FOX NEWS EVEN GETS THE SMART ONES

One of my more respectable, ahem, associates called The Angry White Mom a "socialist" the other day. Well, what he actually said was that I was "pretty much a socialist."  Same thing. I admit that it caught me a bit off balance momentarily because the person calling me a socialist knows better. Or should know better. And he knows I know better. And he knows I know he should know better. He should know that I know that Socialism is an economic system in which the government owns or directly controls the means and materials for major manufacture or industry.  I would say that the US, where the truth is that some eighty percent of the country's wealth is in the hands of fewer that 180,000 people, is a long, long, long way from being very socialist.
 He must have forgotten that I am well informed in economic history, and I have a degree in business, too, and that I know what no conservative in America wants Americans to know, and that is simply that Trickle Down Economics, sometimes called Reagan Economics (and Voodoo economics by his one-time competitor George HW Bush until GHWB was selected as Reagan's VP. What price truth...) which is what Republicans in Congress and all over the country support -- the idea that low taxes on the wealthy stimulates the economy because the money they do not have to pay the government is invested in the economy. This is the first BIG LIE.  It does not work. It has never worked.  In fact, history demonstrates over and over again how that system creates unsustainable growth that eventually plummets.  Like in 1929.  And in 1987.  And in 1991.  And gee, again in 2000. And, after nearly a decade of  decreased taxes on the most wealthy, again in 2008. Go ahead. check these dates out.  You will find that when taxes get cut below a certain level we get a recession of varying degrees.  Go ahead.  Look it up. And you will know better, too.

My name-calling friend also knows, and I know, and I hope he now knows that I know the country is not broke.  There is lots and lots of money in the banks across the country, and he knows that.  What folks don't know is that the banks are squeezing this money like a man with bad case of diarrhea clamping his asshole, and because the interest rates they could charge folks for borrowing it would be so low that the money made from lending just isn't worth their tight-assed time.

Now the really sad part is that I also know, and he knows that I know, that he gets his news primarily from Fox News. And this is sooooo disappointing, because I thought he was smarter than that.  How do I now know? Because Jon Stewart and The Daily Show did us a big favor by compiling twenty or so BIG LIES spread by Fox News --not solely, but primarily -- determined to be BIG LIES by the independent research source Politifact.com.  And nestled there among the BIG LIES was one or two arguments he had tried with me. You can go back and see previous blogs if you're that interested, but briefly the BIG LIES he repeated as facts to me first concerned the complete and total fabrication that fewer than 10% of Obama's appointeesever worked in the private sector.  BIG LIE.
Another complete pile of doodoo concerned the idea that the Democrats had concocted "the largest tax hike
in American history."  Well you can go back to my previous blog to see my reaction to that as well. BIG LIE.

Now Politifact.com rated Mr. Stewart's statement to one-time journalist and current Fox News anchor Mike Wallace that (and I am paraphrasing here) Fox News viewers consistently ranked last in grasping the facts
of current news stories.  Mr. Stewart apparently was wrong. Instead, according to Politifact, Fox News viewers consistently rank only "near the bottom."  Oh I see the distinction. "Last" as opposed to merely "near the bottom." Now we know. 

Now I don't know about you, but I always thought that The Daily Show was a COMEDY show, not a news broadcast.  I did not realize that comedians are held to the same high standards of factual discrimination that supposed news reporters and journalists.  I mean come on. The Daily Show is on the Comedy Channel, fugoshsakes, and Fox News is Fox NEWS. Bob Hope would never have been so popular with the troops if he had just repeated what Walter Cronkite said. And you know, The Angry White Mom actually minored in journalism in college, and although it was a millenium ago I can still remember getting bad marks if we made statements not based in fact. For statements we could not attribute.  For statements that were not verifiable.  For statements... but I digress. Clearly Fox "News" sets its own standards.

Now seriously I would like to address the "socialist charge." I will admit to really, really liking some of the socialism -based things we do have in this wonderful country of ours.  Like public schools and public hospitals.  Like roads, bridges, dams and water-treatment plants.  Like fire stations and trash collection. Like parks, and wildlife sanctuaries, and forests that belong to all of us; like free trade between individual states, like regulations that make sure my water, my air, my soil, my food, my medicine and stuff I buy is reasonably free of stuff that will hurt me.  If that is socialism, sign my ass up. Now you know.

