Those of you that listened to the podcast this week already know what this is about. But since recording that show where Dylan and I discuss Gilbert Arenas’s blog entry about not voting in this year’s election, I’ve found that I still had a lot to say about the issue. I mean, I know I’ve been hearing that there are still some black people out there who aren’t going to vote…but I never thought I would hear someone famous say it out loud during this election. It’s inconceivable to me. And it’s not even like there were legitimate reasons. I think I’d even feel better if he was some kind of anarchist or was staging some kind of protest against both major political parties because neither of them represent his views (although in the later case voting for a third party is still better than not voting). But no, his reasoning was nowhere near that.
So I’ve included the whole political portion of the post from Arenas’s blog with my own comments in bold. You can find the original here (go all the way down to the section about The Election). Please, go there and comment and let him know how much of a dumbass he is.
I’m not into politics, but I see what’s going on in the presidential race and I’m seeing rappers make songs for Obama and Mr. McCain doing all his stuff and I’m thinking, this is getting out of control, people. Whatever happened to Democrats and Republicans? You vote for who’s who.
What a gotdamn moron. So democrats can only vote for democrats and republicans can only vote for republicans? WTF?
It’s hard for me to vote, because since I’ve been in the NBA I’ve been in the upper class so I’ve been a Republican. If you have any type of money, you’re a Republican, period. So, it’s hard because you see a better looking president in Obama – I don’t even want to say because he’s black, but he just looks the part – and then you have McCain who is Republican and I’m like, man. I know Obama is going to raise taxes on the upper class from 20-60 percent, that’s what I’m looking at.
Oh ok…so now if you are rich you have to be republican. So all that talk the republicans do about liberal Hollywood….And what does that make Oprah??? This nigga is making 14.5 million dollars sitting on the bench with an injury. Some supporters of Obama in Hollywood make that in a few weeks. Shut the fuck up.
To be honest, I stopped paying attention a long time ago when it was Bush and Gore when Gore won the popular vote, but Bush was the president. Basically, what that told me was that everybody in America voted for Gore, but somehow, Bush became president. I am confused.
Obviously you are confused. Or you slept though that part of civics class when they talked about the electoral college. You would think earning $14.5 million a year, he would be able get a tutor or something in order to learn about this. Through this election we’ve seen and heard inspirational stories from people and their determination to vote. From the lady in a wheelchair who was turned away for wearing an Obama shirt (she changed her shirt and still voted) to the 100+ year olds making sure they don’t miss out and are able to cast their votes in this historic election. Yet this moron can’t find the time between all his blogging to education himself. Pathetic.
Obviously, our vote doesn’t really mean anything. Then you have this thing called the delegate, then you got the super delegate and then you got the hidden delegate that nobody knows about. If you’ve never heard of the hidden delegate, that’s like when you’re buying a car and they say the taxes on the car are 20 percent, and then when you look at your statement, they charge you an extra three, that’s the same thing. It’s the hidden fee delegate that nobody knows about who has all this power. They actually get to pick who they want for president. So when I start looking at it like that, that’s when I stop paying attention because at the end of the day, our votes really don’t matter. I don’t mean to be rude about it, but it seems like it doesn’t matter. If Gore wins by thousands of votes and Bush is president eight years later … come on.
WTF is this dude talking about? During this long election season that’s lasted damn near 2 years, I’m sure you could go to an intelligent 16 year old and they would be able to explain to you what a super delegate was. Then there’s the fact that superdelegates are only for the democratic primary. We’re in the final week of the general election. And a hidden delegate? What the hell is this moron talking about? The Bush – Gore election was 8 years ago. Most of us intelligent voters have since learned about the Electoral College or educated those who didn’t understand. So either Gilbert has been living under a rock for 8 years or he’s just an rich ignorant, pompous ass who has no respect for his ancestors who fought and died for his right to vote.
There’s another reason I don’t vote – I don’t want jury duty. If you’re not registered to vote, you can’t get jury duty. I know that campaign Diddy had a couple years ago, “Vote or Die,” yeah if the alternative is jury duty, I’m going to die. I’m not going to get in one of these cases where they blow the jury members’ houses up to get out of the trial, I’m cool. I’ve seen too many movies.
Jesus…You’re eligible for jury duty when you are 18. In 8 years I’ve been called once….this year. I sat in a huge room with like 300 other potential jurors and after about 3 – 4 hours they told us they didn’t need us and we can go home. So this moron won’t vote because there’s a CHANCE he might get called for jury duty. Not only that, but his reason for not wanting jury duty seems like something fresh out of the brain of a juvenile. Seriously. I’ve never been one to promote the censoring of TV. But when a grown ass man, suggests that he doesn’t want to be called for jury duty because he doesn’t want to be on “one of these cases where they blow the jury members’ houses up to get out of the trial”…it might be time to look into changing the landscape of television.
