Showing posts with label TRICKLE DOWN. Show all posts
Showing posts with label TRICKLE DOWN. Show all posts
Thursday, December 26, 2019
Monday, November 18, 2019
FOCUS: Robert Reich | Warren Doesn't Just Frighten Billionaires - She Scares the Whole Establishment
17 November 19
I would be pissed off, too, with regard to the lack of financial support being provided to your important RSN daily broadcasts.
Your publication provides truth, which is neglected in the majority of media reporting and publications today.
Namasté.
Joseph C, M.D., RSN Reader-Supporter
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CA 95611
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17 November 19
FOCUS: Robert Reich | Warren Doesn't Just Frighten Billionaires - She Scares the Whole Establishment
Robert Reich, Guardian UK
Reich writes: "Warren and Sanders have stirred up a hornet's nest. Beware. Bipartisan stingers are out."
Robert Reich, Guardian UK
Reich writes: "Warren and Sanders have stirred up a hornet's nest. Beware. Bipartisan stingers are out."
No wonder the wealth tax turns the Gray Lady white as a sheet: it will help the needy and its author is a good bet for president
n Thursday, the New York Times reported on a study showing that Elizabeth Warren’s proposed wealth tax (and presumably Bernie Sanders’ even more ambitious version) would reduce economic growth by nearly 0.2% a year, over the course of a decade.
Under the headline “Warren Wealth Tax Could Slow the Economy, Early Analysis Finds”, the Times trumpeted the analysis, from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, as “the first attempt by an independent budget group to forecast the economic effects” of a centerpiece of the Warren and Sanders campaigns.
It sounded like a game-changer. The super rich obviously don’t like a wealth tax, but if it also slows the economy, it could harm everyone.
But wait. In order to arrive at their conclusion, the authors of the study make two bizarre leaps of economic logic. They assume, first, that wealthy Americans would save and invest less in order to avoid accumulating wealth that would be subject to the tax, and that this drop in investment would retard economic growth.
Baloney. If we’ve learned anything over the last 40 years it’s that the savings and investments of wealthy Americans do not necessarily trickle down in ways that grow the economy or benefit most Americans.
The investments of the wealthy are parked all over the world in everything from exotic tax shelters to real estate and works of art. Rather than generate social benefits, they are more likely to keep legions of investment bankers, money managers, wealth advisers and tax lawyers busily employed, gaming the system.
The study also assumes the revenue raised by a wealth tax will go toward reducing the federal debt. It totally disregards what the wealth tax would finance, such as Warren’s proposals for universal childcare, increased education funding, student loan forgiveness, green manufacturing and infrastructure.
This is no minor oversight. Warren has repeatedly argued that taxing the super rich is the fairest and most efficient way to pay for these critical needs.
Such spending, not incidentally, would spur growth. Enabling more parents to work, young people to become better educated, green technologies to take root, more access to healthcare, and the nation’s infrastructure to be upgraded, would improve productivity.
How can an analysis of the wealth tax focus only on its trickle-down effects and not consider these crucial bottom-up consequences? Just as peculiarly, why would the New York Times prominently report this one-sided study?
The answers to both questions, I fear, have less to do with economics than with where power is located in the American system.
The denizens of corporate board rooms, C-suites and Wall Street do not regard Bernie Sanders as a threat because they do not believe he has a chance of being nominated. But they are panicked by Elizabeth Warren.
Financier Leon Cooperman accuses Warren of “trying to demonize wealthy people because there are more poor people than wealthy people”. Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg calls Warren an “existential” threat. Billionaire and possible presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg describes her tax plan as anti-capitalistic.
These billionaires have such an obvious stake in preventing a wealth tax that their charges carry little weight. If anything, they have given Warren political ammunition: this week she launched an ad, “Elizabeth Warren Stands Up to Billionaires”, that targets several of her super-rich critics.
