I am going to be right up front about this, which usually
doesn’t come natural for a lawyer. I hate Justin Bieber. Maybe hate is too
strong a word, let me try and be more diplomatic. I recognize that he has
musical talent of some form, but I do not like the way he looks, sings, acts, dances,
talks, performs or any of his songs at all.
To me, he is
everything that is wrong about music. A pre-packaged tough boy Canadian
“urbanized” look and sound that appeals to suburban teenage girls. Five years
from now, if he falls in line with the usual path of those of his type, he will be a has been appearing on Dancing
with the Stars or some other pathetic reality show about the often told story
of going from rags to riches, and back to rags.
His mean boy stares and saggy thousand dollar pants
basically make me want to puke. And, if one of the paparazzi, who he despises,
even though being a musical superstar naturally depends on your fans seeing
constant images of you everywhere, were to give him a nice ass whipping which
he is long overdue for, I would welcome the sight of it. What a great laugh
that would be. He has a huge ego and unrealistic sense of his “tough” self in a
115 pound body surrounded by 315 pound bodyguards and vampire groupies and
“friends” who hang out probably to get free drugs and a chance to party with a
celebrity. It is sad in a way that none of his “friends” has the guts or
concern to give him any advice or ever tell him that he is acting stupid.
I just can’t stand these whiny stars who have
everything at their disposal and could feed hundreds of families for
generations bitch and moan how hard their life is and how they can’t get any
privacy. Hello? If you want privacy go be a file clerk or be a janitor on the
midnight shift. Nobody will be “harassing” you then and trying to take your
photograph if you are camera shy and just want people to leave you alone.
That
being said, I thought I would be candid and honest about how my personal
opinions definitely impact my thought process up front in writing this article.
In his defense, albeit I make this concession with a reluctant since of
fairness, he is a very young kid (and I don’t sense the sharpest pencil in the
box) who has been thrust into a world of money, fame, and adoration that would,
to be perfectly honest, probably have a negative affect on just about anybody
who comes from a rags to riches sort of background like him. He did not grow up
in a family whose background and life experience prepared him in any way for
the surreal life he now finds himself in.
In
short, I do not necessarily want him to go away mad, I just want him to go
away.
Why is a 46 year old expressing opinions about a
teenage pop star you ask? There is more to this than just being a music and
character critic. I am not “a hater” for
the sake of it because Bieber is rich and famous as the more urban, hip, youth
will most likely accuse me of. I have some valid reasons and others appear to
think the same way I do. Read on and
let’s meet these people.
Turns
out, Bieber is simply a “menace to society” (Ironic, because that is actually a
good movie, with good actors and music.) He has gained a tremendous amount of
media attention recently with all of his legal scandals, including his arrest
for an alleged DUI in Miami, the accusation that he assaulted a limo driver,
his alleged involvement in an egging incident near his Los Angeles home, his reported
stay in a brothel while in Brazil, and his bodyguards theft charge for allegedly
stealing a paparrazzo’s camera.
After
Bieber’s bodyguard was arrested for the alleged theft of photographer Joseph
Binion’s camera in June of last year, Binion sued Bieber in Miami ’s civil court claiming that Bieber ordered
his bodyguard to steal the camera.
Although
Bieber’s dream team of lawyers fought to prevent him from being deposed, they
lost this battle and Bieber was forced to attend a deposition regarding the
matter, where he was questioned for hours until becoming extremely upset at the
nerve anyone would dare to question him.
During his deposition, which is an internet must see, he objects to
questions asked by opposing counsel (instead of his lawyer), winks and fixes
his techno colored shirt for the camera, and gallantly states “Don’t ask me about
her again,” repeatedly, while shaking his finger when questioned regarding his
ex-girlfriend (a real winner picker) Selena Gomez.
When
asked by opposing counsel if Usher was instrumental to Bieber’s career, he
responds saying, “I was found on YouTube, I think that I was detrimental to my
own career.” See reference to sharpest pencil above.
