US POLITICS SPRING 2011: Let's just call off this country.

since weve had so little to lol about lately, the american spectator:

But in fact, the Indian wars are a very fitting historical precedent, because in significant ways the American Indians of the 19th Century are the precursors to 21st Century Islamist terrorists.

Indeed, just as modern-day Islamists terrorize the international frontier; so, too, did warring Indian tribes terrorize the American frontier. Historian William Osborn estimates, in fact, that more than 9,000 Americans were massacred by the Indians from the 16th to through the 19th centuries.

Now, obviously the analogy is inexact. Whatever their faults, the Native Americans were not jihadists bent on dominating and exterminating infidels. They were a largely primitive peoples who mostly lacked the Americans' appreciation for, and understanding of, private property rights.

http://spectator.org/blog/2011/04/06/the-19th-century-indian-wars-p

hahahah holy fuck

Whatever their faults

Whaaaaaaaaa

smdh

I forgot how the Native Americans in their religious extremism coined the term Manifest Destiny to justify conversion of the land to their own political, religious, and racial social structures in relentless acts of genocide. Oh wait maybe that was someone else.

Also i was unaware there were Americans in the 16th and 17th centuries.

Ayn Rand once said something very similar about Native Americans:

"[The Native Americans] didn't have any rights to the land and there was no reason for anyone to grant them rights which they had not conceived and were not using.... What was it they were fighting for, if they opposed white men on this continent? For their wish to continue a primitive existence, their "right" to keep part of the earth untouched, unused and not even as property, just keep everybody out so that you will live practically like an animal, or maybe a few caves above it. Any white person who brought the element of civilization had the right to take over this continent." * Source: "Q and A session following her Address To The Graduating Class Of The United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, March 6, 1974"

the similarity b/w that and the American Spectator quote speaks for itself.

That/those posts have pissed me off more than anything in the past few years. Really, John R. Guardiano/Ayn Rand, go suck an egg. Go get in a car crash and get paralyzed.

as for taxes and the Dems: may I remind folks that they had the chance to let the Bush tax cuts expire this fall, they didn't do that and thereby set up the situation we're in now.

that also speaks for itself.

randism is up there with scientology, in that if someone is a follower there is no real way i can subsequently respect them

* Source: "Q and A session following her Address To The Graduating Class Of The United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, March 6, 1974"

the record shows that the next Q was "ARE YOU FUCKING INSANE"

wow I have never read rand...had no idea that she went that far with her insanity.

that's nothing out of the ordinary for rand. the only wtf aspect is that she was speaking at west point.

That American Spectator thing is WTF on so many levels I don't even know where to begin.

Oh great, despite having already released a proposed budget, and having proposed Medicare changes via the Health Care plan, Obama is now gonna defensively respond to Ryan with proposed entitlement cuts on Wednesday in a speech. It would be nice if he followed up on this with calls for Congress to come up with a jobs plan(although that is apparently impossible now because the Republicans won't allow any money to be spent on the middle class and working class).

The neon line from Krugman's column today: "The House budget proposal that was unveiled last week...includes a plan to sharply cut taxes on corporations and to bring the tax rate on high earners down to its lowest level since 1931."

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/11/opinion/11krugman.html?hp

Turning the clock back to pre-New Deal era, done.

curious how high obama's gonna propose raising rich fucks' taxes on wednesday. hopefully capital gains and the estate tax goes up and it's not just one blanket hike on income, but a new set of brackets, going as high as 60% on the top-of-the-ponzi-scheme salaries

Way upthread a minority Liberal plan by rep Jan Schakowsky (Illinois) on the Budget Commission was mentioned and I see that Steve Benen on Washington Monthly's site was (naively) hoping Obama would also have it in mind this week.