But more insidious attacks on the tax plan are now emerging from sources that do not bear the direct imprimatur of the wealthy, including some presumably liberal enclaves such as a thinktank at the University of Pennsylvania and the New York Times, which chose to highlight its questionable study.
Recently Steven Rattner, a former Wall Street executive, official in the Obama administration and contributing opinion writer for the Times, called a Warren presidency a “terrifying prospect” that would abandon “the limited-government model that has mostly served us well” and “turn America’s uniquely successful public-private relationship into a dirigiste, European-style system”.
I know Rattner as a thoughtful man who is typically more measured, as is the Times op-ed page. But the establishment’s panic has apparently enflamed even its usually restrained surrogates and platforms.
This is no orchestrated conspiracy. It is more a matter of affiliation and class, revealing once again that biggest divide in America isn’t between Republicans and Democrats, conservatives and liberals or right and left. It’s between the establishment and the anti-establishment, the oligarchy and the rest.
Saturday, October 5, 2019
Another Fine Week Here in the Republic
05 October 19
We must find a way this time around to raise the bar on raising funding. We do not need, and we have never needed a windfall. We do however need to avoid at all costs a financial meltdown.
The time is now.
Marc Ash
Founder, Reader Supported News
Founder, Reader Supported News
If you would prefer to send a check:
Reader Supported News
PO Box 2043
Citrus Hts, CA 95611
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04 October 19 It's Live on the HomePage Now: Reader Supported News
Garrison Keillor | Another Fine Week Here in the Republic
 Garrison Keillor, Garrison Keillor's Website Keillor writes: "I imagine that, among the White House regulars, there is a tranche of them who wish to continue their careers when the Boy President goes to the Next Stop, and I expect they are thinking hard this week." READ MORE  Kurt Volker, a former special envoy to Ukraine, arrives for a closed-door interview with House investigators on Thursday. (photo: J. Scott Applewhite/AP)
Kurt Volker Provided Evidence Giuliani Ran 'Shadow Shakedown' in Ukraine, Democrat Says
Rebecca Shabad and Alex Moe, NBC News Excerpt: "Rudy Giuliani, the president's personal lawyer, ran a 'shadow shakedown' in Ukraine, according to evidence former U.S. envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker provided to lawmakers during more than eight hours of closed-door testimony Thursday, Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., told reporters once the deposition on Capitol Hill ended."
EXCERPT:
"The facts we learned today undercut the salacious narrative that [House Intelligence Chairman] Adam Schiff is using to sell his impeachment ambitions," Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio and Devin Nunes of California said in a joint statement following the deposition. "We hope the American people get to read the transcript of today's testimony and see the truth."
Democrats on the intelligence panel later released text messages that showed Volker and another U.S. ambassador working to persuade the Ukrainians to commit to probing Trump's opponents.
"We have evidence of text messages between State Department officials expressing concern as early as May that there was a Giuliani-Biden thing going on that had concerned a State Department official," Swalwell said. "We have evidence that a State Department official was concerned that there was a linkage between security assistance [to Ukraine], and as he described, a domestic political campaign."
 A man puts on a jacket at a homeless encampment in St. Louis. (photo: Jeff Roberson/AP)
Record Debt and Inequality Gap? It's Almost Like 40 Years of Republican Tax Cuts Failed.
Steven Strauss, USA TODAY Strauss writes: "Since the Reagan administration, Republicans have fervently claimed lower taxes will unleash the 'makers' - incentivizing them to work harder and invest more, thereby trickling down to benefit ordinary Americans."
EXCERPT:
More growth during higher-tax eras
The American economy since 1950 offers a chance to consider the impact of these tax cuts. From 1950 to 1980, the top federal marginal tax rates (the rates on income above certain levels) were as high as 92% and never below 70%. Republicans have been slashing the top tax bracket for annual earned income since the early 1980s, and it is now 37% on income above $612,350.
