This ole’ Dogs wish list….
– A NEW President!
– A NEW Attorney General….
-Put Stephen Miller on unemployment…
-Mitch McConnell getting deprogramed….
-No more Democratic debates
-Barack Obama back for second run, if NOT?…Can ya make Joe Biden stop challenging people to do push ups and win the nomination and next years Presidential election by 15 million votes and over 100 electoral votes?…
-Have Supreme Court Justice wake up on Christmas Day a newly stamped Democrat?
-The media break out in hives every-time they mention a Donald Trump lie…
-Make every unregistered gun disappear
-Give every American healthcare coverage of some sort…
-Have Congress pass a new tax law that actually make the top 50 American companies pay a 20% across the board tax on their SALES…
-Make the Israeli’s and Palestinians make peace….
-Make Rudy Giuliani lose his voice….
-Make Fox News be brought out by MSNBC…
-Give the world some Peace and a better Climate….
-Take whatever money Donald Trump has and don’t let him resettle in Russia…
-I might have missed somethings…
(Please ADD anything I missed in the comments )
Oh, and ?
Let this ole Dog win the lottery and NOBODY know it?
top image….oppmax.com
New Threat IS HERE…
Be afraid; be very afraid, for James just announced above [at 22:30 EST Monday] that the “New Threat is HERE…” ! !
OMG!
I just learned it’s all Ted Kennedy’s fault that Republicans tolerate a pussygrabbing sexual predator in the White House!
Just when I thought the holidays couldn’t get any merrier, Corey pulls one of his whatabouts out of his roomie storage spot.
Well Ted Kennedy never did become President because the Democrats wouldn’t nominate him.
Glad to read he’ll hold all those Republicans personally responsible for acquitting Trump.
That’ll be the day.
Not “all” his fault by any means but I think it is a useful example, just like some instances from your past might be useful examples of how political subordinates wind up doing illegal or immoral things in order to maintain their career, etc. But that is assuming you didn’t plot some of these things on your own.
If you have time Keith, I am curious about your thoughts on Elizabeth Warren’s crusade against the Wine Caves of Napa Valley.
A useful example?
We all know what Ted Kennedy did, and there were consequences. Just like there were consequences when Denny Hastert was finally outed for sucking little boys dicks so many years ago.
So the whataboutisms get old, especially when we go back 50 years to reference the act. But you like to relive the old days Corey, now don’t you? Easier than defending today’s Republican Party right?
Your classification of immoral and illegal is so very quaint, especially since your party has collective amnesia over the illegal acts their President has and will commit.
Fascinating that you will reference a consensual sexual encounter Ted Kennedy had in a French Restaurant 40 years ago, but dismiss, out of hand, an attempted rape by Brett Kavanaugh just as many years ago.
But then, we’re the partisan ones, or so you said the last time you left in a huff.
You should really mellow out Corey. Maybe take up Zreebs’ lunch offer.
I’ll send a good bottle of cab out from our wine cave for your meal.
Yeah, Teddy really faced the consequences did he. He put on a fake neck brace, hid behind the pregnant wife he was cheating on, his dead brothers, and did not serve a single minute behind bars. The voters in his state and the leaders of his party should have told him to step down. Instead, they all had to preserve his potential to be President.
Hastert went to prison, as he should have. If what had happened decades earlier in his life came out, he would have been out of office in a minute. His entire name is forever tarnished, as it should be. But the rules are different for Kennedy’s.
It’s also amazing you consider this “consensual.”
“It is after midnight and Kennedy and Dodd are just finishing up a long dinner in a private room on the first floor of the restaurant’s annex. They are drunk. Their dates, two very young blondes, leave the table to go to the bathroom. (The dates are drunk too. “They’d always get their girls very, very drunk,” says a former Brasserie waitress.) Betty Loh, who served the foursome, also leaves the room. Raymond Campet, the co-owner of La Brasserie, tells Gaviglio the senators want to see her.