Here's the link Benen linked to: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/16/AR2010111603833.html

how high obama's gonna propose raising rich fucks' taxes on wednesday

What's the source of this? Sounds like a fantasy about a guy who's in the process of raising a billion dollars.

cool. i think schakowsky's signed on to 'the people's budget' proposal

The CPC proposal:

• Eliminates the deficits and creates a surplus by 2021
• Puts America back to work with a “Make it in America” jobs program
• Protects the social safety net
• Ends the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq
• Is FAIR (Fixing America’s Inequality Responsibly)

What the proposal accomplishes:

• Primary budget balance by 2014.
• Budget surplus by 2021.
• Reduces public debt as a share of GDP to 64.4% by 2021, down 16.9 percentage points from
a baseline fully adjusted for both the doc fix and the AMT patch.
• Reduces deficits by $5.7 trillion over 2012-21
• Both outlays and revenue equal 22.3% of GDP by 2021

http://cpc.grijalva.house.gov/index.cfm?sectionid=70§iontree=5,70

these solutions are way more popular than paul ryan's medicare-slaying ones are. and i think the math is better, too, since they don't rely on american enterprise institute "math" that would have unemployment going down to 2.2%

xp

xp-

I'm guessing Obama's merely gonna say again that the Bush tax cuts for the rich should end in 2 years. I doubt he has the courage to do the rest--raising the rate on dividends and capital gains; lifting the rate at which payroll taxes are collected; getting rid of deductions and loopholes that force taxpayers to subsidize deferred CEO pay and hedgefund mgr pay;

Unfortunately the "serious" folks in Washington and the media will never embrace plans that do the above and cut defense or farm-agriculture spending

curmudgeon, i think you're otm (but hope you're wrong)

(morbius, the "source" is my sullivan-fed wishful thinking ~

http://andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com/2011/04/meep-meep-watch.html

plus tax hikes being super popular, "totally" or "mostly" acceptable to 80+% of the public, according to answers reported on page 16 of this recent 'wall street journal' (!) poll

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704005404576176981643217882.html?mod=WSJ_hp_LEFTTopStories

that's good re-election math)

Typical Obama will try to be bipartisan and will balance any request on rich people taxes with lots of ugliness that Republicans want and call it a compromise

Obama really, really needs to forcefully sell some sort of tax hike on the rich. As in "we MUST do this as a country, their tax rate is lowest it's been since 1931, etc." No one likes rich people, and he can always frame it as raising taxes on them so that they won't be raised for everyone else. Plus, with, like, 100 people holding all the money, it really wouldn't affect that many people. Again, perfect set-up is: "these hyper-wealthy types are *preventing* you from becoming rich like *them*!" Then he can pass out Obama 2012 torches.

also the "american people" the gop always blather about really really really want tax hikes on the rich

But there was a letter in the Washington Post saying that taxes should NOT be hiked on the rich because they are "the producers". Take that you middle-class and poor scum leaching off the hard work of those in the highest bracket!

Jerry Brown is laying down the law on this in California and apparently has a bunch of republicans swayed (unfortunately not the ones in state congress, but local leaders, republican sherrifs and DAs who can see exactly what the budget cuts are going to do to their offices and ability to get any work done). Maybe Obama needs to take some lessons from Moonbeam on how to stop equivocating and compromising and start being a pragmatist.

Progressive Caucus co-chairs Raúl M. Grijalva and Keith Ellison sent a memo to House Budget Committee Ranking Member Chris Van Hollen April 6

I would imagine House Republicans filter Keith Ellison's memos straight to the spam folder, though.

Is Maryland Democrat Van Hollen (ranking Dem on the House Budget Committee) allowed to let them go to the House Republicans

I would imagine House Republicans filter Keith Ellison's memos straight to the spam folder, though.
reason to vote next november

My brother-in-law is infuriatingly opposed to any tax increases on rich people. I don't know if he thinks he's going to be one of those rich people someday, or if there's going to be some sort of stealthy attempt to sneak the increases onto lower and lower incomes. I send him a lot of FB messages along the lines of "you are being used as a dupe and a human shield for a club that will NEVER have you as a member."