Apparently,
Bieber’s Los Angeles
neighbors were not too happy after his alleged egging of a neighbor’s house.
Perhaps understanding that his welcome has worn out, he has recently sold his
home to Khloe Kardashian according to Zillow.
According to nydailynews.com, neighbors are extremely pleased that they
will have a Kardashian (i.e. family known for porn videos, prostituting
themselves out to sell anything, failed marriages and relationships, and the
bizarre transformation of Bruce Jenner into someone who looks like an old
transvestite with bad plastic surgery) as a neighbor instead of the Bieb (one
of Justin’s many cool urban nicknames). Imagine
that, the Kardashian’s are more respectful and desired neighbors than Bieber?
On the least desired scale, that puts him slightly below a toenail fungus
(like, the Bieb, it just won’t go away).
The
public has been so outraged that over 270,000 so called “non-Beliebers”
(referring to those who don’t “beliebe” in Justin) signed a petition to have
Bieber deported back to Canada . Although the government is not forced to
reply directly to the matter at hand, once a petition reaches 100,000
signatures, it is the government’s responsibility to articulate some form of
response. This petition was submitted to
the White House, who initially declined to comment, but then went on to comment
anyway.
In
a rambling statement, The White House commented on immigration in general
stating “we need a smart effective immigration system…” They also reference Bieber’s earnings from
concerts and albums in their explanation of how much immigration reform will
grow our economy and reduce our deficit.
What a solid, well thought out, direct answer. As my text savvy friends
often communicate to me, WTF?
While
it looks like Bieber won’t be leaving the United States anytime soon due to a
green card revocation, deportation rates have significantly increased in the
time that Barack Obama has been President.
Although many immigrants were especially hopeful for less deportations
once Obama was re-elected (due to his promises to give certain youth a
temporary solution to gain legal status), there have been more deportations
under Obama’s reign than any other U.S. President. Does this surprise you; it certainly caught
me off guard? I, like a whole bunch of other
people, thought we were moving toward a more logical and humanistic approach to
immigration in this country. Well, as a
great band once said, “don’t believe the hype.”
So far, Obama has deported roughly 2
Million people, which is more than any other U.S. President thus far according
to an article by www.thenation.com.
CNN
states that a whopping 71% of Hispanics voted for Barak Obama in 2012 (remember
the frenzied “Si Se Puede” chants at the political rallies all across the United States ,
and especially in those states with high Hispanic populations, used to win the
support of Hispanics for Democratic elections).
44% of Latinos voted Republican in 2004 for George W. Bush and 31% voted
for Mitt Romney in 2008.
Sadly,
but not surpisingly, as things have
turned out, Obama gained many votes with his promises to improve immigration
proceedings within the first year of being elected, something that was never
done. According to The Huffington Post, Obama has not presented a single
immigration bill to Congress since being re-elected. Apparently “Si se puede” should be changed to
“No puedo por que no me conviene en este momento.”
Many
immigrants come to the United
States in search of equal opportunities and
a better life, but the sad part is that a staggering number, who attempt to
arrive, never make it. According to an
article written by Jacob Silverman titled How
Stuff Works, around 12 million people die annually pursuing their hopes
of the American Dream.
Other
factors have been researched to determine if there is anything else that could
be causing the escalation of deportations, including possibilities of increased
amounts of undocumented immigrants, and it seems that there are no definitive
explanations, according to www.polifact.com.
Undocumented
parents are often deported, leaving children and other family members stranded
and left behind. According to a story
written by Cindy Y. Rodriguez and Adriana Hauser for CNN, the Soza families’
life has been changed forever. Marisela
and Ronald were immigrants from Nicaragua
and had two children who were living here in the United States .
