You are currently browsing the category archive for the ‘neocon madness’ category.
This will be a brief teaser for labor day… Why, is the middle class (labor) suffering so much today…..
US Corporations get around the US’s high tax rate of 35% by stashing money offshore. The average corporation pays 12.6% according to the GAO in 2010…. This means that half of America’s corporations pay higher, and half of America’s corporations pay lower… HALF OF AMERICA’S CORPORATIONS PAY LOWER THAN 12.6%? REALLY?
During America’s boom times, when the middle class was almost guaranteed a job for life with a pension plan and a gold watch, corporate taxes were set as high as 52.8 percent. Later rates were lowered to 48 percent and then 46 percent. It was only after 1986 when they were lowered to 35% that the middle class problem begin to emerge….
Across history there is a direct relationship between higher taxes and higher wages… When tax rates are high, wage rates are high. When tax rates are low, wage rates are low. (As an additional benefit, the higher the taxes, the higher the employment level goes as well.) In fact there is such public good in charging the wealthy higher taxes with no downside, that is is literally amazing we aren’t doing it. Everyone benefits out the gazoo!)
The way America’s corporations get around this 35% rate, is by stashing cash abroad. There is $2 trillion of America’s money kept overseas, and not brought home to keep it from being taxed… You pay taxes. I pay taxes, yet corporations think they shouldn’t… How fair is that?
Keep in mind. This is by their own volition. They are not forced to keep that money offshore. They could bring it back anytime they wished. They choose not to do so… And that money is what funds campaigns for cutting taxes. That money is what buys both Democrat and Republican allegiance to no-tax pledges. I would bet that some of that foreign money is in Tom Carper’s, Chris Coons’, and John Carney’s campaign slush funds right now..
$2 trillion at 35% is $700 billion that should have already been in our treasury… That is money we borrowed unnecessarily to cover our expenses which if a proper administration had been in the executive branch would have already been there, from corporations… The balance, $1.3 trillion would have then been available here and could have been invested in our nation in the form of jobs…
There was some discussion, primarily from Michelle Bachmann, as to give a blanket amnesty on these taxes to get this money back, But that is like saying you won’t prosecute a bank robber if he comes back and spends his money in your home town… What bank will he rob next? And what about all those people who had their money stolen from them? Michelle and her Republican cohorts seem not to care.
So why are corporations really renouncing their “citizenship?” Simple answer, is they are doing this so they can pocket hoards of “deferred” offshore profits without ever paying the taxes they owe on these profits….
Dave Johnson explains. “Here is how the deferral scam works. An American company sets up a non-U.S. “subsidiary” in a tax haven. That non-U.S. company gets or produces goods, services, patents, whatever, at a low price. (This often involves shifting paper (and copyrights, patents) around to make it look like profits are not made in the U.S., but in too many cases this means the U.S. company actually moves U.S. jobs, factories, production, call centers and other assets out of the country.) The subsidiary sells to the U.S. company at a high price. Most or all of the profit is therefore made by the non-U.S. subsidiary, so the profits are considered to be non-U.S. and taxes on those profits are “deferred.” This still counts as profits for the U.S. owner of that subsidiary, but the U.S. company does not have to pay taxes (they are “deferred”) until they “bring the profit home.””
These corporations see that if they renounce their citizenship before the U.S. fixes this loophole, they can just keep the money….
But does this money REALLY stay offshore??? As you would certainly expect, of course not…. The non-U.S. subsidiary company “loans” money to the U.S. parent. So all of the non-U.S. cash actually is available to the U.S. parent. But wait, there’s more. The U.S. parent pays interest to the subsidiary, which is deducted from taxes and reduces the U.S. tax bill even more. ..
If complicated, it isn’t. I hire you as my buddy in crime. I give you all my money… I say, look, I’m broke, I can’t pay any taxes! You lend me my money back to me… I spend it tax free and the money I do make, I write off as interest I give back to you… So I keep everything I make here … No taxes…
Ways to fight this… very important on this Labor Day…
A. Hold Democrats accountable. Don’t let them (Tom Carper, Chris Coons, John Carney) get away with helping corporations rob the American workers, who do pay all their taxes and who are subsidizing these corporations money-making schemes.
