In nineteen seventy-four, I reached three milestones in my life. In March of that year, I turned eighteen; ten days later, I registered with selective service—conscription ended in 1973, and naively I registered as an independent voter. I remember the sense of power I felt. I could join the military...
Tax
The Rotten Core of the Republican Party -Binyamin Appelbaum -NYT Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the top House Republican, recently took to social media to warn that Democrats have hatched a dastardly plot. “Democrats,” he said, “want to track every penny you earn so they can then tax you and...
This is the sixth set of notes for a reading group on Marx’s Capital, and includes a Volume I refresher for further reading of Volume II. There are links to earlier posts and texts that may be useful. Marx is probably too taken with a kind of scientism by proposing...
The straight news or punditry often starts with the premise of scaring the American people away with a price tag. From the Biden Build Back Better plan reporting, one would think that its’ only attribute—or detriment, depending on your point of view, is the 3.5 trillion dollar price tag. Even...
For Christmas (and Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa), Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders wants to give working-class West Virginians a child tax credit, child care assistance, free preschool, two free years of community college, lower health insurance premiums, expanded Medicare, home health care assistance for the elderly, an expanded Earned Income Tax Credit...
Republicans have proved to be masters at soundbite manipulation. The GOP has gotten, mainly, poor white people in the Red States to oppose Medicare expansion, happily believing that rich people trickling on them will eventually improve their lot. Truth in schools is being portrayed as a threat to whiteness, and...
Republicans swing the word freedom over the heads of their voters like the Sword of Damocles. It has become a meaningless mantra, cutting away real freedoms like affordable housing, healthcare, pay equity, and a clean environment. Freedom for a majority of Republicans has translated into the freedom to kill their...
Donald Trump, the man with gold-plated bathroom fixtures and a 10,000 dollar portrait of himself bought with money donated to his corrupt and now-defunct charity, thinks that the 1.7 million [tax-free] dollars paid to his CFO, Allen Weisselberg, were a fringe benefit, or just Trump change. Anyone still buying into...
It begins…more likely prosecution of Trump corporate tax fraud coming first because it’ll always be about strong cases. Trump Organization facing possible criminal charges, sources say https://t.co/yfzrKV0jGu — Morning Joe (@Morning_Joe) June 28, 2021 The Trump Organization is expected to be hit with criminal charges as soon as next week...
Why isn’t this guy in prison yet? Is it because he’s rich and white? Or because he behaves like a drug-addled mob boss? Getting to Donald Trump has always seemed a bit like nailing orange Jell-O to a wall. (Yes, I know that simile brutally defames orange Jell-O, which is...
This is not new taxation, this is merely collecting what is due. By Timothy F. Geithner, Jacob J. Lew, Henry M. Paulson Jr., Robert E. Rubin and Lawrence H. Summers. Six hundred billion dollars per year, and growing: That is two-thirds of total nondefense discretionary spending by the federal government,...
Former President Trump ordered the Pentagon to release all of its information on “unidentified aerial phenomena” (UAP) within 18 days in his last coronavirus relief bill in December 2020. More inexplicable sightings of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) will be released for public scrutiny in June — including a UFO that broke...
Once Senator Mitch McConnell staked out the politically uncompromising GOP opposition to ‘everything’ Democrats proffered, during the Obama administration, the redline was drawn. Slowly but surely, the so-called moderate Republicans like; Susan Collins, Rob Portman, and John Thune have repeatedly torn their knickers on the fence. Collins, for example, agreed...
Slowly we turn, step by step, and the shoes will drop in the coming months regardless of the maneuvering in Congress. Procedure, process, and practice continue as evidence accumulates and the predicted timelines make more sense. The show goes on and even Broadway will be back in NYC. Manhattan DA...
A few years ago, I wrote the piece titled “Boomers Must Take Some Blame And Help Fix Generation Y Unhappy Problem” without any malintent. I was raked over the coals by my boomer friends who accused me of agism and much more. Some said I was pitting generations against each...
Donald John Ignatius Caligulard Trump has had a lot of coffee boys for someone who only drinks Diet Coke. If you’re in the Trump orbit and that orbit begins to decay, well, you might as well be green cruciferous vegetables as far as DJT is concerned. He sure as shit...
Meandering nonsense highlighted by searches for bamboo fibers, and official lies issued from Mar-a Lago, are exactly what Donald Trump expected to be doing in 2016. The 2020 election with Joe Biden as his opponent was what he expected the first time around with Hillary Clinton; a loss. I am...
