soon his ass is unemployed and blackballed. Say what you will in America but pay dearly. Just because we can go to WalMart every other weekend and get on-demand porn don't mean we're "free."
Cuba would be faring much better were it not for the criminal US embargo, Venezuela is doing better than us despite repeated US covert actions to subvert the will of the PEOPLE. Despite decades of the US foot on it's throat Cuba has the finest medical system in Latin America. Both Castro and Chavez have raised standards of living of the general populace because they don't interpret "property rights" through the Western lense. Many of these so-called "socialist countries" would do fine if the US just left them the fuck alone. But you know as I do that anyone that doesn't toe the line is a "threat" which typically means anyone who speaks truth to power is a threat. Or anyone who experiments with a different political economy is a "threat." Start kicking up the dust around the lunch/breakroom about the real deal behind 9/11 if you doubt me, and you'll see how fast you on the outside looking in, on the sidewalk eating twinkies standing in the unemployment line. Hey I'm all for self-help and sufficiency, which Blacks engaged in for millenia in the global sphere and hundreds of year in the American sphere. I mean, exactly WHEN were Blacks fully integrated into the "Capitalist System?" or are we even fully integrated NOW? Somebody please pencil in the date for me. Give the Euro-centric worldview a rest, it's bullshit. Read the article on Hudson's address to BRIC. "Not so fast my friend."
Submitted by Brutal Truth on Mon, 09/20/2010 - 18:43. "As flawed as USA capitalism is, I still think it is the best system in the world." It's not even the best system compared to other capitalist SOCIETIES like those found in western Europe where at least the workers have a little bit of clout, the government isn't unabashedly union busters and the people are educated enough to realize that socialism isn't a dirty word but the opposite. Capitalism is a heartless and evil system that works great for the wealthiest 1% or 2% or sometimes even 5% of the population but hands a giant shit sandwich to the remaining 95%+ percent and expects them to like it. Capitalism is very good at doing what it's designed to do: Make the rich richer with the consequence of making the poor poorer. It should not be applauded or apologized for but torn down and replaced with a system designed around what's best for the average non-wealthy person, not the average Rockefeller.
Submitted by Enlightened Cynic on Thu, 09/16/2010 - 23:20. Part of the difficulties in establishing new paradigns is because of the uncritical acceptance of "received wisdom" about what particular, iconic terms mean. Below is a definition of capitalism and it's one that's clearly slanted towards the "system." As evident by arguing that MOST importantly is a "moralistic system." Get that, a moralisitic system. LOL Now anyone with half a brain knows better. http://www.importanceofphilosophy.com/Politics_Capitalism.html Here's another ANALYSIS that get's at my point:
http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Capitalism#Capitalism_in_political_ideo... "Many Greens, Marxists and anti-Globalists agree that the governments of the major industrial economies are not serving in the role of protecting "the FREE MARKET", but would go on to say that these governments are, in fact, acting to protect the owners of capital and corporations as their first priority, sometimes expressed as "socialism for the rich, capitalism (cut throat competition) for the poor." These critics, therefore, would assert that the correct term for the core industrial nations is neither capitalism, nor mixed economy, but corporatist. Libertarians and other free-market advocates may also share this opinion regarding some or all of the major economies. Nevertheless, mainstream economists, for their part, admit that the present economic systems have diverged from earlier forms labeled "capitalism", and many believe that some of the modern economies are still best described as being "capitalism" rather than "mixed economy" or "corporatist."" There you have it folks. Capitalism is a loaded term. It is also distinctively Euro-centric and thus ethnocentric. It comes encrusted with American (and Western) Exceptionalism and other potent toxins. (Which is why it underlines the rhetoric of the Tea Party) Why are we describing the exchange of goods and services, whether through trade or batering or other forms of mutual economic exchange as "capitalism?" We need to be mindful that "trade" existed long before capitalism, long before the system of indebtedness that followed capitalism, long before excess production/consumption or concepts of private property, long before the Euro-centric political economy. Capitalism makes us "slaves" although we think we're free. The system squashes free thought and speech, punishes us economically if we speak or write or otherwise step outside the box. The system will blackball us into extreme poverty. F___ the western definition of capitalism which is racist, ethnocentric, and narrow minded. Africans, Asians and other cultures were engaged in trade when Whites were still in caves or warring for 100 years. That's not intended as an expression of who's superior, just a simple expression of FACTS. And most importantly a reminder that the "West" didn't invent FREE TRADE. We don't need no stinkin capitalism, we can create fairer instruments of trade. Islamic culture for instance frowns on usury to this very day. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_history_of_Africa "HUMANITY originated in Africa, and as soon as HUMAN societies existed so did economic activity.
Earliest humans were hunter gatherers living in small, family groupings. Even then there was considerable trade that could cover LONG DISTANCES. Archaeologists have found that evidence of trade in luxury items like precious metals and shells across the entirety of the continent." Thanks to you all for the many insightful suggestions. But let's keep in mind that usage of the term "capitalism" is full of unnecessary baggage. It confuses and stunts the dialogue between "Left" and "Right." The Left wants to categorically assume capitalism is unfair but yet want to be fairly REWARDED for their talents and labors, the Right assumes socialism is bad, yet negates the fact that capitalism institutionalizes inequalities. The language is nothing but an intellectual straight jacket. Until we begin to think outside the box in terms of what is or isn't "capitalism," until we acknowlege the true origins and facts of world COMMERCE and trade we'll continue to hamstring our efforts to create a new and workable paradignm. Everybody engages in trade, but not all trade is "capitalistic." Well, it certainly doesn't have to be so, does it??