B. Support proposals by President Obama to use executive action to stop “income stripping” and to keep “inverted” companies from getting government contracts
C. Support the Stop Corporate Inversions Act of 2014 in the Congress… Obviously obstructed by Republicans.
D. Support a proposal to tax companies based on their percentage of sales that occur in the U.S.,..
One must wonder, why is this even in the tax code? The reason is so U.S. companies can use “offshore” profits to invest in growth. This is a win-win because we want U.S. companies to do well, and because the U.S. is supposed to benefit when profits are brought home and taxes are paid….
A very simple way to fight abuse of deferral is to charge a fee of, say, 7 percent a year on all deferred profits. The full amount of taxes is to still be paid when profits are finally brought home, but we collect an additional 7 percent a year until they are….
So enjoy your Labor Day. We’ve got some real work to begin tomorrow…..
Get involved. Net neutrality is about money and who gets it… Humanity needs this Internet. And we need it to be free.
All know I’m a fan of free speech. Yet I’m first to use my free speech rights to point out those who call “fire” in a crowded theater, obviously hoping for some real life theatrics…
We all know it is illegal to call “Fire” when there is none in a crowded theater…. So in the battle between free speech and calling “Fire” in a crowded theater, where does Fox News fit in….
Because that is all they do….
In politics (as I know kooks on both sides), crazies play a valuable role… For one, they are ever watchful of the other side. Rarely will anything get past either one side or the other… And we, the citizens who wake up, drive the nation’s economic engine, come home eat, and sleep, don’t have to worry over every little thing…
Fox has seriously helped the right. They have given the right a platform which it didn’t have. After all, facts always have a leftest bias. Though that sounds political to neophytes, it tends to be true…..
Is tobacco healthy? No.
Do women enjoy rape? No.
Does a woman’s biology destroy all incoming sperm when raped, thereby preventing pregnancy? No
Are blacks more stupid than whites? No.
Was the world created in 6, 24 hour days? No.
Is man made global warming made up? No…
Facts have a liberal bias, which is why, to ingratiate themselves with a conservative public, the producers at Fox News have to distort all facts to keep up their charade… Now there is no rule on requiring every American to tell everything factually and honestly. If that premise were so, for one, there would be no divorce courts… Likewise, literature which is the art of embellishment where points are assessed for cleverness on how well certain planks are told, could not exist.
So it is hard to say that Fox News should be held to any different standard than say, I for example… But there is that pesky adage saying that one cannot cry “Fire” in a crowded theater, causing dangerous panic when there is no threat…..
And that is where I’m beginning to think Fox News has crossed that line…
Two things triggered this… and trust me, when it comes to possibly misinterpreting the Constitution I’m very slow to be triggered…
And another was this….
The American precedent for the first video featuring the protester’s action, was set by the residents in Boston, I believe resulting in 5 deaths, including one black man. Without which, we may literally have not become a nation, understanding the way that event rippled its way into our Revolutionary War …. It is both rebellion, and yet is protected under the first amendment.
The precedent for the sentiment expressed in the second item, came from George Washington himself. who as president, called the army together from various militias near DC, appointed himself as its head, and led them on his white horse up into western Pennsylvania, where a similar hick army, copied almost exactly like the TEA PARTY today, was engaged in protesting Congress’s levies on their whiskey pretty similar to those dummies protesting the $1 million owed by the Bundy farm….
The question is really this… Which type of America do the majority of the rest of us want? One run by kooks to whom the government has to kowtow, and acquiesce in its every response,… or one run by regular people appreciative of law and order and appeals and all that stuff that makes America run…
Well. Which of these two do you want? After all, you ARE America.
Fox News cheer leads the first. Nowhere does it mention that these are homeless kids on a bus, kids whose parents paid smugglers (the kids don’t have money), kids who had no choice (mom, I don’t want to go), no independence, kids caught up in a massive political and international crises way beyond their understanding….