Further, in 2003 the GOP shrank the tax rate on unearned income (such as dividends) to 15%, resulting (for example) in the billionaire Warren Buffett having a lower tax rate than his secretary. With such dramatic tax cuts, GOP dogma predicted a booming U.S. economy.
But it turns out U.S. economic growth was substantially higher during the period of high taxes. From 1950 to 1980, average annual growth in real (inflation-adjusted gross domestic product) was 3.9%, while from 1981 to 2018 the comparable number was 2.7%.
Similarly, during the high tax period, median household incomes increased on average (in real terms) by a bit over 2.5% per year. During the low income tax period, average real growth in household income declined to 0.7% per year.
 Sisters Hannah and Hailey Hager started a lemonade stand in their North Carolina town to help pay off their classmates' school lunch debt. (photo: Erin Hager/Al Jazeera)
The Other Student Debt: US Kids Struggle to Pay for School Meals
Kaelyn Forde, Al Jazeera Forde writes: "With unpaid meal debt topping $10m, advocates say it is time that all United States students had a free lunch."
EXCERPT:
"It's a big issue. We're in the United States and there are kids going hungry, for goodness' sake," Erin Hager told Al Jazeera. "It seems like an oxymoron."
And the federal government is not allowed to step in and help. The USDA mandated in 2017 that federal funds cannot be used to pay off student meal debt.
That means the burden of assisting kids whose families do not qualify for free or reduced-price school meals falls entirely on local districts.
"Offering free meals to all kids would solve the problem immediately," FitzSimons told Al Jazeera. "And we are seeing more and more schools offer free breakfast and lunch to all students."
New York City and Boston are among the cities that now offer free breakfast and lunch to all public school students. Poppendieck said she would like to see such action taken on a federal level, and have the federal government pick up the tab by taxing higher incomes at higher rates.
 A vehicle drives into the Otay Mesa detention center in San Diego. (photo: Elliot Spagat/AP)
Immigrant Detainee Suffers Brain Hemorrhage and Dies in ICE Custody in San Diego
Wendy Fry, Los Angeles Times Fry writes: "A 37-year-old man from Cameroon died Tuesday in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody, after undergoing treatment for a brain hemorrhage since Sept. 26 at Sharp Chula Vista Medical Center."
EXCERPT:
ICE is required to post a news release about each in-custody death, a spokeswoman said. The news release is typically posted on ICE’s website after the deceased’s next of kin and other required governmental agencies are notified.
A February 2016 report from the American Civil Liberties Union, Detention Watch Network, and the National Immigrant Justice Center asserted that “egregious violations of ICE medical care standards played a prominent role in eight deaths in immigration detention facilities from 2010 to 2012.”
 Female prisoners in El Salvador. (photo: Al Pais)
El Salvador: Woman Released After Facing Charges for Abortion
teleSUR Excerpt: "A court in El Salvador declared innocent another young woman, Yessenia Bonilla, of aggravated homicide charges for allegedly aborting her fetus back in November 2018." READ MORE  An African elephant. (photo: WTTC)
World Animal Day: Shocking Statistics Show the State of Global Wildlife Trade
Aristos Georgiou, Newsweek Georgiou writes: "Researchers have released shocking statistics which highlight the huge scale of the global wildlife trade in time for World Animal Day - an international day of action to raise awareness for animal rights and welfare."
EXCERPT:
The report splits these animals up into the "Big Five" and the "Little Five." The former are the Nile crocodile, the cape fur seal, Hartmann's mountain zebra, the African elephant and the common hippopotamus.
The latter are the ball python, the African grey parrot, the emperor scorpion, the leopard tortoise and the savannah monitor lizard.
The report highlights the immense suffering that these species are forced to endure, ranging from the initial traumatic capture, cramped export conditions, poor conditions in captivity, poor treatment when sold as exotic pets, and slaughter.
