Tax cuts for the rich don’t create jobs – period

Thought this article on truthout actually tells the truth about the myth that tax cuts for the rich create jobs. It says it right off the top: “Let’s cut the baloney about jobs and rich people’s taxes. If corporate profits automatically turned into jobs for the little folk, the unemployment rate would be plummeting.”

That is what I ask all my friends in love with keeping the Bush tax cuts for the rich. If the tax cuts are so necessary to create jobs then where are all the jobs that were created during the time the tax cut has been on the books?

Companies don’t create jobs because they have extra money jingling in their pockets. They take on new workers when they want to expand, and right now the demand’s not there to warrant that growth. Corporations are in the business of maximizing profits for the benefit of their managers and shareholders. They’re not in the business of creating jobs, nor should we expect them to be.

And so how should we respond to Republican claims that restoring Clinton-era income tax rates for the wealthiest 2 percent would destroy jobs? We shouldn’t. They are irrelevant.

An employment policy based on further enriching the richest Americans — who may or may not spend their wealth on job-creating ventures — is like trying to feed chickens in the barnyard by dropping feed from an airplane. It’s far more logical to focus tax cuts on activities that are likely to expand American business.

The Rich Are Not Going to Give Us Jobs

You have a choice

The mainstream media narrative seems to be a huge GOP victory in November. I would like to see the votes counted first but it might be bad for the Democrats. Are the voting public so forgetful of the Bush years that they will vote to have his policies again? Really? You have choice – continue down the correct road or go back to the nasty time of the Bush years.

Here is one example of the narrative:

Republican John Kasich has zoomed to a whopping 17-point lead in a new Quinnipiac Poll released today, an indication that predictions of a GOP landslide across the nation will come true.

The former congressman is up 54 percent to 37 percent over Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland, the largest lead of any poll to date on this year’s governor’s race. The Dispatch Poll published Sept. 5 showed Kasich ahead by 12 points.

Kasich leads by 17 points, new Quinnipiac Poll says

Then there is this:

Greg notes two polls — the just-released NYT/CBS poll and last week’s National Journal poll — both of which show that voters believe the GOP would govern like Bush. According to the NYT/CBS poll, 47% believe Republicans would return to Bush policies compared to just 36% who believe they won’t. And according to the National Journal poll 45% believe that the GOP’s agenda is the same as Bush’s compared to 33% who don’t.

Voters think GOP would govern like Bush

Really? Preventing a depression, getting basic health insurance to the 40 million who didn’t have it, restoring our reputation within the world, winding down the worse military mistake since Vietnam in Iraq and moving to end the 2nd worse in Afghanistan, and reforming a banking industry that almost ran us off a cliff, AND a large number of people want to go back to the Bush years? Really?

If you do then you are a fucking moron. Anyone who would lose their mind over basic health insurance for those without need to have their head examined and their brains replaced.

Those on the left who might let that happen by sitting at home by not voting – you are fucking morons.

Yes, I have had my issues with President Obama and the Democrats. Not because I hated their policies but because they didn’t go far enough. I wanted universal health care, breaking up the big bangs and jail for the creeps who fucked us over, jail for anyone in the Bush administration that tortured or allowed torture to happen for example. I didn’t get what I wanted but I am damn sure I don’t want the Republicans and their Tea Party branch to be in charge.

You all have a choice. Stand up for this country and what is right – stand up for our values or be a fucking moron getting fucked over by big business at every turn.

Goodbye first decade of the 2000’s

Different critics have their “best of…” lists coming out this week as we get ready to end the first decade of the 2000’s. I thought I might add what I think are the major touchstones of the decade. These are events or persons who, generations from now, will still be looked at and studied or commented on.

In no particular order:

September 11, 2001

That date will live in infamy in the history books. Over 2,000 people were murdered that day in the terror attacks that led to the destruction of the two World Trade Center towers, heavy damage to the Pentagon, and sense of numbness that took some months to work itself out.

The event also brought out the best of humankind as millions banded together in the initial days and months both to grieve and to work through the aftermath. I admit I channeled my inner cowboy wanting to get the mofos who planned it.

9/11 has also guided our country’s direction for at least this first decade and probably for many more decades to come.

Presidential election of 2000

The 2000 election was the first time that one political party, the Republicans, were able to use their control of a state government and the US Supreme Court to thwart the will of a majority of Americans and install their own guy into the White House. I hope it will be the last time. It’s very bad for democracy if one party is able to manipulate the media, state, and courts to get what they want outside of logic and reason.

George W Bush and the neocons

The installed President in 2000 was a bad influence on this country for the 8 years he held office. It wasn’t only the guy but those he had working for him, the neocons, like Vice President Dick Cheney who wanted to install their brand of “Pax Americana” on the world.