Submitted by Brutal Truth on Thu, 09/23/2010 - 21:11. Considering the country's infrastructure is literally falling down around our ears I think there is a hell of a lot of opportunity out there for PEOPLE to be employed in rebuilding it if we had a government that put a priority on employment rather than toadying to the oil barons. Who really benefits from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq? Those who 1.want to force a different way for natural gas to be transported out of Turkmenistan without having to go through Russia or Iran; 2.those who want to take advantage of Iraq as the soon-to-be center of gravity of the 21st Century world's oil production and get their hooks in it to privatize its resources into being subsidiaries of Exxon Mobil, Chevron Texaco and Conoco Phillips; 3.the armaments manufacturers; 4. the mercenary "contractors" like Blackwater/Exe, Triple Canopy etc. In other words a pretty small slice of the American population. The enormous amount of CORPORATE GIVEAWAYS to this tiny sliver could be infinitely better spent on programs of social uplift and employment projects like a second New Deal. Maybe call it the Real Deal? The late great Dr. King once said that "Any society that spends more on military defense than it spends on programs of social uplift is headed for spiritual death." From where I sit its spiritual EKG is looking pretty damn shaky. ____________
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Wednesday, August 06, 2014
Savant's Great Words during August of 2014
The person most subservient to whites herd is you. After all, you don't see me singing the praises of white women while vilifying Black women. You don't see me deifying whites in general while disdaining my own people. Such sickness is yours, not mine. And self-hatred is a sickness---as well as the paranoia of seeing ghosts called "Mace" under every treed, every carpet, every bed, and in every closet. Even before your cognitive faculties disintegrated to the point they have now I warned you that this anti-Black hatred would ruin your mind, what mind you still had left. And obviously it has. If you have an ounce of sound judgment left then you will seek counseling on your own before you are involuntarily subjected to medical supervision.
Well, here's what Dr. King himself had to say about Democrats and Republicans:" This dearth of positive leadership from the federal government is not confined to one political party. Both political parties have betrayed the cause of justice. The Democrats have betrayed it by capitulating to the prejudices and undemocratic practices of southern Dixiecrats. The Republicans have betrayed it by capitulating to the hypocrisy of right wing, reactionary Northerners" (Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr., pp. 108--109) By the way, he did comment Eisenhower for his stand in Little Rock, as he would later commend Kennedy for forcing George Wallace to back down, and Johnson for supporting the Civil Rights Act of 1954 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Notice King commended PARTICULAR ACTIONS, when they coioncided with justice--but NO PARTY
Racism and Communism are different ideologies and tendencies. BOTH political parties have a tawdry record of racism, but both are (and have always been) anti-Communist. So stop using empty rhetoric. In fact, it is interesting that in America the most militantly anti-Communist have more often than not been the most militantly racist. No one was more anti-Communist in the bad old days as the Dixiecrat segregationists and their reactionary Northern Republican allies. But one thing that did happen is that due to the pressure of progressive movements in the 1960s, especially the Black Movement, the national Democratic party was pushed in a more liberal direction. At the level of national politics this meant a kind of alliance of moderate and liberal Democrats with moderate and liberal Republicans which facilitated civil rights victories at the federal level--isolating reactionary Dixiecrats and right wing Republicans. Barry Goldwater's 1964 campaign helped to bring together right wing Republicans and reactionary Dixiecrats in what became a foreshadowing of the neoconservative movement which would reach its peak in government during the Reagan Administration. What many people fail to recall is that in the 1950s ALL Republicans were not conservative or right wing. There were rightists, centrists and liberals in both Republican and Democratic parties. King knew this; Hence he never supported a particular party, only certain programs. Had a liberal Republican won the 1960 elections and did (under Movement pressure, of course) essentially the same things as were done under the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, that Party would almost certainly have a large (if not majority) part of Black electorate today. But with Barry Goldwater's public opposition to the 1964 Civil Rights law, an opposition which helped switch many Dixiecrat votes to the Republicans--but evoking vehement opposition from Dr. King and the Movement--Republic ans began to wreck any chances they might still have for AA voter support. The passage of a large number of voter restriction laws by Republican administrations in various states, only reinforces the image of the Republicans as the anti-Black party--not the party of Lincoln or Emancipation. Publicly stated opposition to the Civil Rights Act by both Ron and Rand Paul nearly fifty years after the fact, hasn't helped either.
Uncle Tom A___ Clarence, as one Black nationalist called him, is controlled by the Republican wing of the corporate elite. Clarence Thomas, who is always berating poor Blacks for using racism as an excuse for their own inadequacies, was himself screaming about a "high tech LYNCHING" when called to answer accusations about sexual harassment. But I wonder: How did he vote when the Republican majority Supine Court decided to gut the Voting Rights Act last summer? The enforcement clause, I mean.
Actually, Dr. King was NEVER a Republican, though Daddy King was for awhile. King, Sr. seems to have shifted from Republican to Democrat to support the Kennedy bid for the presidency. Again. in his Autobiorgraphy Dr. King stated that he preferred to stay clear of BOTH parties. Ironically, that one point on which Martin and Malcolm X both agreed.