To me it is sooo very interesting that the very generation that suffered the very worst economic depression in our history was the very generation that BUILT America.  They BUILT the Hoover Dam. The Grand Cooley
Dam.  The Tennessee Valley Authority.  The Interstate Highway system.  Our public schools.  Many of our public hospitals. Plus they fought a world war.  Beat polio and smallpox. Went to the Moon.
The next generation, this name-calling generation, they directly benefitted from all the public schools, hospital care, vaccinations, flouride. They have directly benefitted the very most from the educational and financial opportunties created in those following years. The vast majority of the country's wealth is concentrated in the hands of this particular demographic.   And yet at the same time they are the ones calling these  systems "Broke" and "Dysfunctional," and this really really funny one "job-destroying," and they want to tear them down, get rid of the public schools, banking regulations, the EPA, ad nauseum-- with little or no plans for anything to replace them.

 It reminds me so much of these grand old houses we see out here on the prairie. Where one generation, my grandparents' generation built up the barn and the house, now their children have given up on the old homestead, allowing it to fall apart by not re-investing in its upkeep or simply by tearing it down.  They grew up in it, lived in it, had the advantage of their own kids growing up there, and now because is it old and perhaps needs an upgrade or two to bring it into the modern era, now it has no more value to them. Sad.

Well now you know.

The Truth Hurts. So go put a bandage on it.

Real Americans Pay Their Taxes

Instead  of publishing the last post when I wrote it, i mistakenly sent a picture of it's private parts to someone i barely know.   Go figure.Sorry about that.

So I am really angry about this tax nonsense.  When i started my first business, years and years ago, I had to pay quarterly tax estimates on my projected income.  It was just one of those things I did when I decided to be a grown up and try to make my own way in this world. To tell the truth, it gave me a great feeling inside when i wrote that check -- because I felt paying taxes was a mark of success in America.  I felt my efforts were paying off, for me and for the country that gave me the freedom to be in business in the first place.

My husband and I just paid our 2010  taxes.  Despite deep cuts in our personal revenue, we paid a lot more this year than usual, a fact that is completely unrelated to the current Administration, but has more to do with losing our oldest son as a dependent (the Army has him now) and our own bad decisions.  As i looked over the tax return prepared for us by the absolute best accountant in the world I realized that what we pay in taxes annually is significantly lower than what I used to pay quarterly.  Curious about that, I started to look some things up, and what i found out is absolutely infuriating. 

What I found out is that Americans in all tax brackets pay fewer income taxes now than at any time since 1950.  I found out that we pay fewer taxes than any other industrialized country. I found out that some $2.8 BILLION dollars of our national debt is due to the ten years of Bush Tax Cuts that were SUPPOSED TO stimulate the US economy after 9-11.  These tax cuts DID NOT achieve this goal, and we have a decade of historic evidence that demonstrates clearly that deep cuts in revenue lead to an economic downturn. Remember the recession of 2008?  Remember the automobile industry nearly cratering in 2008?  That was the reason for the TARP legislation, the first economic stimulus package put out by the Bush Administration just before they all scurrried over to Fox News and began blaming the Obama Administration for the country's economic woes.

I also found out that folks who make a million dollars a year or MORE  (they MAKE a million a year, not just are WORTH a million dollars, please get that distinction) pay only 35% -- that is less than the average small business owner pays on the income from his business--- what the hell is that about? And you know, because they too, have wonderful accountants, that what they actually pay is much much less.  I mean, gee,
GE paid NO TAXES in 2010.  The biggest corporation in the country. No taxes.  Hmmmm.

I was always brought up to believe that those of us who are blessed and have been given a lot -- we have a  responsibility equal to our blessings to contribute to the greater good.  I don't think this is a particularly Christian idea, since my Dad is the one who drilled this expectation into me, and he was not at all religious. He was, however, extremely conservative. In fact as my mom says, his views were often "to the right of Attila the Hun." I don't think it is a Christian tenet because I don't know any of the loudmouth so-called Christian leaders such as that snotty little Ralph Reed, that hypocrite Rev. Huckabee or that stupid starstruck Sarah Palin promote any such idea.I  have never heard any Christian leader, except black ones, in fact, call for us to contribute anything more than prayers for the poor.   In fact, i am pretty sure, since they don't really understand what socialism is, that they would label it such anathema. And let me tell you from experience, bubba, when I was broke and a paycheck from being on the street, I certainly did not need or welcome your goddam prayers. A crisp benjamin, however, would have been appreciated.