I hail the second. It is sickening to see Americans so callous over any children’s plight, that they think is it cool to block and intimidate little kids from being reprocessed and sent home… to revel in their prejudice, look we’re da’ boss, look how tough we are, we can stop a bus of little kids; and shout… USA. USA. USA. USA. USA. USA. USA. USA. USA. USA. USA. USA. USA. USA, USA……
Personally I’m embarrassed. Just like when I shit and see this big long black thing curled up in the toilet. Shudder. Shudder. Yes, I know it is part of life’s process, .. doesn’t mean I’m proud of it….
But for people to actually hold such their excrement in their hands, up high, proud of it? Shouting USA. USA. USA. USA. USA. USA. USA. USA. USA. USA. USA…. can only come because someone is encouraging it… I’ve been around people for years.. KKK meetings in the 50’s were like that… But they were people encouraged by Grand Dragon. They were nice people outside the meetings… Likewise the pre-teen German kids at the Nuremberg rallies… they grew up as nice kids, but someone exploited and encouraged them…
Do you know why those children were on the bus? Not the immediate reason, but the overall big reason? They were there for the exact same reason relatives of mine died… because of what the USA represents… They were sent here, because outside our borders, the USA represents opportunity. It represents freedom. It represents right over wrong. It represents good people governing themselves for what is best for them….
Good people sometimes will do bad things if pushed hard enough… The photographer was good. Watching the video I sensed a sincerity in those people waving signs who really thought they were doing America a favor by stopping homeless little children from entering their town…. Who does that? I can only believe the real culprit is not them, but should instead, be that person lying to them. cajoling them, egging them on, rewarding their bad behavior, pushing them foreward… Do it, do it, do it, do it, do it…
We are being judged around the world by this disgusting video… Little kids… barred by a rebellion of fat slobs in American flag shirts yelling: USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA,……
I only ask two things… One is to the world judging us… “Look” I say to them… “We don’t judge you by your shit, if we happen to come across it, say if you forgot to flush”…. “Don’t judge us for ours”….
And two, is: America, we’ve got to do something about Fox News… They are protected under the 1st Amendment (and should be) so even I think it is wrong for our government to interfere with what they say…We cannot start that precedent. But there are 315 million of us, and there is nothing wrong with us taking this fight into our own hands, outside of government…. We can bankrupt them. We have that power….
This is a human thing, not partisan. Certainly not democratic. This is disgust at how low Fox News has brought America by willfully withholding proper facts, and subsequently creating huge crises out of nothing…..
“Americans Unite! That Crazy Black President Is Now Busing “Criminals” INTO YOUR BEDROOM COMMUNITIES! FIGHT THEM. FIGHT THEM NOW!…. ” is pretty similar to yelling “Fire” in a crowded theater… Criminals? Because their parents put them on a bus? Deportation centers? Same as your bed room? Crazy Black President? Yeah, that one who’s doing His job while no Republican is doing theirs?
I think there is enough evidence to say they are doing more than stirring the pot…. There is more volatility now than in the 00’s. the 90’s, the 80’s… Flush Rush, has led the way teaching us exactly how to do it… Fox News doesn’t need to suffer total catastrophic damage to force change. In the corporate environment, just a tiny loss of 1% can cause executives to face life changing decisions caused by their stockholders… There are 315 million of us… We can do 1%….
I know somebody out there reading this watches the Fox Morning Show… All they need to do is write down or lift video of who advertised and then post it daily… Monday through Friday…
These are the FOX blacklisted advertisers today…. It would be helpful if a contact twitter address was added… Then we all tweet the corporate site of the product paying to be on Fox.
“Oh, my, goodness, Boycott this product: ________ It paid to be on Fox’s morning show!!!….”
Now one or two messages won’t do it… but a 1000 will get a twitter monitor’s attention. “Hey boss, check this out”… But it can’t stop there, we all need to be involved. Remember, there are 315 million of us… Help us If we are ever going to get our America back, we have to get past that point where we all think we have to shout at each other and then pound our chests and go USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA,….
There are ways of talking civilly. But they won’t happen when someone is in the middle lying to one side about the other… If we truly want a better America, that middle man is the real enemy. It never was the ones who got stirred up to cause trouble… But that one who is doing the stirring, should be taken out first…..
