Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Monday, May 2, 2011
The Purpose of War in a Tyranny
"A tyrant also should endeavour to engage his subjects in a war, that they may have employment and continually depend upon their general."
-- Aristotle, Politics
Famous Last Words: I Don't Believe That Story About . . .
From The Outlaw Josey Wales:
FLETCHER: I don't believe that story about Josey Wales.
TEN SPOT: You don't?
FLETCHER: No sir, I don't. I don't believe no five pistoleros could do in Josey Wales.
ROSE: Maybe it was six. Could have even been ten.
FLETCHER: I think he's still alive.
TEN SPOT: Alive? No sir.
FLETCHER: I think I'll go down to Mexico to try to find him.
JOSEY: And then?
FLETCHER: He's got the first move. I owe him that. I think I'll try to tell him the war is over.
FLETCHER: What do you say, Mr. Wilson?
JOSEY: I reckon so. I guess we all died a little in that damn war.
Obama is a leech . . .
. . . and the IRS can go audit itself.
Oh the delights we enjoy from PJ O'Rourke, here, who proposes a 35 percent tax on the federal budget, which will eliminate its current deficit. Problem solved!
Have another beer!
Income Taxes are for Chumps, Capital Gains Taxes are for the Rich
[Bruce] Bartlett, a former member of the Reagan White House, isn’t against the wealthy paying higher taxes. He’s that rare conservative who thinks higher taxes need to be part of the deficit debate. His beef? It’s a hollow gesture to say the federal government should raise the tax rate on the country’s top wage earners when the likes of Zuckerberg have most of their wealth tied up in stock. Many of the super-rich see virtually all their income as capital gains, and capital gains are taxed at a much lower rate—15 percent—than ordinary income.
More here!
"The most significant achievement to date in effort to defeat al Qaeda"
From the president's remarks about Osama:
I can report
I directed
I was briefed
I met repeatedly with my national security team
I determined
Today, at my direction
I've made clear
I've repeatedly made clear
Tonight I called
my team has also spoken
These efforts weigh on me every time I as commander in chief
Let me say.
How Convenient
Kill "Osama" on May Day, and bury him quickly out of respect for Islamic law, at sea because no one would take the body. Like Pakistan hadn't already had it for years, albeit alive.
Next will be the announcement that since we've achieved our objectives, we're pulling out of Afghanistan.
Re-election can't be far behind.
Oh the money he'll now be able to spend.
Sunday, May 1, 2011
Government Revenues in 2008 were $2.5 Trillion
Government revenues in 2008 came from the following taxes:
Individual income taxes -- $1.14 trillion; (IRS data is slightly different at $1.03 trillion)
Social insurance taxes -- $0.9 trillion; (earnings beyond $107,000 or so are not fully taxed for this)
Corporate income taxes -- $0.3 trillion; (think GE!)
Other -- $0.1 trillion; (think?)
Sales and excise taxes -- $0.06 trillion; (think gasoline)
Total -- $2.5 trillion. Not enough by a long shot, under Obama, Pelosi and Reid.
So whattayawannado? Raise taxes to pay for the new spending under these bums, or get rid of the bums?
So whattayawannado? Raise taxes to pay for the new spending under these bums, or get rid of the bums?
(source)
Doh! We Tax the Rich Because That's Where The Money Is, Knucklehead.
Per Census.gov here, these are the income limits by each quintile of 23,507.6 households in 2009:
Lowest: up to $20,453
Second: up to $38,550
Third: up to $61,801
Fourth:up to $100,000
Fifth: $100,000+.
That means 80 percent of the country, about 94,030 households, makes $100,000 per year or less.
We know from IRS data that earners reporting adjusted gross incomes of approximately $67,000 or less in 2008, totaling $2.8 trillion in AGI, represented 105 million tax returns out of 140 million total. They are the bottom 75 percent of tax returns in the country, a rough proxy for the first 4 of the 5 income quintiles.
Using back of the envelope estimates, perhaps another 7 million more tax returns represent the rest of the territory up to $100,000, and AGI of another $0.6 trillion, meaning that the first 4/5 of the country contributes AGI of about $3.4 trillion.
Roughly 28 million tax returns would then round out the top quintile, with AGI of approximately $5 trillion. It is certain that 14.4 million of these returns account for $3.9 trillion of AGI, the top 10 percent of earners.
Thus one can estimate that tax returns from the top quintile have something like 6 times the AGI per return compared with the returns of all the quintiles below them taken together.
About 80 percent of the earners have 40 percent of the income, while the top 20 percent of the earners have 60 percent of the income.
