Vote Republican?

Why any working class, middle- or lower-class schlub out here would vote for this guy is beyond me.

But then this is also true for anyone in the middle- or lower-classes voting Republican.

As the saying goes, there are two kinds of Republicans--

The rich, the millionaires and billionaires...

and the suckers.

If you vote Republican, check which one you are.

Quote of the Day -- The Day Before This Year's Tax Day

"Just a casual reminder that the richest 1% of Americans is responsible for 70% of all unpaid taxes.
Quite literally, tax the rich."

--Professor Robert Reich

Republican Jesus

International, Killing Pandemic? The Rich Are Getting Richer

Important article more Americans need to see and read, from Forbes.

U.S. Billionaire Wealth Surged 

Since The Start Of The Pandemic

"Since the start of the pandemic, collective U.S. billionaire wealth has surged by more than $584 billion, while $6.5 trillion in household wealth has disappeared. That's according to an Institute for Policy Studies and Americans for Tax Fairness analysis published on Friday which stated that the U.S. billionaire class saw its wealth climb 20% between March 18 and June 17 with 29 new billionaires added to the total. Using Forbes data, the analysis found that the total net worth of the 643 U.S. billionaires climbed from $2.9 trillion to $3.5 trillion. During the same period, 45.5 million Americans filed for unemployment."

But tax the wealthy at a higher rate?

Fuggedaboudit!

Thanks, Mr. President!

Thanks Republicans!

America is an Oligarchy

From Professor Robert Reich's Facebook page today.

And a plutocracy. And a kakistocracy. And more.

Big Money In Our Politics and Government--We're Being Bought--And Sold

There is a terrific article in Friday's print edition of The New York Times more voting age Americans should read.

Big Money and America's Lost Decade

A bit of the article:

The first thing you need to know about the very rich is that they are, politically, different from you and me. Don’t be fooled by the handful of prominent liberal or liberal-ish billionaires; systematic studies of the politics of the ultrawealthy show that they are very conservative, obsessed with tax cuts, opposed to environmental and financial regulation, eager to cut social programs.

The second thing you need to know is that the rich often get what they want, even when most of the public want the opposite...

Why do a small number of rich people exert so much influence in what is supposed to be a democracy? Campaign contributions are only part of the story. Equally if not more important is the network of billionaire-financed think tanks, lobbying groups and so on that shapes public discourse. And then there’s the revolving door: It’s depressingly normal for former officials from both parties to take jobs with big banks, corporations and consulting firms, and the prospect of such employment can’t help but influence policy while they’re still in office.

Last but not least, media coverage of policy issues all too often seems to reflect the views of the wealthy.
We're got to work our way out of this mess, these messes.

Join us:

Get the Big, Ugly Money Out of Our Election System and Government

Bring Back the Fairness Doctrine

Outlaw Gerrymandering and End Voter ID Laws

Link:

GOP economic policy: Give more money to millionaires, forget everyone else

Oh, Yeah. Tax the Already-Wealthy

I am, in fact, in favor of what some people claim to be a new thought of eliminating the possibility of being a billionaire, I have to say. Strongly in favor.

For anyone who knows me, this will come as no surprise.

If you're worth 999 million dollars---isn't that enough?

What could you possibly want that isn't attainable for you at that level of wealth?

Jeff Bezos of Amazon, et. al, is worth an estimated $130.7 billion dollars.

Not only that, but he had to be recently publicly shamed into giving his employees a raise up to a whopping $15 per hour. And even then, he took some away from their benefits plan. That is some chutzpah.

Seriously.

That is insane.

And immoral. Just obscene.

There are people, not just in your own nation but across the planet that are hungry, indeed, starving, literally, homeless and a lot more--but you need, somehow, a billion dollars? And/or more?

Really?

Besides the poor of the nation and world, we should all keep in mind, as has been said elsewhere, many times, that when the US was collecting 90% and 70% taxes of the uber-wealthy, we were a far stronger nation, we built a national highway system and went to the moon, among all else.

So yeah, let's do this.

Links:

Yes, Tax the Rich. But Do It Right

Fact Sheet: Taxing Wealthy Americans 

Tax the rich: Millionaires' tax popular among public

Poll: Majority approve of Warren wealth tax

Rich Class fighting 99%, winning big-time 

Timely Quote of the Day

A Few Reasons I'm a Democrat

This leaves out, of course, all the things Republicans do and have been doing, in Congress, across the states, across the nation, to their respective states, to their constituents and so, to the nation so yes, it's a long but partial list.

