text:
	Mason walked into the classroom, it was the first day of eighth grade, and he was nervous about getting bullied like all the years before. Summer was a blessing to him, a priceless gift that he would never sell. It was his safe haven away from all the bullying and name calling. He may have already ended his life if it wasn't for summer.

	While Mason was calming himself down, Jacob carelessly strolled into the room. Mason tried his best to look away and avoid eye contact with him, but Jacob already spotted him. Jacob walked over to him with a smirk on his face, calling him names like pepperoni face and grease ball, making fun of his acne and exploiting how overweight Mason was. The whole class giggled.

	Jacob continued to annoy Mason. He started pulling at his greasy black hair, and then shoved Mason out of his seat. The teacher walked in right at that moment, but ignored Jacob's constant bullying. Jacob decided to take a seat right behind Mason, and bother him the whole class period.

	Mason couldn't believe what was occurring, Jacob was stabbing him with freshly sharpened pencils, while stealing his school supplies, and the teacher was doing nothing about it. Then the bell rung, his salvation from bullying. When Mason settled down at his next class, Jacob walked right in, and began bullying him again. Mason couldn't believe he had another class with Jacob.

	Mason had no other classes with Jacob, but the bullying did not stop. At lunch Jacob would steal Mason's food, pour milk all over it, or push it onto the floor. It was shocking how no one stopped Jacob, not even a school administrator stopped him. It was like a huge conspiracy against Mason.

	Jacob continuously bullied Mason for the rest of the semester. Other kids started bullying Mason too, and even the teachers were treating him like garbage. During one test, Mason couldn't concentrate with Jacob poking him constantly, so he ended up failing the test. Not only was Mason being bullied by kids at school, his dad started beating him for his bad grades. Coming home in a drunk stupor whipping Mason with his belt.

	Mason started showing up at school with black eyes, scars, and scabs all over him. Still, no one helped him. Mason was at his breaking point, then a rumor started spreading around the school like a plague. People really started to believe the rumors were true, that Mason was gay. This brought even more hate to him.

	A few weeks later, suicide started becoming a more viable option to Mason. Since there was nothing left to lose, Mason decided to tell Hannah he had a crush on her. He walked down the hallway, ignoring all the stares and whispers, seeing Hannah's back to him made him walk a little faster. As he was walking, Mason started to admire Hannah's golden blonde hair, and sapphire blue eyes, playing out a little love story in his head.

	He finally was within arms reach of Hannah, and as Mason reached out his arm to tap Hannah's shoulder, Jacob pulled him away. Jacob pulled Mason to the side, attracting all the attention in the hall making everyone go quiet. Seconds felt like hours, then Jacob spoke, "What are you doing to my girlfriend, faggot?" Mason started sweating, "Girlfriend?" he asked. Jacob replied saying, "Yeah, my girlfriend not yours homo." Mason glanced to his left, looking at Hannah.

	Mason could feel all the blood rush to his face, and started licking the sweat around his lips. Then he looked back at Jacob, right as Jacob brought a fist to his face. Dropping to the floor cringing, Mason looked up just to see a foot come flying at him, hitting him in the neck. Mason started laying in a fetal position, trying to protect himself from Jacob's stomping. Then Mason could feel more feet stomping on him. Other kids were participating in hurting him.

	Mason started crying. He felt the tears go down his face, all dripping onto the floor. As he felt more feet hitting him, he started wailing in agony. Kids with all different kinds of shoes like sneakers, tennis shoes, converse, and even cleats. Every part of his body was being bruised simultaneously, taking a kick to the crotch every once and awhile.

	Eventually he could feel less feet stomping and kicking him, until there were only two feet kicking him. He rolled over to see who the assailants were. It was Jacob, unsurprisingly, and Hannah. Seeing Hannah kicking him broke Mason, she wasn't the angel Mason thought she was.

	A few minutes later and the evil lovebirds were gone, leaving Mason to sulk in a puddle of his own blood and tears. Closing his eyes, Mason remembered his mom, how good things were before she died. Expecting not to open his eyes again, Mason took one last breath and screamed. The loud scream had converted into silence as soon as it was made. Laying in the hallways peacefully, Mason's corpse was stepped on one last time by his father, calling Mason a no good brat.

title: The Bullying (Just a junior high student looking for feedback)

question: What is the underlying message from the writer of the story?

answer:
The writer is possibly traumatized by bullying and wants the pain to end.

It is likely that the character of Mason is a placeholder for the writer of the story, and the writer finds their existence to be unappreciated by their peers (symbolized by the classmates in the story), adults (the school administrators/faculty), and their own family (the father).

Mason finds peace in only two instances; during summer where there is no school, and when he dies in the end. This can be initially interpreted very literally as the writer wanting to commit suicide, but Mason's death is not self-inflicted. He dies from the bullying itself, one could say that the writer wants to bullying to finally end (regardless of cost).

Lastly, the author identifies themselves as a junior high student, much like Mason.


split: train

text:
“THE TERRIBLE OLD MAN” is a short story of fewer than 1200 words by American writer H. P. Lovecraft. It was written on January 28, 1920, and first published in the _Tryout_, an amateur press publication, in July 1921. It is notable as the first story to make use of Lovecraft's imaginary New England setting, introducing the fictional town of Kingsport. The story, about the fate of three would-be robbers of the titular old man's house, has been criticized by Peter Cannon for being an openly xenophobic polemic against immigration.

Plot

A strange old man, “so old that no one can remember when he was young, and so taciturn that few know his real name,” lives alone in an ancient house on Water Street in the town of Kingsport. Even among the locals, few know the details of the old man's life, but it is believed that he once captained East Indian clipper ships in his youth and accumulated great riches throughout his life. Those who had visited the property had seen bizarre collections of stones in the front yard and observed the old man carrying on conversations with mysterious bottles on his table, which make “certain definite vibrations as if in answer.” Most locals take care to avoid the man and his house.

Angelo Ricci, Joe Czanek and Manuel Silva, three robbers, learn about the old man's supposed hoard of treasure and resolve to take it. Ricci and Silva go inside to “interview” the old man about the treasure, while Czanek waits outside in the getaway car. After waiting impatiently for a long time, Czanek is startled by an outburst of horrific screaming from the house but assumes that his colleagues have been too rough with the old man during their interrogation. However, the gate of the house opens, revealing the old man “smiling hideously” at him. For the first time, Czanek takes note of the man's unsettling yellow eyes.

The mutilated bodies of the three robbers are later found by the seaside, “horribly slashed as with many cutlasses, and horribly mangled as by the tread of many cruel boot-heels.” The people of Kingsport talk about the discovery, as well as about the abandoned car and the screams heard in the night, but the old man shows no interest in their gossip.

The Terrible Old Man (character)

The Terrible Old Man reappears in the story “The Strange High House in the Mist” in a more benevolent role. He further elaborates on the origin of the Strange High House, mentioning that the house was old when his own grandfather had been a boy. Given the Old Man's own implied longevity, the house must date to the very early days of colonial America.

He has a number of similarities with later characters created by Lovecraft, in particular Joseph Curwen, the villain of _The Case of Charles Dexter Ward_: Both were improbably old, such that no one remembered when they were young; possessed vaguely defined but powerful abilities oriented around storing the dead in peculiar objects and calling them forth to serve them; and had access to ancient coinage of precious metals (as do the Whateleys in “The Dunwich Horror”).

Reception

Lovecraft scholar Peter Cannon dismissively describes the story as “little more than a polemic against the intrusion of people Lovecraft regarded as 'foreigners', that is, the non-English immigrants who arrived in the nineteenth century as cheap labor to fill the factories of an increasingly industrialized America.”[1] S. T. Joshi identified the story as having been inspired by Lord Dunsany's short story “Probable Adventure of the Three Literary Men”. Joshi wrote that modern critics have “tried to deny the racism seemingly evident in the tale”, but Lovecraft takes obvious satisfaction in killing off the criminal immigrants.[2]

Other media

The short story was adapted into a free point and click adventure game of the same name released for Windows and Android in 2015 by Cloak and Dagger Games. The game follows the plot of the short story, with players controlling Joe Czanek during the night of the attempted robbery, and features the ending text from the short story at its conclusion.[3]

[1] _More Annotated Lovecraft_, S. T. Joshi and Peter Cannon, p. 2.

[2]

[3]

title: The Terrible Old Man

question: Why is Peter Cannon criticizing "The Terrible Old Man" story?

answer: Peter Cannon criticized the story for being an openly xenophobic polemic against immigration.


text:
             The Best Story Ever
Note: This started as a game of add-on and it snowballed.