Throughout the one-term presidency of Donald Trump, he has been implicated in numerous criminal activities. They include making hush money payments to porn porn stars, collusion with Russians seeking to interfere with an election, obstruction of justice, financial and tax fraud connected to his real estate business, swindling his charitable...
Among the countless examples of inane “Washington group-think” is the notion that only Democrats have to “pay for” their legislative priorities (i.e., enact corresponding tax increases and/or spending cuts to match the costs of new programs). Republicans do not remotely consider themselves so constrained — in part because they also are...
The Republican members of the House of Representatives convened their star chamber this morning and ousted the most conservative member of their caucus. GOP House conference chair Liz Cheney is under fire for breaking one of their sacred tenets—not embracing duplicity and hypocrisy. The vote was held in secret because...
Here’s the big news today out of California: The campaign to recall Gov. Gavin Newsom has failed to gain momentum in recent months as significantly more California voters favor keeping him in office, and only anemic support has surfaced for reality TV star Caitlyn Jenner while other Republican candidates hoping...
Fear of a Red Hat: as much as Liz Cheney is toast, more troubling is Elise Stefanik’s Führereid, because Trump is too stupid to see that he’s blazing an even tighter path to obscurity. As Greg Sargent observes, there is an increased likelihood of another attempt at stealing an election, further...
Yesterday was a very busy day for me so I’m playing catch up today. Received this e-mail yesterday from former Air Force Pilot and U.S. Senate candidate, Amy McGrath (D. KY) on behalf of her new organization, Democratic Majority Action PAC: RoJo The Traitor Since I told you about my...
The Tin Lizzie was a Ford Model T car that ushered in prefabricated manufacturing, thereby featuring profits over craftsmanship. Although for the first time, the middle-class had real dreams of affording an automobile, the Tin eventually went bye-bye because it bowed to modernization. The current Tin Lizzie, Republican House member...
From The Daily Beast: Josh Mandel—the far-right, former Ohio state representative now running for Senate—has recently joined the chorus of conservatives railing against Big Tech. But before he turned against Silicon Valley, Mandel was a Facebook stock investor who made tens of thousands of dollars. And even after he turned...
Fear and loathing rises in the land of previous guy. The raid on Giuliani’s apartment and office netted the Feds 10 devices, laptops and phones. According to the Trump adviser, the (Giuliani) raid ignited a sense of fear inside the former President's orbit that Justice Department officials may be more willing...
A little over a year ago, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham postured that helping out hungry Americans would make them lazy. “Very few people would choose work over unemployment benefits that provided moderately more money,” said Graham. Not only was this an attack on those in need but their work ethic...
In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, Ted Cruz admits he’s a corporate shill but like Matt Gaetz’s procurer, Joel Greenberg, prior crimes don’t count if you can get a pardon, even from the press. But hey Ted, confession is good for the soul because you don’t have to rely on the...
Just wanted to share this: Texas Senator Ted Cruz was not a fan of a Tuesday Daily Show segment and he let host Trevor Noah know it. The bit was about Congressional reapportionment due to population shifts in the U.S. Those shifts are causing New York to lose a U.S. House seat while Texas picks up...
I’m probably a lot closer on the political spectrum to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez than I am to Joe Biden—and not just because I prefer a Starbucks triple venti nonfat soy caramel baby’s blood macchiato to whatever low-rent greasy spoon baby’s blood bevvie Biden drinks. Probably has Sanka in it. Pfft. So I appreciate what AOC is saying...
Received this e-mail today from Finance Committee Chairman, U.S. Senator Ron Wyden’s (D. OR) re-election campaign: x It’s past time to end the federal prohibition of cannabis. @SenBooker @SenSchumer and I are working hard to get it done this year.— Ron Wyden (@RonWyden) April 21, 2021 I've been asked a...
With over half of American adults now vaccinated with at least one Covid shot, President Joe Biden is acting to keep the momentum rolling by offering employers tax credits if they will give their employees incentives to receive the injections. http://www.cnn.com/… “As we move into the vaccination campaign focused on working age...
I thought Schaden-Friday might slip away without a good dose of bad news for a bad, bad person. Ah, but it came through in the end to bite one of the most loathsome arses on God’s verdant vale of tears. Roger Stone may want to grab his blankie, because there...
Anand Giridharadas wrote a piece for The Atlantic asserting that Biden has been moving leftward. This may only be a short term impression only because the GOP is trying to find its way after the previous guy is gone and before he may be indicted. The real problem lies with...