Economics 2010

They don't teach Econ 2010 in Universities -- but they'll be doing that one day.

There are several realities that most Americans (to include Canadians) and many Europeans are faced with. We as individuals have to be content with less and we need to focus on balancing our own budgets and living within our means. Ever since the 1980's Western governments have been on a spending and leveraging spree and the US/Canada and Europe hit the wall.

In the US, the Federal Reserve lowered the interest rate to nearly 0%, the Barack Hussein Obama Regime and the Democratic Party-dominated Congress enacted nearly a trillion dollars in stimulus spending that focused on pet projects. They rammed it through the legislature who didn't even have something to read about before they voted in the blind. They tried cash-for-clunkers, housing tax credits and petty tax breaks, which all ended as dismal failures.

The unemployment/underemployment rate is very high and people are putting off purchases on all but the necessities. Retailers worry about another dismal, sluggish, holiday season. Politicians blame each other instead of being constructive. Fools like Vice President Joe (Slow Joe) Biden and President Barack Hussein Obama, who have never actually worked for a living, or had to meet a payroll, are telling us that "happy days are here again!"

We the People know now that:

1. Bail-outs don't work. If your business has been failing for years like General Motors, it's best to let it go the way of the iron horse. Other automobile manufacturers will appear in the void. 
2. Stimulus only works if it's aimed at STRUCTURE including pro-growth tax reform, infrastructure investment and solid support for small businesses and start-up companies who are the true job creators. Stimulus works if it's focused on human capital.
3. Trust in Congress hovers somewhere around 15%. Faith in the government can only be restored when law makers are trustworthy. Today, over 3/4 of all Americans believe that they're not. We'll see what happens with the November 2010 vote and what Republicans decide to do about it.
4. The Government must CUT jobs, cut spending and allow business to grow. If it doesn't, there will be no recovery. Barack Hussein Obama is a narcissistic cretin who reads well from a teleprompter. Putting that clown in charge of a national recovery is like expecting a circus ringmaster or a sideshow barker to lead the country. He and his friends must be voted from office.
5. ObamaCare is unsustainable and needs to be repealed and replaced with a common sense approach to healthcare that will not cost us trillions of dollars that we don't have.

The Democratic Party faithful seem to be distancing themselves from Obama because they understand that he's an empty suit and that the American people have recognized that. Democrats can redeem themselves by working to save the country rather than to follow the failed practices of a failed presidency. It remains to be seen whether or not they're able to take the high road or not.

What do you owe?

Real tax calculation table assuming a $74,000.00 base salary.
Ending tax rate is 72% including all state and federal. Just review the numbers and note that they include a few estimates that are based on national averages for state property tax, etc.

It's important to know where you stand.

 

$2,376 Employee paid share of medical and dental insurance
$126 Employee paid share of state unemployment insurance
$149 Employee paid share of disability insurance
$1,893 Employee paid share of state income taxes
$3,661 Employee paid share of federal Social Security
$6,250 Employee paid share of income tax withholding

 

$856 Company paid share of Medicare
$9,561 Company paid share of medical and dental insurance
$153 Company paid share of life and other insurance premiums
$56 Company paid share of federal unemployment coverage
$505 Company paid share of state unemployment insurance
$300 Company paid share of workers' comp
__________________________________________________
= $25,866.00 total Federal & state deductions from actual base salary

 

$74,000.00 Actual base salary
- $25,866.00 taxes & Fees
_________________________________
= $48,134.00 real base salary

 

This is a 33% tax rate on actual earned income.  Now for additional taxes:

 

$12,033 Deduction of taxable income of 25% on April 15th
$1,144 Federal gasoline tax [1]
$3960 State property & school taxes [2]
$65 Vehicle registration
$45 Car Inspection
$240 Federal & State Electricity taxes & fees
$72 Federal & State Water & trash taxes & fees
$120 Federal & State Cable Tv / internet taxes & fees
$180 Federal & State Phone taxes & fees
_________________________________________________
= $17,859.00 basic needs taxes & fees

 

$48,134.00 (adjusted gross) income on your W-2
- $17,859.00 basic needs taxes & fees
_________________________________
= $30,275.00 (actual real net income)

 

 

 

This is now a 54% tax rate on actual earned income.

 

What if we add just a few luxury items...