Book One: The Beginning

Once upon a time, there was a handy dandy watermelon scooper. HDWS loved his life, but he had no one to share it with. He lived in a quaint garbage cauldron, apart from all the rest of scooper society. Then one day someone left a tiny watermelon scooper on his front porch, who had a lightning bolt insignia on his handle. HDWS was so happy to have a little scooper of his own, that he bought a little pet grape for his new son, named Beranabus the Raisin. The son's name was Handy, and he grew up a very happy little watermelon scooper... or so he thought. One day, on Beranabus's 75th birthday, they heard suspicious footsteps outside their cauldron. It was none other than Cullen, the notorious garbage connoisseur who loved to eat garbage fries. Cullen reached in with his fry grease-covered fingers, and accidentally grabbed HDWS by the handle, and carried him away in his hobo sack.
   "Daddy!" Handy screamed, unable to cope with the loss of his father. "I'll come for you!!!"
   Cullen swaggered away, high on the success of his crime. He was so pleased with himself that he was unable to notice the high-speed presidential jet zooming towards his happy little jiggle-sack. He tried to dive out of the way, but his legs got hit and he became a cripple.
   "This would be a perfect occasion to assemble my collapsable rocket wheelchair!" Said Cullen, the garbage fry connoisseur. He assembled his high-fashion, glow-in-the-dark, rocket wheelchair, and zoomed away with high-speed style. Handy, having witnessed this ordeal, realized what he had to do in order to get his father back. He would need to assemble a team. A team of scoopers specializing in avenging. This team, obviously, consisted of a pooper scooper by the name of Marissa, a shovel by the name of Thaddeus, an egg whisk by the name of Julius, and a diamond spork named Constantine. They were christened.... The Revengers.
   Cullen zoomed back to his box lair in his high-fashon, glow-in-the-dark, rocket wheelchair and put HDWS in the box brig next to his box shoes. "You will make some nice melon balls when I am finished with you!" Cullen laughed an evil laugh that would even have Gilgamesh trembling with fear.
   Meanwhile, The Revengers were desperately trying to gather information on the whereabouts of Cullen and HDWS. They ventured to the outskirts of Gothamopolis City, where they found a very interesting sight. It was a giant mustache, knotted and ghoulish in the light of the Sun. This was the lair of the Mustachios.
   "What is your business here people?" asked the guard.
"We seek the evil lord of garbage fries, Cullen. Will you grant us refuge?" Julius was trembling under the guard's heavy gaze.
   "You must ask The Creator, Leah, for Her blessing." He answered, "Come forth." He gestured towards a large flat stone in the center of a clearing. Carved upon the stone was a teenager's face, and surrounding the face was a series of marks and symbols. Handy could not read them, but he knew the moment he stepped forward that they were of great importance.
   "I see, youngling, that you gaze upon The Creator with great reverence," a mysterious voice said. Turning around, Handy laid eyes upon a man. However, he was not only a man. He was a box man.
   "Wha--who are you?" questioned Handy.
   "I am the wise old man who resides in this fortress. I serve The Creator of these creatures as a prophet. You have a long journey ahead of you, Avatar Scooper." The Box Man's eyes glistened with mischief. The crowd of Mustachios and Revengers gasped.
   "Avatar? What is an Avatar?" Handy questioned, a suspicious tone in his voice. Once again, the crowd gasped.
   "Well," the wise box man began. "It's--" Suddenly an arrow, flying with the speed of a thousand lemur-bats, pierced the box-man's cardboard skin. Time froze, and the universe held its breath. Handy only heard one thing, a single shrill word from the voice of a small Mustachio child.
   "Ambush."
   The arrows began to rain voraciously on the small village of Mustachios.
   ¨NO! Save the paintings of The Creator!¨ shouted the Box Man through fits of coughing up blood.
   ¨BOX MAN!¨ Handy screamed, sprinting over to the wounded prophet. ¨Please, tell me where to find my father! What is an Avatar?"
   "Handy, come closer." The scooper leaned in close to the Box Man's pencil thin mouth. He felt an onion ring being slipped shakily into his hand. "Take this ring. It will help you in dark times..."
   "What dark times?" Handy cried, "Box Man?"
   "One ring... to rule them all..." And the Box Man's soul departed to the Creator, where She welcomed him with grace.

End of Book One

title: The Legend of The Avatar and The Revengers

question: What does HDWS stand for?

answer: Handy Dandy Watermelon Scoop

question: What happens to HDWS in the story?

answer: HDWS's father is kidnapped by Cullen, and he sets out to rescue him. He assembles The Revengers and then whilst in the village of Mustachios he seeks advice from a wise BOX MAN who is killed in an ambush. Box Man gives HDWS an onion ring, to keep him safe.

question: List the members of The Revengers.

answer:
Marissa the Pooper Scooper
Thaddeus the Shovel
Julius the Egg Whisk
Constantine the Diamond Spork

question: Write a ~2 sentence summary.

answer: In an absurdist piece of fiction, a watermelon scoop assembles a variety of utensils to rescue his father from a kidnapper. The team calls themselves The Revengers.


text:
KENNETH EDWARD “JACKIE” HEGAN OBE (24 January 1901 – 3 March 1989)[1] was an English amateur footballer who played on the wing and made four appearances for England in 1923, scoring four goals. He was a member of the Corinthian amateur club, and a professional soldier.

Career

Hegan was born in Coventry, and attended Bablake School. On leaving school, he attended the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, going on to represent both the college and the Army while serving with the 1st Battalion, Royal Dublin Fusiliers.[2]

Corinthians

He made his Corinthians debut on 27 December 1919 in a 7–2 victory over The Army.[3] Ironically, he was due to play for the army, but was “lent” to the Corinthians, who turned up for the match three players short.

During the 1920s and early 1930s he played in many of Corinthians' more important matches, including most of their FA Cup ties. He was a member of the Corinthian team that defeated Blackburn Rovers 1–0 in the First round of the cup on 12 January 1924,[4] before going out to West Bromwich Albion in the second round. In 1925–26, Corinthian met Manchester City on 9 January 1926; after a 3–3 draw in the first match (in which Hegan scored once, with Norman Creek scoring the others), Corinthian lost the replay 4–0. In 1927, he again scored in a 4–0 victory over Walsall in the third round, before a 3–1 defeat by Newcastle United at Crystal Palace in front of a crowd of 56,338.[5] He played for the “Amateurs” in the 1929 FA Charity Shield.[6]

He was an occasional member of the Corinthians' foreign tours. His last match for Corinthian came in Denmark on 16 April 1933 against a Combined Danish XI. His military duties prevented him going on the next tour to Holland and curtailed his football career. Between 1919 and 1933, he played 167 matches for Corinthian scoring 50 goals.[7]

England

He earned 23 caps for England at amateur level, including at the 1920 Olympics held in Antwerp, when Great Britain were eliminated in a 3–1 defeat by Norway. He also earned four full caps for England.[8] His debut came on 19 March 1923 in a 6–1 victory over Belgium, when he scored England's first two goals.[9] His next appearance came in the first senior international played against France on 10 May 1923 which England won 4–1. The first and last goals were scored by Hegan while the second came from the Sunderland forward Charlie Buchan[10] who is remembered for the football magazine, “Charles Buchan Football Monthly”. Norman Creek scored England's other goal while France's late consolation strike came from Jules Dewaquez.[11]

He also appeared in the Home International Championship match against Northern Ireland on 20 October 1923 (lost 2–1)[12] and against Belgium on 1 November (2–2 draw).[13]

During the Second World War, he was awarded the OBE; he retired from the army in July 1949, having attained the rank of lieutenant colonel.[14]

His card is No. 15 of 50 in the 1926 cigarette card series _Football Caricatures by 'Mac_' issued by John Player and Sons.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4] The Independent Schools Football Association 4. The Corinthian Era (with captioned photo of the team players)

[5] Corinthian 1 – Newcastle United 3, 29 January 1927 (Match summary)

[6]

[7]

[8] Hegan was England's top scorer for 1923

[9] England 6 - Belgium 1; 19 March 1923 (Match summary)

[10] Buchan wrote in his autobiography, “After half an hour's play, Hegan scored the first goal for England. As captain I was so delighted that I ran across and shook Hegan's hand. Though I never thought about it for the rest of the game, I got a severe reprimand from the FA member in charge of the team after it was over. It seemed that hand-shaking was one of those things that wasn't done ...” as cited in

[11] France 1 – England 4: 10 May 1923 (Match summary)

[12] Northern Ireland 2 – England 1; 20 October 1923 (Match summary)

[13] Belgium 2 – England 2; 1 November 1923 (Match summary)

[14]

title: Jackie Hegan

question: What does the text say about Hegan's military service?

answer: After leaving school, Hegan attended the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, and went on to serve with the 1st Battalion, Royal Dublin Fusiliers. He was a professional soldier, and his military duties curtailed his football career. During the Second World War, he was awarded the OBE, and in 1949, he retired from the army having attained the rank of lieutenant colonel.

question: What does the text say about Hegan's athletic career?

answer: Hegan was an English amateur footballer who played on the wing and made four appearances for England in 1923, scoring four goals. He made his debut with Corinthian in 1919 and went on to play in many of their more important matches during the 1920s and early 1930s. He was also an occasional member of the Corinthians' foreign tours; his last match for the Corinthian was in Denmark in 1933. He played a total of 167 matches for Corinthian and scored 50 goals between 1919 and 1933. In the end, his military duties curtailed his football career. He also earned 23 caps for England at the amateur level, including at the 1920 Olympics held in Antwerp.


text:
ZHU LINFANG (simplified Chinese: 祝林芳; traditional Chinese: 祝林芳; Ping yin: Zhu Lin Fang, born September 25, 1982 in Henan, China), is an international referee for the World Taekwondo Federal, a former taekwondo athlete and world military champion.

Zhu Linfang claimed her first title in the First College Taekwondo Classic of China in 1998, the very first tournament in her taekwondo career. In May 1999, she won another title in the National Taekwondo Championships of China in the Women’s under 51 kg competition. Zhu missed the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000 because of an injury to her ankle ligament. However, in 2000–2004, she successively achieved world champion four times, and three times was awarded “Female Best Player” in the World Military Taekwondo Championships.[1][2][3]

After retiring from her athletic career, Zhu Linfang started her current job as a college teacher in China since 2008 and as an international referee since 2009. As one of a few active international referees from China, Zhu has refereed in a series of international tournaments, including the World Taekwondo Championships (2015 Chelyabinsk),[4] World Taekwondo Grand Prix (2014 Manchester, 2015 Samsun and 2016 Suzhou), the World Cadet Taekwondo Championships (2015 Muju), the World Junior Taekwondo Championships (2016 Burnaby), the Military World Games (2015 Mungyeong), the Military Taekwondo Championships (2014 Tehran), 2011 Summer Universiade (Shenzhen), the World University Taekwondo Championship (2010 Vigo, 2014 Hohhot), East Asian Games (2013 Tianjin), the Korea Open International Taekwondo Championships (2015 Chuncheon and 2016 Gyeongju) and the U.S. Open Taekwondo Championships (2016 Reno), etc.