That's where the money is.
Saturday, April 30, 2011
Politico Reports Boston Globe Reporter Had Obama INS Files Since 2009
So The Boston Globe spiked the story?
Politico doesn't say. So inquisitive are they.
So inquisitive, in fact, that they don't notice that the details in the release contradict Obama's often repeated story about his earliest childhood.
Others have noticed.
Politico's story is simply participating in the administrations's diversion strategy, focusing on the fact that Obama Sr. was prodded out of the country by Harvard.
Friday, April 29, 2011
Gas at Sam's Club Grand Rapids, MI, Now Tops 4 Bucks a Gallon
And I just filled both cars there two days ago at $3.999/gallon:
Patriots Switched to Coffee, Loyalists Stayed with Tea
"The Boston Tea Party is usually mentioned as nothing more than a humorous anecdote but its significance was profound and affected American cultural mores as deeply as the impetus it gave to revolutionary fervor in New England and later throughout the thirteen colonies. Anti-tea literature and boycotts swept the colonies and provided an emotional catharsis which every would-be patriot could share in by switching from tea to coffee."
-- Norman Berdichevsky here
Why Obama Revealed His Certificate of Live Birth This Week
Because he wanted to divert attention from a different, unavoidable, embarrassing revelation.
What revelation is that?
The revelation disclosed here as a result of a Freedom of Information Act request.
Namely, that the narrative Obama has been telling about the first two years of his life is a lie. His mother and father never lived together with Barack Jr. as a family. She went to Washington State. Obama Sr. stayed in Hawaii and left for Harvard before the future president turned one, not when he was two. The marriage itself might be in question.
Everyone is consumed by the release of the Certificate of Live Birth, but not with the truth behind it.
Obama is skillfully playing this out, no doubt on the advice of counsel, to divert, dissemble and distract.
See the discussion here.
Over a Million Apply for 50 Thousand Burger Flipping Jobs
Some recovery.
I'm sure the president is going to think long and hard about the hapless 950,000 or so, between sips at the Wednesday night parties, and between shots on the fairway on the next weekend golf outing.
It's hard work being president. Just ask George Bush.
Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant Radiation Conditions
As of 0900 on April 29, Japan time:
438 microSv/h at the south side of the office building;
49 microSv/h at the Main gate;
19 microSv/h at the West gate.
More here.
Concrete Pump with 58 Meter Boom Replenishes Water at Fukushima Unit 4 Pool
Presumably one like this:
Another news report here said a 70 meter version was being dispatched.
The Fukushima Daiichi Unit 4 used fuel pool has needed nearly 1300 cubic meters of water over 13 days from April 13-25, according to this update. That number is consistent with, but about 200 cubic meters lower than, the predicted boil-off rate for the period in question:
Unit 4 pond contains a total 1331 used assemblies (783 plus full fuel load of 548), giving it a heat load of about 3 MW thermal, according to France's IRSN, which in that case could lead to 115 cubic metres of water boiling off per day, or about one tenth of its volume. ...
The pond at unit 4 is the main focus of concern now. It needs continual top-up with water, but at the same time there is concern about the structural strength of the building, which has been weakened either by the earthquake or the hydrogen explosion. Some 195 m3 was added to the pond on 13 April, about 20% of its capacity, and another 140 m3 on 15 and also on 17 April, by concrete pump. Another 100 m3 went in on 20 April, then 200 m3 on 22nd, 140 m3 on 23rd, 165 m3 on 24th and 210 m3 on 25th. Temperature has been up to 90°C and water level 5 metres down. It is not clear whether the main water loss is from leakage or boiling. However, Tepco reports that analysis of radionuclides in water from the used fuel pool of unit 4 suggests that some of the fuel assemblies there may have been damaged, but the majority are intact.
Thursday, April 28, 2011
I'm Flooring It and I'm Only Going 1.8
Thanks for the inspiration:
1.8 percent GDP growth in the face of massive stimulus is the equivalent of your car sputtering down the highway at 45 miles per hour while you have the gas pedal floored.
Read more from Henry Blodget here.
After Two Years, Bear David Rosenberg Finally Throws in the Towel
“This is not about throwing in the towel; it is an acknowledgement of what the market internals are flashing at the current time from a purely tactical and technical standpoint.”
“The (US dollar) is on a one-way ticket south and so far has been orderly—will that be sustained is anyone’s guess."
“For now it is being viewed as fodder for the global liquidity and risk-on trades.”