Let's be clear. Dr. King was cautious about both parties, and would only support certain policies or programs, not parties. After all, both Kennedy/Johnson and George Wallace were Democrats. There were in those days still liberal or progressive Republican who supported civil rights and reactionaries (like Goldwater) who opposed it. Edward Brooke was a black liberal Republican, and supporter of civil rights. Barry Goldwater was a right wing white Republican who opposed it. So, what do you do? Worry less about the labels and more about the ideas, policies and programs.
In fact, it is the Left that has supported revolutionary developments in Africa--including those magnificent Black leftists, Dr. King and Malcolm X. It was the Right--like Reagan and his negro lapdogs--who promoted "constructive engagement" with the fascist regime in South Africa. It was they who backed up traitors like Chief Buthelezi. It was the left and progressives who supported groups like the ANC and the PAC. We revolutionaries and progressives also raised material support for FRELIMO, PAIGC and other revolutionary forces in Africa. Just because you're a right wing reactionary, militant Islamicist fundamentalist and possibly COINTELPRO agent, doesn't entitle you to lay claim to the work of others--work which you and your fellow reactionaries have tried to undermine.
Obama got a little over 40% of the white vote in 2008, and 35% of the white vote in 2012. He's the only Black and one of the few Democrats since Johnson to win that large a part of the white vote. But he didn't get half of it. Both in 2008 and 2012, Republicans still got a majority of the white vote.
Oh yes. Black and white reactionaries have more in common that immediately meets the eye, and more than they will admit. No wonder the American Nazi party was sympathetic to NOI in the time of Elijah Muhammad.
"I choose to identify with the underprivileged. I choose to identify with the poor. I choose to give my life for the hungry. I choose to give my life for those who have been left out of sunlight of opportunity...seei ng life as a long desolate corridor with not exit sign. This is the way I'm going. If it means suffering a little bit, I'm going that way...If it means dying for them, I'm going that way." Martin Luther King, Jr. "The Good Samaritan," Chicago, August 28,1966 Check this out in GOING DOWN JERICHO ROAD: THE MEMPHIS STRIKE AND MARTIN'S LUTHER KING'S LAST CAMPAIGN, by Michael K. Honey
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I'm a young adult learning new information and finding the truth. Over the years, I'm becoming more meek. I will still defend my beliefs though when it is necessary. I am 30 years old now. I like living in Hampton Roads. Hampton Roads is apart of Southeastern Virginia and Northeastern North Carolina. I live in the 7 city group of Norfolk, Portsmouth, Chesapeake, Newport News, Hampton, Suffolk, and Virginia Beach. Yorktown, Williamsburg, Glocuster, Cape Charles, Elizabeth City, Currituck, Sussex, and Poquoson are apart of Hampton Roads as well. So, I don't forget those important places as well. I enjoy looking at religious information, conspiracy fact information, and politics. Additionally, History is a subject that I delve into. If you have any comments and questions, you can email me at firstname.lastname@example.com. I'm usually very apt to respond to emails easily. This is a non-censorship blog so your comments will never be censored here.
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Sugar Maple Study
Pamela Patch
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An old Sugar Maple tree in full autumn color against a blue sky background.
November 19th, 2012
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I'm going straight to the top - Oh yea! Up where the air is fresh and clean I'm going straight up to the top- Oh yea! If you know me, you know what i mean I can't let sorrow try and pull ol' frankie down Live for tomorrow i have found you Tom WaitsThis photo was shot on film. Taken by cocaneonkamerasutra with a Lomo LC-A loaded with Fuji Provia 100F 35mm film in Dombay, Russian Federation. These tags describe this photo: provia, dombay, mountains, snow, and winter. Date: 2012-02. Time: Afternoon. This photo can also be found in the album with no strings attached to my magic marionette.
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Bad Service - Libretto's on Ossington
- Flexitarian Jul 24, 2014 07:05 PM
I love Libretto's and hadn't been there in a while but decided to go while I waited for my iPhone to be repaired. They have a great lunchtime special - $15 for salad, pizza and dessert. I arrived at about noon on a weekday and the place was about 1/2 full. There were tons of serving staff. The waitress was very pleasant and smiley and I immediately ordered as soon as I sat down. She brought water immediately and then 10 minutes later some bread and olive oil. A couple sat down beside me right then and also ordered.Then another 10 minutes went by, Finally I motioned her to come over and asked if the salad was going to be coming. She said it wouldn't be long. 5 minutes later it came out, delivered by someone else. 25 minutes is kind of a ridiculous time to wait for a small arugula salad with some shaved pears and parmesan, no?
My pizza came out about 10 minutes later, again by another staff member, along with the pizza for the couple beside me (they had no appetizer). I gobbled it up quite quickly as I was starving and the waitress came by a bit later and asked what I wanted for dessert. I asked for the gelato (they give you one big scoop in a glass). Well that took 15 minutes to arrive, yet again by another staff member! It takes 15 minutes to scoop up one scoop of ice cream into a glass?
During the whole episode my waitress must have walked by a hundred times. Anyway, i asked for the bill because I didn't want to wait even longer for that. Yet another person came out with it and one of those handheld credit card machines (which I am not very fond of). The automatic tip button on the machine was hard-coded at 17% (of the after tax amount). WTF? Why tip on the after-tax amount? They never got that when the taxes were lower and it has nothing to do with them. Also, why 17%? Why increase it from the standard 15%? Anyway, I was so peeved about the very slow service and that 17% button I tipped 10% before tax to send them a message. In fact any time I see a tip button that is more than 15% I am going to tip less than 15%! And, yeah yeah I know it may not have been her personal fault about the slow service but if it wasn't she could have put a bit of a bug in the ear of the kitchen staff about the salad and dessert. ANyway, the fact is restaurants share tips so all are involved in ensuring good quality food and prompt service. Lastly, maybe she could have had the presence of mind to apologize or explain why the service was oh...so..........slow...