Zhu Linfang became a public figure in China since she devoted herself to the promotion of junior taekwondo in China. She coaches junior taekwondo clubs in Guangzhou, China and was recently served as an invited judge for the Guangzhou Junior Talents Competition held by IFENG.COM.[5][6][7]

Achievements

World Military Championships

-   2000 Seoul, 51 kg
-   2001 Woensdrecht, 51 kg
-   2003 Zagreb, 55 kg
-   2004 Warendorf, 55 kg

National Championships

-   1999 Zhengzhou, 51 kg
-   2000 Zhaoqing, 51 kg
-   The Ninth National Games of the People's Republic of China, 2001 Shenzhen, 49 kg

[1] Zhu Linfang was awarded the Champion of Female Taekwondo in the 12th World Military Taekwondo Championships. Year book of Guangzhou government, 2001. http://www.guangzhou.gov.cn/yearbook/2001/html/468087.htm

[2] List of the results of previous sessions (13th–20th) of the World Military Taekwondo Championships on the Official website. http://www.cism-milsport.org/eng/003_SPORTS/021_taekwondo/results.asp

[3] Information of Zhu Linfang in the World Taekwondo Database. http://www.taekwondodata.com/linfang-zhu.a62b.html#gegner

[4] List of the international referees of the 2015 WTF World Taekwondo Championships. http://www.worldtaekwondofederation.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/4.-List-of-International-Referees_2015-WTF-World-Taekwondo-Championships-chelyabinsk.pdf

[5] Zhu Linfang serves as a invited judge for the 2016 Guangzhou Junior Talents Competition. http://gz.ifeng.com/a/20160615/4651117_0.shtml

[6] The official website and the introduction of the 2016 Guangzhou Junior Talents Competition. http://gz.ifeng.com/special/fhzx2016/

[7] Introduction of Zhu Linfang on ifeng.com. http://gz.ifeng.com/a/20160913/4970006_0.shtml

title: Zhu Linfang

question: Who is Zhu Lin fang?

answer: Zhu Lin Fang is a Chinese international referee for the World Taekwondo Federal, a former taekwondo athlete, and world military champion.

question: What did Zhu Lin Fang achieve as a competitor?

answer: She claimed her first title in the First College Taekwondo Classic of China in 1998, the first tournament of her career. She won the National Taekwondo Championships of China in 1999. She claimed four world champion titles in 2000-2004. She was awarded "Female Best Player" three times in the World Military Taekwondo Championships.

question: What did Zhu Lin Fang do after her professional career ended?

answer: She started a job as a college teacher in China in 2008, and began working as an international referee in 2009. She has refereed a series of international tournaments.

question: What is her public reception?

answer: Zhu Lin Fang is now a public figure in China for her devotion to the promotion of junior taekwondo in China. She now coaches junior clubs in Guangzhou.

question: Write a ~7 sentence summary.

answer: Zhu Lin Fang is a former taekwondo athlete, world military champion, and referee for the World Taekwondo Federal. She claimed her first title as a competitor in the First College Taekwondo Classic of China in 1998, the first tournament of her career. She won the National Taekwondo Championships of China in 1999 and claimed four world champion titles in 2000-2004. She was also awarded "Female Best Player" three times in the World Military Taekwondo Championships. Once her competitive career ended, she began working as a college teacher in 2008, and an international referee in 2009. She in now a public figure in China for her devotion to the promotion of junior taekwondo in China. She now coaches junior clubs in Guangzhou.


text:
INTRODUCTION

In so far as capital markets predict economic trends, the downturn in global markets during December 2015-January 2016 indicate the kind of contraction that IMF economists are also predicting after revising earlier estimate downward for GDP of major economies. _“__World stock market losses are approaching $8 trillion so far this year and investors last week poured the most money into government bond funds in a year, suggesting they fear the global economy could tip into recession, Bank of America Merrill Lynch said on Friday (22 January 2016._” http://finance.yahoo.com/news/nearly-8-trillion-wiped-off-140643148.html

What does this say about the nature of the economic recovery after the 2008 Great Recession, about the soundness of the economies not just of developing nations suffering the most but of the core countries?  Was it a hollow recovery and an uneven recovery mostly limited to the core countries and within those to the top 1% of income earners? Does this mean that the fault rests with governments that are not providing even greater incentives, even greater tax breaks, even greater corporate welfare measures for capital?

Is this just another “market correction” or is capitalism manifesting structural problems pointing to chronic decay? If one takes seriously the mainstream media coverage, listens to market analysts, politicians, journalists and pundits, the inevitable conclusion is that fault for the economic problems rests in anything but gross socioeconomic inequality, and the income and wealth inequality on a world scale. It is simply astounding to read and hear that the fault of the global markets tumbling rests with everything except the structural flaws within the system that includes the following:

1. WEALTH CONCENTRATION: Although there are literally thousands of books, articles, and other empirical studies showing the incontrovertible evidence of wealth concentration and its detrimental effects on society, nothing has changed even when the capitalist economy is threatened with imbalances both at the microeconomic and macroeconomic levels. Sixty-two people own more wealth than 3.6 billion of the world’s bottom-tiered income population; Four Americans own as much wealth as 40% of the US bottom-tiered population. _“A global network of tax havens further enables the richest individuals to hide $7.6 trillion. The fight against poverty will not be won until the inequality crisis is tackled.”_ https://www.oxfam.org/en/research/economy-1?utm_source=oxf.am&utm_medium=Znhx&utm_content=redirect

2. ARTIFICIAL DOLLAR VALUE as a hard currency losing its preeminent global status, a reality that has been brewing since the IMF secretly warned President Eisenhower in the late 1950s that the chronic US balance of payments deficits accounted for an artificially high dollar value. US currency manipulation through the Federal Reserve and imposing monetary austerity on most of the underdeveloped countries through the IMF, thus keeping capital concentrated in the core nations, has kept the dollar artificially high to the detriment of other economies using the dollar as a hard currency to trade. Because of China’s rise to a preeminent global economic status and the increasing skepticism on the part of many countries about the value of the dollar as a hard currency that only helps the US, we have more diversification in the basket of hard currencies under the IMF Special Drawing Rights than ever before (euro, yen, British pound and Chinese yuan).

This could (and very likely will) lead to the fact all foreign central banks will dump part of their dollars to buy the Chinese currency in the future, thus flooding the currency market with  dollars and reducing the purchasing power in the US.  This would also mean that the era of cheap borrowing costs would eventually come to an end and lower living standards for Americans saddled with massive public and private sector debt, thus precipitating more and deeper cyclical economic crises.  https://reason.com/archives/2012/09/13/occupy-the-fed; http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-05-06/usa-manipulating-its-own-currency-important-imf-meeting

3. HIGH STRUCTURAL UNEMPLOYMENT in the US and EU is twice the official rate and when combined with underemployment the fulltime working population drops between two-thirds and three fourths. Meanwhile, there has been an assault on labor unions and organized labor in general as much in the US as in Europe. Ever since the Reagan-Thatcher decade of the 1980s, neoliberal policies became prevalent and governments determined that labor rights, especially collective bargaining, impede capital concentration. The so-called US “right-to-work” laws and their versions in other countries that the IMF has been pushing are nothing but another way of driving wages down as low as possible; all of it made possible because government yields to corporate demands. http://useconomy.about.com/od/suppl1/f/real_unemployment_rate.htm; http://www.salon.com/2015/03/25/noam_chomsky_blasts_the_assault_on_labor_right_to_work_means_right_to_scrounge/

4. GEOGRAPHIC WEALTH CONCENTRATION. When the G20 own more than 80% of the world’s wealth and rich countries account for 90% of overall global financial assets – stocks, bank assets and insurance - the rest of the world suffers and helps to contribute to low consumption that accounts for the crisis of overproduction.  (Michael Hudson, _SUPER IMPERIALISM: THE ORIGIN AND FUNDAMENTALS OF U.S. WORLD DOMINANCE;_  https://www.gfmag.com/global-data/economic-data/wealth-distribution-income-inequality.

After WWII, the US recognized that its own economy would lapse into recession quickly unless the US helped to strengthen the economies of Europe and Japan, as major trading partners, albeit for geopolitical considerations as well. Although the international political economy of the early 21st century does not resemble that of 1945, disequilibrium on a world scale owing to centralization of capital in the core countries poses a threat to the entire capitalist system. (Mario Baldasari et al. eds.. _GLOBAL DISEQUILIBRIUM IN THE WORLD ECONOMY_)

5. IMF AUSTERITY POLICIES and the integration patron-client integration models that the US, EU, and Japan\have imposed on the underdeveloped nations have resulted in massive transfer of wealth from the periphery to the core. What the IMF, backed by the World Bank, OECD, the FED and all central banks, calls “structural adjustment” results n essence of wealth transfer from the debtor nations in the periphery – essentially non-Western nations, but also Southern and Eastern Europe – to the core countries.  http://richmondvale.org/blog/structural-adjustment-a-major-cause-of-poverty/; http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/does-austerity-work-or-does-it-make-things-worse/;

6. TAX HAVENS FOR CORPORATIONS AND THE RICH. Corporate and individual money amounting to several trillion dollars (as much as $10 trillion by some estimates) that is sitting in tax havens instead of absorbed back into the economy, and the failure of governments to absorb surplus capital from the private sector to use it to stimulate economic growth and expansion based on a horizontal model of development – benefiting the broader middle and working class. When the top 500 US corporations have sheltered away at least $2 trillion and demand massive tax breaks to repatriate some of that money it is indicative how highly concentrated capital rules over the state. http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/10/6/top-us-companies-keep-21-trillion-in-tax-havens-abroad.html; http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/offshore-tax-havens/

7. STEADILY DECLINING MASS CONSUMPTION across all core countries relying on middle class and working class consumer spending to stimulate growth remains a very serious cause of the cyclical contractions. In the US, consumer spending accounts for 70% of GDP as comparable percentages account for the top 20 richest countries. When the mass consumer suffers downward income pressure, to the degree that some US corporations have decided to raise minimum wages voluntarily, the signs are very clear of a real structural problem in capitalism. The world’s largest retailer WALMART which has just decided to close more than 160 stores, mostly across the south where incomes are low, is the last company to raise wages voluntarily. Although US consumers saved $88 billion in energy in 2015, there was a decline instead of rise in consumer spending when compared with 2014.