As Gaviglio enters the room, the six-foot-two, 225-plus-pound Kennedy grabs the five-foot-three, 103-pound waitress and throws her on the table. She lands on her back, scattering crystal, plates and cutlery and the lit candles. Several glasses and a crystal candlestick are broken. Kennedy then picks her up from the table and throws her on Dodd, who is sprawled in a chair. With Gaviglio on Dodd’s lap, Kennedy jumps on top and begins rubbing his genital area against hers, supporting his weight on the arms of the chair. As he is doing this, Loh enters the room. She and Gaviglio both scream, drawing one or two dishwashers. Startled, Kennedy leaps up. He laughs. Bruised, shaken and angry over what she considered a sexual assault, Gaviglio runs from the room. Kennedy, Dodd and their dates leave shortly thereafter, following a friendly argument between the senators over the check.
Eyewitness Betty Loh told me that Kennedy had “three or four” cocktails in his first half hour at the restaurant and wine with dinner. When she walked into the room after Gaviglio had gone in, she says, “what I saw was Senator Kennedy on top of Carla, who was on top of Senator Dodd’s lap, and the tablecloth was sort of slid off the table ’cause the table was knocked over—not completely, but just on Senator Dodd’s lap a little bit, and of course the glasses and the candlesticks were totally spilled and everything. And right when I walked in, Senator Kelly jumped off…and he leaped up, composed himself and got up. And Carla jumped up and ran out of the room.”
According to Loh, Kennedy “was sort of leaning” on Gaviglio, “not really straddling but sort of off-balance so it was like he might have accidentally fallen…He was partially on and off…pushing himself off her to get up.” Dodd, she adds, “said ‘It’s not my fault.’ ” Kennedy said something similar and added, jokingly, “Makes you wonder about the leaders of this country.”
https://www.gq.com/story/kennedy-ted-senator-profile
Consensual? Hardly. But since Kennedy and Dodd were U.S. Senators, nobody even cared about what had happened to the waitress. When Dodd ran for President many years later, nobody even asked about it.
The difference between this and Kavanuagh was one involved two U.S. Senators at a specific place on a specific date with specific witnesses and specifically named people who corroborated specifically what had happened.
What was alleged against Kavanuagh when he was 17 involved none of those details and zero witnesses to this day who have ever been able to place Kavanaugh and his accuser together in the same room at any point in their lives.
Where did it say Ted Kennedy wasn’t having consensual sex? Did I miss that part?
Your moral high ground is so tiresome when you obviously don’t know what you’re talking about Corey, and I am obviously referencing sex.
No doubt that Chris Dodd and Ted were drunks and bad boy pigs in their single (post first wife) years. So?
Like I said, Denny was married to the same woman he is today and he was still sucking little boy’s dicks. And, btw, he went to jail for bank fraud as I recall. It might interest you to know that much of the Republican leadership knew Denny was kinky but kept it on the down low. But Ted Kennedy has sex on a restaurant floor! OMG!
If you don’t think Ted paid a price for driving off that bridge then you are simply a moralistic know nothing who can’t even type the words wet dream and understand why some people like smoking dope (that gateway drug). You are so caught up in your whatabout partisanship that you reflexively go to a years old indiscretion to defend even Donald Trump. SAD.
Ted Kennedy is guilty of manslaughter and in your world that absolves the Republican pigs of the world as they march with Trump off that right wing cliff.
It’s about to be the roaring twenties, and Trump leads the way.
Keep those excuses up, even you should be able to do that.
“As Gaviglio enters the room, the six-foot-two, 225-plus-pound Kennedy grabs the five-foot-three, 103-pound waitress and throws her on the table. She lands on her back, scattering crystal, plates and cutlery and the lit candles. Several glasses and a crystal candlestick are broken. Kennedy then picks her up from the table and throws her on Dodd, who is sprawled in a chair. With Gaviglio on Dodd’s lap, Kennedy jumps on top and begins rubbing his genital area against hers, supporting his weight on the arms of the chair. As he is doing this, Loh enters the room. She and Gaviglio both scream, drawing one or two dishwashers. Startled, Kennedy leaps up. He laughs. Bruised, shaken and angry over what she considered a sexual assault, Gaviglio runs from the room.”
You consider this consensual? Who else agrees?
Can we throw in a few of the Trump garbs?
And Donald IS President….
I suppose we COULD create a list LONG and Wide of lawmakers and others who took advance of the position of power and forced themselves on people…
You two are NEVER gonna get over ur past, eh?