For whatever president that wins, what can I tell you? Do a good job. Change the world. I remember when we were voting for class president in high school, the guy who won was the guy who said he’s going to put the vending machines in the school cafeteria. That’s who I voted for. So until I hear vending machines or lower gas prices, I’m not voting. As soon as I hear, “Yeah, I’m going to lower gas prices,” then you got me, I’ll sit in jury duty.
I hope he blows his other knee out. Seriously, I don’t like to wish physical harm on another human being but he’s being a complete moron. Not voting in this election is about the dumbest thing anyone in this country can do. As I said on the podcast this week, Arenas is rich. Even if 50% of his yearly salary is taken, he’s still going to be rich. Those middle class men and women and children that support him won’t be though. Listen up Gilbert Arenas. Those little kids that look up to you Gilbert…those are going to be the soldiers in our next war. Those are the ones that will bare the brunt of the consequences of the next elected President’s polices. And you don’t want to vote. Even more incredible, is the fact that your refusal to vote means you not only won’t be voting for President but any polices, questions, referendums, laws that will be enacted in the community you live in. There could be a law bringing back slavery or requiring us negroes to drink at the “Colored Only” water fountain or sit at the back of the bus…and your dumb ass wouldn’t know because you’d be too busy blogging about pictures of your million dollar pool showing up online. I’d call you a “House Nigger” but truthfully, even a “House Nigger” would vote. Unfortunately this means I can no longer support the Washington Wizards as long as you are a part of that team (a real shame too cause I was going to try to get my dad tickets to a game). Now I know most people think I shouldn’t punish the whole team for one idiot, but I believe that when someone does something that I find offensive (and you not voting is offensive), I vote with my wallet. Oh yeah…and since voting in this election is such a confusing chore for you, I’ll make sure I use that excuse if your name appears on the All-Star ballet this year.
Gilbert Arenas…you are not only the Dumbass of the 2008 Election, but a sad excuse for a black man.
October 31st, 2008 at 8:03 am
What a stupid MF!
October 31st, 2008 at 1:40 pm
Wow….I’m embarassed for him….WTF!?
October 31st, 2008 at 1:40 pm
Thx for reminding him that I need to go comment on his blog and tell him how I feel. Retarded negroe
October 31st, 2008 at 1:41 pm
WOW! That is all I can say. When he said "hidden delegate" was he talking about the electoral college? I was so confused. That was so ignorant. And with gas going down EVERYDAY, what the hell is he talking about?! Wow I’m so shocked.. that was pretty bad. That’s worse than Ciroc Obama…
October 31st, 2008 at 1:41 pm
There’s so much wrong with what Gilbert has said that I don’t think I could stop if I started going on him.
I am in no uncertain terms utterly disgusted with Arenas. He is the embodiment of the word nigger.
October 31st, 2008 at 1:42 pm
Wow I really hate the part where he starts to talk.
October 31st, 2008 at 1:42 pm
I’m not even attacking this the way I could, I gotta get ready to see Obama tonight
"Even if 50% of his yearly salary is taken, he’s still going to be rich."
Exactly. That’s what happens when self-respect and pride are overthrown by capitalism. That is one of my biggest arguments to uppity negroes that think you have to be Republican if you have money. Bitch, if you make $10 million a year and I tax you at 48-52% you are still sitting on about $5 million. That’s still almost 100 times the avg American household income. This is one of the reasons we had a surplus fucking with Clinton and the Republicans hated him. His administration progressively taxed the fuck out of people. Seeing as though gov’t funding comes from constituents, if the gov’t is broke, the only way to fix it is taxation. Printing up bills from the Fed ain’t cutting it no more, lol
This biggest problem in America right now is NOT terrorism, it is NOT gays getting married, it is NOT abortion. It is the economy. Republicans call it socialism, I call it patriotism. Fuck joining the service, pay up if you’re such a fucking patriot and truly think you love America and want to help.
McCain isn’t doing any patriotic, "maverick" shit…. like giving up one of his houses to a newly-homeless family
Anyway, back to this…. Even if I dedicated a day of my life to tracking this idiot down with a printout of his blog in my left hand and a middle finger on the other, it would do no good. Why would you expect him to be able to follow a logical argument? He has cars that cost more than some people make a year, so he doesn’t understand the financial burden of regular Americans. He’s a proud Republican (who, by definition could give a fuck about logic) that doesn’t appreciate the right to vote
And I think you used the term "famous" a little too loosely. I had to Wiki his ass. I never heard of any black man named Gilbert until this post
October 31st, 2008 at 1:43 pm
In my defense Latrice….I’m from the DMV so "Agent Zero" as he is called out here is a house hold name. But I agree…who the fuck names their kid Gilbert?
