(Cartoon by Mark Hurwitt, courtesy BlackCommentator.com . Go to www.HurwittGraphics.com for more on Mark)
MICHELE BACHMANN: THE “CRAZY” WHO REALLY UNDERSTANDS THE BANK BAIL-OUTS FOR WHAT THEY ARE?
(Eurasia Review)
Economist Michael Hudson makes this startling suggestion, noting that mainline officeholders and presidential candidates of both major parties are agreed on a fantasy-version of the bail-outs for having been essential to economic recovery, when they actually were productive only of further bubbles and bursts and, so Bachmann insists, were profoundly un-constitutional as well. Out of the mouths of crazies.
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TAX MORATORIUMS AND WORK-AROUNDS; THERE’S A 35% TAX RATE FOR OFF-SHORE PROFITS OF U.S. COMPANIES; BUT “NOBODY PAYS THAT.”
(New York Times)
Sound and fury from Congress, the presidency and the public against tax breaks for out-sourcing companies masks the larger reality that these companies have found a “work around” to avoid paying those taxes. Currently, hugely profitable multi-nationals like Google, Microsoft and Merck are demanding a moratorium or reduction of the tax rate to about 5%, saying the companies will use the savings to “create jobs” in the domestic economy. The last time this was done, in 2005, this didn’t happen, as the companies used their windfall tax moratorium to distribute larger dividends to their stockholders and, as with Merck, to bear the expenses of closing operations and creating more joblessness in the U.S. While the Obama administration is described as “unusually harsh” about the new moratorium proposal, the President indicates it might be part of a “compromise” with Republicans to balance the federal budget under the cover of a new “stimulus” bill. Independent economists aren’t “buying” this latest buyout for corporations that aren’t even “stressed.”
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NEW VOTER ID LAW IN TEXAS: A CONCEALED GUN PERMIT WILL ID YOU TO VOTE; A STUDENT ID CARD WON’T.
(USA Today)
The GOP now controls legislatures in 26 U.S. states, and they are using that enhanced local muscle to pass “voter fraud” legislation in 17 of those states: legislation that forbids voter registration by “non-partisan” groups like the League of Women Voters, and requires identification, usually driver’s license, id: obviously discriminating against those not holding such licenses. In Texas, this problem is “remedied” by allowing a concealed weapons permit for voter id, which is good, says a GOP supporter, because in Texas almost everybody over 21 carries such permits. Student id? too unreliable because of inconsistency in the way the residencies of students are recorded (home town or college town).
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FRIENDS OF SAN MATEO COLLEGE IN CALIFORNIA: LEGGO OUR TANGLED CAMPUS GARDEN.
(San Francisco Chronicle)
The college is proposing to remove a large “wild garden” planted in 1963, a refuge from the carefully-landscaped campus for tired students and faculty as well as wild plants and animals. The college says it needs the space to create new parking places for an expanded campus. “Friends” sue the college, saying the project violates California law in not having submitted the plan to environmental impact review.
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THEY’RE WATERING THE DAMNED GOLF COURSE DURING THIS FREAKING DROUGHT.
(Palm Beach Post)
Some Floridians may be saying this as they watch the frequent watering of links like the Seminole Golf Club at Juno Beach, in Palm Beach County. Actually this water is obtained from wells drilled into the salty Florida Aquifer, 1400 feet below the surface, and is de-salinated and pumped to the top of the ground. This “water saving” measure comes at a cost, specifically about $50,000 per year in maintenance costs. Wonder why you have to pay $200 to play a round of golf at Seminole?
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Quote of the day…
Stuffing my backpack before setting out to board “The Audacity of Hope,” the U.S. boat to Gaza, I got a familiar-sounding call from yet another puzzled friend, who said as gently as the words allow, “You know you can get killed, don’t you?”
I recognize this caution as an expression of genuine concern from friends. From some others — who don’t much care about Gaza’s plight and/or who do not wish us well — the words are phrased somewhat differently: “Aren’t you just asking for it?
Ray McGovern, reflecting on a hostile interview before beginning a trip to Gaza, a reflection of the “you’re asking for it” mentality of a U.S. government that will take no action to protect its own citizens as they go about their humanitarian work.
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Let them do what they want. The more damage they cause the more they stoke the fires of revolution >;) Its only a matter of time before the masses decide to open their dam lazy eyes to notice that corporate feudalism AKA corporate welfare dose not benefit any one but the top 1% at the expense of just about every body else.
The bailouts were created by George W Bush and the Republicans in Congress. Look it up, traitors…
atl: when you “look it up,” there is nothing more apparent than that the bail-outs were a fully “bipartisan” enterprise and that Democrats were as much involved as Republicans—as the seamless transition from Wall Street dominated Treasury officials from
Bush to Obama makes abundantly clear. Without GOP Treasury Secretary Paulson and without President-elect Obama’s effort to intimidate Democrats into supporting the bailouts, they never would have occurred. There is just no way that looking up the facts of the situation would justify either Republicans or Democrats to blame the other.