Life is to short for this…
So, is it just the case that nobody who is a Democrat cares about these episodes in Ted Kennedy’s life? It doesn’t seem like anyone does, especially if anyone is going to claim that the waitress’s account is of something “consensual.”
That is what tribalism causes. People liked Kennedy’s politics (or disliked Republicans) so he gets a pass for everything (which included colluding with the Soviet Union in the 1984 Presidential election) and now people choose to overlook everything about Trump as well, including sexual assault.
When was the last time we heard about Trump?
Or just about ANYONE else?
You KNOW what?
Most Americans don’t give a shit about all this…
The women are degraded….
Some guys pay….
Few lose their jobs….
Again?
You two just REALLY do NOT like each other…
Damn!
A new thread already!…
Having the top 50 companies to pay a 20 percent tax on sales would be an economic disaster that might be recognized as the mist foolish US economic policy ever. And yet James criticized Warren and Sanders for proposing far more conservative tax increases.
For some reason, some people think that a tax on corporations is a solution. But It is ultimately a tax on people who would have to pay that tax, and it would not necessarily be the people who make the most money.
So if Amazon has to pay an additional 20 percent sales tax, then all Amazon shareholders will be impacted based on their ownership. And many if not most Americans have some ownership in mutual funds. Furthermore, Amazon would almost certainly raise its prices and would of course immediately stop selling all items that make less than a 20 percent profit. The company would not survive.
Not to mention workers and jobs at the margins who would lose shifts, face layoffs or take freezes and cuts in pay and benefits.
And — though I’m very, very far from being knowledgeable about this kind of thing — I’d imagine that, Japanese-style, the biggest corporations would in turn put the squeeze on their outside suppliers and subcontractors (the kinds of small-to-medium businesses that most thinkers and politicians champion), paying them less, paying them later and/or demanding more, with all the knock-on effects on their staffing, workers, investors or other customers.
Socialist and social-democrat as I’ve always been, I’ve never seen the sense (apart from ease of enforcement) of taxing corporations for anything above the government expenditures that benefit their bottom line directly such as a new road, a new airstrip or an industry-specific training program.
For one thing, the tax’s effects are not necessarily progressive or even proportionate — hitting not only rich investors but also hourly workers.
Morning People….
So Z?
You ARE arguing that the major American corporation’s CONTINUE to pay NO TAXES?
Please state this clearly?
Guys?
The American middle class will be forever fucked….
We will be carrying the rich companies and guys on our backs….
Bernie and Warren would LOVE this conversation…
BTW?
You guys just backed up my view here that ANY major REAL tax cut for the middle class is IMPOSSIBLE….
The irony as Dave and I discussed is that an increase in the corporate tax will adversely impact the poor and middle class much more than a rise in the income tax.
I believe that as a general rule, the corporate tax rate should be zero- unless the business causes a negative externality – such as pollution. In those cases, the business should pay a tax that is proportionate to the cost they are imposing on society.
Ok…
Again….
I do NOT…
Corporations SHOULD pay taxes on some percentage of their sales….
And I’d go along with penalty taxes also…
It IS patently UNFAIR for middle class American to keep getting tax increases while the top 100 or American companies are able to take deductions that zero out their taxes….
No reflection on u Z…
Go ask 100 people if they feel the same way U do on this?
Ask 10 middle class people….
Then get back to me?
I know DSD knows what the answer’s would be….
This discussion is why I run this place….
People who earn between $90,000 and $150,000 a year in Blue state’s got a tax increase last year with their state and local taxes and some deductions limits imposed …
Again?
This dog got hit with a tax bill HIGHER because of the changes…
You can explain till the cows come home…
But seeing Amazon’s taxes zeroed out is NOT something that makes sense to me…
This IS PERSONAL to me…
I don’t care what most people think. they wouldn’t understand what said either.
As usual, you didn’t expect to explain why I was wrong. But that not your style. You just disagree and state your opinion in a way that sounds like a fact.
Why James – you either won’t understand what I write or you will pretend that you don’t.
Apart from any other difficulties that James & others may have, I think that part of the problem is that you, I and Jack try to explain our views in three or four coherent and connected paragraphs (often responding to similarly framed messages), while James seems to have abandoned desktops, laptops and tablets to do all his managing, reading and responses from a hand-held device (as indeed does the President).