He made it clear that it's a more moral stance to let an old poor person starve or freeze to death than to force a rich person to lift a finger to help.

he's in the 20% minority. dems need to start pounding that fact home

not to be a big pisser or anything, but taxes on rich people alone aren't going to fix the hole entirely. the bush tax cuts are huge, but the biggest chuck of them went to middle class. and with medicare D, the old.

if we're going to go back to pre-bush levels, let alone pre-reagan, then yeah people like WmC's brother will be paying more. a lot of people will!

well yeah obviously it needs to be a mix of tax raises and spending cuts, but it kind of feels like they've already done a lot of the cuts now, so maybe it's time to do a little of the other thing.

Unfortunately there's no enthusiasm for reforming the tax code, let alone returning it to FDR levels.

There's enthusiasism from Republicans and Blue-Dog Dems for lowering rates and making them even more unprogressive

Members of my family are all sympathetic to the "corporations have to go to Ireland because of the high US rate" argument, despite the fact that GE and others all benefit from lots of loopholes and deductions here and never pay that high corporate rate they complain about.

Budgetary things that are scheduled "two years from now" never seem to happen.

like, i know the statutory corporate rate in the US is on the high side (~39%), BUT isn't the effective rate, once you figure in incentives and loopholes and write offs somewhere around 27%?? why isn't the "liberal media" pointing this out EVERY FUCKING TIME this bullshit comes up??

bcz they are all owned by giant conglomerates?

If you look at "high unemployment" as a desirable state in which the bargaining power of both the employed and the job-seeking is reduced to essentially zero, a state in which individuals and labor unions accept ever-more-disadvantageous wages and working conditions just in order to have a job; in which, in particular, workers desperate not to be fired increase hours worked and output even though their compensation is shrinking; in which profitability increases in part on the backs of those "productivity" gains . . . well, shit, it all makes a lot of sense. When nice liberals wonder why Barack Obama and the Democrats and the Republicans and Everybody are enacting policies to "harm the labor market," I would answer that they are enacting policies to harm the labor market.

http://whoisioz.blogspot.com/2011/04/surfing-to-serfdom.html

Isn't that straight from Marx? Like, why there always has to be an unemployed subclass?

pretty much

Via John Cole, the story of IKEAs Danville, VA manufacturing plant:

When home furnishing giant Ikea selected this fraying blue-collar city to build its first U.S. factory, residents couldn’t believe their good fortune.
Beloved by consumers worldwide for its stylish and affordable furniture, the Swedish firm had also constructed a reputation as a good employer and solid corporate citizen. State and local officials offered $12 million in incentives. Residents thrilled at the prospect of a respected foreign company bringing jobs to this former textile region after watching so many flee overseas.

But three years after the massive facility opened here, excitement has waned. Ikea is the target of racial discrimination complaints, a heated union-organizing battle and turnover from disgruntled employees.

Workers complain of eliminated raises, a frenzied pace and mandatory overtime. Several said it’s common to find out on Friday evening that they’ll have to pull a weekend shift, with disciplinary action for those who can’t or don’t show up.

Kylette Duncan, among the plant’s first hires, quit after six months to take a lower-paying retail job. “I need money as bad as anybody, but I also need a life,” said Duncan, 52. She recalled having to cancel medical appointments for her ailing husband because she had to work overtime at the last minute.

Some of the Virginia plant’s 335 workers are trying to form a union. The International Assn. of Machinists and Aerospace Workers said a majority of eligible employees had signed cards expressing interest.

In response, the factory — part of Ikea’s manufacturing subsidiary, Swedwood — hired the law firm Jackson Lewis, which has made its reputation keeping unions out of companies. Workers said Swedwood officials required employees to attend meetings at which management discouraged union membership.