Despite a real GDP rise of 2%, sales decline in the US during the fourth quarter of 2015 was -5.3%, indicative that consumers are simply unable to carry any more debt given their income levels. World trade decline in 2015 was the worst since 2009 amid the Great Recession, reflecting a world consumption slump. Ironically, the IMF whose monetarist (austerity policies) are responsible for steadily declining consumption among the middle and working classes lists “low consumption demand” as a root cause for the declining global GDP in its latest revised estimate that I am positive will be revised downward at least once in 2016 possibly twice. http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/weo/2016/update/01/; http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/fe1df514-4b43-11e5-b558-8a9722977189.html#axzz3xtlGwZsK.

8. WEALTH INEQUALITY is one-hundred times higher than income inequality, thus signaling a very dire future not just for the US, but the entire western world. Just one month ago, December 2015, the US congress passed legislation providing tax breaks amounting to just over half a trillion going mostly to the rich. This was with the considerable backing of Democrats whose rhetoric is that only Republicans favor tax breaks for the rich. In the EU amid economic contraction and austerity in the last five years the wealthiest 10% have become wealthier, even in the hardest hit countries of Southern and Eastern Europe, thus curbing the consumption power of the middle and working class. According to the PEW Research Center, the US wealth inequality is the highest on record! This does not mean that situation is much better in the EU where inequality is also growing. http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/12/17/wealth-gap-upper-middle-income/; http://reports.weforum.org/outlook-global-agenda-2015/top-10-trends-of-2015/1-deepening-income-inequality/

9. NEOLIBERAL AND CORPORATE WELFARE POLICIES that are parasitic and simply recycle money from the bottom 80% of the population to corporations and the top one percent that own most of the wealth have been at the heart of the contracting cycles that started during the banking crisis of the 1980s and is continuing today. US taxpayers are paying out money to fund everything from sports stadium that millionaires own to subsidizing General Electric that is a very profitable company to providing lucrative contracts by government at all levels to subcontractors for work that is done at a higher cost and less efficiently than it would have at the public sector level. Corporate welfare is not just in the US but all across Europe and it is a policy that the IMF and the World Bank are imposing on governments around the world because it is what the richest are is pushing to maintain their privileged positions.   http://thinkbynumbers.org/government-spending/corporate-welfare/corporate-welfare-statistics-vs-social-welfare-statistics/; http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/jul/07/corporate-welfare-a-93bn-handshake

10. EU MONETARISM. Under Germany’s economic and political hegemony, Europe has been pursuing monetarism and imposing austerity on the periphery countries – Southern and Eastern Europe – in the last five years in order to solidify its dominant role in Europe under the patron-client model. This has caused disequilibrium not just in the periphery economies of the EU but across all of Europe against the sanctions imposed on Russia and counter-sanctions by Russia, thus slowing growth down and impacting EU-US and EU-China and Japan economic relations. In short, the Greek crisis mushroomed into a greater crisis because Germany was determined to use austerity as a mechanism for EU hegemony.  In an article entitled: _'The Fourth Reich':_ _What Some Europeans See When They Look at Germany” argued that:_ “_FOLLOWING WORLD WAR II, A GERMAN RETURN TO DOMINANCE IN EUROPE SEEMED AN IMPOSSIBILITY. BUT THE EURO CRISIS HAS TRANSFORMED THE COUNTRY INTO A RELUCTANT HEGEMON AND COMPARISONS WITH THE NAZIS HAVE BECOME RAMPANT.”_ http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/german-power-in-the-age-of-the-euro-crisis-a-1024714.html. European Central Bank president and former Goldman Sachs executive, Mario Draghi has faithfully served Germany largely because the EU multinational corporations benefit from the German model. http://www.socialeurope.eu/2014/09/mario-draghis-policy-ideas-wont-work/

_BEGUILING RATIONALIZATIONS FOR GLOBAL CONTRACTION_

There all kinds of excuses and shallow propaganda often by well paid consultants promoting various financial services on why the economy is in its current state of contraction, including the weather is too hot or too cold, thus preventing consumers from spending on winter products and services or conversely staying hope because it is too cold out! The utterly absurd arguments aside, of which there is no shortage especially considering that most people are paid to propagate, the IMF has just released a new report that has revised global DGP growth downward. This includes US growth that Obama, the media and analysts claimed would be robust.

 In the 2016 State of the Union address, Obama claimed that it is a myth the US economy has problems as Republicans claim. Nevertheless, the IMF report lists “subdued demand” as a cause for lowering GDP estimates. However, the IMF proposed at Davos in January 2016 that EU simply lower minimum wage laws and labor laws to absorb Muslim migrants. It goes without saying that refugees would work for food and shelter given their desperate condition to flee war-torn Iraq and Syria where the US and its allies created chaos in the first place. The irony here is that he same IMF that lists “low consumption demand” as a cause for the lower than expected global GDP in 2016 and also 2017, is recommending a wage policy that would only worsen the situation.  http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/weo/2016/update/01/

One can understand why corporations and governments spend billions trying to convince the public that economic contractions that account for lower living standards and downward socioeconomic mobility has nothing to do with the structural contradictions of capitalism and the policies governments are pursuing favoring the very wealthy. If they were to admit such a thing, then they would have to accept blame and change the political economy to the benefit of the people rather than corporations and the top one percent that own half of the world’s wealth. The only thing left to do is to manufacture excuses and to have well-paid Nobel Prize winners in economics, politicians and journalists manufacture a pretext, to insist on a better neoliberal model and never examine the structural flaws in a decadent system.

_1.      __ _

_CHINA IS TO BLAME._

a.       China not growing its GDP at the same double-digit GDP pace as in the previous decade. If this is the case, then does it not reveal the structural weaknesses of the Western economies and their inexorable dependence on China? Besides, is it realistic to expect China to grow at double digit rates without suffering the same cyclical crises given that it is operating within the capitalist world economy?

b.      China’s stock market has dragged down the entire world markets. But who drove the values of markets China higher if not speculative foreign investors that expected growth to take place and drive global demand even higher at home and globally? Even under a quasi-statist system, the evolution of the Chinese market followed a pattern of expansion and contraction as all capitalist countries have done historically.

c.       Chinese currency (yuan) manipulation by the government intended to increase exports is the problem along with “shadow banking” that conceals the real debt problem of China, thus intensifying capital flight. China actually helped the US and the world economy soften the blow of the Great Recession of 2008 by keeping its currency at such levels and stimulating continued growth amid global contraction. This at a sacrifice to its own population for the sake of securing market share in the future.

_2.      __ENERGY GLUT_

Oil and natural gas prices collapsed to levels that forced giant multinational energy corporations to suffer major losses and energy producing countries to see their GDP slashed. While this is true, why did energy prices collapse? In part, this is because of the contracting world economy, especially manufacturing in China, India, and Japan, all suffering contraction. However, the energy market was also deliberately manipulated for political reasons by the Saudi Arabian regime, with the tacit approval of the US and northwest Europe needing cheap energy to punish both Russia and Iran as major energy producers. Now we know that market manipulation coinciding with sluggish energy demand globally has backfired and impacted those doing the manipulation to a greater degree than Iran and Russia that have struggled to diversify their economies.

From June 2014 to January 2016, the price of oil tumbled by 60%, contributing to the uncertainty about energy stability and of course overall downward pressure on all commodities from cacao to natural gas effecting primarily developing nations that depend on commodity exports. As revenues of energy and commodity-producing countries fell sharply, some including Russia and Iran but smaller states like Azerbaijan among them, used revenues to diversify production and become less dependent on imports. Although the overall impact of the energy and commodities slump has entailed lower asset values, this has hardly translated into any kind of a growth stimulus, as many were speculating but now know better.   http://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/01/azerbaijan

The low energy argument hardly explains the current world contraction and market slump because it is high energy prices that invariably contribute to such contraction as they divert spending from other sectors to energy – as has happened historically. Nevertheless, this is the pretext many are using instead of looking at real causes for capitalism’s structural flaws, just as is the inane argument about Iran releasing a few hundred thousand more barrels of oil in the market. The reality is that Greek oil tankers were already transporting Iranian oil illegally for years to areas that supposedly had sanctions on Iran.  http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/article24746689.html; A. H. Cordesman et al._THE GULF AND THE MILITARY BALANCE_)

3.      _FED RATES_

FED raised rates too quickly and should have waited because this precipitated a negative investor psychology considering companies were used to rates close to zero that allowed them to borrow at practically no cost. FED was slow in raising rates so that market psychology was confused and took this as a signal things were not going as well regarding real unemployment and GDP growth. The FED has been manipulating the currency to the advantage of Wall Street since the 1930s and it follows what Wall Street dictates. If the FED was interested in helping the average American, it would have an inflationary monetary policy, something that would of course entail low dollar value given that the US public debt is about equal to GDP.  http://www.cnbc.com/2015/06/03/federal-reserve-policy-helping-rich-get-richer-blackrock-pro-rick-rieder.html; Anthony Sutton, _THE FEDERAL RESERVE CONSPIRACY_, 2014; Stephen Lendman, _HOW WALL STREET FLEECES AMERICA: PRIVATIZED BANKING, GOVERNMENT COLLUSION AND CLASS WAR_, 2011)

_4.      __PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION JITTERS: WILL WALL STREET HAVE ITS FAVORITE? _

The presidential race is not going as well as the billionaires funding the Republican campaigns and Hillary Clinton wanted. The chaos in the Republican camp with Bush marginalized and Sanders doing as well as he is brings into question of how well the wealthy control the candidates that they hand to the voters for their final approval. No matter who wins, the capitalist system will remain exactly as it is today, but that is not enough for the billionaires that demand even greater concessions. The reason for the market slump is that investors fear Donald Trump winning and proposing measures that curtail some of the manipulation of Wall Street as he has stated publicly.