Let’s get this started. It can only work as a “We, The People’s” project. It can only work by hitting them in the pocket book… Who advertised on them today…? Just report it.
Americans don’t need a new KKK… Do what you can; get rid of Fox today……
It is a movement neither Democratic nor Republican. It is about turning our nation’s values back, towards being the type of nation to which all these immigrants want to come in the first place… Because we are one fuckin’ hell of a great people….
Sometimes when old actors get up and perform, you laugh… as I did when I saw this….
Oh, my, goodness…. Too rich… add some water… or ice.
Before the cataclysmic Republican caused depression, back in 2009, he states: Delawareans earned an average $733 a week… Now, the average earns $709 dollars… AN ASTONISHING 3.8% !!!!! Astonishing? 3.8%? Really? It’s astonishing…..
I’m sure we can all tighten our belts for $24 dollars, especially if we are making $709…..
Who is this guy speaking? He is a Delaware businessman and politician… He was one of only a handful of state legislators to own and operate a family business. In 1994, his small Delaware printing company in Wilmington had only ten employees. . Since then, AGS has grown to over 50 employees and evolved into a high tech business… This person currently sits on the board of the State Chamber of Commerce……
So, Charlie Copeland, if you are seriously angry about business not paying their employees as much as they did before your party caused the recession,
Then give them a raise…..
The reason they are earning less, is because you and your association members, won’t give them a raise….. You, not Markell-Denn, are the problem? Give your employees raises and this issue goes away… Are you implying Markell-Denn should have mandated what you should pay your people? Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha… 🙂
Silly man… Trying to blame Markell and Denn for something of which only you have control….
The money quote.: “We need that land for mining, lumber, drilling and fracking. Those resources belong to people like the Koch Brothers. The America Public has never done anything for us... said Republican House Member”. 3/26/14
“There’s money under those there parks” said another. “We shouldn’t be wasting that money just so future kids can see some purty scenery”
This state bill was to keep guns out of the hands of mentally ill. It achieved a roadblock when the idea was broached that mentally ill people would not seek help if it meant the loss of their guns…
The bill was voted down on this fallacy.
If someone is mentally ill and has guns, there are four possibilities… Four….
Mentally ill with guns and bullets // Mentally ill without guns and bullets.
======================================================================================================
Mentally healthy with guns and bullets // Mentally healthy without guns and bullets
Of those four possibilities stretching across the plateau of human existence, only one is dangerous to fellow human beings…
A mentally ill person who has guns and bullets….
Now that we have isolated the problem… Let us look at it more closely….. we again divide by the four possibilities…
Mentally ill will get help and use his arsenal // Mentally ill will get help and not use his arsenal
==========================================================================================================
Mentally ill will not get help and use his arsenal // Mentally ill will not get help and not use his arsenal.
Of those four possibilities we now have two that are dangerous to innocent human beings.
Mentally ill who will get help and still use his arsenal, and Mentally ill who do not get help and will still use their arsenal….
Therefore across the panel of humanity, all races, all genders, all classes, every non-accidental shooting death is caused by the hand of a mentally ill person owning a firearm, whether under treatment or not…
Most of the more famous murderers in history have had treatment for their psychosis. Most of those being treated still had access to their firearms, and for what ever reason, choose to use them….
As of this point in history,… as far as I can find on today’s search engines,… there has never been a gun-caused mass murder by someone who had no access to guns…
Again, people in psychiatric care have blown other people away; people without guns, have never done so…..
Only one conclusion from this logical exercise can be gleaned….
If you voted to allow the continence of mentally-ill people owning guns, no matter what flimsy reason you used to assuage your guilt, you cast a vote for an upcoming future mass-murder.
If you voted to disallow the continence of mentally-ill people from owning guns, you took the only step in the right direction that would do anything to stop its re-occurrence…..
People in treatment still kill when they have guns. Without guns, one rids oneself of the problem….
The bottom line: to allow a crazy person to have a full blown arsenal, is madness. To think that allowing him to have a full blown arsenal will make him more likely to seek treatment, is not thinking straight….
There is only one solution; redo HB 88….