 

$1,985.00 Federal & state for a new car purchase
$30 Federal tax on tanning [3]
$1,004 Federal & state cigarette tax [4]
$187 Federal & state Alcohol tax [5]
$529 Food & clothing state sales tax [6]
$200 New computer State sales tax [7]
_________________________________________________
= $3,935.00 basic luxury items

 

$30,275.00 (actual real net income) left after basic needs
- $ 3,935.00 Federal & state luxury items taxes & fees
_________________________________
= $26,340.00 (actual real net disposable income)

 

This is now a 66% tax rate on actual earned income.
What if we add just a few more luxury items...

 

$100 Federal & state for 40 movie tickets [8]
$85 Federal & state for baseball season tickets [8]
$85 Federal & state for football season tickets [8]
$25 Federal & state for 10 popular music concert tickets [8]
$1,985 Federal & state for a second new car purchase
$1,985 Federal & state for a fishing or pleasure boat purchase
$1537 Federal & state for a 15,000 Home renovation [8] [9]
__________________________________________________
= $5,802.00 secondary luxury items

 

$26,340.00 (actual real net income) left after basic luxury items
- $ 5,802.00 Federal & state on secondary luxury items taxes & fees
_________________________________
= $20,538.00 (actual real net disposable income)

 

This is now a 72 % tax rate on original amount of actual earned income.

 

Note that no investment income was included here, including Estate tax or other proceeds that qualify for AMT or Capital Gains.

 

Calculations:

 

[1] Based on $.63/gallon - 2 fill ups/wk x 52 weeks
[2] Based on Dallas Texas property assesment of 100K home
[3] Based on a $300/ year tanning package
[4] Based on $7.50/pack @ $2.75/pack tax smoking 1 pack per day
[5] Based on $9.00/ gallon (1 gal = 30 servings of 5 oz) 6 glasses/weekend or 624/per year
[6] Based on 8.25% sales tax with an average general purchase $534/month or 6,408/year
[7] Based on 8.25% sales tax with an average 2,000 purchase price
[8] Based on 8.25% sales tax and aproxamate value of regional pricing
[9] This may change assesed taxable value of home generally increasing property tax

 

Source:

 

http://www.convertit.com/
http://www.taxfoundation.org/

Honor your women by beating them!

This comes from THE NATIONAL REVIEW (LINK). I never thought that women wanted to be beaten up by men. In the US, being called a "wife beater" is an insult. It implies a criminal assault on somebody weaker. In Islam, it seems that it's a badge of honor! Go figure?

Imam-sanctioned acid attack for being "disrespectful" to the in-laws.

h/t grendelreport.posterous.com

As you read below, please take note that Sa'd Arafat is an Egyptian cleric broadcasting on Egypt TV  not an ignorant Taliban provincial hiding up-country.

That’s from the avuncular Muslim cleric Sa’d Arafat, from an interview on Al-Nas TV in Egypt last February, featured by the invaluable MEMRI. You can watch the interview excerpthere. And, since we certainly wouldn’t want to take the sheikh out of context, here’s atranscript (presented without further comment because, well, what more can you say?)

Interviewer: Wife beating is a serious accusation [leveled against Islam]. Let us examine this matter bit by bit.

Sa’d Arafat: Allah honored wives by instating the punishment of beatings.

Interviewer: Honored them with beatings? How is this possible?

Sa’d Arafat: The prophet Muhammad said: “Don’t beat her in the face, and do not make her ugly.” See how she is honored. If the husband beats his wife, he must not beat her in the face. Even when he beats her, he must not curse her. This is incredible! He beats her in order to discipline her.

In addition, there must not be more than ten beatings, and he must not break her bones, injure her, break her teeth, or poke her in the eye. There is a beating etiquette. If he beats to discipline her, he must not raise his hand high. He must beat her from chest level. All these things honor the woman.

She is in need of discipline. How should the husband discipline her? Through admonishment. If she is not deterred, he should refuse to share the bed with her. If she is not repentant, he should beat her, but there are rules to the beating. It is forbidden to beat her in the face or make her ugly. When you beat her, you must not curse her. Islam forbids this.

Interviewer: With what should be beat her? With his bare hand? With a rod?

