Monday, November 27, 2017

What the desired tax cut is really about

The Republicans are desperate to get their long promised tax cut demanded by their oligarchic donors.  The cover story is that cutting taxes will unleash the powers of the market and “a rising tide will lift all boats.”  This notion has long been disproven, but it is so comforting to think that if my taxes are lowered that it is not going to hurt anybody, and indeed it is going to help everybody.  Easy to fool ourselves into believing nonsense if it benefits us personally.  

I think a parallel and comforting false belief is in the realm of sexual harassment – an unattractive but wealthy old man in a position of power over attractive young women can tell himself that exposing himself to or groping these women is actually welcomed by them because he has somehow become magically sexually attractive to them. All nonsense, as we are seeing over and over today as women are blowing the whistle on these old creeps. 

The real reason to cut taxes is to increase the deficit.

Why do the oligarchy want to increase the deficit? To allow them to cut Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and all supports to the middle and lower classes in the name of cutting the deficit.

Why cut these middle and lower class supports? To weaken the middle and lower classes.

Why weaken the middle and lower classes?  To lower labor costs.

Why lower labor costs?  Silly question, isn't it?  Yachts. 747s. Mansions. Villas.  Nothing wrong with any of that kind of wealth actually. Wealth is wonderful and some of the wealthy are generous and exemplary, but how about earning fortunes rather than stealing money from the middle and lower classes under the rubric of "tax cuts" and creating a perpetually powerless and impoverished middle and lower classes? 

The oligarchs and their Republican believers have long hated giving their money to lower classes - “Let them eat cake.”

Step one – cut taxes on the wealthy and increase taxes on the middle class (pretend it is a tax cut for the middle class, they are gullible enough to believe anything that you have the right wing media tell them)

Step two – throw up your hands in surprise and horror that the deficit is skyrocketing.


Step three – “reluctantly” cut Social Security and Medicare - must cut that deficit don’t you know!

Step four – buy a $500 million yacht – has to be bigger than your rival’s yacht, of course.   

So, why do the middle classes allow, and indeed support this?  I think that some people comfort themselves with the idea that government programs like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, any form of assistance to the poor, all somehow weaken the fiber of the nation.  Kind of like throwing a five year old boy into the water to show him how to swim – he either swims or drowns, makes him self-reliant, makes him tough.  This is a stupid idea, good enough for silly old John Wayne movies, but would end up killing children, or at a minimum traumatizing them if they survive. The oligarchy wants us to believe in this notion of self-reliance, especially if it means that we help them weaken the government regulations and support of the middle and lower classes.

It’s just greed and cruelty. 

Taxes and regulations are the price of civilization.  There is no middle class without strong government support – free press, freedom of religion, reliable banking system, roads, infrastructure, public schools, strong universities, military, police, legal system, rule by law not by oligarchs, safety net and assistance to the poor and needy, etc.  These things don’t happen by themselves, they need to be fed, and it takes money – tax money – our money, middle class money, wealthy class money. Government is needed, it is essential to freedom and democracy itself. 

Killing off government kills the middle class.  And gives more power to the Oligarchy.  America is becoming a banana republic.  Watch out.

But, not yet.  

I really don’t expect the Republicans to pass tax reform or tax cuts.  What is being proposed is just too terrible, has had no hearings or expert testimony, excludes every Democrat, is hated by huge majorities of the public - liberal and conservative alike - and has too many even within the sycophantic Republican Party opposing too many different parts of it.   

Unworkable, un-passable.  At least so I hope.

Wednesday, November 22, 2017

Doesn't have the brainpower needed to grasp issues....

A couple of days ago, I wrote that Trump was Ego Dumb, meaning he thinks with his ego, and egos are dumb.  Apparently, I was too generous to the man the Republicans elected to be our President.  

 H.R. McMaster, National Security Adviser, had this to say about Trump:

"White House national security adviser H.R. McMaster reportedly said President Trump had the intelligence of a "kindergartner" and called him an "idiot" and a "dope" during a private dinner over the summer in Washington....
McMaster also reportedly mocked the president’s intelligence to another source in private, saying Trump didn’t have the brainpower needed to grasp the issues the National Security"

Not having the brainpower to grasp the issues.... Let that sink in about the man in charge of our military, our nukes, our "diplomacy" (he doesn't believe in diplomacy and is gutting the State Department).  This man is a nitwit. And Republicans keep playing along with him because they want their beloved tax cuts and their evangelical judges on the courts.   

Good grief. 

Monday, November 20, 2017

Three types of dumb

I think there are three types of dumb:  IQ, Ego, Ideology.

Half the people in the world are average or below average IQ.  That's kind of by definition.  Their lack of IQ is not necessarily harmful, and anyone can become loving and wise, which is much more important than IQ, but that will probably keep them from careers in advanced science.