Breaking with the traditional post-world war II idea of diplomacy to solve problems in the world, Bush and his goons “shot first” and asked questions later. They believed that fighting terrorism involved imposing organized military power first rather than the usual criminal justice model of investigation and intelligence. They were mistaken that a terror group could be fought like a war between armies. Their failed policy led to a loss of prestige in the world, loss of men and women in our military, loss of scores of innocent civilian lives in areas we invaded and destroyed, and the failure to capture the major people who planned and funded the 9/11 attacks in the first place.

At home Bush and the neocons chipped away at our civil rights – always “blaming” 9/11 – by violating our privacy, detaining without charge hundreds if not thousands of Muslim aliens in this country, holding so-called enemy combatants outside the country to avoid basic constitutional protections for alleged criminals, facilitating the use of torture, and using fear mongering to keep us all in line.

Bush and the neocons, through their use of the Congress, changed laws that were meant to protect our economy and well being which helped bring about the economic crash of 2008. President Bush was alerted to the signs of collapse and basically did nothing until Wall Street started to implode on itself. Then he gave them a blank check with basically no strings attached.

Presidential election of 2008

This election was good because the system worked. The American electorate, in a stinging rebuke of the whole Bush Presidency, put the Democrats into a commanding majority in the House and Senate. It not only elected a Democrat as President but also the first African-American, Barrack Obama. The Republicans and the neocons tried their best tricks to steal another election but the public turned them away hard.

Corporatism

Although the jury is still out on this one, I feel a major political point of the first decade is the continued corruption of our government by the corporate lobbyist. These people give money to Congress people to buy votes that benefit their industries agenda. It was this corruption that helped bring on the economic collapse of 2008 by getting bought legislators to remove regulations installed during the Depression of the 1930’s to protect the economy from wild speculation. What happens? Wild speculation followed by collapse. *sigh*

The corruption led to Congress passing tax breaks and other laws that gave big pay days to their wealthy friends while screwing the middle class and damaging the lower income people time and time again

Corporatism has led the Democratic majority installed after the abuse of the Bush years to continue the failed economic polices and to be ineffectual in passing almost anything, like real health care reform, that challenges their masters in the board rooms around the country.

The influence of the corporation has also led to our major media outlets being held by only a few large companies and that has effected what passes for journalism today. Mainstream media protects and propagandizes for their corporate bosses, their affiliated companies, and bought legislators at the state and Federal levels.

I have a feeling, moving forward, that Corporatism will become more of an issue that could lead to a crises that an election can’t fix.

The Internet

It really came into its own during the first decade. The one area not entirely controlled by media conglomerates – yet – is the Internet. Millions of people bypassed the propaganda that passes for news on mainstream media and shared news and information directly through their computers.

The Internet has already knocked down print newspapers and severely hurt broadcast media. That is a sure sign that people want their news and information unfiltered. People also want facts and the truth not a press release that spins something according to some agenda.

Fake celebrities

The first decade of the 2000’s saw the rise of basically lazy, untalented people thinking they should be famous by participating in “reality” TV shows or for doing something stupid. When you can’t answer the question “Why should we care?” then the person is basically a fake celebrity. Historians might look on this like we do about those wacky stunts pulled in the middle 20th century like stuffing a phone booth, dance marathons, and stuffing a small car with people.

Hopefully in the coming decade, there are far more better times than bad ones.

Good luck to us all…

We need to leave Afghanistan now

With the debris of the collapsed World Trade Center towers fresh in my mind back in October 2001, I was very happy when the United States and allies helped remove the Taliban from governing Afghanistan. One reason was they refused to turn over Osama bin Laden and the others responsible for planning the attacks on the towers on 9/11. The Taliban also had been very nasty to the women of Afghanistan and I was getting tired of hearing all the other horror stories from there. But common of the bad thinking of the former Bush administration, the war in Afghanistan went left of center and needs to be ended.

The blatant jingoism of the neo-cons blinded them to the fact that Afghanistan had historically chewed up the British and Soviets, they didn’t capture bin Laden and his gang, and then thought they could impose “democracy” on the country.

Bush and company sent too few resources then cut back more as they fought a stupid war in Iraq that was only about settling past scores and for oil.

Once out of power the Taliban melted into the mountains and into Pakistan. Was there any doubt it would happen because they never fought a set piece battle back 2001. They withdrew from each city as the Northern Alliance and the US drew near.

Until recently Pakistan had been a supporter of the Taliban. That changed when it the Taliban started putting the Pakistan government in danger as it built strongholds in the Swat valley. But the support was there and didn’t help the US in capturing bin Laden in 2001.

The Karzai government, put into place by the US, is corrupt and after the last election, seen now as fraudulent, will never bring Afghanistan into a modern democracy. Once US troops leave Karzai will not be around for long. The Taliban have infiltrated the police and army and with the war lords still around, nothing really has changed.

It seems to me that Afghanistan is a lost cause and the US should leave as soon as possible.