Let me spell it out for those of you who still do not get it.
In our family, we have experienced a revenue drop.  This means that since i have not had a full time job since 2009, we cannot buy the things we want and in some cases need (my microwave has been on the fritz for a year), go on vacation, spend cash on little things like restaurants, movies, clothing, doctor visits, dental appointments, and other minor matters.  So we are putting less cash into the economy. Our grocery store makes less. The movie theater makes less.  Our dentist makes less. And they pay fewer taxes because their revenue is less.  And the economy slows down.

Now when the government cuts its own revenue by giving tax cuts to those who do not need that money to
spend in the economy (facts show that this money IS NOT INVESTED, but cached -- forgive the pun)
then it follows that the things that are needed -- healthcare, roads, schools -- those things will not get
the money they need to flourish. Keep in mind, too, that it is people -- small business people mostly -- who are providing the healthcare, building the roads and schools and teaching and caring for our children and our elderly.

We know (at least those of us who have been paying attention in addition to our taxes) that the Republican plan for cutting revenue does not stimulate the economy.  Just look at the result of the Bush years. And stop blaming the black guy. 

The truth is that Republicans since Reagan have tried to strangle government with this crazy nonsense about taxes. And they are succeeding.  Just look at the unfounded attacks on government workers' rights. 
Hey, Wisconsin' Walker and Ohio's Kasich  and any other stupid governor who is paying attention-- Texas is a so-called "right to work" state (meaning state employees have no bargaining rights) and we still  are in deep kimchee right now-- looking at cutting some 330,000 state workers -- my husband's park staff among them.
Reagan called it "trickle down" and his primary opponent George Bush called it, more accurately, "voodoo
economics."  Clearly in 1980  Bush had not yet been inculcated into the Republican Plan.  His son, however, did more to accomplish the destruction of our government than he will ever acknowledge.

Real Americans pay taxes. Because we want health care, elder care, childcare, roads, schools, fire stations, libraries, parks, museums, and a strong military. We need those things.  We do not need whiny self-righteous
millionaires and billionaires complaining about their tax bills.  It is time for them to step up and pay their fair share.

Patriots, pay your taxes!

The Truth Hurts.  Now go put a bandage on it.

Well, well. April Fools.

Okay, now this little item that has been in the news lately (except NBC, a subsidiary of the gross offender)  has got me really really really furious. Its this GE thing -- about them being one of the richest
corporations in our country and they pay no taxes.  Right.  No taxes.  None. Zero. Let that sink in.
Now i am certainly not accusing GE of anything illegal.  I'm certainly not qualified to advise or dispute tax law or even higher accountancy.  But there is something sick and disturbing about GE's ability  -- and no doubt hundreds of so-called "American" companies as well -- to to manipulate and massage an already unfair tax code to the end result of feeding  such blatant greed -- profits well above anything reasonable for reinvestment (not happening, by the way) and a bit on top for investors' risk and continued good faith.
But no.  It's a winner take all attitude in the business world, me bucko, and only those with money to begin with can play.
Does'nt it strike anyone else as ironic that large corporations had the biggest profit in years this past quarter? At a time when corporations are laying off folks nd stupid politicians are blaming public employees for our nation's overall decline in everything from math and reading to the crumbling state of our bridges, dams and roads,  and huge budget deficits because they have demanded a decent wage for doing the nation's dirty work. Curious. But not criminal. Curious because these pols' attitudes do not even meet a moral challenge
by their so-called Christian Values Constituency.  To them all, it seems perfectly acceptable to ignore the "camel through a needle's eye" admonition,  and place far more importance on an imaginary ledger than on people's lives and livelihoods.
Clearly the pockets of these politicians such as Walker and Kasich, Christie and Pence and Cornyn and --
I don't have time to name them all, but you get the drift -- clearly their pockets are filled with corporate cash.
They no more have the best interests of the average American at heart than al Qaeda.
But here, for me, is the ultimate kicker.  The head of GE, the biggest offender in this corporate greed-fest, has now been named by President Obama as one of his closest business advisors. What a shocker for us
who thought that fairness and integrity would be among the criteria for a presidential advisor.  My hope is that this situation is more of a "keep your friends close, but your enemies closer" type of relationship. C'mon, Mr. President, do you really think you can work with people of no conscience?  Recently I heard a Libyan
refugee say that even the Libyan community has a saying about Republicans -- "they have the intellect of Bush, the moral integrity of Berlesconi, and the heart of Putin."  After I finished laughing, I wrote that one down.

The Truth Hurst. Now go put a bandage on it.