Then, there is Ego Dumb. An example is on the golf course, if I have a shot from the rough that has to carry over 200 yards to clear water to reach a green, what part of my brain will make that decision?  My ego says that I did it once ten years ago, and of course I can do it now.  But the chances of pulling that shot off are about one in fifty. So, trying that shot is dumb.  When we let our ego make the decision, I call that Ego Dumb.

Then there is Ideology Dumb.  I am clearly a practitioner of Ideology Dumb throughout my adult life.  I have been avidly liberal, avidly conservative, and am now back on the liberal side.  This time, of course, I think I am just being objective, but it is very hard to escape ideological bubbles and their dogmas.

So, what kind of dumb are politicians?  So many of them are Ideology Dumb, locked inside an ideological bubble that always reflects back to them the Truth of their ideological beliefs.

What kind of dumb is Trump?  I think he is mostly Ego Dumb.  He actually thinks he knows more than anyone else about pretty much everything.  And, as he has demonstrated over and over, he knows almost nothing about almost everything - except how to get attention.  One of his ex-professors at Wharton said:
 
 “Donald Trump was the dumbest goddam student I ever had.”  Dr. Kelley told me this after Trump had become a celebrity but long before he was considered a political figure.  Dr. Kelley often referred to Trump’s arrogance when he told of this — that Trump came to Wharton thinking he already knew everything."


Sounds familiar about the man who said that he doesn't need diplomats because he is the only one who counts?  Put that three wood in the bag, Mr President, and lay up with a short iron!



 

Tuesday, November 14, 2017

Republicans today

I used to be a Republican.  No more.

  • Republicans today defend pedophiles - Roy Moore running for Senate in Alabama.
  • Republicans today (the Republican president) defends anything that Vladimir Putin wants to do in the world.
  • Republicans today (the Republican president) obstruct justice by firing the head of the FBI (Comey) for investigating Russian interference in the presidential election. With barely a peep from the rest of the Republicans today.
  • Republicans today do whatever they can to divert attention from Special Council Mueller's investigation of Republican interference in our election.
  • Republicans today do nothing to stop the Russians from continued interference in our political processes and upcoming elections.
  • Republicans today allow the Republican president to violate the bribery and emoluments clauses of the constitution without impeaching him.
  • Republicans today cater to the "alt-right" which is essentially the new code name for white supremacists.
  • Republicans today (the Republican President) says there are good people on both sides of the Charlottesville KKK neo-Nazi and other white supremacists rally that killed a counter-protester.
  • Republicans today have abandoned any sense of dignity, character, or decency out of fear of this same avid and violent "alt-right" "base".
  • Republicans today withdraw from any form of moral leadership or championing of human rights in the world.
  • Republicans today have no sense of the American vision of this country being a "shining light on a hill" as an aspiration for other countries to follow.
Republicans today are what Ronald Reagan and William F Buckley would have fought, mocked, disdained, and defeated in their days.


Republicans today are why I am not a Republican today.

Saturday, November 4, 2017

"Conspiracy against the United States"

This week a 12 count indictment was brought against Trump's former campaign manager, Paul Manafort and his colleague, Rick Gates under the charge of  "conspiracy against the United States".  I need to let that sink in - aiding a hostile foreign power to attack American Democracy.


Time Magazine's Molly Ball writes:



"Manafort, the court filings charged, laundered tens of millions of dollars and evaded taxes while serving as an unregistered bagman for the political operation of the Russian-aligned Ukrainian strongman Viktor Yanukovych. And then he went to work for Trump"


In addition, a former foreign policy advisor, George Papadopoulos, was flipped and I apparently testifying about Russian contacts during the campaign - did he wear a wire?


It has long been reported that Trump, after his many bankruptcies, could no longer borrow money from American banks and turned to money laundering Russian mafia and oligarchy money through his real estate and golf courses.  I think it is safe to expect that Mr Trump swallowed very hard when he found out that investigator Mueller is charging Manafort with money laundering and tax evasion - a sign that he is likely to be investigating Mr Trump himself for the same crimes.


One terrible thing that has happened to our country is that Russia used a very sophisticated disinformation, social media agitation, fake news campaign to disrupt American democracy for the purpose of shaking American's trust in the news, in the political system, in democracy itself, and in each other.  Putin has succeeded wildly.  (Except he has been exposed by the buffoon he put into the presidency who too simple to know how to keep all of this below the radar - he only operates way, way above the radar - the fool)


The more terrible thing happening to our country is that Russia is still doing it.  They flood the media landscape with as much incendiary garbage as possible, inflaming all sides against each other.


Divide and conquer.  Russia is doing just that.


The only defense is for Americans to become sophisticated in their filtering of news.  A good place to start is snopes.com or fact checker by Glenn Kessler.


There is a lot that the social media giants can do to root out the actual fake news, the Russian bots, and the Russian active measures to disinform and inflame Americans, but ultimately it requires us to be sophisticated in what we are willing to believe.