Has the service level gone down at this place or did I just happen to have a bad experience? And what's with 17% of after-tax amount hard-coded as a tip? I bet most people just hit the button because they don't want to look cheap especially when they have to hand the terminal right back to the server instead of before when you just sign the credit card slip and ran out the door. Psychological studies do show that the main reason people leave adequate and sometimes high tips is not because they think the tipee deserves it but because they don't want to look cheap, especially in front of others.
re: ThoughtForFood
That's the place I meant. Many call it Libretto's. I've been going since it opened.
Honestly they probably don't care much about your $15 meal....The 17% is also not the server's fault. And I bet the kitchen wouldn't care for your $2 in tip anyway. They do have food runners at libretto and I guess that's why they ran the food to you instead of your server? Did the food taste good though? $15 good?
re: brushfire
unfortunately that's the reality. It's like brunch. Unless you're spending $$$ most servers can't be bothered.
re: brushfire
re: chowfinder
In other cities it might not be true. In Toronto, I find that brushfire's statement is accurate.
Toronto has horrible service (generally speaking).
re: kwass
I agree that the service is generally great at mid range for sure...and casual too. From my experience, I have sometimes found it tough to cash out as well. When I've asked I've been told that the resto doesn't have enough of those machines to go around so the wait time begins. Usually servers are very happy to get you out and turn the table. :-) Meanwhile enjoy the good food kwass!
re: justsayn
I've been to some great restaurants this summer, and enjoyed the food at all of them. It just gets frustrating when you're ready to leave and have to wait 15 minutes to get your bill.
re: kwass
In my own experience I find that servers in Toronto adopt an attitude where serving and customers are an annoyance. Or that servers are generally inept and unknowledgable. Or that servers are unfamiliar with the concept of gracious hosting. Or that servers possess a combination of all these things.
When I travel to other cities I'm always stunned by how much pride, graciousness and knowledge servers have.
And it makes me realize how bad we have it in Toronto. Again – this is taken only from my experience and is generally speaking; it does not apply to every service experience I've ever had here.
re: magic
Well, as they say, "the fish rots from the head" - the best service I have had is in places where the owner(s) and chef know what they are doing, and engage the respect of their entire team top to bottom, who in turn understand that creating a nice night out in a lovely room with good food and great service is what keeps people coming back, and it involves a commitment to teamwork.
In many places I've dined at, the servers seem disconnected from the chef, they are plainly just putting in their hours. There is no camaraderie on display amongst them and their fellow servers (no, I can't bring you water, it's not my section....")
re: kwass
16 of us went out for a staff lunch from work when a colleague was leaving and everyone except me paid by debit or credit. which meant that for those 15 minutes that the waitress was brining the machine over to those 15 people she was not looking after other tables and no one else could pay because she had the machine!. Before these machines people would just throw down the cash and you would be out in 3 minutes...
Also as it was lunch pretty much everyone else in the restaurant was also trying to pay at the same time as they all had to be back to the office by 1. Same thing happens at bars at the end of the night.
Until the point when each staff member has their own machine this will continue to be a problem. And right now these machines are cellular and pretty expensive as each one actually requires its own phone number & sim card to communicate.
So moral of the story is that if you are getting ignored by your server at the end of your meal it may just be that at large group of people are all trying to pay by card at the same time and not that there is some conspiracy against letting you leave.
re: pourboi
That's why cash is still King....
re: pourboi
I don't agree with what you said about each machine requiring a SIM card. Most have various communication options available, and wifi is one of them.
Have you ever wondered why most restaurants have wifi even if it is not for the customer's use? Its for these terminals.
I can't imagine why a restaurant owner would use the cellular network when wireless is an option.
Here is a terminal that I did some development for: https://developer.att.com/developer/d...
I heard it costs around $250 so it not really all that expensive to have four or five
re: foodyDudey
And how many times have you heard someone say "Shit the wifi is down" with all of the separate rooms, patios, kitchens covered in stainless steel, wifi is a huge pain in the butt especially when you are talking about a restaurant of the size that needs multiple machines.
Cellular is the most reliable (after land line).
Moneris (a very common payment processor) is cellular on their terminal: http://www.moneris.com/en/Products-Se...
and even their "short range" system does not use wifi but instead uses Bluetooth to a local base station.
re: pourboi
Never for a minute did I think that there was a conspiracy against me. Half the time the server just disappears when I want my bill and the other half, I just can't get his/her attention.
re: pourboi
But the machine doesn't stop you from continuing to throw down your cash like before.
re: brushfire
I didn't care about who was delivering my food. What bothered me was the long waiting time. The food was great as always, except the salad seemed to be a bit smaller then if it wasn't a part of the $15 fixed prix.
re: canadianbeaver
Slow service is enough. It's hard to screw up on bringing a plate to your table other then the waiting time, right?
I believe that servers can only enter the grand total into those machines, which is why they can only calculate the post-tax tip automatically (the machine doesn't know the pre-tax total).