If you only see a few lines at a time, you’re likely to see only part of the argument or exchange, and respond with one-line bullet-points or sentence-fragments, rather than pertinent and well-constructed sentences and paragraphs. James also seems to react to a few words with arguments he’s made about other similar words, rather than the immediate argument or exposition we’ve actually advanced. actually
Sometimes MY point of view will be more pragmatic as I tend to be….
Some of us here tend to be more ideological ….
On the taxing companies 20%?
It was a wish for Santa…
Consistent with my prior posting here?
The tax Santa would enact, because as I point out?
Such a tax would be politically impossible….
The tax WOULD lower middle class taxes for ALL of us…
THAT IS MY wish…
Your defending the corporate view is understandable , But I for one do NOT buy it…
Corporate tax rates in other countries ARE higher….
Yes I understand if u let companies pay no taxes they can make more money…
But If you read up?
The 2017 Republican tax ‘cut’ did NOT produce MORE hiring….
So ur view Z?
Hasn’t happened…
Now if you ‘get’ my point of view?
I would like increased taxes for the TOP grossing American companies ….
20% would be the goal…
I’m NOT saying that the rate should be that tomorrow….
But if Santa could take a few years to gather?
Damn real!….
Sanders and Warren have advocated taxing mostly BILLIONAIRES….
PEOPLE…
THAT is what I’ve found fault with…
That has less of a chance then taxing corporations….
Heck, Sanders says he wants to tax middle class people also…
So Z?
I have stuck to a clear separation in my wish from Santa….
I’m amused that you think I haven’t ‘got’ ur point of view….
I actually have underlined it in saying basically that it won’t happen…
You give an accepted view for it…
I don’t Agree completely with it…
(The trickle down hasn’t happened)
But Trump and the Republicans would gladly agree with ya….
DSD comments is correct sometimes….
I work evenings sometimes and yes…
I cannot get the whole conversation posted on my iPhone hence my grasp of something may not be correct…
Sorry about that…
And Jack is correct also….
Sometimes I will ignore something that find ridiculous or not deserving a answer…
And finally?
Sometimes people just plain do NOT agree with my point of view…
I don’t get as work up about that others here…
I’m not sure what has caused the current economic uptick.
But unemployment is as low as it was fifty years ago —when Fed Chairman William McChesney Martin and LBJ avoided raising taxes for Vietnam and social programs (Medicare, etc.)
by goosing the economy with unsustainably low interest rates. That boom didn’t last.
Although I think that the GOP/Trump tax-cuts for the rich are disastrous in any number of ways, I’m not enough of a political economist to exclude the possibility to exclude the possibility that current employment growth might have some relation to those unfairly-distributed tax cuts.
The main arguments against a direct cause and effect are
(1) the revenue from the corporate tax cuts was by and large used NOT for capital investment or higher wages for hourly and salaried workers, but instead to enrich executives, investors, bondholders and shareholders.
(2) it’s long been well known that the working classes have a higher propensity to spend an extra dollar immediately (for rent, groceries, etc.) than more prosperous classes (saving and investing that extra dollar rather than buying a sixth yacht); so a better-distributed tax cut should have had a greater and more-efficient stimulus to the economy.
(3) real hourly wages and monthly salaries, as far as I know, have not yet significantly increased since the early 1970’s (at the end under Nixon of LBJ’s unsustainable boom).
There are other arguments such as the soaring costs of housing, health (including drugs) and education — which have been far outracing any increase in staff pay.
Good Morning and
MEERY CHRISTAMS!
HAPPY HANUKKAH!
And the BEST of the HOLIDAYS to ALL‼️
Amen DSD on your summary….
1 and 3 in particular…..
Also?
I would think it depends where you are ….
Some regions are NOT feeling the ‘strong’ economy….
James, You know nothing about economics, but you think you do – which is actually worse than knowing nothing.
And if you understand what we said, but disagree, then you should be able to explain why our logic is flawed.
Saying most people on the street would disagree is not an explanation.
Saying you know nothing about economics is not really any more of an insult than me saying I know nothing about physics. And I would not try to make a physics argument. The best I can do is ask questions.
Actually Z?
I’d disagree with that blanket statement….
I’m living the economy….
