My name is Joe B. Kent, am a rational local conspiracy theorist and founder of the Taxpayer Justice Institute. I have developed theories and proven a number of local Memphis conspiracies. Proving a local conspiracy, first demands the development of a conspiracy theory. In this way, a theory can be developed, to inform the thesis, that the trajectory of Memphis will never improve until local Memphis elitists stop ripping off taxpayers.
Further, I am not the Elvis impersonator Joe Kent. That particular Joe Kent was raised by the late, great and fabulous one, Jackie Fargo, who wrestled for years in Memphis. Joe Kent was a world renowned Elvis impersonator but has since retired. I am a different Joe Kent and go by Joe B. Kent.
I did however guard Elvis’ grave in college, where I was required to awake, Elvis’ Aunt Delta, who resided at Graceland, by knocking on her bedroom window at 1am. Aunt Delta would then admit the cleaning staff to clean Graceland for the next day’s tours.
During my time at Graceland, working the midnight shift, I made my best college grades. I would show up at Graceland, at 11pm for work, sober, which was an accomplishment at the time. I would then make hourly loops of the Graceland property and study the rest of the time. During that time, I was able to elevate my GPA from where it was to a final GPA of 2.67. As far as the rumored ghost of Elvis, residing in Graceland’s racquetball courts, I was never able to confirm the ghost of Elvis at that location.
After college, I worked various jobs and ultimately, throughout the country in education, career and workforce development. I am also a member of the Facebook Bigfoot Believers group. I love Bigfoot. Today, as a taxpayer justice advocate in Memphis, I buildout taxpayer rip off templates, that prove how Memphis elitists rip off taxpayers and small business. Rip off templates are designed to educate the public and policymakers to inform rigorous oversight and to guard against elitist rip offs.
The typical Memphis template, for an elitist public rip off, involves the following: 1) Hurried public approval, 2) Massive public benefit claim for the future and 3) Helping black people. As we all know, after years of these shenanigans, none of the former has worked for community betterment.
Few know this, but one of my greatest accomplishments, as a taxpayer advocate, was single handedly ending Nike’s Colin Kaepernick’s national “Take a Knee” campaign. I did this by publicly mocking the campaign in light of Nike’s local poor performance against their payment-in-lieu of taxes (PILOT) commitments, while Nike temporarily shut down their national social media efforts.
I have a BBA in Finance from the University of Memphis and a Masters in Curriculum, instruction and Technology. The Taxpayer Justice Institute offers a Taxpayer Justice Certification through a one-hour meeting with me, Joe B. Kent, for $250 + travel expenses. Taxpayer Justice is based on the Hierarchy of Community Actualization, which will be covered in the certification process, with a hands-on activity using pre-school building blocks.
Taxpayer Justice accommodates a wide spectrum of left and right of center political viewpoints for societal evolution. At the same time, what this accommodation demands, is rigorous and transparent public oversight. To that extent, what taxpayer justice rejects are the following:
- In the current environment, not all, but excessive tax incentives
- Unchecked public-private organizations
- Public relations philanthropic dog bones, instead of the social responsibility of paying taxes
- Significant credit for symbolic gestures such as taking down statues and renaming streets.
- Helping black people, with public funds, instead of targeting public resources for the poor and small emerging business.
Here is the Taxpayer Justice pledge:
I pledge allegiance to the taxpayer in the jurisdiction at hand. With this allegiance I promise to practice rigorous public oversight to best insure taxpayer justice for all.