The billionaire Koch brothers who own as much wealth as about 20% of the US population, have stated they are adamantly against Trump because of possible tighter market regulations. http://theweek.com/speedreads/587257/donald-trump-reportedly-tried-woo-koch-brothers-sheldon-adelson-turned-down; At the Davos meeting where the world’s most powerful businesspeople and political figures are meeting, the international elites are just as alarmed about Trump as the Koch brothers.  _"Unbelievable", "embarrassing" even "dangerous" are some of the words the financial elite gathered at the World Economic Forum conference in the Swiss resort of Davos have been using to describe U.S. Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump.”_ http://finance.yahoo.com/news/davos-elite-alarmed-prospect-nominee-trump-185041216.html. In the last analysis, Trump is a billionaire who will faithfully follow Wall Street as every president has done in US history.

Bernie Sanders is the other pretext along with Trump for Wall Street contraction. Bernie Sanders as a self-proclaimed Socialist-Democrat that many on Wall Street adamantly oppose. While it is true that he is outspoken against the neoliberal political economy and dilution of the social safety net, when one looks at his votes in the senate and his policy positions on fiscal, monetary, trade, investment and labor policy it is clear he is interested in restoring some modicum of Keynesianism that neoliberals have eliminated. Ending some of the pork barrel corporate welfare measures, fiscal advantages to the rich, strengthening banking regulation, criminalizing corporate crimes are some of the proposals he has put on the table.

Contrary to CEOs fears, Sanders who admittedly opposes “_cannibal capitalism_” (a term coined by Eugene Debs) has proved that he works within the system he wishes to reform on some new version of neo-Keynesian model but realizes it is almost impossible. Even if he wins the presidency, which is highly unlikely, Sanders will fall into the Obama mold and cater to Wall Street with only modest policy changes to strengthen the social safety net. The last time the US reformed its political economy to save it from catastrophe was under FDR in the 1930s who acted out of necessity. The US is not yet in the kind of crisis it experienced in the 1930s and Bernie Sanders is not FDR.     http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/34314-ten-powerful-reasons-why-bernie-scares-wall-street

_5.      __THE BRICS AND NON-WESTERN ECONOMIES CONTRACTING_

The fault rests with the countries in the BRICS group (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) and other developing countries. In short, China and the emerging markets are unable to absorb the surplus that the US, EU, Japan, Canada and Australia are producing therefore it is the fault of the BRICS and emerging market economies for causing problems in the G-7. Never mind that the global recession of 2008 started in the US and spread to core countries and then to the rest of the world, taking it down with them. Nor does it matter that US and its EU partners made matter worse by advocating austerity within the European periphery and in many countries outside of Europe at the same time they imposed sanctions on Russia that have only backfired to contribute to Western contraction.

Is it any wonder that instead of slashing defense spending after 2008 and keeping it at low levels, the US demanded that NATO spending increase to maintain an effective containment policy on Russia, policies that have diverted capital from the civilian economy in the US and all across Europe, as well as Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea.  When bankrupt Greece asked permission from the EU and Germany to cut defense because it had cut just about everything else under austerity since 2010, the answer was that would defense cuts impact contracts with German and French manufacturers. In short, cut mass consumption and reduce living standards that the IMF and monetarists advocate but not defense.

Because of the US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the public debt rose substantially and the average homeowner paid $600 more in mortgage interest by 2008 when the recession hit. Deficit spending is one thing when resources are devoted to productive projects for the civilian economy and to the benefit of people, and entirely another when devoted to the parasitic defense industry. While the media, politicians and pundits in the US and the West defend raising defense spending, they bitterly criticize Russia for doing the same in response to NATO encirclement policy. Oddly enough, the neoliberals in the West defending defense spending argue that in Russia’s case it weakens the civilian economy!  http://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/costs/economic/economy/macroeconomic; https://news.vice.com/article/russias-economy-is-a-mess-and-its-problems-arent-going-away

It is just as important to mention that the US and UK have been manipulating their currencies to the detriment of the emerging economies. For example, India has recently decided to trade with Iran solely on their currencies and to leave out reserve currencies euro and dollar. Having to pay debt and balance of payments in dollars or in UK British pound that are highly inflated is hardly in the interest of countries trying to enjoy monetary and economic sovereignty. It only stands to reason that both trading partners derive benefits from trade transactions in their own currencies just as it stands to reason that they along with many emerging economies see the dollar and other reserve currencies as obstacles to their growth because it imposes underlying monetarism on their countries. In October 2015, the IMF predicted a global US dollar recession, as more countries abandon it and begin to consider alternatives, including the yuan that the IMF accepted as a hard currency. The decline of the dollar is the result of US policies, not the fault of Brazil and India or other emerging economies.  http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/3/d86944c0-6d14-11e5-aca9-d87542bf8673.html#axzz3xtlGwZsK;  Barry Eichengreen, _EXORBITANT PRIVILEGE: THE RISE AND FALL OF THE DOLLAR AND THE FUTURE OF THE INTERNATIONAL MONETARY SYSTEM_, 2012)

CONCLUSION: SOLUTIONS TO THE CRISIS OF CAPITALISM

_What solutions do mainstream economists, politicians, businesspeople, pundits and media, offer for the cyclical crises of capitalism? These are same solutions they have offered since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution when Adam Smith wrote the Wealth of Nations. Increase market share domestically and globally, innovate to lower production costs, lower taxes on business and the wealthy, less regulation of business, more flexible labor laws more government support for business - everything from exporting products abroad to pursuing a monetary policy that allows for low interest rates and liquidity and providing incentives for research and development, and lower spending on any social programs._

_Even if every single one of these were to work out as ideally in the real economy as its advocates wish, the question remains how it is possible for the mass consumer to stimulate the economy when income and personal debt determine consumption power. No matter how great and how less expensive the smart phone may be, where is the consumer base once the market is saturated on a global scale? How much more debt should the mass consumer carry so that more products and services are consumed before we have a major consumer debt crisis analogous to the student debt crisis in the US about to explode even with US government guaranteeing such debt currently at $1.3 trillion in an $18 trillion economy? US average total debt is at $130,000 or $12 trillion total representing two-thirds of GDP, while US average income is just $52,000. When we consider that public debt resulting in higher taxes for the mass consumer, and consumer debt, the combination of the two necessarily contributes to cyclical crises as scholarly studies on this issue have demonstrated._

_The economy has not escaped cyclical contractions and periodically very deep ones, even under a policy mix that includes Keynesian measures. Yet, there is not a single mainstream economist or bourgeois politician who would dare to address the core issue of the problem that is the wealth and income inequality issue. Of course, some of the reformists in the Keynesian school argue in favor of strengthening the social fabric in conjunction with the saving of capitalism by providing a better safety net for the middle and lower classes to secure a democratic society. _

_Under the neoliberal political economy that has prevailed since the 1980s, even those politicians who claim to support some degree of Keynesian policies have not dared to put them into policy and use the rhetoric to win elections and nothing more; France, Spain, Portugal and Greece serve as good examples of politicians running on a Keynesian agenda but governing as neo-liberals. Even the nationalist regimes in Latin America that invoked Keynesianism – Venezuela, Argentina, Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador – catered as much to the nationalist capitalist class as to the comprador bourgeoisie and foreign capital. Embracing the neoliberal path is a manifestation of market hegemony over the state, thus forcing politicians, businesspeople, economists, journalists, and commentators to manufacture myths about disequilibrium in the economy and chronic downward socioeconomic mobility.   _

_There is no reason to look for scapegoats in the economy, no reason to create fictitious forces or policies that brought us to the reality of Bill Gates, Warren Buffett and the Koch brothers owning more wealth than 127 million Americans. There is no reason to constantly evade and avoid the bitter truth about the inescapable crash of the markets that most likely will come in a decade perhaps in the 2030s on the 100th anniversary of the Great Depression.  When the culture of the Western world, now a global culture that reaches from Mongolia to Mozambique, celebrates the millionaire and billionaire as society’s hero instead of villain who destroys society, while marginalizing those who work and create, why is anyone surprised that the sharp market decline of January 2016 amounting to more than $8 trillion in losses is but a small signal of a crash that is inevitable probably toward the end of the next decade or early 2030s. _

question: Is the economic decline an isolated occurrence or a symptom of greater ills in capitalism?

answer: With international capitalist economics becoming increasingly supported by government neoliberal corporate welfare policies, wealth concentration has piqued, the dollar value has become artificially supported, and the fundamentals of capitalism have reached extremes. The economic decline seems to be a signal for further crashes likely to come in the 2030s.


text:
DWIGHT SCHAR is an American businessman. He is the founder of NVR, Inc., a Fortune 500 company that is the third-largest home builder (by revenue) in the United States.[1] He currently serves as the company's Executive chairman and Chairman of Executive Committee.[2] Schar is also a part-owner of the Washington Football Team,[3][4] and the former Finance chairman for the Republican National Committee.[5] He lives in McLean, Virginia and Palm Beach, Florida.

Background

Dwight Schar grew up in rural northeast Ohio and graduated from Norwayne High School in 1960. He then attended Ashland University (then Ashland College) in Ashland, Ohio, where he majored in education. After graduating from Ashland in 1964, Dwight began teaching, and on the weekends, he had a job selling homes.[6] Schar soon left teaching to pursue a career in home building.[7] In 1980, Schar founded his own company, NVHomes,[8] which eventually acquired his former employer, Ryan Homes, in 1987; the company was thus renamed NVR.[9] NVR lost billions of dollars and was forced to declare Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1992.

Today, NVR is the corporate umbrella under which NVHomes, Ryan Homes, Fox Ridge Homes, Rymarc Homes, Heartland Homes, and NVR Mortgage operate.

Political involvement

Along with his involvement in the Republican National Committee, Schar is also a well-known financial supporter of the Republican Party and numerous Republican candidates, making contributions through his company[10] as well as private contributions from both his McLean, VA home[11] and his home in Palm Beach, FL.[12]

In 1989, Virginia Republican gubernatorial candidate Marshall Coleman was backed financially by Schar. An investigation from the Richmond Times-Dispatch had discovered that one of Schar’s companies had issued loans through the Virginia Housing Development Authority. Coleman had profited from the sale of two homes through Schar’s company as well.