Much longer than U…
Had a business….
And I check on it just about everyday. for this place…
One of things I learned in my many years of education is the text books seldom actually get it right on the millions of variations of reality…
I know you have an expertise…
But I’m going with my view and what DSD just laid out…
Text books usually get it right, and when they don’t, it is news. Now that SE left, You have the worst record by far of anyone on this site in getting things right.
And there is nothing that Dave wrote that is inconsistent with what I said,
and you are also wrong about corporate tax rates in other countries being higher. Corporate tax rates in the US were the highest in the world. Although I’m not sure if they still are after the Trump tax cut.
Z?
Google your last statement….
Let us know what U get, OK?
With the Trump tax cut, our corporate tax is now middle of the pack. Before that we were among the highest in the world,
Yes….
Z?
Your company IS paying taxes….
My point exactly ….
Your “point’ has nothing to do with what we were talking about.
The fact that some companies pay no taxes has more to do with various deductions and write offs – and nothing to do with anything we discussed. If you are opposed to some accounting rules, that is a different discussion.
Corporate tax rules would be largely irrelevant if there was no corporate tax rate.
And we haven’t even discussed how the US would be able to attract more foreign business if there was no corporate tax rate.
Never the less?
If Santa could get that tax going I’d be VERY happy….
We’re not saying, “don’t soak the rich”, we’re saying that taxing the corporations themselves, rather than their shareholders, bondholders and executives, is not always the best way to redistribute income and wealth more evenly.
The current inequality of wealth and income is currently, according to what I’ve read an heard, as extreme as it was in the Gilded Age of the 1890’s and the decade that followed. Back then, you had William Jennings Bryan and Eugene Victor Debs crying out on their behalf, followed in a much milder fashion by the Progressives.
Even Teddy Roosevelt, a conservative and fierce anti-radical who wavered between the progressive and regular factions of the G.O.P., warned, as do many of today’s billionaires themselves, that such inequality was very dangerous to social stability and national unity. So T.R. (like the classically arch-conservative Iron Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck, a decade earlier) proposed various measures of social reform to alleviate the lower classes’ distress, such as a Labor Department, a progressive income tax and social insurance.
My wish is for the companies to start paying so i can get an actual tax cut….
The 2017 tax ‘cut’ has cost me and other middle class tax payers an INCREASE in taxes while the big companies pay little to NO TAXES….
I argue here that taxes won’t be cut for the rich and some here get indignant….
Then i suggest an increase to corporations and some get indignant…..
Hmmmmmm🤔?
That’s why i say most reliefs for the middle class just ain’t gonna happen…
Well if taxes won’t be cut for the rich,then they certainly won’t be cut for corporations.
Several polls have Trump getting a small bounce up off of the impeachment charges….
The same thing happened to Clinton ,although his “bounce”was more substantial.
The Democrats can drag this out if they wish.Politically,, it has no upside ,in my view.Indeed, it probably helps Trump slightly.
Further, I know I’m in the minority here.Indeed, probably the only one who believes this impeachment thing was a mistake from the start.
After the move started I reluctantly went along.I was wrong.
This thing is going nowhere and is likely to hurt the Democrats in the coming Election.
Get it over with!
Send the damn thing to the Senate,Let them go through the motions and let’s get on with the only real way to remove Trump….
By beating him next November.
I wasn’t for it either from the start…
We had company with Pelosi…
But the combination of the pissed Democrats and the media was just tooooooo much for her to hold off…
I’m not blaming Pelosi and I agree she probably had to do this.
But now?This inside the beltway “holding up” sending the impeachment over to the Senate?Isnt playing well with the public.Theyre tired of this .So we are “angering “ Trump?Big damn Deal.
Im far more concerned about angering some voters who don’t like this stuff.
Look the thing is done.No President is going to be removed unless in a bipartisan manner as ultimately led to Nixon’s resignation one step ahead of impeachment.
You can pat yourself on the back and say what is being done is “right?”Well, you might be helping to re-elect Trump.
I said ur last long before you or anyone else said it….
I have to confess that I had my own doubts about the timing of the move towards impeachment. The Democrats not only need a case, they need one that is easily and understood by the American public at large.