Plant officials didn’t return calls and declined to meet with a Times reporter who visited the Virginia facility. Swedwood spokeswoman Ingrid Steen in Sweden called the situation in Danville “sad” but said she could not discuss the complaints of specific employees. She said she had heard “rumors” about anti-union meetings at the plant but added that “this wouldn’t be anything that would be approved by the group management in Sweden.”

The dust-up has garnered little attention in the U.S. But it’s front-page news in Sweden, where much of the labor force is unionized and Ikea is a cherished institution. Per-Olaf Sjoo, the head of the Swedish union in Swedwood factories, said he was baffled by the friction in Danville. Ikea’s code of conduct, known as IWAY, guarantees workers the right to organize and stipulates that all overtime be voluntary.

“Ikea is a very strong brand and they lean on some kind of good Swedishness in their business profile. That becomes a complication when they act like they do in the United States,” said Sjoo. “For us, it’s a huge problem.”

Laborers in Swedwood plants in Sweden produce bookcases and tables similar to those manufactured in Danville. The big difference is that the Europeans enjoy a minimum wage of about $19 an hour and a government-mandated five weeks of paid vacation. Full-time employees in Danville start at $8 an hour with 12 vacation days — eight of them on dates determined by the company.

What’s more, as many as one-third of the workers at the Danville plant have been drawn from local temporary-staffing agencies. These workers receive even lower wages and no benefits, employees said.

THis pisses me off more than anything:Some of the Virginia plant’s 335 workers are trying to form a union. The International Assn. of Machinists and Aerospace Workers said a majority of eligible employees had signed cards expressing interest.

In response, the factory — part of Ikea’s manufacturing subsidiary, Swedwood — hired the law firm Jackson Lewis, which has made its reputation keeping unions out of companies. Workers said Swedwood officials required employees to attend meetings at which management discouraged union membership.

If the feckless Democrats had taken a stand on card check this wouldn't be a fucking issue. And COMPULSORY anti-union meetings? In 2011?

x-post

mediamatters.org points out (and others do as well), based on a GAO report, that the effective US corporate tax rate is around 25% but noone seems to want to google that at 60 Minutes or in the media.

http://mediamatters.org/research/201004260006

Reagan's boy David Stockman, among others, scoffs at Ryan's budget.

On this score, Doug Holtz-Eakin -- a former McCain and George W. Bush economic adviser -- told Huffington Post Ryan's plan is "implausibly optimistic."

The libertarian economist Tyler Cowen wrote up a point-by-point critique of the plan. His principle objections are that the plan doesn't do anything to control health care costs, and cutting Medicaid is neither good policy, nor urgent. Indeed, he notes, "Medicaid should be one of the last parts of the health care budget to cut." Emphasis in the original.

However, Cowen also argues that, by proposing $6 trillion in spending cuts, the main impact of the GOP plan will be to shift the center of the fiscal debate in Washington dramatically to the right. This is already happening.

The question will probably come down to whether lawmakers and the Obama administration have the stomach for a public fight over how to cut popular entitlement programs with unemployment high, and old voters on guard against any major benefits changes.

"It's kind of a pitiful commentary on our state of fiscal malgovernance when you consider the two leaders that we have that are trying to face down this issue," Stockman said. "One of them is so ready to compromise that he folds faster than a lawnchair (that's Obama). And the other is ready to sob at the drop of a hat."

I've only had a couple "corporate" jobs (ie. working for a large corporation - not white collar jobs LOL), but the training in all of them included something about how unions are bad and if you try to unionize you will be fired. I'm pretty sure all the big-box retailers have similar training and policies re: unions.

Yeah my first job was for Walmart and on day one orientation was full of that. Telling you that if anyone mentions unions or anything to let your supervisor know. I'm sure its protected under the first amendment rights of the corporation.

That Ikea story is remarkable.

If I were working poor in America, I wouldn't be waiting for American elites to take care of me. They need to organize themselves: neither the Dems nor the GOP have any collective interest in the conditions of those workers.