In both the 2000 and 2004 Bush-Cheney presidential campaigns, Schar was not only a donor, but also a major fundraiser. In the 2000 campaign, Schar was a Bush “pioneer”, the distinction given to those committed to raising $100,000 or more for the campaign. In the 2004 re-election campaign, Schar rose to the new level of “Ranger,” raising $200,000 or more.[13][14]

Feud with Dan Snyder

Dwight Schar purchased a minority share along with Robert Rothman and Frederick W. Smith of the Washington Football Team, then known as the Washington Redskins. The three own 40 percent of the team. Many news outlets have speculated about the friction between Schar, Rothman, Smith, and Dan Snyder, who owns the rest of the business. Snyder accused Mary Ellen Blair, a former employee, of being connected to one of Dwight Schar's children. Blair had, according to Snyder, “absconded with confidential information.” Snyder also alleged that Schar was connected to a network of websites that had published false information about him. Marc Randazza, an attorney that represented Schar, insisted there was no business relationship.

Congressional Letter and Investigation

Ryan Homes, a business under the NVR umbrella, received a letter from Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) which asked the company to stop the practice of forced arbitration. Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Ben Cardin (D-MD), and Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) joined in and asked that both Ryan Homes and NVR “remove the arbitration provisions from their agreements and stop requiring homebuyers to sign non-disclosure agreements in order to resolve disputes.”

USA Today conducted an investigation that found that Ryan Homes “ignored warranty requests for dozens if not hundreds of customers nationally.”

Class Action Lawsuit

A lawsuit filed by homeowners in Bella Collina, a community run by DCS Capital Investments, owned by Dwight Schar, accused Schar, Paul Simonson, Randall Greene, and Richard Arrighi of "racketeering, embezzling and conspiracy." The lawsuit stated that the Homeowner's Association (HOA) should have been turned over to the homeowners, instead of DCS Capital Investments. It was dismissed a year later on a technicality.

Dwight Schar's Bella Collina has been the subject of many controversies over the years, including removing a Black Lives Matter sign from someone's property because it supposedly violated the rules of the HOA.

Philanthropy

Dwight Schar has given to many schools and colleges. In 2004, Schar donated $200,000 to Norwayne High School, his former high school in Creston, OH to go toward the construction of a new track, football stadium, and scoreboard. The school named the new track the “Dwight Schar Track” in his honor. In 2006, he donated $5 million to his alma mater, Ashland University, to help fund the construction of their new education building. The university named the new building “Dwight Schar College of Education” in his honor. In 2009 Schar again made a $7 million donation towards the new Ashland University on-campus football, track & field and Soccer facilities, named appropriately “Dwight Schar Athletic Complex”. Then most recently he gave another $7 million to his alma mater for the purchase of Med Central College of Nursing, which is now known as the Dwight Schar College of Nursing & Health Sciences. In 2011, Schar once again donated at least another $800,000 to his high school, Norwayne High School, to update the auditorium, putting in the latest lighting and sound technologies. The remainder of that money went on to update the band, art rooms, as well as an education and learning center for existing students and continuing education students linked to local universities. The auditorium was then renamed the Dwight Schar Performing Arts Center, in his honor.[15] In 2014, Mr. Schar pledged $12 million to Elon University in Elon, NC, which will help fund construction of buildings for the School of Communications and a proposed convocation center. Such contribution is the largest single gift in the school's history.

Shortly thereafter, Schar contributed $50 million to INOVA Health Center in Fairfax, VA, thus launching the INOVA Dwight and Martha Schar Cancer Institute. The center will anchor the new INOVA Center for personalized Health recently established, which will provide a platform for the development and application of advances in cancer treatment and personalized medicine through genomics. Dwight Schar has also made seven figure donations to George Mason University, Child Helps, Youth for Tomorrow and the George W. Bush Presidential Library. Other major gifts have been made to Rosarian Academy and Royal Poinciana Chapel. In May 2016, George Mason University President Angel Cabrera announced Dwight Schar's $10 million gift to the George Mason University School of Policy, Government, and International Affairs, which will be known as the Schar School of Policy and Government.

[1] Executives Cashing In Shares At NVR – washingtonpost.com

[2] Dwight Schar: Executive Profile & Biography – BusinessWeek

[3]

[4] Options Earn $59.4 Million for Schar – washingtonpost.com

[5]

[6] Dwight Schar (with Martha)

[7]

[8] NVR Inc

[9]

[10] NVR, Inc

[11] NEWSMEAT ▷ Dwight Schar's federal campaign contribution search results

[12] NEWSMEAT ▷ Dwight Schar's federal campaign contribution search results

[13] OpenSecrets

[14] village voice > news > The Bush-Cheney Gazillions Tour by Ward Harkavy

[15] Ashland University has received a $5 million gift from Dwight C. Schar, chairman and CEO of NVR, a homebuilding and mortgage-banking company | Diverse Issues in Higher Education | Find Articles at BNET.com

title: Dwight Schar

question: Summarize what happened in the 2000's.

answer: Dwight Schar was a donor and major fundraiser for the 2000 and 2004 Bush-Cheney presidential campaigns. He donated money in 2004 to his former high school, Norwayne High School in Ohio, to build a new track, football stadium, and scoreboard. In 2006 he donated money to his alma mater Ashland University to fund a new education building. And in 2009 he gave money for Ashland University's on-campus football, track and field, and soccer facilities. All of these buildings constructed from Schar's money was named in his honor.

question: What does the text say about NVR Inc.?

answer: NVR Inc. is a Fortune 500 company that is the third largest home builder in the USA. It was founded by Dwight Schar, he is also currently the Executive chairman and Chairman of the Executive Committee. NVR was formed when Schar's initial company, NVHomes, bought Ryan Homes; NVR declared bankruptcy in 1992. NVR Inc. is presently the corporate umbrella under which NVHomes, Ryan Homes, Fox Ridge Homes, Rymarc Homes, Heartland Homes, and NVR Mortgage operate. Various of these businesses are involved in controversies.

question: Summarize Dwight Schar's involvement in politics.

answer: Dwight Schar was the Finance foreman for the Republican National Committee, as well as a major contributor and fundraiser for, amongst others, the 2000 and 2004 Bush-Cheney campaigns. Schar backed Coleman's gubernatorial run in 1989, while Coleman profited from Schar's business. One of Schar's businesses received a letter from Democratic senators to stop the practice of forced arbitration after ignoring numerous warranty requests. Another of his businesses removed a Black Lives Matter sign from a community. Schar made a seven figure donation to the George W. Bush Presidential Library.

question: Summarize the performance of the Washington Football Team.


text:
The DERBY HOUSE HOTEL is a historic former hotel building at Main and West Streets in Derby, Vermont. Erected in 1896, it was for many years an important element of the social and commercial life of the small community. Now converted into apartments, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1998.[1]

Description and history

The former Derby House Hotel stands in the village of Derby Center, at the northwest corner of Main Street (Vermont Route 105) and West Street. It is a 2-1/2 story wood frame structure, with a dormered mansard roof providing space for a full third floor. The main facade is three bays wide, with windows set in surrounds with slightly gabled lintels. The most prominent feature of the building is its two-story porch, which is a near replica of the original, as seen in an early 20th-century photograph. The ground floor porch is open, with square posts that lack bracketing found in the original. A short skirt of angled slats runs around the base. The second-floor porch balustrade has elements in a figure-eight pattern, and there is a spindled valance above. The porch wraps around to the side facing West Street. An ell extends to the rear (west) of the main block.[2]

The hotel was built in 1896 by L.A. Rickard, to meet a demand that was primarily for visitors conducting business in the local industries. This is different than many other 19th-century Vermont hotels, which were built for the tourist trade. This hotel had some of the same trappings as tourist hotels, most notably the porch, which was a common feature on Vermont hotels of the time, and is the only one to survive in the northeastern part of the state. Its business was always somewhat precarious, and it ceased to serve as a hotel after foreclosure in 1932. It was converted into apartments in 1946.[3]

[1]

[2]  with

[3]

title: Derby House Hotel

question: When was the Derby House Hotel originally built?

answer: The hotel was built in 1896.

question: Who built the Derby House Hotel and why?

answer: L.A. Rickard built the hotel to meet a demand that was primarily for visitors conducting business in the local industries, not necessarily for the tourist trade.

question: How long did the Derby House Hotel stay operational until its foreclosure?

answer: 36 years (1896 - 1932)

question: What is the most prominent feature of the Derby House Hotel today and why?

answer: The two-story porch, because it is a near replica of the original as seen in 20th-century photographs.

question: Write a ~3 sentence summary.

answer: The Derby House Hotel at Main and West Streets in Derby, Vermont, was built in 1896 by L.A. Rickard for visiting business people. The hotel was operational until it was foreclosed in 1932. The historic building was converted into apartments in 1946 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1998.


text:
[Albert Camus' 1942 philosophical novel _L'Étranger_]

The COLLECTION BLANCHE is the great collection of French literature of the éditions Gallimard.

It appeared in 1911, and at the beginning was nourished by the publications of _La Nouvelle Revue française_, the brand “Librairie Gallimard” appeared only after July 1919.[1] Since its creation, “La Blanche”, which takes its name from the cream color of its cover, has published 6500 titles, of which 3800 are still available today.

In addition to the “NRF” logo originally designed by Jean Schlumberger, the graphic charter of this collection - a black border surrounding two red edges - is inspired by the éditions de , with its first title, _L'Otage_ by Paul Claudel, published 26 May 1911.[2] For a time, the first printer of this collection was Verbeke, director of “The St. Catherine Press Ltd”, based in Bruges.[3] The generic formats evolved very little over the years, which is a unique case in the history of French contemporary publishing, although the cream color changed to bright yellow filmed in the 1980s.

Champion of literary prizes,[4] from 1911 to 2016 the series has been awarded 33 prix Goncourt, 30 prix Femina, 17 prix Renaudot, 10 prix Médicis, 16 prix Interallié, 30 Grand prix du roman de l'Académie française and 4 prix du Livre Inter.[5]

[1] Henri Vignes et Pierre Boudrot, _Bibliographie des éditions de La Nouvelle Revue française_, Paris, Henri Vigne & Éditions des Cendres, 2011, , page 7-18.

