Monday, February 21, 2011

WINTER WONDERLAND (CONT'D)

Another Christmas-cardy day here in Jersey. It's beautiful again with a few inches of snow on the trees and everywhere else except the streets, and above freezing so pretty sweet.

We had gotten down to "the sunny side of the street" phenom where one side had all melted and looked like Spring and the other side was still covered in snow, several inches deep and even a few feet deep still here and there, all Wintery.

Today could be our last taste, or not, of this kind of beauty for this season, and I'm sure there are plenty of folks who are sick of it. But not me. This is why I moved back from L.A. after seventeen years there, and I appreciate every minute of every season.

By the way, I assume you're all noticed how smartly the right has reframed the total destruction, economic and otherwise wrought by their policies for the eight years of Bush/Cheney into how Democrats spend too much and the deficit is the greatest threat to the country since World War Two etc.

AND how the obvious solution of raising taxes on the wealthiest back to what they were under Clinton is off the table. The message is clear for those of us educated and intelligent enough to hear it, but unfortunately not stated very clearly by the Dems and certainly not by the mass media, that is: the wealthiest few (who have become richer and richer since Reagan started this process of kissing the butts of the rich and corporations) must never be asked to sacrifice anything, but the poor and the working class must face the music and accept cuts to programs that keep working families from becoming homeless or unable to feed their infants and children.

The right's message: whatever the rich want is good for all of us so shut up and take the stagnant pay and job losses and benefit cuts and losses so the rich can continue to accrue more and more.

11 comments:

Jamie Rose said...

You always say it best. I posted this to my FB wall.

Robert G. Zuckerman said...

ditto Jamie Rose's sentiment. Thank you.

JIm said...

The sillinest of the left, including Lally, is they think that corporations pay taxes. Corporations just pass the cost of taxes on to the consumer. The consumer actually pay corporate taxes. The other idiocy is to not recognise that we are not living in the 19th century. Money is fungible and can move to where the best returns are available in the world. If the US is anti business, that is not a problem for the rich or corporations. They move their money to friendlier climes, resulting in higher unemployment in the US. What is more important; punishing the rich and corporations domestically, even though we know they can invest overseas, or estabishing a friendly busines and investment climate that will grow domestic employment and GDP. Which is it; retribution or full domestic employment and prosperity?

Robert G. Zuckerman said...

it's not the 19th century, nor is it the 18th, the second amendment as written is arcane and does not apply to today and by your invocation of the 19th century in your current argument, you tacitly concur. If i read you correctly, you say corporations put their money where it most readily profits, how then does this translate to jobs in the u.s.?

JIm said...

Robert, I assumed you are educated man. The world is no longer a place that we can control or dominate economically. We must adapt to the world as it is. Capital can be moved in the blink of an eye. Capital does not care whether it is American, Russian or Chinese. All that matters in the world economy, is whether a profit can be made. We can bemoan the world as it is or we can compete. Americans and America's Constitutional government gives us a great advantage in the world economy. However, we must be competive. We do not have to be the cheapest, but we must be reasonably competive on corporate taxes. Canada is at 18%(I believe with the latest cut). Japan has the highest tax rate and is in a 20 year decline. The US corporate rate is 35%, plus the state tax which usually puts it well over 40%. The US will rebuild our industrial base by becoming more competive with the world ecomomy. That means cutting back on big government spending and encouraging free enterprize, by being more friendly toward business.

Robert, is it more important to be true to liberal/socialist philosopy that has consistently produce poor employment and GDP growth results or should we go back to a economic philosophy that produced employment growth during the Reagan, Clinton and Bush 11 administrations.

Lally said...

Robert, you make a great point, it is actually very close to the Gilded Age right now in the USA. The income disparity is the worst it's been since before the Great Depression, another period of rightwing Republican rule that led to total economic disaster. The right taunts "liberals" for being unrealistic, although the greatest periods of prosperity in modern times have all come under Democratic administrations and Congresses, unless you count prosperity only in terms of the rich and corporations, than of course, the Bush/Cheney regime did very well for those two groups. And lord knows no society or nation can survive without giving corporations and the wealthy everything they want, I mean look how long Egypt survived under Mubarak or Russia has under Putin (no matter who the titular president is) etc. The statistics about corporate taxes are skewed, of course, as all the right's statistics almost always are. For instance most oil corporations in the U.S, not only don't pay any taxes, they get government support! Corporate welfare must be protected by all means but the rest of us can fend for ourselves. If I didn't have a policy of not cursing on this blog I'd delete anything any rightwinger says anytime on it and tell them to go ef themselves.

Lally said...

PS: Also notice how the right claims we can't live in earlier centuries in terms of ideals and reality, unless of course they're talking about the Constitution, in which case, it's supposedly has to be taken as it was originally intended, unless of course we're talking about corporations, which didn't exist in the time of the Founding Fathers, but in that case suddenly rightwing so-called "originalist" doctrine about the Constitution is thrown out along with all legal precedent in the history of the Supreme Court's interpretation of that document and corporations are suddenly declared "individuals" just like the rest of us, except, as the right points out, when it comes to taxes. All hail business and corporate profits, any other human concern is beneath consideration in the light of profits and greed. There is no morality to that kind of rightwing justification for the corporations and the wealthy always being given more to satisfy their unending thirst for more and more and more. Enough is never enough neither for the right nor for the corporate and wealthy interests they have always and continue to do everything in their power to serve.

Connie said...

So we're back to the age of the robber barons. Now if we could just allow all the college students in Texas to strap on holsters, maybe we could bring back the wild west as well.

Lally said...

I see you've been keeping up with the Texas Republican's agenda Connie. Next stop: secession! (If only.)

JIm said...

No matter what level of tax is paid by oil companies, the consumers end up paying it. To raise taxes on oil companies with the idea that they are rightously being punished is idiodic and childish. Again, the cost of taxes are passed on to the consumer, who actually pay. In affect a tax on oil companies is a hidden and dishonest tax on all of us.

JIm said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.