As for 17%, maybe this is to compensate for the post-tax tipping, and end up with a final tip that would approximate a 20% pre-tax tip?
re: Michael N
That makes sense -- I hadn't thought of that before.
This wouldn't exactly be a difficult technical problem to solve if it were something anyone in the restaurant industry really wanted to solve. But I suppose inputting two numbers would slow the process down and increase the chances of errors happening, as well.
Still, I find it odd to blast one restaurant for something that's true of every restaurant. I don't think I can recall the last time I got one of those prompts with only one option and it was 15%. If there are multiple options, they're often 15, 18 and 20 or similar, but if there's just one, it's usually 17 or 18, not 15.
re: Jacquilynne
It is not true of every restaurant. The majority of restaurants I have been to both here and in other cities do not have a % tip hardcoded into the handheld credit card machine and when they have it hasn't been the single choice of 17% or a $ amount. Most just have '%' or '$ Amount' and you choose what % or what $ amount.. So, I think it's quite presumptious of a restaurant to expect what amounts to a tip of 19.2% of the pre-tax amount. So, given this I will blast all I want, lol.
As for having to punch 2 numbers in. That would have taken the server 10 seconds vs the numerous long waits I had for my food.
re: Pincus
No, Because of the excessive delay I was already late and had to leave, not to mention I was already so peeved I was not in a mindset to want more aggravation by having to wait for the manager to come over (and given everyone else's tardiness in this place it would have been a wait) and then have an unpleasant discussion with them.
Maybe I'll email them and hopefully get a complimentary meal next time which I hopefully won't have to wait too long for again.
re: Flexitarian
If you're so inclined, you should send a tweet. The owner has always gotten back to me whenever I've sent one.
re: Flexitarian
I've never had reason to complain, but I always get a response to any inquiry I've had. Chef Rocco is very gracious, so I wouldn't be surprised if he does offer you something complimtary.
re: Flexitarian
Yeah, I gathered lunch was running far too long. But, it can't hurt to contact management. At worst, there's a new restaurant to cross off your visiting choices.
i have also had terrible service at libretto which would be forgivable if the food was anything to write home about. there is a lot of fanfare for this restaurant but it is only ok imo.
re: frogsteak
Agree. Hubby and I have never been to the Ossington location but to the Danforth one three times. Totally inept service every single time. Too many servers wandering around doing nothing-I don't get it?
re: BlackMambaSommelier
How did you like the food? I have also been three times, but not in the last two years as it does not seem like anything special.
re: foodyDudey
I was there about 2 months ago and the food was fantastic! As good as ever!
re: foodyDudey
It's not. I've had FAR better VPN in NYC.
re: BlackMambaSommelier
What's VPN please?
re: fryerlover
Vera Pizza Napoletana
re: BlackMambaSommelier
Thank you
re: BlackMambaSommelier
re: julesrules
re: justsayn
vpn also is commonly used as an abbreviation for 'virtual private network', hence jules' comment. . .
fwiw, i think nyc doesn't do vpn any better than toronto. . .
re: afong56
Yes, NYC does VPN better than Toronto. That said, it's pizza - "bad" VPN is never really that bad and "great" VPN is only so good. It's good pizza, but it's still pizza.
re: BigBabyYeezuS
just curious as to which restos you think are the top nyc pizzerias for vpn, the ones that are better than pep, qmp, or libretto. . .
re: afong56
Fewer NYC places have the official VPN certification, which isn't much of a mark of quality but is merely a checklist. For example, Libretto is inconsistent with their oven temps and PEP is really pretty average.
For Neapolitan pizza in NYC - Keste, Motoroino, Roberta's (less traditional, sure), Luzzo's, Franny's, etc. are all serving better Neapolitan style pies than anything in Toronto. It's ultimately pizza, though.
re: BigBabyYeezuS
okay, thanks for the clarification. so when you originally said you've had far better vpn in nyc, you really meant neapolitan style pizza, not vpn.
having eaten at keste, motorino, don antonio, and forcella, i'd say that there are some good neapolitan style pizzas in nyc. none of them, imho are consistently better than our top places here.
and yes, it may just be pizza, but to compare vpn certified places (with all of their constraints) with neapolitan "style" pizza joints--not sure that's always a fair comparison.
nyc has plenty of bad pizza, for the record. . .dollar a slice places hawking utility slices dripping in orange grease, come to mind.
re: afong56
There's more bad pizza in NYC than anywhere, that's for sure.
VPN is kind of bs. It doesn't mean anything about quality, just that you've checked a bunch of boxes. Those boxes help quality but, mostly, it's a marketing thing that people pay a couple grand for. Una Pizzeria Napoletana (SF, formerly in the Motorino EV space in Manhattan) is as authentic and obsesseive a Neapolitan pizzeria as anywhere and doesn't pay for a VPN certification. It's quality that matters, not some marketing certification. Otherwise, you're saying that Viva Napoli on Mt. Pleasant (VPN certified and not very good but still kind of good in the way that all pizza is good) is better than QMP (not currently VPN certified: http://americas.pizzanapoletana.org/m...)