[2]

[3]

[4] Littérature : les éditeurs qui raflent tous les prix, Maxime Vaudano, _Le Monde.fr_, 3 novembre 2014

[5] Collection Blanche, éditions Gallimard

title: Collection Blanche

question: What is the Collection Blanche?

answer: A collection of French literature of the éditions Gallimard.

question: When was the Collection Blanche published?

answer: It first appeared in 1911.

question: List three works contained in the Collection Blanche.

answer: That information can't be found.

question: What awards has the collection won?

answer: 33 prix Goncourt, 20 prix Femina, 17 prix Renaudot, 10 prix Médicis, 16 prix Interallié, 30 Grand prix du roman de l'Académie française, and 4 prix du Livre Inter.

question: Write a ~2 sentence summary.

answer: The Collection Blanche is a collection of French literature of the éditions Gallimard. It first appeared in 1911 and has won a great number of literary prizes.


text:
Last Stop

Sweat begins to drip down Reznov’s face as the countryside of his homeland rushes by his window. He knows what’s coming up and it’s a necessity that he maintains his composure yet his heart starts to palpitate and palms become clammy as the border crossing gets closer and closer. He’s confused and taken back by his anxious state. He’s forgotten the first rule in his line of work; maintain a calm state of mind and under no circumstances …break… character. This directly leads into rule number two; don’t, get, caught. Then again this time it isn’t really work. He’s not pretending anymore, not adopting a new character when he arrives at his destination nor are there any contacts to help…this time it’s just him. This time it’s personal. No more fake IDs and passports and most importantly no more help from Shinra Headquarters.

Shinra Headquarters. He shudders at the thought of his old place of work. What he believed in, what he worked for, what he fought for, what he lived for, and yet, the whole reason why he’s fleeing. He thinks back on what caused him to turn his back on his homeland, never to return, to effectively run from his country and kin and seek refuge in ‘enemy’ territory. All of his life he thought he was fighting for the right reasons. He’s seen so much now that he doesn’t know what to think. Was everything he believed in and dedicated his life for a lie? All propaganda from a totalitarian and fascist government that he himself worked for and gathered intel for and worst still…believed in. It’s like his whole world has been tipped upside down since he broke free from that world of despair and oppressive tyranny. He still can’t believe that he couldn’t see what kind of world he was living in worse yet working for. Not until now.  Peace sells…but who’s buying? They tried to control everything, control people to the point of oppression, control food, control luxury items, control thought, control free speech. Control freedom. It’s like the harder you squeeze your fist the more easily people will see cracks between your fingers like he did. He finally realised that the people and government he was working for and had once believed in was incompatible with his morals.

As he thinks this he is disrupted by the chime of a the train announcement; “Last stop coming up; The International border crossing at Safia” .

His stomach drops and he feels as though he’s just gone over the crest of a steep rollercoaster experiencing negative gravity. He turns pale, shudders as if someone had poured ice cold water down his back. Then Reznov feels unbearably ill. He takes several deep breaths trying to keep calm and collected. He reflects on  past missions he has completed - hundreds of dangerous and risky operations, with many involving tricky border crossings, even been in life threatening situations several times and he’s done this all without batting an eyelid. Yet now that has been backed into fleeing and he is a mess. He’s meant to be a professional yet right now he’s acting like an amateur, with nerves worse than the first day on the job. Not calm or confident in his expert ability. He’s mouth feels full of cotton wool and his throat dry.

Suddenly he hears foot steps behind him. This is it he thinks. It’s over. Well I’m not going out without a fight he mutters as he mentally prepares himself. The footsteps get closer. His fight or flight response kicks in and there’s an adrenalin surge throughout his body. He has the look of a prepared killer in is mako green eyes and he is ready. He feels a hand on his shoulder.

“Excuse me, sir...”

He grabs the hand and pins the person against the wall of the train violently. To his horror he sees a petrified young female train attendant. What has he done how could he do this he thinks.

“S..sorry” Reznov stutters then he runs to the restroom.

He slams closed the door, puts his hands against the sink and looks at himself in the mirror dripping in sweat still feeling unbearably ill.

He was ready to kill that poor young train attendant without so much as a second thought, thank god he didn’t he thinks. He splashes water on his face as deeply exhales; he doesn’t know what to do now. He’s questioning his ability, wondering if it’s worth it, wondering if he’ll even make it. He’s lost.

“This is your driver speaking, we are 5 minutes away from the international border crossing have your RFID chips and registration ready, thank you for traveling skyline railway have a safe trip”

He can’t do this he thinks. He looks in his front pocket at his last resort. The last line of defence for any Shinra covert agent. Cyanide. He takes out his forged registration and looks at where the RFID chip he made and programed was in his arm. In his right hand is his registration. In his left hand is a cyanide pill. Possible freedom. Or instant escape. He hears the train screech on the breaks as they arrive at their last stop. It’s time to decide…

title: Last Stop (Short story I wrote for school feedback is appreciated)

question: What does the text tell us about Shinra?

answer: Shinra is Raznov's former employer. It is a covert intelligence service for his home country. They are evidently able to furnish their agents with fake IDs and passports, and the last line of defense for their agents is a cyanide pill.

question: Summarize Reznov's reasons for leaving his country.

answer: Reznov feels betrayed by his country and Shinra. He was told he was fighting for the right reasons, but then something happened which shook his beliefs in what he was told. He now sees his country as totalitarian and fascist, and he regrets believing in it. He feels that the government is incompatible with his morals.

question: What does the text tell us about Reznov's home country?

answer: Reznov describes the government as totalitarian and fascist, and claims that it tried to control people, food, luxury items, thought, speech, and freedom itself. The government's intelligence agency is Shinra. The government evidently views its neighbor, Safia, as an enemy, and the border between the two countries is tightly controlled, requiring one to have both a registration and an implanted RFID chip in order to pass. In addition, the country as a skyline railway which stops at the border.

question: What does the text tell us about Reznov's friends and family?


text:
A painter, that’s what they called him. An artist, a natural. Amazing, they called him. But now what will they call him, a tragedy? A mistake, a fatality, a casualty? Alone I stood, the room silent. The only noise I could hear coming from the breath I was taking, and my heart racing, at what seemed like thousands, millions of beats per minute. Memories flashed through my head, him and I, at five years old, running around and causing mischief. Ten years old, raising hell at school. Fifteen years old, ditching school. Twenty years old, going to a different place of the world. The painting was fresh and some of the colors were still drying. It was almost an exact replica of the scene that confronted me as I entered the room. Hanging, in the air, neck at an odd angle and body limp, a body hung by a rope with only a noose to support it. The wall behind it was stained, and the worst thing of it all was the colors used. The world around was a combination of dark blues, greens, and grays, while the corpse was painted vivid colors that caught the eye. The bright colors would’ve communicated happiness in any other painting, while the outside world was a dull and dark gray, a sadness, a pain to exist in. Paint was splattered everywhere, there was broken glass and assorted other small things strewn about. The rafters creaked occasionally, supporting the body swinging from a noose.
	Two months in the past, the painter stood. The woman he loved with all his heart, the child they had made, walked to a car waiting. He watched, heart breaking, as they got in the car and drove away, giving no second glance. The painter stayed there for a long time. He turned around, walked back inside the house, and then stood inside the door. The house was big and beautiful, but now it was empty. After two minutes, his heart sank. After one, a tear fell. Something rose inside him. He strode over to a table, with a pristine set of flowers inside a vase. He took the vase, rose it above his head, and smashed it on the ground. This did not help. He screamed, a violent, guttural war cry, and laid about him. Before he knew, everything in his house was smashed, and he still felt the rage, the burning hole where his heart and soul was. He fell to his knees, screaming. This scream was a more desperate, pained scream. The pain of someone being tortured.
	One month in the past, the painter stood. The judge left the courtroom, and he was officially unmarried. The painters’ love rose, and left with the painters’ offspring. The painter left, as the world seemed to become gray. The colors he loved and cherished, gone. The scenes he would be amazed with and try to recreate, a disgusting gray. The painter drove home, feeling nothing, seeing nothing, enjoying nothing. He arrived in his house, which he had still not cleaned up, and sat on his couch, careful not to sit on a torn place. He took out his cell phone, and dialed up someone.
	Two weeks in the past, the painter stood. He waited patiently, almost unable to contain his enthusiasm. A car, which appeared to just be multiple pieces of multiple cars, pulled into the driveway. Out of it stepped a man, with dirty, stained clothes. He carried a duffle bag, and walked as fast as he dared into the house. They sat on the couch, and out of the duffle bag came a leather belt. The painter fixed it to his arm, and tightened it. Then came a needle. Pull, push. The painter slumped over, almost unable to move. He drifted away, away from the life that he now despised.
	Fifteen minutes ago, the painter finished. He was out of money, out of hope, and out of will to live. He stepped back, comparing the two pictures. The noose hung in both, and the painter would’ve had a hard time knowing which one was real, if one already had his body hanging and the other did not. He placed his wooden stool, the stool he painted on for his entire life, coated in splotches of paint, and stood up. He put the noose around his neck, and leaned back so the stool fell. Within a minute, whatever life remained in his heartbroken body had fled, and all that was left was a body. He thought of himself as a husk of his former being, after the divorce, but now, he really was a husk, a piece of meat.
	Two minutes ago, I walked into this scene. I stood for a few minutes, staring. I couldn’t move, couldn’t think, all I could do is stand and look. Look, stand, and memorize. Suddenly, the front door of the house opened. Into the room ran a small child. He stole a single glance at me, but when he saw the hanging body, he stared for a moment.
	“Daddy!” The child screamed, and ran to the body. The click-clack of heels on hardwood approached the room from outside, while the child screamed and cried at the feet of his father’s corpse, hanging from the rafter. The woman entered the room, and recognized me, before looking to the corpse of her ex-husband, who was now ex-living. They called him a painter, I called him a friend. The child called him father, the woman used to call him husband. Society will call him a tragedy, but now he is just a corpse.

title: The Painter (Please give feedback)

question: Why did the painter commit suicide?

answer: He felt his life to be not worth living after his wife divorced him.

question: What scene did the narrator witness about his friend?

answer: He saw a room with his friend's corpse hanging from a noose around his neck with a recent painting depicting the same image.

question: Did the painter try to cope with the divorce?

answer: It seems like he didn't try very hard. After sinking deep into depression, he tries a drug (probably heroin), but that doesn't solve his plight, either.

question: What is the color contrast with the mood at the scene of the suicide?

answer: The colors around are mostly bright as if a cheery scene is taking place. However, the scene is only tragic and sad.

question: Write a ~5 sentence summary.

answer: A painter, a father, the narrator's lifelong friend, and an ex-husband now hangs from a noose, with a painting depicting the same scene. The colors around are mostly bright as if a cheery scene is taking place. However, the scene is only tragic and sad. The narrator thinks about their past together, and how the divorce from his love broke his friend. The painter raged, injected heroin, but he couldn't find any reason to live anymore.


text:
Updated September 05, 2014 06:28:28

Labor has seized on a Federal Liberal backbencher's call for weekend and public holiday penalty rates to be slashed for small business workers, saying it is a "Trojan Horse" for attacks on nurses and paramedics.