"[The tech rally] is a clear sign that the big boys are putting money to work."
“Market internals are too strong to ignore right now—NYSE advancers beat decliners by a 3-to-1 ratio (Tuesday); the Dow transports soared 1.9 percent; and the small caps beat their major benchmarks."
“My overall macro concerns have not gone away, but these market facts on the ground are tough to ignore.”
-- David Rosenberg, quoted here
Q1 2011 Advance Estimate of GDP Slows to 1.8 Percent
From 3.1 percent in Q4 2010. Yikes.
So reports the BEA here.
In 2009 we were down 2.6 percent, in 2010 up 2.9 percent on the federal intravenous drip.
Drip. Drip. Drip.
In 2009 we were down 2.6 percent, in 2010 up 2.9 percent on the federal intravenous drip.
Drip. Drip. Drip.
Rush Limbaugh Can't Think Before 1913
"Look, in a classic sense, Trump's not a conservative, folks. You don't promise to raise tariffs on the ChiComs 25%. That's not conservative. (interruption) People understand this, Snerdley. You remember when George W. Bush threatened to raise tariffs on imported steel, there was an outcry. No, you don't raise taxes, period. That's not the way to deal with it. That's protectionism. Smoot-Hawley. It's a death wish. This is why I'm always worried about populism. Populism is not conservatism."
-- Rush Limbaugh, 27 April 2011 (here)
"Tariffs were the largest source of federal revenue from the 1790s to the eve of World War I, until it was surpassed by income taxes."
-- "Tariffs in United States History" (here)
"The magnitude of the tariff shock in the Smoot-Hawley legislation . . . was simply not large enough to trigger the kind of economic contraction experienced after 1930."
-- Douglas A. Irwin (quoted here)
The baneful influence of doctrinaire libertarianism on conservatism continues . . . in the voice of Rush Limbaugh.
America's Biggest Pair of Boobs
 |
| the left one is bigger |
 |
| the right one just thinks it is |
Notice the wide
cleavage→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
May We See The Certificate Of Live Birth Number Now On The Certification?
Ask Snopes.
A Certificate of Live Birth has been released by The White House. Shouldn't the Certification above reference this by its number? Did it match? Let's see it. Let's authenticate it.
61-10641?
61-10641?
Government Aid Swells to 18.3 Percent of Income in 2010
Dennis Cauchon reports for USA Today, here:
A record 18.3% of the nation's total personal income was a payment from the government for Social Security, Medicare, food stamps, unemployment benefits and other programs in 2010.
Wages accounted for the lowest share of income — 51.0% — since the government began keeping track in 1929. ...
From 1980 to 2000, government aid was roughly constant at 12.5%.
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
33 Percent of Voters Have Ties to Tea Party
As of early April, per Rasmussen, here, which also says that percentage hasn't moved since December.
Monday, April 25, 2011
Our Enemy, David Stockman, Wants Higher Taxes on the Middle Class
We already know David Stockman wants to turn home owners into renters.
Now his first words out of the box for The New York Times, here, call for raising taxes on the middle class, as if the middle class had any money:
IT is obvious that the nation’s desperate fiscal condition requires higher taxes on the middle class, not just the richest 2 percent.
Mr. Stockman affects displeasure with class warfare in others while himself engaging in it, on behalf of the speculators who enriched themselves for years at the expense of Americans' primary store of wealth: their homes.
But our world is not shaped by the top 2 percent of earners, and everyone else below them "the middle class." This sort of nonsense plays as well at a White House prayer breakfast as it does at the country club, where everyone is middle class for purposes of public discussion, which is why The Times is happy to put up a former (was he ever one?) conservative to say what it doesn't have the courage to say openly.
Having screwed us out of our housing wealth, they're next target is our declining American paycheck.
And unless the Fed wants to ruin the value of the dollar . . . Mr. Stockman tellingly opines later in the piece, revealing how miserable is his grasp of the utter failure of The Federal Reserve since its inception. What do you mean, "unless?" The 1913 dollar is today worth about 4 cents. I'm sure Americans will be happy to surrender 100 percent of their paychecks to the government when the dollar goes to zero.
No, the middle income quintile in America is just 35 million tax returns strong, with a paltry $1.7 trillion in adjusted gross income. To eliminate our annual budget deficits under the big spending liberals like Obama, Pelosi and Reid, Mr. Stockman would have to confiscate 100 percent of this middle class money. Comrade David Stalin might as well starve us all to death, or line us up against the wall and shoot us.
Is there enough money below them?