Sa’d Arafat: If he beats her, the beatings should not be hard, so that they do not leave a mark. He can beat her with a short rod. He must avoid beating her in the face or in places in the head where it hurts. The beatings should be on the body and should not come one right after the other. These are all choices made during the process, but beatings are allowed only as a last resort. [...]

The honoring of the wife in Islam is also evident in the fact that the punishment of beating is permissible in one case only: when she refuses to sleep with him.

Interviewer: When she refuses to sleep with him?

Sa’d Arafat: Yes, because where else could the husband go? He wants her, but she refuses….

• Where are the voices of the Women's Movement condemning this kind of outrageous behavior? 
• Where is our foolish President, who apologizes daily for Western values and bows to Saudi princes? 
• Where is Code Pink? 

Where are the useful idiots of the political left? Usually, they can be found rationalizing and aggressively supporting this deeply misogynistic and backward religion; insuring that it is incorporated into the K-12 curriculum so our children accept the idea that Islam is "peaceful" and that we are not; and ensuring that Islam has a special place in the public sphere (not granted to any other religion) so that they won't be labeled Islamophobic-- that's where they are.

The End of an Adulteress

Islam has only one punishment for an adulteress: Death (LINK). Nobody claims that she had sex with a man, she was only seen, "out with a man". The religion of peace has very few punishment options, death seems to be the most often sanction.

ABC (LINK) reported with a sanitized version of the video below. You can find the ABC commentary on their website and can make of it what you will.

>>WARNING - DISTURBING and VIOLENT<<

The punishment for a man caught with a woman is far less drastic. In the video, a woman is tethered to the ground and a group of men and women throw stones at her until she dies. Gayle Lemmon from the Council on Foreign Relations said that's because women are esteemed over men and are held to a higher standard.

Those women who continue to pine for sharia law in the United States are asking for this sort of justice. You can't argue with the Koran. Well you can, but you'll be stoned, strangled with a bow cord, shot or beheaded.

Future American National Fashion Statements?

Bourkas not just in black anymore!

Ladies take note. I know many of you progressive Western women are virulently pro-Islamic, and as you know, with Islam there is no choice but to submit. When you get your wish and Islam becomes the religion and arbiter of law in your country, you're going to have a change of fashion. With it comes a change in eating -- not necessarily what you eat, but how you eat it.

Be very careful what you wish for.

The latest in bourka fashion! Note the stylish folds on the tent they wear to keep 

from inciting Islamic men who would rape them if they displayed their hair!

For men, a change to Islam means we need to grow a beard which will catch the remnants of our breakfast and we'll be tasting that soup three days after we ate it.  We also have to learn to shoot firearms into the air when we are happy, sad, bored, and at every religious holiday.

Women have a very different cross to bear including accepting up to three additional women into the harem (+ concubines), dressing in a black tent outside and when guests are present inside, you can't be employed nor can you do things reserved for males such as driving a car. You CAN eat all the spaghetti you want, but only if you can do that warble thing with your voice when you are happy, sad, bored and at every religious holiday...and then there is the ritual clitorectomy which will remove any of that annoying pleasure from sex - for all time.

California: Toxic Business Environment

If you manufacture anything and you live in California, I have only one question for you.

Why?

California boasts that 34% of all welfare recipients in America live within its borders. Yes, America, California is carrying the load for the rest of US States and as has been widely reported in the press, the state is BROKE. One more economy folds for the sake of socialism. 

While the Castro brothers (Fidel and Raul) have decided to move Cuba in the other direction, California continues to roll in the dung of the likes of Nancy Pelosi and pronounces it 'perfume'.

Today the Orange County Register ran a story about Fasst Inc., a manufacturer that left Southern California for Utah, estimating that they will save 25% - 30% over the cost of manufacturing in California. Those of us who live in California can understand this completely. As more companies leave, there will be fewer jobs, and less people to pay taxes, which will force the State of California to raise taxes.

At present, California is the highest taxed state in the Union when one factors in sales tax (10% in several counties), property tax, corporate tax and state excise taxes. The Tax Foundation ranks California's business environment at 49th (which means we're not completely at the bottom), behind New Jersey. You can move across the border to Nevada (ranked #4 nationally) or north to Oregon (ranked #8 nationally) and save a LOT of money. The quest for profitability in a business may be a filthy concept to President Barack Hussein Obama, but for employers looking to expand their business - and hire more people, it isn't.