Western Sydney backbencher Alex Hawke said the country's youth unemployment "crisis" warranted immediate change.

"If you change penalty rates now, in six to 12 months you'd start to see an impact of more small businesses taking on more young people," he said.

"Given that Sundays are no longer sacrosanct ... having to pay a 75 per cent loading [is] an old concept.

"There's no real reason or modern defence for paying such a loading on the same trading day as any other."

His call flies in the face of the Coalition's election promise to make no changes to penalty rates in this term of government.

The Government has promised to set up a Productivity Commission inquiry into industrial relations and take any recommendations it supports from it to the next election.

But Mr Hawke said with youth unemployment at 13 per cent nationally, and more than 20 per cent in parts of western Sydney, the country cannot afford to wait that long.

"I think we have to act early and recognise, what are the reasons that we have youth unemployment? Well, the reasons are an inflexible system for many small businesses," he said.

"The small businesses I speak to tell me that if you could reduce penalty rates on Sundays, weekends, public holidays, they would add that extra person.

"You'd see a lot more shifts for young people on weekends, Sundays and public holidays."

In March, Mr Hawke was one of a group of Liberal MPs, including fellow western Sydney backbencher Craig Laundy and Victorian MP Dan Tehan, who called for a debate on cutting penalty rates.

But none have gone as far as Mr Hawke did on Thursday.

Labor says comments are prelude to attack on nurses, cleaners

Mr Hawke says he is not calling for public sector workers' penalty rates to be cut, but Opposition Workplace Relations spokesman Brendan O'Connor does not believe him.

"The Opposition knows that cutting hospitality penalty rates is a Trojan Horse to attack the take home pay of nurses, paramedics, aged care workers and cleaners, who rely on penalty rates to pay the bills," Mr O'Connor said.

"This is not just an attack on Sunday baristas, this is an attack on 4.5 million Australians who work in industries where penalty rates apply.

"If you earn penalty rates in this country, your take-home pay is under threat from Tony Abbott.

"How long will it be before Tony Abbott caves into pressure from his backbench and breaks his promise to not touch workers' wages or penalty rates?"

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten has long argued the Coalition's true agenda involves cutting penalty rates.

He spoke to reporters before Mr Hawke's comments.

"I suspect that the Abbott Government's only recipe for workplace relations is indeed, as you suggest, to cut penalty rates. How on earth do you make working people better off by making them poorer?" Mr Shorten said.

Mr Shorten has also sought to highlight that it is a year since Prime Minister Tony Abbott promised to create 1 million jobs within five years.

"A Tony Abbott promise is not worth the paper it's written on, but he did say a year ago that under a Liberal government he led, there'd be a million jobs in five years and 2 million jobs in 10 years," Mr Shorten said.

"Now instead what Tony Abbott's given us is a 10-year high in unemployment.

"We have seen that the only jobs policy the Abbott Government has is to send jobs overseas."

A spokesman for Employment Minister Eric Abetz said "penalty rates are a matter for Fair Work Australia and not for governments to determine".

"The Productivity Commission review will report back to the Government later in the term and [Mr Abetz] urges all interested parties to make a submission to it," the spokesman said.

"[The Coalition] said before the last election that any changes we plan to make on workplace reform will be put [forward] at the next election."

Hawke 'calling it as it is', industry says

But the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) has praised Mr Hawke's comments.

"You can't have unemployment at a 12-year high, with the youth jobless rates double the national average, and not be concerned," CEO Kate Carnell said in a statement.

"Alex Hawke is calling it as it is. He comes from the western suburbs of Sydney, where youth unemployment is running as high as 20 per cent in places.

"To ignore those figures is to turn your back on Australia's youth. It is irresponsible."

ACTU president Ged Kearney said the Coalition wants to cut wages across the board.

"Penalty rates right across the board would be at huge risk if we start this - nurses, all sorts of people, our emergency services workers, anybody who works evenings or weekends and who relies on penalty rates will effectively have a pay cut if we start in one industry ... there will certainly be a domino effect," she said.

TOPICS: unemployment, liberals, federal-parliament, federal-government, government-and-politics, australia

First posted September 04, 2014 12:13:03

question: What is the main focus of the article?

answer: Labor objects to a call for weekend and public holiday penalty rates to be slashed for small business workers.

question: Explain who Mr. Hawke is.

answer: He is a Western Sydney backbencher and one of a group of Liberal MPs to call for a debate on cutting penalty rates.

question: Why is Labor against the penalty rates?

answer: They believe they are a prelude to attacks on nurses and paramedics.

question: What country does the article concern?

answer: Australia

question: Write a ~2 sentence summary.

answer: The article highlights a debate surrounding a call for weekend and public holiday penalty rates to be slashed in Australia. Some consider these rates to be an attack on the pay of nurses, paramedics, aged care workers, and cleaners.


text:
-   It was an amazing pleasure to work with you both. You made me look the way I wanted to on my daughters very special first birthday party. I looked like me!!!!! A beautiful me, and that is all thanks to your amazing talents and experience. Both of you are very gracious, a joy to work with and I can put my trust in you. Looking forward to doing more special events with you in the near future. I will recommend Blend to all I know. Xoxo. - Love Hot Mamma!!!

-   I just wanted to say that it has been an absolute pleasure to have you ladies take care of me. You both make me feel so welcome whenever I come, and have been so flexible with my last minute scheduling. Anyone who has ever seen my pictures, or me in person, after you both have done my hair and makeup, have loved your work. My two best friends have also been considering you for their weddings. I am very self-conscious about my acne-prone skin and my hair growing process, and you both have catered to those needs. I can't wait to see what you ladies do for me in my future events, one of which is already booked for July 2016!

-   I was approached by the blend team for a collaboration as I am a fashion blogger and stylist.  I agreed to work with them and am so glad that I did. I've worked with many makeup and hair stylists and I've had my share of good and bad experiences but my experience with blend has been perfect. I don't like to wear too much makeup and like to get a very natural glowy look and blend nailed it every time. Not only do they cater to the client’s vision but they add their touch and make sure the client leaves looking exactly how they want. Blend is able to do literally anything with your hair and their suggestions are always great. I got both a haircut and blow dry from them and also had them do other styles on my hair and I loved it each time. I can truly say that these girls do this because they love it and for no other reason and that's what makes working with them so motivating and rewarding. I cannot wait to work more with my new beauty team. Love them and their work.

    Sandy Gill, Esskayji

-   A BIG Thank You for fitting me in last minute and doing my hair & makeup. The Blend team was just fantastic! I felt absolutely glamorous. Thank you also for all your wonderful tips and tricks. I can't wait to attend your workshop. With much gratitude.

    Rebecca D.

-   Blend is always my first choice for any major event where I need to feel my very best. The care and time put into my hair and make up never fails to leave me feeling gorgeous which means I feel confident. Not being an expert on hair and make up I know I can trust them in a consultation capacity and that they will do what works best for me. I am already looking forward to my next event!

    Amanda D.

-   This hair and makeup duo are the perfect package! They are professional, sweet, and extremely talented. They did my makeup for a wedding I was attending and I told them I wanted to look glamorous.  And they did just that... I felt beautiful and the compliments I received that day told me they nailed it! Thanks Ladies! XO

    Susan P.

-   I cannot say thank you enough to the ladies at Blend. We had hired them for my cousin’s wedding and let me tell you our hair and make up was flawless!!! 3 of us who had it done all we got was compliment after compliment the entire night. I am looking forward to this summer as they will be dolling me up again for a few weddings I have coming up. They are my go to team for any special occasion that I am celebrating and I highly recommend anyone to contact them for any big moment in their lives.

    Kim S.

-   The ladies at blend are amazing at what they do, I have always loved my look. They have always brought my look to life, making me look flawless and feel extremely confident in my own skin.  With blend it's not just a job, they truly love what they do and it shows, they treat you like a princess but make you feel and look like a queen.

    Navi J.

-   As a performer, I get my hair and makeup done a lot and I'll be honest, sometimes the process is draining and nerve wrecking. I have such a busy schedule and the last thing I want is to sit in a make-up chair and have even more stress added to my life. That's why I love Blend Hair & Makeup Studio. I show up with little to no direction sometimes and even still my look always exceeds my expectations. Why? Because they're just really good at what they do. They value their work and genuinely want you to look and feel your best. When I get my HMU done by them, not only does everyone compliment me, but I also LOVE the experience they provide. They let me do my emails, annoyingly vlog and sometimes even eat a bagel while they work on me. And when your hmu artists let you consume carbs while making you look pretty, that's a win. I highly recommend them! Thank you Blend for being one of the best parts of my job.

    Lilly Singh Superwoman

question: Create a profile of Blend based on the sample.

answer: Blend Hair & Makeup Studio is composed of a two-woman team (one for hair, the other for makeup). They schedule jobs according to booking but depending on the circumstances, might accommodate emergency bookings. They are not selective of jobs and clients -they will handle both small and large events with professional quality output. They are well loved by clients and have good retention rates.