Where the two lowest income quintiles dwell there are 70 million tax returns with even less money: $1.1 trillion in AGI.
At the top in America are 35 million tax returns with $5.6 trillion in AGI resting on these 105 million with $2.8 trillion in AGI. The 105 million are getting crushed.
The very top 14 million carry the most weight, with $3.8 trillion in AGI.
Even if we imagined raising taxes on the middle class meant we increased taxes on the 21 million tax returns in the upper middle and lower upper class, the pile of money available there for Mr. Stockman's extraction efforts barely beats that available in the real middle class at $1.8 trillion in AGI.
The big money is concentrated at the top, for a multitude of reasons, despite the on-going lies from The Wall Street Journal, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and now David Stockman. That's why President Obama's rhetoric about increasing taxes on the wealthy plays so well with the American people. It's the secret of his success.
By overwhelming numbers Americans support increasing taxes on "the rich." Despite all the success of the Tea Party in the US House, the American people obviously still haven't made the connection between the president and the Democrats and the massive revenue shortfalls. The shortfalls exist not because taxes aren't high enough. They exist because of massive new overspending.
That Mr. Stockman attempts to exploit the failed connection, perceiving that an opening yet remains, to confuse, obfuscate and lie, tells you all you need to know about him. Like the rest of our elites, he hates the Tea Party.
Right back atcha, David.
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Senator Lindsey Graham: Advocate of International Terrorism
(1) the term "international terrorism" means activities that -
(B) appear to be intended -
(iii) to affect the conduct of a government by mass
destruction, assassination, or kidnapping;
Friday, April 22, 2011
Radiation Posts NW of Fukushima Still Registering Above 10 Microsieverts Per Hour
Monitoring posts 31-33, and posts 79 and 83: 10.1, 21.6, 16.5, 12.0, and 43.5 microsieverts per hour, respectively, per the map, today:
Normal is more like 0.11 microsieverts per hour.
Trotsky Lives! At EmpireStrikesBlack.com
Oh the things you run across out here.
This is by one Barry Grey, a true believer of the Fourth International variety who rather dislikes that Stalinist, Barack Hussein Obama:
In the United Auto Workers union and the AFL-CIO and Change to Win union federations the Obama administration and the corporate elite have accomplices whose only concern is to secure for the union bureaucracy a cut in the spoils of the class war being waged against working people.
The Socialist Equality Party urges workers to carry out a rebellion against these corrupt, right-wing organizations and establish independent and democratic rank-and-file action committees to fight against layoffs, plant closures and wage cuts. These committees should spearhead the struggle to unite all sections of workers and young people and mobilize the power of the working class.
This is a political fight against the Obama administration, both big business parties and the capitalist system which they defend.
Very nice website, though. And clever name!
The International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI) is the name of two Trotskyist internationals; one with sections named Socialist Equality Party which publishes the World Socialist Web Site and another linked to the Workers Revolutionary Party in Britain.
So Wikipedia, here.
Barry Grey sits on the international editorial board of the World Socialist Web Site.
Thursday, April 21, 2011
One Man's Austerity is Another Man's Tax Increase
When it comes to "austerity," most people with common sense think "frugality," "reduced spending," and generally going on a diet of lower consumption.
Louis Woodhill reminds us here that what people without economic common sense mean by it is tax increases. Which is why Obama, and some Republicans, want to raise yours.
Woodhill knows we're already in the toilet, and thinks raising taxes now is tantamount to flushing it.
He makes a good case for repatriating capital by lowering corporate income tax rates. In view of the fact that corporations contributed only about $300 billion to federal revenues in 2008, he might very well be right: most of their money is "over there," escaping taxation.
Did Weird Al Choose French To Slam Lady Gaga's Italian?!
"A different lover is not a sin
Believe capital H-I-M
I love my life, I love this record and
Mi amore vole fe yah"
-- LADY GAGA - BORN THIS WAY LYRICS
"I'll wear a porcupine on my head
On a W - H - I - M
And for no reason now I'll sing in French
Excusez-moi, Qui a pete?"
-- Weird Al Yankovic's parody of same
Weird Al Commenter Doesn't Understand "Who Cut The Cheese"
Not only do Americans not speak French, we no longer understand euphemism in our own language:
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
"Most Americans can't name a GOP presidential candidate"
Here's that headline translated into English: "Most Americans can't find their ass with either hand."
Story here.
Areva To Build Water Decontamination Capability at Fukushima, Operable By June
Capable of processing 1200 tons of contaminated radioactive water per day, according to the story at NHK World here.
Long live the French!
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