Trump is certainly guilty of extorting, for his own benefit, the Ukraine with withholding aid strongly supported by both parties and by independents. But I think (regardless of the calendar) that the impeachers should have fought to enforce their subpoenas for documents and staff (as for the Watergate tapes under U.S. v Nixon [1974] ), or else pursued other leads more fully, because I’m sure that we’ll learn sooner or later of much more incriminating evidence against the sitting President.
The Democratic impeachers have to have something hard and clear to sell, just as the Republicans did (unsuccessfully) with Whitewater (a dead end after both of the McDougals died), Monica Lewinsky and arguable perjury — perjury that lost Bill Clinton his law license in Arkansas).
I’m afraid you’d be wrong DSD….
For Trump’s supporters?
If his boast of shooting someone in Times Square went down?
And the NYPD cop’s ended up arresting him?
The Trump people would first be pissed at the Secret Service for allowing him to come back to the station house in cuffs and falling over themselves to make excuses on why he should be let loose…
Jack’s Right…
For Tump’s 40%er’s?
He’s the second coming…..
There have been Trump supporters who have threatened violence if Trump was kicked out of office…
And the polling continues to be 50/50 on that….
Americans are NOT comfortable with removing a President from office…
It seems like even if they are crooks
President Trump lashed out again Tuesday at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and other Democrats involved in his impeachment after a teleconference in which he exchanged holiday greetings with members of the military stationed around the globe….
WashPost…
This IS eating DJT alive…
But it’s also giving him a slight bump in his polling numbers…
Already the bounce…
But it seems to be eating him up inside…
While 20% is likely excessive,certainly it is difficult to explain to middle class folks why certain corporations pay No income tax at all.
Bluntly, that’s absurd yet that’s happening currently.
There is some middle ground here ,in my view, and I support huge corporations paying some type of tax just like everyone else.After ll,,corporations are people too!
Yes indeed Jack….
No representation (cf. Citizens United v FEC) without taxation ?
First, James is not advocating a 20 percent tax on profit. He is advocating a 20 percent tax on SALES – which he put in caps to emphasize. So if a company produced a car that cost $45,000 to makeand sold it for $50,000, James thinksthe companyshould be taxed $10,000 – but only if that company was American and one of the 50 largest companies. Clearly, in this example, it would be rational for that company to declare bankruptcy effective immediately.
It is incredibly naive to think that a tax on corporations is not a tax on people. Most likely some of that tax will be passed on to the consumer, and if it is not, then it is a tax on the shareholders because they will now have a much lower profit. But we want people to invest in stock companies because it is good for the economy- rather than fine art for example. the optimal solution is to tax income while not discouraging investing in the economy.
Yo Z?
I DID say the tax could be walked up to 20% on sales for lets say 5 years?
If it would make sense?
Congress would have to approve each 4% increase….
(Santa’s job is just get then damn bill passed and signed)
I POINTILY want the tax on sales….
Companies HAVE to report sales for their share holders….
Profit can be danced around….
Competition would come into play because the smaller companies could then have a better chance at the market…
Sure stock holders would have to move to other companies…
But the top 50-100 companies are NOT going out of business because they have to pay 4% or even 8% on their sales ….Nor are they gonna raise prices the same percentage…
I agree…
The optimal solution IS to tax income of the COMPANIES while not discouraging investing in the economy…
The only time that a 20% tax on sales makes any sense is during wartime when governments are deliberately suppressing domestic consumer demand (as with rationing) in order to divert economic effort towards war industries.
Even Herman Cain’s grossly-inequitable 9-9-9 plan only set a sales tax or VAT of 9%.
And it’s long been the consensus, although not quite universal, that sales taxes on ordinary consumer good and services are considerably less equitable than a progressive (or mildly progressive) income or wealth tax — for exactly the reasons I alluded to in an earlier post: the lower you go on the income scale, the greater the proportion of that income is immediately spent (rather than saved or invested).
Zreebs might know more, but there was Huge apprehension about and resistance to the Value Added Tax [VAT] in the European Union (imposed largely because it’s easier to calculate and collect) and to the equivalent federal Goods & Services Tax [GST] in the Dominion of Canada.