In passing I acknowledge that this is an emotional issue for those on both sides. When we use emotions to think, none of us think straight. If ever the time should arise where we as a society make that choice to think straight, then keeping guns out of the hands of mentally ill goes a long way to preventing mass murderers from happening: …. Logically speaking of course.
Hagel told members of the House of Representatives in Congress it would be in the “10’s of millions…”
Each cruise Missile costs $1.5 million. In Libya, we fired 221; 110 in the opening salvo. Alone, that totals to $331 million.
B-2 Bombers’ fuel costs $60,000 per hour… They travel from Missouri 18 hours there, and 18 hours back… so 36 hours times $60,000 is $2.16 million for each bomber’s fuel on each run.
Weekly costs for a carrier strike force… $25 million in normal operations. In combat mode, the cost rise to $40 million due to extensive flying, and fuel for the planes.
When reporters brought up these discrepancies to Pentagon officials, all declined to comment. Pentagon spokesman George Little told a briefing on Thursday….”This is in the national security interests of the United States,” Little said. “When something is that important, we’ll find a way to pay for it.”
Word leaked from the MId-East is we have…
Exhibit A: Saudis have put ”on the table” their offer to pay for the entire US assault on Syria.
Why would they do that?
Hedge funds are betting if war in Syria occurs, oil jumps from $109 to $125 a barrel. At the pump that translates from today’s pump cost of $3.45 per gallon up to $3.95 a gallon of 87 octane… At 9.8 million barrels a day, Saudi’s will make $156 million extra …per day…. If oil jumps to top line, $150 a barrel, our pump costs soar to $4.74 a gallon and the Saudi’s pocket an extra $401.8 million a day. War is very profitable for them and the Gulf States…
Oil, at $150 a day, has China very worried. The global economy may take quite a hit on the chin.
As an indicator of how close the price of oil is tied to this, as reports of opposition to Obama attacking Syria grow, and the attack looks less likely, the price of oil futures are coming down…
The document in question was an 86-page opinion the FISA court had issued on October 3, 2011.
In it the FISA court states that the action requested by the NSA was unconstitutional. The FISA court was of the opinion this information needed to be disseminated to the public.
The Justice Department was due to file a court motion in June in its effort to keep secret an 86-page court opinion that determined that the government had violated the spirit of federal surveillance laws and engaged in unconstitutional spying.
So in a nutshell, we have the NSA committing an unconstitutional action. We have the secret Federal court which incidentally only hears the NSA’s side of the argument, decide such action was NOT under the scope of the law, and was actually unconstitutional. The court felt the public should know about this Constitutional violation, apparently because even they were shocked at its danger for democracy.
The Justice Department then filed suit to block the dissemination of knowledge to the American people, that the secret FISA court had determined that the NSA was going over and beyond its powers invested by the Fourth Amendment, and that it is therefore acting unconstitutionally.
So when our government does something unconstitutional and covers it up… what do we do?
Ironically, in East Germany, we have more privacy rights today than in the United States of America.
Where did we go wrong? It’s all Patrick Leahy’s fault. He got soft after standing up to the Joker in The Dark Knight and so now he isn’t standing up for Americans. Guess he figured he’s done his share.
Silicon Valley’s role in US government surveillance has triggered public anxiety about the internet, but it turns out there is at least one tech company you can trust with your data.
Xmission, Utah’s first independent and oldest internet service provider, has spent the past 15 years resolutely shielding customers’ privacy from government snoops in a way that larger rivals appear to have not.
The Electronic Freedom Foundation called it a model for the industry….
And speaking of the EFF, yesterday a Federal judge allows the case Jewel Vrs NSA to go forward into a real court. There is nothing secret about the Constitution the judge said. Either this practice is legal or it isn’t. A court will decided.
Evidence in the case includes undisputed documents provided by former AT&T telecommunications technician Mark Klein showing AT&T has routed copies of Internet traffic to a secret room in San Francisco controlled by the NSA. The case is supported by declarations from three NSA whistleblowers along with a mountain of other evidence. The recent blockbuster revelations about the extent of the NSA spying on telecommunications and Internet activities also bolster EFF’s case.
It appears Edward Snowden tipped the balance. This has been held up 5 years because it supposedly was too secret for trial.
kavips 