October 31st, 2008 at 11:34 pm
This is truly a sad day. I sometimes think you go a little too hard on people, but this may be the one time when you didn’t go hard enough. This ignorant bastard has got to be kidding me. It would actually be funny if it wasn’t so sad. The fact that he isn’t voting is ridiculous on its own, but the other ignorant crap that he talked about is the sad part. I mean I have come across some ignorant bammas in my day, but most of them were talking on the street and had an audience of maybe 5 – 10 people, and most of them were ignorant to so it was all good. But this guy actually takes the time to write a blog and let everyone know just how ignorant he is. Its like committing a crime and leaving your driver’s license at the scene, or wearing a T-shirt with “I’m an ignorant bastard”. For every 1 of the talented tenth trying to push us up, there are 100 ignorant negroes waiting to pull us back.
November 1st, 2008 at 7:55 am
Republicans have superdelegates but they aren\’t anywhere as near as important or awarded in the same way as the democrats\’ superdelegates.
November 1st, 2008 at 8:42 am
I do not agree with Arenas on anything he said but his money is his money! Everyone seems to think that because someone is rich everyone is entitled to their money. If he earned it (granted sitting on a beach hurt making 15m is not earning it in my opinion) they he should get to do what he wants with it.
As for the ignorant negro comments, he is ignorant period. Black, white, asian, it does not matter. He is ignorant. He should be voting on the things that matter to him.
I would also be interested to see the comments here would still be vitriolic if he articulated a clear and rational argument for voting for McCain. To me, that is the tragedy of the state of this country today: We cannot have differences of opinion and still respect each other.
Rather than calling Arenas names that do not support a particular argument, it would be more constructive to readers (and this country in general) to break his statements down into points to argue.
I just wish this election was over so we can (hopefully) start building back this country the way it should be. Many different ideas and ideals contributing to the success of the country. We may not always agree, but we will always stand together as one.
November 1st, 2008 at 11:06 am
1. I never said that anyone was entitled to Arenas’s money. It just seems to be a really stupid argument for someone making $15 million a year to bitch about high taxes. Getting taxed at 50% is a lot more of a struggle for someone at $40,000 a year than someone at $15 million a year. I make decent money. I expect to pay more in taxes. It just seems like common sense. It’s really a trade off. You make less money and therefore can afford to do less things, but you pay less in taxes. You make a lot of money and so you can afford a lot of cool things that others can’t, but you pay more in taxes. I don’t see the problem.
2. If he articulated a clear and rational argument for voting for McCain then that would be a totally different matter. The fact is though, he gave stupid reasons that honestly don’t deserve a legitimate discussion. Jury duty? Really?I have no problem with having a fundamental disagreement and a discussion on those disagreements. But when someone says something this stupid, I honestly don’t have the patience or will to treat them as anything other than an idiot.
November 1st, 2008 at 11:08 am
The republican "superdelegates" are just 123 members of the RNC. That can vote fo any canidate at the convention. I don’t think they don’t call them superdelegates (I could be mistaken though).
November 1st, 2008 at 5:29 pm
I was talking to my mom about this and basically we were talking about how the republicans twist logic to get people to actually consider these tax breaks. the reality is they just want to keep their money. But they can’t say that, so they try to convince people that low taxes on the right actually spur the economy. WRONG.
Taxes on the rich make them spend their money or otherwise use it to AVOID paying taxes. Capital Gains taxes are incentives not to cash out in any particular market. Don’t sell your investment home because of capital gains tax, keep it, and employ a contractor, house manager, and give lower income people a place to rent. Keep your money in the stock market to avoid paying capital gains taxes, this keeps the money in the market so the businesses can actually use it. And when you do take out money from the market you take it out in less increments to avoid capital gains taxes.
Tax income over a certain amount to keep business owners from taking all the profit from their business for themselves and encouraging them to incvest their money, in interest free accounts, in their own business etc. These things keep the money in the market and out of scrooge’s vault.
All those things are what keep the economy going, all those "business lunches and dinners" and yall know what I’m talking about….
Purchasing a home, going to school, investing in 401ks– all things people do in part to avoid paying taxes. And all things that help the economy.
In short, taxes disincentivize greed, since people with massive wealth are forced to use it or lose it to the government. Trust me, when Obama gets elected a lot of rich folk are going to be going to their financial advisors to find out what they can spend their money on to avoid the higher taxes.
January 9th, 2009 at 4:25 pm
LOL………….. if it wasnt for Taxes — it would be the wild wild west in the USA!
Tax keeps people honest.
And if not like you not getting that $ back – pay taxes to the IRS and u get a check back…….. a big one if u do it legal!
smh…….