California is in a death spiral fiscally, jobslessness and underemployment runs close to 25%. Socialistic policies, "social leveling", wild welfare spending and irresponsible taxation will only grind the state further into the hole.

The Top Twenty

The top twenty socialist quotes from barack hussein obama's political advisors...

Obama Prepares Political War on the Tea Party

barack hussein obama has apparently landed on a new strategy, one that will save the Democratic Party's majority in Congress! 

Blame President George W. Bush (FAIL)

Blame the Republican Party (FAIL)

Blame the Tea Party - yeah, they're responsible for increasing the deficit by 300%, let's blame them!

I suspect that the vast majority of Democratic Party candidates won't participate in this attack, because they are putting as much distance between themselves and the Chief Executive as is humanly possible. Many of them sound as if they are Tea Party members, suggesting that government is too big and that government spending might not be the answer to job creation. Yes, they're happy to turn-coat and run with the Tea Party when the regime of barack hussein obama is such a spectacular failure.

The Tea Party is simply a group of concerned citizens who vote. There is no leadership, there is no central platform beyond the obvious, and they are just as likely to strike at Republican (RINO) Congressional leaders as they are to strike at Democrats.

In his zeal to strike home hard at the Tea Party, obama declares war on America. The signs are home made. The people represent different faiths, races, socioeconomic backgrounds and are spread nationwide. Sure, the mainstream media will back his play. They have so far and will continue to spread propaganda and fear of a spontaneous populous reaction to the obama brand of utopian socialism.

First they ignore you. Then they laugh at you. Then then they fight you. Then you win.

-Mahatma Gandhi

The Democratic Party playbook where you use tax dollars to buy votes doesn't seem to be working well for them these days.

Clip on obama and the Tea Party - from last year, including

 commentary by Dennis Miller, shortly before his appearance

 at the Orleans Hotel in Las Vegas. 

.

Hitting the Skids - Toxic Hollywood

This blog usually concerns itself with politics, but now and again, a story passes and I can't help but mention it simply because it's bizarre.

Actor Randy Quaid and his wife accused of burglary AGAIN

Last September, Randy Quaid and his wife, Evi ran out on a hotel bill in excess of $10,000 in California and were arrested in Texas. Evi Quaid fought with the police, and was quickly restrained. Felony charges were later dropped against Randy Quaid, 59. Evi Quaid pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor count of defrauding an innkeeper and was sentenced to three years' probation. She was also ordered to perform 240 hours of community service.

Last Saturday, Randy Quaid and his wife found themselves facing burglary charges in California after the owner of the couple's old house reported they had been living there without permission.

A representative of the property owner called Santa Barbara County Sheriff's deputies Saturday afternoon to report that squatters had been staying in the guest house illegally. When deputies arrived at the house that evening, they found Randy and Evi Quaid, who said they had owned the property since the 1990s.

The property owner's representative provided documents that showed his client had bought the home in 2007 from a man who had purchased it from the Quaids several years earlier. A contractor showed police more than $5,000 in damages to the guest house that he believed was caused by the Quaids.

Police arrested the Quaids on charges of felony residential burglary and entering a noncommercial building without consent, a misdemeanor. Police also charged Evi Quaid, 47, with resisting arrest.

Bail was set at $50,000 each.

Randy Quaid won a Golden Globe Award and was nominated for an Emmy for his portrayal of President Lyndon Johnson in "LBJ: The Early Years," but he's perhaps best known for his roles in the "National Lampoon's Vacation" movies, "Independence Day" and "Kingpin."

Randy Quaid has easily made over a hundred million dollars in his acting career and now he and his combative wife are squatting in their old house?  Is Hollywood THAT toxic?

Patriots

"In the beginning of a change the patriot is a scarce man, and brave, and hated and scorned. When his cause succeeds, the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a patriot." -- Mark Twain

As the run-up to the mid-term election heats up, it's interesting to watch Democratic Party candidates re-cast themselves as fiscal conservatives. The Party of Hope and Change increased the budget deficit more than all previous administrations combined -- and now they're saying that they'll stop spending our children's inheritance. Sure, and when a pig flies past my window, I'll buy that blatant lie.