Vote Tuesday!!

And vote NO on Proposition A!

The--Very--Racist History of Banking In Our United States

What so, so many Americans don't know. Or ignore. And/or disavow.



Also ignoring the segregation that got us here and the poorer schools and far less opportunities for jobs and so, better pay.

Sure.

Let's ignore or deny all that.

What Have Poor People Ever Done For This Country?

So many in America call out the poor as "moochers" and the programs for them as unnecessary and even wasteful. They say having these "welfare programs" keep them poor and "enables" them to be and stay poor.

Being Sunday, I think it an especially good day to examine just what and who the poor are and what, exactly, they do.

What Have The Poor Ever Done For Us

1. They built it. The country was literally built on the backs of poor immigrants and slaves. To this day, construction workers are some of the hardest working people in the country, yet their average wage is only $50,000 per year, which includes management. People that maintain the roads driven by the wealthy (and everyone else) are paid only $30,000 per year.
2. They care for our children. The average nanny is paid only about $30,000 per year, usually without benefits.
3. They teach our children. The average teacher makes around $45,000 a year, which might not sound poor, but for that salary, most positions require advanced degrees.
4. They make the world beautiful. It would be difficult to determine the average salary of an artist, but very few of even the most talented artists achieve financial success.
5. They inform and entertain. Writers, actors and filmmakers are just as likely to live in poverty as visual artists.
6. They create. Inventors are often poorly paid for their inventions, if paid at all.
7. They are entrepreneurs. Two thirds of startup businesses fail. Many of them fail because they were simply out financed (think the big coffee chain moving on to the same corner as the independent coffee house).
8. They keep our world clean. People that do the dirtiest jobs are notoriously some of the least paid, yet can you imagine a world without people emptying our trash and cleaning our toilets?
9. They keep you alive. Without poor people, produce would rot in the fields. There would be no goods on the shelves. There would be no store clerks to sell them to you. Most Americans would most likely starve.
10. They fight for our country. The average starting salary of enlisted personnel is about $30,000 per year.
11. They save the world. Many of history’s most selfless people live their lives in or near poverty. They join the Peace Corps. They work for or start charitable organizations.
12. They pay their taxes. Much is made of the statistic that between 40 and 50 percent of people don’t pay federal income tax. That is typically because they are too poor. But even if they don’t pay federal income tax, they pay taxes. They pay Social Security taxes. They pay state taxes. They pay the identical sales tax on food and clothing as their wealthy brethren. They pay identical gasoline taxes as their more fortunate counterparts. Unlike the wealthy, taxes deeply impact the well being of the poor, yet, unlike the wealthy, they are unable to take advantage of the loopholes that were designed to specifically benefit the wealthy.

What have the poor ever done for this country?

Everything.

Of course, we can debate the definition of the word, “poor”, but the fact is that the gap between the people that have the most and the people that have the least is growing. People are not becoming less valuable. They are simply getting paid less.

Links:

U.S. inequality keeps getting uglier

Growing wealth inequality 'dangerous' threat to democracy: experts

Economic Inequality: It's Far Worse Than You Think - Scientific American

The American Worker Doesn't Know What He Doesn't Have---But Could

Wil Wheaton:

I was at work today for Labour Day and on TV was Good Morning America. The theme was celebrating the American worker and their accomplishments. I’ll tell you how it went down.

Kelly put on her glasses, smile wide, and pulled out a piece of paper which she read from. The paper was from an article (which I have issues with, but I will leave alone for now) by ABC news. Kelly proceeded only to read the opening of it, which reads: ‘Americans work more than anyone in the industrialized world. More than the English, more than the French, way more than the Germans or Norwegians. Even, recently, more than the Japanese. And Americans take less vacation, work longer days, and retire later, too.’

And everyone cheered.

And they kept cheering when Kelly put her paper down and smiled at everyone. (not continuing with the rest of the article which suggests that this may in fact be a problem).

And I just couldn’t BELIEVE that anyone was cheering. America. AMERICA you work more than the French, who are entitled by law to have 5 weeks off a year for vacation and can not work more than 35 hours per week. You work more than Norway, who average 33 hours per week and 44,000 dollars a year. Germany, where AGAIN, we see a shorter work week and better pay! And all of these countries have health care and better pay and free/affordable education!