Below are some of the key observations detailed in the report. It is important to note that this is all happening legally:
"When people hear of Africa's famous 'Big 5' and 'Little 5' they probably think of the iconic wild animals tourists hope to see on a wildlife safari. But after reading this report, I hope they'll remember a different 'Big' 5' and 'Little 5'—those African wild animals that are being greedily exploited the most by consumers around the world," Neil D'Cruze, Head of Wildlife Research and Animal Welfare at World Animal Protection, said in a statement.
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Sunday, July 14, 2019
Cogitate a little.....
Thanks to Citizens UnTied
Cut revenue and double spending and somehow ended up out of money and massively in debt?
Crazy!
I totally thought it would be different from the last ten times Republicans did this and got exactly the same results.
"This is what the goddamn president is telling us he does. He tweets something and then watches the numbers on them. It's like the Nielsens of the damned for him. Trump needs those RTs and Likes to keep rolling up. He craves that validation, and he fears not having it, like an oxy freak getting to the bottom of the scrip bottle."
At His Nutzoid Summit, Trump Admits He Stares at Twitter Instead of Working
Yesterday, Donald Trump, who I occasionally feel nauseated remembering is still the president of the United States, hosted what was billed as a Social Media Summit at the White House. What really happened is that Trump invited a range of conservative idiots, inveterate assholes, festering fucknuts, conspiracy crazies, and Charlie Kirk to sit around and tell Trump how awesome he is while he reciprocated and then whined about them being censored. It was like when you go visit your grandpa and he's invited all his old racist friends over. Actually, it wasn't "like that." It pretty much was that, with the added bonus of villainous walrus Sebastian Gorka going apeshit on reporters.
Honestly, if intelligence could create energy, the vortex from the absence of it would have swallowed the Rose Garden.
In his completely insane remarks after the summit, where, one presumes, Trump walked around with his dick out and asked each of them to yank, telling them, "One of you is getting a special surprise" as circus music played and a shirtless Mick Mulvaney cackled in the corner as he pinched his nipples bloody, Trump completely missed the point of the "free" part of "free speech," saying, "Free speech is not when you see something good, and then you purposely write bad. To me, that’s very dangerous speech, and you become angry at it. But that’s not free speech." Freedom, to Trump, means free to agree with him.
But the main focus of his wayward ire was what he believes is censorship on Twitter and other social media platforms. See, sometimes he doesn't get as many likes and retweets as he thinks he should get. Trump said, no, really, "We got a lot of people. Way, way over 100 million, but I used to pick them up… And when I say 'used to,' I’m talking about a few months ago. I was picking them up, a hundred thousand people every, very short period of time. Now, it’s, I would say, ten times as long. And I notice things happening when I put out something—a good one, that people like, right? Good tweet. It goes up. It used to go up, it would say 7,000, 7,008, 7,000, 7,017, 7,024, 7,032, 7,044. Right? Now it goes, 7,000, 7,008, 6,998. Then they go, 7,009, 6,074." The audience of lepers and whores and leper whores booed the injustice of people undoing their "like."
Because we live in an odd version of Hell, he continued, "I never had that before. I used to watch it. It’d be like a rocket ship when I put out a beauty. Like when I said, remember I said somebody was spying on me? That thing was like a rocket. "
You got that, right? This is what the goddamn president is telling us he does. He tweets something and then watches the numbers on them. It's like the Nielsens of the damned for him. Trump needs those RTs and Likes to keep rolling up. He craves that validation, and he fears not having it, like an oxy freak getting to the bottom of the scrip bottle.
Then he revealed that he tweets just because he likes to see his shit on TV. Trump slurred, "I said watch, I’m going to do this. And I said, 'We recognize the Golan Heights as being part of Israel.' It was a big thing. I go, watch this: boom! I press it, and within two seconds: 'We have breaking news.' John Roberts of Fox was over. He said, 'We have breaking news. Please, break it up.' Doesn’t matter what they’re talking about, John does it. He breaks it up." Beyond obviously not understanding what the word "breaking" means in "breaking news," that's some scary shit right there. It's some fin de siecle megalomaniacal fuckery, like a cruel, inbred king executing a servant because he can.