How many of the NYC places have you eaten at consistently? I found Motorino EV to be very consistent while I find Libretto to be all over the map (and I like Libretto!)
re: BigBabyYeezuS
vpn is no guarantee of a good pie, that's for sure. the spectrum of quality that hides behind a certificate is very broad, and viva napoli is a great example to pick.
my point was only that if a vpn joint with the limitations placed on it by the organization is compared with a place like don antonio, that serves a similar style, but can do things like drop their formed dough into a fryolator before saucing and topping their pie--not sure that comparison is fair.
as for that style in nyc, i have come to the conclusion that i'm going to stick with john's on bleecker if i want pizza in nyc from here on in. there are some places in brooklyn (roberta's and juliana's) that i still want to try, but coal oven style is imho, the best that nyc offers for pie.
re: afong56
PL is VPN certified. I was merely comparing apples to apples. It's a fairly simple concept. I never made any statements to the veracity of such a 'certification'.
Once again, I'm happy to be where I am-this digression certainly reinforces that.
And I stand by my statement that when comparing VPN joints in Toronto and NYC, the latter is where I would choose to spend my dollars.
Further to that, no one in Brussels takes offense in the statement that hamburgers taste better in America or Napoli style pizza is better in Naples. No one cares because they understand every city/region/place has something they specialize in. Cantonese is tops in Toronto, that's for certain.
re: BlackMambaSommelier
okay, i thought i understood your post, but now i am definitely more confused.
first off, i was actually agreeing with you that vpn is 'kind of bs', when i said that the certificate doesn't guarantee quality. my comment was not a 'digression' as far as i can tell. . .
but, are you suggesting that comparing motorino to libretto is apples to apples? when did motorino actually become certified? don't get me wrong, they do a solid pizza. . .but, comparing these two is an example of what i suggested was problematic. . .
unless your point is suggest that a non-vpn joint can be as consistent or more consistent than one that is certified vpn. on that point, i agree--totally possible. however, your blanket statement that when 'comparing vpn joints in nyc and toronto' you would spend your dollars in nyc is puzzling since i don't believe any of the places you mentioned in the five boroughs is actually vpn-certified.
for the record, libretto has been consistent every time i've been--good, not great. maybe i just got lucky?
as for taking offense, none taken--given that vpn sets those restrictive guidelines, it makes it pretty hard to make truly terrible vpn pizza (but not impossible). that's why i have a hard time with your statement that nyc vpn is 'way better' than toronto.
yes, every city has something they specialize in. i don't think in either case (ny or toronto) that thing is vpn. if we're talking ny pizza, imho, that specialization is coal oven.
and btw, i've had good, bad, and great pizza in naples as well
re: afong56
I never even mentioned Motorino. Nor did I say VPN was kind of bs. You may want to read this thread over. But I guess I am responsible for mentioning VPN in the first place.
I've been eating coal fired NYC pizza for 35 years, so yeah agree it's good.
I'm out Jerry. Ciao Toronto.
re: BlackMambaSommelier
At least we know one thing for sure, you must be enjoying some mighty fine Brussels sprouts over there!
re: BlackMambaSommelier
bms, thanks for the suggestion to re-read the thread--you are correct. i was responding to bby, and when your post dropped into the mix as a reply to my post. . .hence my confusion.
gold, jerry, gold!
re: afong56
Motorino's pie (and Keste's and Luzzo's, etc.) is a Neapolitan style pie. Sure, they have the advantage that they don't have to use transatlantic tomatoes, but technically, it's the same. It's fair to compare QMP to PL because they both cook Neapolitan pizzas - I don't care about the certification. If it's the same style pie, it's fair to compare.
There are only two VPN joints in NYC and neither is well regarded for its Neapolitan pizza. If VPN holds back restaurants from cooking good Neapolitan style pizza, then there's a problem with the VPN system.
re: BigBabyYeezuS
But that New York water tho.
re: afong56
My go-to old school pepperoni slice in the village is found at Fiore's on Bleecker. Addictive for me.
re: BigBabyYeezuS
Man, I just checked out Una Pizzeria Napoletana's website.
$25 a pizza is an outrage!
Imagine, when I went to Napoli last year, it was only 4 Euros at Da Michele, Il Pizzaiolo del Presidente or Di Matteo.
While I don't think anywhere in North America can duplicate the stuff I've had in Naples, the best I've had in Toronto (pains me to say this) is at Mark McEwan's Fabbrica.
And no, I have not had any Napoli style in NYC. For that price I'd rather buy 25 - $1.00 slices and give them out to those in need.
re: BigBabyYeezuS
Sorry but bad VPN is BAAAAAAD!
re: BigBabyYeezuS
Who made you the judge?
This is supposed to be a discussion board. How is any discussion advanced through sweeping statements that VPN pizza is done better in NYC? Some VPN pizza I've had in NYC has been worse than what I've ordered here. And I'm sure some is better. While some VPN pizza might be better than what I like at PL Danforth, I realized a couple years ago that I'd rather not seek out VPN in NYC because I'm content with what I consider to be good versions in TO.
I prefer PL Danforth's Pizza Margherita to the versions I ordered at Motorino and at Don Antonio in NYC. I also realize VPN pizzas can be inconsistent, often depending on who is pulling them out of the oven. Even if Motorino is more famous, and recommended more frequently, and located in NYC, I like the pizzas I've ordered at Pizzeria Libretto Danforth better.
It's a matter of taste. There's no accounting for taste. YMMV. To each their own. And so on.
re: prima
I was responding to a comment that said the Neapolitan style pizza was better in Toronto than in NYC. I said that I didn't think so - which is a pretty standard opinion (it would be surprising if it wasn't, given the sheer number of Neapolitan places there and that it was one of the places that started the Neapolitan revival in North America) - and was asked where I thought was better. I listed places. As part of a discussion. On a discussion board.
