I don’t know about you, but I routinely read “The Fact Checker” by Glenn Kessler. He is normally a pretty good read- and to be honest, I don’t read it to determine how many Pinocchio’s he decides to award, but for the explanation as to why a statement is accurate or not. This past issue (at least when I was incensed enough to write this post) was way below his normal competency… No, it was totally unacceptable.
Continue reading Kessler Earns a Boatload of Pinocchios
This week, I am going to talk about taxes- and for what they are used.
Let’s start off with a really big problem. One that everyone (including the IRS) tries to hide under the rugs of their offices.
Continue reading Do not pass go. Let’s collect taxes.
I admit it. I have never understood how so many people keep falling for the “kool-aid”. (Note: You may have to be of a certain age to realize that this expression covered those folks who willing drank the “kool-aid” the “Reverend” Jim Jones proffered to his [naïve, unable to critically think] flock- that was actually poison to end their lives.)
I normally post notes like this at the bottom of the piece. But, today, these thoughts are foremost in my mind. Today is the 31th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square revolt. And, the beginning of the end for a free-ish Hong Kong. We- that’s you and me- as well as our political leaders- revere(d) these events as a people trying to stop autocratic leaders in their attempts to subjugate the citizenry. Yet, too many of us are not looking at the national- and now international- response against a minority of our police (who, because the majority of our folks in Blue stifles their reprehension at the criminal element among them) who kill, maim, and otherwise subjugate the ‘other’ among us. Where too many of us don’t recognize that TheDonald is just that sort of criminal, as well. Who, along with Attorney General Barr, abrogate our Constitution, send MILITARY police- along with any other lackeys (such as the now embarrassed Secretary of Defense and military Chief of Staff) they can muster to forcibly remove PEACEFUL demonstrators who still had 46 minutes before a hastily called curfew would come into effect- using rubber bullets and tear gas. For no other reason than a most awkward photo op for TheDonald, who clutched someone else’s bible upside down- and not mention a thing about it. Just like North Korean leader Kim does on Mount Paektu. Yes, there has been looting and property damage- primarily by White folks (who may actually be aligned with Bill Koch)- but these were the same situations that we were willing to absolve in China and Hong Kong, with the majority attempting to effect peaceful change. Why don’t we recognize the enemy is us? And, while we are at it- with a now 20% unemployment rate (because TheDonald failed to properly act while repeatedly warned by his security apparatus that we could be doomed by the impending pandemic)- but a 50% unemployment rate among the Blacks who too many police find convenient targets for their killing and subjugation- the financial situation that obtains.I
And, now, back to our regularly scheduled blog. A prologue to a new series that will unfold over the next days.
Continue reading Ch-ch-ch-ch-anges are coming. We may not like them.
So, earlier this week, I wrote about the economic conditions in America. How we no longer believe in the American Dream, how wealth is being allocated to the 1% as the bottom 50% loses. How the wage gains some folks want you to think are due to our economic conditions are really just the result of the (finally approved) changes to the minimum wage.
Continue reading Where the money is
Let’s start out this discussion clearly stating that the American economy is still chugging along. Which is a great thing. We haven’t had this many years in a row without a recession or depression!
Continue reading Another Half (or is that Quarter) Truth
So, we’ve seen how big business has been concentrating its power. And, how our government, instead of regulating this behavior, works hard to hide their hands under their blessed assets.
Continue reading To the rich (companies) doth accrue
I always find it amazing to read articles from the right (center to radical) wing point of view. Where they blithely announce that the middle class is growing.
Continue reading A rose by any other name is still a rose
We all know that Congress uses our tax laws to effect policy. It’s why we can deduct our mortgage interest (up to $ 1KK in mortgage principal), because Congress believes that it’s good for America when folks own their houses. (Or, maybe Congress thinks it’s great that bankers can own our houses and make us pay at least 2X what we think we bought them to finally call that house our own.)
Continue reading Alms for the Poor….
We really needed tax reform. Instead we got HR-1, absurdly labeled as the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, plus the Senate version of that same bill,. As I promised, they wouldn’t be passed as proposed (that would have been EVEN worse, they have been reconciled. And , TheDonald has signed the final version, so it’s the law of the land. PL 115-97.
Continue reading PL 115-97 (Tax Cuts & Jobs Act, sic)