So Trump, again, ostensibly the leader of the free world, says that he wastes his days thinking of tweets to fuck with the flow of the news cycle and watches to see how much people love him. Add to that his daily viewing of Fox and Friends and whatever fucking nonsense One America has on, and, really, except when he's in front of the cameras telling us shit like "You know, there’s a word called 'communism,'" except when he's glad-handing dictators and right-wing crazies and congressional fellaters, he's not doing a goddamn thing at his job.
It's pathetic. It's pathetic that he cares so much about his shitty tweets. And it's pathetic that I'm fucking relieved that he's so lazy and incompetent.
Honestly, if intelligence could create energy, the vortex from the absence of it would have swallowed the Rose Garden.
In his completely insane remarks after the summit, where, one presumes, Trump walked around with his dick out and asked each of them to yank, telling them, "One of you is getting a special surprise" as circus music played and a shirtless Mick Mulvaney cackled in the corner as he pinched his nipples bloody, Trump completely missed the point of the "free" part of "free speech," saying, "Free speech is not when you see something good, and then you purposely write bad. To me, that’s very dangerous speech, and you become angry at it. But that’s not free speech." Freedom, to Trump, means free to agree with him.
But the main focus of his wayward ire was what he believes is censorship on Twitter and other social media platforms. See, sometimes he doesn't get as many likes and retweets as he thinks he should get. Trump said, no, really, "We got a lot of people. Way, way over 100 million, but I used to pick them up… And when I say 'used to,' I’m talking about a few months ago. I was picking them up, a hundred thousand people every, very short period of time. Now, it’s, I would say, ten times as long. And I notice things happening when I put out something—a good one, that people like, right? Good tweet. It goes up. It used to go up, it would say 7,000, 7,008, 7,000, 7,017, 7,024, 7,032, 7,044. Right? Now it goes, 7,000, 7,008, 6,998. Then they go, 7,009, 6,074." The audience of lepers and whores and leper whores booed the injustice of people undoing their "like."
Because we live in an odd version of Hell, he continued, "I never had that before. I used to watch it. It’d be like a rocket ship when I put out a beauty. Like when I said, remember I said somebody was spying on me? That thing was like a rocket. "
You got that, right? This is what the goddamn president is telling us he does. He tweets something and then watches the numbers on them. It's like the Nielsens of the damned for him. Trump needs those RTs and Likes to keep rolling up. He craves that validation, and he fears not having it, like an oxy freak getting to the bottom of the scrip bottle.
Then he revealed that he tweets just because he likes to see his shit on TV. Trump slurred, "I said watch, I’m going to do this. And I said, 'We recognize the Golan Heights as being part of Israel.' It was a big thing. I go, watch this: boom! I press it, and within two seconds: 'We have breaking news.' John Roberts of Fox was over. He said, 'We have breaking news. Please, break it up.' Doesn’t matter what they’re talking about, John does it. He breaks it up." Beyond obviously not understanding what the word "breaking" means in "breaking news," that's some scary shit right there. It's some fin de siecle megalomaniacal fuckery, like a cruel, inbred king executing a servant because he can.
So Trump, again, ostensibly the leader of the free world, says that he wastes his days thinking of tweets to fuck with the flow of the news cycle and watches to see how much people love him. Add to that his daily viewing of Fox and Friends and whatever fucking nonsense One America has on, and, really, except when he's in front of the cameras telling us shit like "You know, there’s a word called 'communism,'" except when he's glad-handing dictators and right-wing crazies and congressional fellaters, he's not doing a goddamn thing at his job.
It's pathetic. It's pathetic that he cares so much about his shitty tweets. And it's pathetic that I'm fucking relieved that he's so lazy and incompetent.
"Learn English!" Scream the MAGAts.
"YOU FIRST!" I shout right back.
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