That said, I don't think pizza's much of a destination food. Libretto, heck, even a place like Defina, does a good version of Neapolitan pizza and nothing you get anywhere else in North American is so much better that it's worth seeking out. So I mostly agree. If I'm in NYC, I'm not seeking out pizza, even if I think that you can get better Neapolitan there than here.
re: BlackMambaSommelier
Could not agree more about PL.
re: BlackMambaSommelier
What I'm saying is that it's a matter of taste. I don't like the pizzas I've had at QMP, but I have friends who much prefer QMP to PLD. Are they wrong? Of course not. I haven't been to Pizza via Mercanti as of yet.
afong wrote that afong thinks NYC doesn't do VPN any better than Toronto. That's not the same as writing Toronto does VPN better than NYC.
re: prima
This is great, 5 years ago Torontonians wouldn't fight back against NYC. We would shamefully stick our tail between our legs and keep quiet.
Those days are done.
Sometimes price, prestige, image and environment influence our perception, versus the reality of how something really tastes. IMO, BigBaby's pro-NYC stance is an instance of this.
re: pakmode
No, it's based on having eaten Neapolitan style pizzas extensively in both Toronto and NYC. It shouldn't come as a surprise that most (not all) people who've eaten in both cities find that NYC is superior. If you've eaten in both cities extensively and honestly find one of our two or three decent places better than in NYC, great, but it's a minority position. This shouldn't be surprising.
That said, Toronto is better than NYC in a number of food areas - non-szechaun Chinese food, Portuguese food, brewpubs (which basically don't exist in NYC), the St. Lawrence Market is better than any covered market in NYC, Cumbrae's beef is better than any non-restaurant, non-wagyu I've bought retail in NYC, I could go on.
But NYC is huge, diverse, rich and old. It attracts a lot of tourists (for better or worse). It's going to have us beat in most categories. It has everywhere beat in most categories. We've got good stuff too, and we've got some good Neapolitan pizza places, and that's okay.
re: afong56
Yes of course. It was the joke that went over my head. I assumed jules wasn't aware.
must be a bad experience. maybe mid summer Friday blahs.
I went to Danforth Libretto this week for a 6pm dinner. seemed like pizza came about 5 minutes after the waitress took the orders (seemed surprisingly fast to me).
I happen to find the handheld credit card machines great. you don't have to get up to go to the counter and there's no carbon copies to deal with.
the default tip was 15%. I wish there was an option to calculate tip 15% before tax, but the difference woulda been maybe $ 0.80, I couldn't be bother to think so I just chose the default. I just calculated it right now, 13% after tax equals 15% before tax, regardless of the sub-total, so there you go.
atleast it wasn't a place that automatically charges 15% "service fee" and then taxes you on it.
re: filtered
Odd that the Danforth Libretto has 15% hardcoded in while Ossington has 17%. Maybe it's worse service there but I don't see how it could be worse than what I had. I just think it's arrogant for an establishment to feel that any % should be so strongly suggested in this way by them.
re: Flexitarian
Go to Marben. There was one default option of 20% on my last visit a month ago.
re: justsayn
Wow, so 22.6% on pre-tax. Ridiculous! All the government has to do is raise the HST and the tip will automatically go up even more!
re: Flexitarian
If the default tip rate on the credit card machines get your knickers in a knot, pay with cash. You can tip at whatever rate you feel is fair (with no pressure from the restaurant/server/machine), there's less chance a shady owner will skim the tips, and it's more likely more of the tip will go in your server's pocket, if that's what you want.
re: prima
You're missing my point here. I see it as a slimy way to prompt people to pay a high tip. I know people who cannot easily figure out how to override those machines once they've selected an option. And to only have 20% makes it very clear to me that 20% is what management wants from you.
re: justsayn
I'm not missing your point. My point is that you don't need to look at what tip rate the management would like if you pay cash.
re: prima
Why would you need to pay with cash if you don't like the default tip rate? There is always the option of selecting a DOLLAR AMOUNT and entering anything you want.
re: foodyDudey
For people who are annoyed by the sight of a default tip rate, paying without using the machine avoids looking at the suggested tip rate. As does clicking the $ amount and entering any amount, as you suggest.
re: prima
There should be no default % rate on the terminal. That is arrogant on the part of the restaurant to think that if one wants to tip a percentage that they suggest what it should be. What if your service was not up to par and you want to tip a lower %? What if you want to tip a greater %? There should be two buttons - % and $ and that is it.
re: justsayn
Happened to me last winter at Marben. We were a group of 4 and given an automatic 20% (after tax) on the two machines when we asked to split the bill. We called for the manager (who showed up almost 20min later) because we were told by our server that it was "standard" because of our party size and the fact we asked to "split the bill" (what??). The manager apologized but "couldn't get the machines to work properly", so we payed whatever that was prompted.
Too bad. I loved my first meal there since the new chef, but our last experience left a bitter aftertaste. Won't return any time soon.
re: happycamper
20% after tax (22.6% before) is automatically added to your bill because of the 'party size' of 4? Oh geez, like 4 is a big table of people. Sheesh.
I am sure the manager's excuse was bull.
re: justxpete
I don't!
The ONLY time I went, the server spent much of the time socializing with the 'young and apparently eligible' two-top at the table adjacent to mine.