The Democratic Party has decided not to campaign on the ObamaCare train wreck they slammed through Congress without a single Republican vote. It will be difficult to repeal the 3,000 page healthcare bill, but you can rest assured that the Democrats won't do it. 

In America the Patriot Movement (which would encompass the Tea Party) is a grass roots effort to restore order and Constitutionality to the Federal Government. It's the only way that we can Keep our Republic.

Taxation

barack hussein obama's efforts at generating class warfare as an ingredient in his struggle to remain in power is being played out in the US Tax Code and more particularly with the so-called "Bush Tax Cuts" that are about to expire.

The only thing obama has told the truth about is his unflagging dedication to bring Euro-style social welfare to the nation. Look to Illinois and the string of corruption he left: Blago, Burris, Rezko, Ayers, The Chicago Annenburg Challenge, Acorn, and a state pension fund $160 billion in the red. I'm not speaking about him as if he was a dog -- but in a metaphorical sense, he does have the habit of urinating on the truth -- and he doesn't want the American people to smack him on nose with a newspaper in November.

Last Friday, obama revealed the narrative for the obama re-election campaign of 2012, distorting the truth and using his jibe to rewrite history. As with much of obama's schtick, the truth isn't nearly as important as it is that you believe what he's saying.

This is what obama wants you to believe:

Bush hurled the global economy on a path toward depression by cutting the taxes of millionaires. Obama then came to the rescue with his policies — but the Republicans dug us into such a hole that it's taking even longer to dig out.

The trouble with this myth is that even Democrats running for re-election are shunning it.

Investor's Business Daily reports the Democratic Party's on-the-ground response this way:

Take Rep. Gary Peters, who represents Detroit's northwestern suburbs. As the National Journal's Jeremy Jacobs put it last week, Peters "supports extending the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, which Obama opposes." Peters told the Detroit Free Press that "anything less jeopardizes economic recovery."

Peters also opposes the new $50 billion-plus Obama Stimulus II.

But he — like a lot of other Democrats in trouble right now — voted for the Obama Stimulus I, and has a lot of explaining to do as to why the promised jobs haven't materialized.

The president's explanation of why Democrats are deserting Obamanomics? "In an environment where we've still got 9.5% unemployment, people are going to make the best argument they can right now." But the president's own "best argument" is simply dishonest.

He claims that "the policies of the previous decade ... that cut taxes, especially for millionaires and billionaires ... ultimately culminated in a financial crisis and a terrible recession that we're still digging out of today."

Wrong. Cutting taxes on income and investment had nothing to do with investors discovering that much of the mortgage debt in their portfolios was junk. How could it?

Liberal politicians are to blame. They spent many years pressuring lenders to give mortgages to people with bad credit ratings, warning that not to do so made the institutions guilty of discrimination against the poor and minorities.

obama hopes that class warfare will destroy his opponents, and maybe it would work if it wasn't the "rich" who employ people. I've been employed, never by a poor person or destitute institution. 

White POWDER (Novel)

Just a reminder to the people who visit this blog from time to time that WHITE POWDER: A NOVEL OF THE CIA AND THE SECRET WAR IN LAOS is still available from Amazon.com and other fine book sellers.

BUY WHITE POWDER NOW!

Understanding Where We Are

To sum up the philosophy that barack hussein obama shovels out every time he speaks:

On the one hand, all cultures are equally deserving of respect; on the other, Western culture is uniquely destructive and bad.

These two mutually contradictory postitions are both firmly held beliefs--one might even say they are considered holy writ by "progressives" and the acolytes of the liberal left.

For years now, this contradiction has trickled down into the consciousness and belief system of the West. It has quietly been integrated into the K-12 curriculum and is forcefed to students at most univeristies (where free speech is no longer tolerated if it happens to "hurt" someone's feelings); it is regularly integrated both directly and symbolically into popular movies, books, and into the news tickers for the mainstream media.

PC/multicultural dogma has now been duly enshrined into the national platform of the Democratic Party and it even has begun to eat away at the values of the Republican Party, and it led to the rise of the Tea Party movement and the grassroot anger directed at both Democrats and Republicans. Both parties have forgotten real American values: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. 

It is because of the pervasive influence of postmodern philosophy and the ubiquitous use of postmodern rhetoric by the political left that America and all it stands for is now on the brink.