The childrens’ mother Marisela was deported back to
Nicaragua and the father was allowed to stay to watch over the kids, but only
to be deported as well five years later leaving the children parentless, homeless,
and completely at the mercy of those who stepped up to care for them. The
children are legal US
residents. Situations such as these show the unjust, arbitrary and nonsensical
system we have when it comes to immigration and deportation. Does it really
make sense to kick someone out of this country who has been here for years,
sometimes even decades, leaving children behind who now are left to fend for
themselves? Is there any quantifiable and statistical correlation that these
types of deportations, such as with Marisela and Ronald, lead to economic or social
betterment of a country whose very foundation was the genesis of persons
looking for a better life someplace else? I have yet to see any proof in terms
of numbers and studies, other than the same old unsubstantiated arguments that
immigrants take jobs and cost money. Didn’t Hitler rely on this same exact
argument at one point to blame the economic problems of Germany on
those who were powerless to defend themselves?
In fact, if one reads some history, almost every time economic times are
difficult, the first people to get blamed are the poor and immigrants who make
easy targets to spew hatred and racism upon.
Many
claim that those deported are violent offenders convicted of horrendous crimes.
Again, there is no proof of this. Families
are broken apart due to deportations and it is reported that in 2012, according
to an article written by wwww.thenation.com,
less than one percent of those deported are done so for crimes such as
murder. So much for the theory that we
are ridding our country of undesirables based on criminal statistics.
Although many individuals feel outraged and
upset claiming that immigrants take jobs away, this is simply untrue. Many immigrants are forced to work picking
strawberries, oranges, or doing grueling and tiring construction jobs below
minimum wage and without any insurance if they get hurt doing these often
dangerous, and body withering manual labor jobs---things that the average
“American” would never do. How many times have you see Waspy-looking people picking strawberries, oranges, or
cotton?
It is a not
so well hidden and dirty secret that many large companies rely on the cheap
labor of immigrants to run smoothly. Do you think these businesses want to bow
down to unions and get stuck “complying” with federal labor and wage laws when
they have a ready, willing, and able labor pool that is literally dying to try
and work in the U.S. ? Do you think these companies really care about Americans
and their jobs, as they hire more and more workers from the Philippines and India and other places to outsource
for cheap labor? It has been said that
if one were to do a psychological profile of a company, what they would find is
the values and lack of any empathy, or care for the pain of others---makes them
very similar in personality to sociopaths (whose single focus is the seeking of
immediate self-gratification and reward, and in the company’s case, profits
above any sense of morality, i.e. Wall Street Crash, Widespread Mortgage Fraud
by Banks, etc.).
Even though they may not pay income taxes when
working their low paying and often dangerous jobs (which their employers
particularly enjoy because they pay no employment taxes or insurance), they do pay
sales tax, something that they will likely see little to no benefit from due to
their undocumented status. It is
interesting that one hardly ever sees these numbers quantified or statistics
about all of the sales taxes an immigrant pays versus how much they will never
see in their lifetime when they are deported. Nor does anyone talk much about
how sales tax is a regressive tax, meaning that if an immigrant pays 7 or 8
percent in sales tax for the essentials such as food, clothing and shelter;
this is a much higher portion of their income than another person who earns ten
times what they do---thus, actually contributing much less of an average per
purchase for items that are necessary simply to live.
What
does all of the above basically amount to? Well, one, I still would love to see
Justin Bieber deported and/or punched by a paparazzo. Second, if we can’t
deport him, why are we so hell bent on kicking out people who have been here
for years, have children who are born here, and otherwise contribute to society
in a positive way by trying to make a better life for their family? Third, I
think that people should not blindly follow one political party or the other
based on the same rhetoric we hear every time there is an election. Bottom
line, politicians will do and say anything to get elected. They raise taxes when they say they aren’t,
they continue to fight unwinnable wars when they say they aren’t, and they do whatever is
going to get them elected----regardless of any “promises” they ever made
in the past.
In a sense, by the very nature of being
politicians, they have to be liars because in order to have a job they have to
trick as many people as possible into voting for them so that they can continue
to have a career. There is a similar organism that depends on and uses others,
and causes harm, to survive and grow, it is called a virus.
~Leonardo G.
Renaud
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