Service was extremely slow. Food wasn't bad, but there are many places with acceptable food.
My philosophy (in order) is:
It's the food that brings me back.
It's the service that keeps me away.
Hence only 1 visit.
re: estufarian
Irrespective our varying experiences with PLD, to me, the food is more important than the service. I can tolerate bad service, but not poor food.
re: justxpete
The food isn't all that special IMO
re: justxpete
I agree that food comes first, but bringing 3 items to a table (and one of them being a scoop of ice cream in a glass) to a table is not rocket science for an established restaurant that has a limited menu.
While a lower tip may send a message, without some further communication; it's anyone's guess how that message may be interpreted.
If you want to make a point (and perhaps prevent this happening to you or others in the future) as others have eluded to, you need to speak with management.
If they have a clue how to run a business, they will ensure you are satisfied in one way or another.
re: Sadistick
I have sent them a detailed email regarding the poor service. Let's see what happens. One thing I did tell them in the email was that a server apologizing or saying "I'm sorry for the long delay" can make ALL the difference in the world, especially when I made a point of letting the server know that the food was taking a long time. If I had been apologized to I likely would have just chocked it down to an off day there and not posted on here or sent an complaint email. After all, the greatest human need after food, shelter and sex is to matter. I did not feel like I mattered. Had I not talked to the server I don't know how they would know how delayed the service even was as 6 different people served my table (original server, separate servers delivering each of 3 plates, busboy taking plates and then server with credit card machine). I think it's better to have the same server bring out the drink, all the plates and coffee/tea/apertif for a particular patron (clearing, pouring water, etc can be done by someone else of course) as that way they would be more aware of what was happening, no?
re: Flexitarian
As with our abysmal experience at Ici Bistro, the only reason I did not walk out was our waitress who was sweet, open and communicative (though they did have a few individuals serving our table, I would expect a single server however at establishments such as Scaramouche, Auberge, Splendido, etc.).
Small things that take such little effort can make all the difference.
re: Flexitarian
Have not been to Libretto but I know in some places they have servers who explain the menu and are very knowledgeable about wines etc and then they have "food runners" whos only job is to bring out the food and clear tables. In high volume places this tends to work more efficiently. This sounds like what you experienced.
Jamie promptly phoned me today and told me that he appreciated my email. He said that they always try to get back to anyone who emails them within 24 hours. He spent quite a bit of time on the phone with me addressing my concerns and let me know that he took up all of my issues with the staff today at his regular Monday meeting. He also explained that food is delivered by different servers because that is the most efficient way of ensuring food gets to the table as soon as it is prepared rather than sit there if the server who took the initial order is not available right then and there. I agree. Obviously somehow my order(s) simply did not get prepared promptly. He was very pleasant, did not give me any feeble excuses, told me he wanted to make it right and that he would treat me to my next meal there.
I now feel bad that I complained on social media vs informing the restaurant instead first (who are the only people who can make things right and change their practices) and then complain on social media if I was not taken care of. It's kind of like being upset with your wife or partner and talking to everyone about your problem with her except her. Anyway, this time I didn't and I don't know why especially since Pizzeria Libretto is one of my favourite restaurants in Toronto. Maybe because I was so shocked.
Anyway, I was more than happy about how they dealt with my complaint and it is refreshing to hear back from a business so promptly and be taken care of so well.
I had mentioned the 17% hard-coded into the credit care terminal in my email. He mentioned was that it is the credit card terminal company that decides the % that is hard-coded into the device and that it has changed when they have switched companies (from 20 to 15 to 17). The restaurant has no say in the matter. I did find that odd.
I am amazed how my initial post topic has morphed into a much broader discussion!
re: Flexitarian
I have set up those terminals from two major companies, while true that once they show up you can't change the tip option, they have always given me options for what it should be. I generally just prefer the % or $ options. I hate the idea of suggesting what someone would tip. To each his own though I suppose.
re: LexiFirefly
A colleague just recently got a new machine that was per-configured with tip percentages. They did not notice at first but started to realize that their tips seemed lower.. they looked at the machine and noticed that it was set to 15%. the old machine had no presets and they were averaging 20% after tax. They figured out how to turn it off as they feel if you give someone an easy option they will take it. If you do not you get a fairer reflection of what they thought (or just rely on their bad math and hope it is in your favour!)
re: pourboi
I think that is the better option. Most people just hit the hard-coded % button and if it's 15% that's what most people will tip. 20% of course would yield higher tips but would also anger a lot of people. It seems to me % and $ has the least chance of offending most people and the greatest chance of yielding the highest tips.
re: Flexitarian
It's hard to understand how it is apparently so tricky for people to calculate a tip, when it's just a simple multiply and add. It should take about 10 seconds tops if you had a few drinks.
re: foodyDudey
Current state of our education system I guess... Just like saving a Billion dollars for taxpayers but still having to raise taxes..
re: Flexitarian
We had to remove some posts that moved into the area of negative personal remarks. Unfortunately, a lot of other posts also had to be removed, as they were responses to those posts. If anyone made a post here that was removed that they'd like to add to the discussion, please drop us a note at firstname.lastname@example.com and we can send it back to you. We apologize for the inconvenience.
re: The Chowhound Team
Just close the discussion, nothing of any use is being said anymore, and it's obviously upsetting the OP. Please this is just one example of threads getting ridiculous.
re: The Chowhound Team
Can we vote? Just close it, thanks...


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