WHY ARE YOU CHEERING?

I have a different interpretation of this information: the American worker is the most taken advantage of worker in the industrialized world. It’s plain and simple. You work long hours and get horrible pay. You take multiple jobs and work and work and work just to get by. Unions are disappearing, jobs are always looking for part timers and all you are doing is giving up your time for less money, less vacation, less safety and stability and less education than anyone else on the list.

Celebrate Labour day. Celebrate the accomplishments of the common worker, but don’t let these people trick you into thinking you should celebrate the theft of your time and energy, or the fruits of your labour.

They are using you. Stop cheering.

(via wilwheaton)

Quote of the Day -- Sunday Edition

Republicans' "Wealthcare" Bill Is Just More Class Warfare

It needs to be said, pointed out and emphasized just what this new AHCA, "Trumpcare" is, at its heart. It is, at its core, not concerned with heath care virtually at all. If it were, more Americans would be assured of having health insurance, not less.

No, at it's core, this is yet one more, again, Republican Party, Right Wing money grab for the already-wealthy.

Republican Health Care Bill Delivers 

Big Tax Cut For The Rich

House Health Bill: Tax Cuts for Wealthy, 

Insurers, and Drug Companies, 

Paid for by Low- and Middle-Income Families

One Certainty of G.O.P. Health Plan: 

Tax Cuts for the Wealthy

The ACHA Bill Is a Tax Cut for Rich Americans

Senate Health-Care Bill: Tax Cuts for Rich, Skimpy Coverage for Everyone Else

Trumpcare: Republican Plan Is Big Tax Cut 

for Rich, Graph Shows

Rich get tax cuts under 

Obamacare repeal bill

Warren Buffett famously said it so right and this, some years ago.

“There’s class warfare, all right, but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning.”

Missourians got, in effect, a pay cut when their new, Republican, pretty boy Governor, Eric Greitens and his fellow Republicans put in their "Right to Work" legislation recently. This just makes it that much tougher for the middle- and lower-classes to get, have and keep health insurance.

But they're proposing this for all 50 states.

Link:  Warren Buffett

Quote of the Day -- On Our Nation and Concentrated Wealth

Proof: Poverty Is A Human Invention

Quote of the Day -- On Gross Inequality

“ It’s one thing to recognize capitalism for the powerful economic tool it is and to acknowledge that, for better or for worse, we’re stuck with it and, hey, thank God we have it. There’s not a lot else that can produce mass wealth with the dexterity that capitalism can.

But to mistake it for a social framework is an incredible intellectual corruption and it’s one that the West has accepted as a given since 1980—since Reagan.

Human beings—in this country in particular—are worth less and less. When capitalism triumphs unequivocally, labor is diminished. It’s a zero-sum game. People paid a much higher tax rate when Eisenhower was president, a much higher tax rate for the benefit of society, and all of us had more of a sense that we were included.

- David Simon

(Another) Open Letter To Trump Supporters

Dear Trump Supporters,

Understand, for the next four years, minimum, you will get no respect from the rest of America. You'll get respect as a human being and you should be treated decently otherwise, of course, sure, certainly, but as a voter? As a citizen of our/these United States?

You voted for and probably do still support Donald "The Man-Child" Trump. You got us in this mess.

Your candidate, your President is going to be lampooned nearly or virtually, if not actually, mercilessly and he will deserve every jab. Like him, you shouldn't be all fragile about it. In fact, you should be prepared for it. If this reaches even one of you and you get it and understand and accept it, it will have done some good.

Horrible as this man will be for the nation, the political satire is going to be easy but magnificent.

Thanks for nothing,

The Rest of Thinking, Educated, Responsible America.

Links:

Trump’s chief of staff ‘not going to rule out’ a Muslim registry

Energized By Trump's Win, White Nationalists Gather To 'Change The World'

Alveda King Praises Jeff Sessions By Comparing Him To George Wallace

Steve Bannon: 'Darkness is good' for political power

Whither "Ruckus"?

It will be interesting to see who is on KCPT's "Ruckus" TV program this evening.

KCPT and Their Lily White "Ruckus"

For that matter, it will be interesting to watch, from now on, for racial content and inclusion.

Or exclusion, as the case may be.