Rather than setting you free, in the postmodern world, truth just keeps you from believing what you--or someone else--wants to believe; and therefore it must be banned from polite conversation.

In this "innovative", postmodern world view you are encouraged to break free from the oppressive shackles of reality and venture into the realm of a "higher" reality, where fools like Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and Barney Frank are taken seriously. And where a grandiose and glib, but charismatic man deeply immersed in the contradictory discourse of postmodern rhetoric and the toxic collectivist ideology of "social justice" can be elected President of the U.S.

The politically useful concept of "social justice" is now the dominant philosophy forced down the throats of teachers, who obediently spoon feed it to their students from kindergarden through college. Therefore, through the deliberate manipulation of reality, truth, and reason, the children of postmodern nihilism have figured out a way to win any and all arguments. They have pretty much taken over the curriculum from kindergarden through college and thus no major area of that curriculum is now free from political interference.

Remember that postmodernism eschews truth and those who adhere to its ideas prefer to exercise power to force social change. They live in a world of contradiction and emotion. Their strategy is not to persuade people to accept their ideas, but to confuse them; to distort the truth, propagate lies and smears; and to use whatever rhetoric is necessary to accomplish their purposes. And when rhetoric fails, they will force through their social change anyway.

Truth does not matter; all that matters is that people believe it is true.

Since rhetorical skill is essential to accomplish their purposes, it is little wonder that an inexperienced but rhetorically gifted nobody like barack hussein obama could rise to the top of the [garbage] heap. His career was meteoric, and is based entirely on words, not deeds or accomplishments. In truth, he is the quintessential political postmodern demagogue; skilled in the neo-Marxist/fascist talking points and easily able to convince all who hear him of his passionate committment to "social justice," (better understood as the redistribution of wealth) and universal peace and brotherhood (better known as the appeasement and enabling of evil).

Nothing that is going on now makes any sense, unless you understand that "sense" is not a useful concept when one is talking about postmodernism. That's why to get out of debt we are spending more money and digging deeper; that's why to defend against war we are disengaging from the enemy and enabling them; that's why the "doublespeak" is used over and over again in this Administration.

The standards have changed:


From Equal Opportunity    to     Equality of Outcome
From Wealth is Good         to     Wealth is Bad
From Technology is Good to     Technology is Bad (Al Gore, the poster child)

The Administration's intellectual elite seems to make common cause with fundamentalist Islam, who acts out their unconscious fantasies of destruction. I know I'm not the only one who has thought of this, but consider it carefully.

Another View of Immigration

The Islamazation of the West:

Old White Men

The theme of mainstream media's criticism of Glenn Beck's Restoring Honor Rally a week ago now was that nobody among the half-a-million people that crowded the Capitol Mall mattered because they were generally white and generally older.

Change the demographic a tiny bit and ask yourself what they would have said of 500,000 black people. Would the mainstream media have said that they didn't matter because they were black?

And this is my point: There is nothing wrong with being white. There is nothing shameful about being white. There is nothing wrong with assembling with other people from diverse states and locations who also happen to be predominantly white. However, there is a mood in the United States that there is. The Tea Party Movement is made up - at least 65% - of women. It's not a 'woman's movement', but if you go to a Tea Party gathering, you'll find that mothers and grandmothers constitute a majority.

Is MOTHER a dirty word? Everyone alive has one, even homosexuals. However if you're a mother with kids, who works and struggles with all of the things that women deal with -- and admire Sarah Palin for doing the same, you're labeled by the mainstream media as a nazi, hatemonger. When did Sarah Palin say ANYTHING hateful?

The mainstream media would have people believe that if you're over 40 years of age, that your opinion somehow needs to be discounted in favor of younger (more naive) people, who haven't earned their stripes. Whatever happened to, "Honor thy father and thy mother?" Do journalists have naturally stupid parents whose opinions are destructive to America? It makes me wonder. Maybe. Clearly that's the assumption that can be fairly made if you listen to the news outlets discount any gathering of people who can be categorized as parents.

The mainstream media has increasingly difficult times maintaining ratings -- because they've made themselves irrelevant. They don't report the news, they strive hard to MAKE the news. And they do it (apparently) by pandering to special interest groups by discounting "White People", "Women with Children", "Working Americans", "Legal Citizens", "People over 40", and so forth.

I'm fed up with the mainstream media.