I said from the start that any tax on companies is actually a tax on people – except that it is not clear exactly who is paying the tax. If the company responds To the tax with an equal percent increase in price, the the consumer of that product is paying all of the tax increase. Of course that does this might be less competitive and may not survive in a global competitive market. If the company does not increase price at all, then the stockholders are paying all of the tax.
It seems obvious for the reasons that Dave gave (and James agreed with) is to place the tax on income itself because the tax charged would be more fairly distributed.
There’s also an effect upon investment, generally negative. If a fifth of sales revenue goes to taxes, there’s also less room for companies to plan, staff up, and build new facilities or product lines. There are also fewer resources to maintain and upgrade existing facilities, which, as we know, in the long run, means a shorter life, less productivity and higher replacement costs.
When the economy needed stimulus in the past, Congress would often accelerate depreciation (write-offs) of the cost of new capital investments, whether an extra oven for your pizzeria or a brand-new auto plant. I understand that the Trump-Republican tax cuts have now accelerated depreciation to allow companies to exempt from tax the entire cost of a capital investment in the very same year it is made.
But the same logic would imply that a 20% tax on corporate sales would depress investment.
But practically and politically rather than according to strict economics, it does seem odd that so many huge corporations could get away with paying no taxes at all.
I hear ya guys….
But DSD’s last sentence IS TRUE….
Ok?
I’ll take 4% for starters…
There’s two arguments here,the economic and the political.
As both DSD and I have commented,it is difficult to explain to people why they should pay taxes but huge corporations shouldn’t.
Besides, it’s not necessarily going to “hurt” corporations to pay “some” taxes.They might not like it.So?
I’m not knowledgeable enough on the subject to say exactly how much they should pay;however, in my view, they should pay something and ,yes, it should be substantial but certainly not so much as to jeopardize their existence.
It’s not my concern that corporate taxes hurts corporations. It is my concern that taxing corporations hurts the people.
Corporations that create pollution or other negative externalities to the population such as health issues should be taxed.
Sorry,I can’t see that making Amazon pay some taxes is going to “hurt” anyone.
That’s what I’m talking about, the political angle.
All corporations need to pay “some” taxes .
Morning people….
Hope Santa was good to ya….
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to All!
My venom will resume shortly!
Merry Christmas, Chapy Chanukah and Happy Holidays to All !!!
Happy Boxing Day!
I’m in Little Rock for the holidays and will be visiting the Clinton Presidential Library today.
I’m in Chicago – and will be here until mid-January.
Enjoy Scott!
Enjoy Z!
Stay warm Z….
It’s in the 50s here!
He, he, he……
Enjoy!
We will likely have blizzards in April.
We have had snow in NY in April….
Didn’t last for more than 48 hrs on the ground, though…
Snow that falls in December might sometimes last until April in Chicago.
Mother Nature must be confused. 57 on Xmas while it was 33 with snow on Halloween.
59 degrees was the high. Incredible for Chicago
Jack and Keith have to have us beat….
It’s 45 by me….
BTW?
Ah Santa?
If i could get a late wish?
How about a DOZEN more people joining the conversation here?
I misread what you wrote. I thought you wanted a “hate” wish. I figured the next line was something pertaining to Bernie Sanders.
70 degrees and partly cloudy in Arkansas today.
No complaints
Enjoy the only Presidential library with an Adult Section.
The Clinton Library was great!
I’ve now been to JFK’s in Boston, LBJ’s in Austin, Truman’s in Independence, MO and Lincoln’s in Springfield, IL.
I’d like to visit Nixon and Reagan’s next time I make it to Southern CA and both Bushes in Texas.
As to a potential Trump Presidential Library and Museum. Maybe if I happened to be in Florida and had explosive diarrhea. I imagine the RNC will be staffing that place considering how much they have capitulated to him, so I wouldn’t feel bad if some GOP lackey had to clean up the mess!
Well Scott, when you’re in California come north. There aren’t any Presidential libraries, but we have win caves and breweries.
Keith, I love Northern CA. Will definitely be back at some point soon.
Perhaps CG & Z could meet up in the Windy (a.k.a. Second) City.
The pitchers and catchers haven’t yet reported, so you can’t see Chicago’s finest at work, but I suppose there you could catch the Bulls or Blackhawks.
If CG wants to get together, I’d buy him lunch. I’m not really interested in seeing a game with him – even thought we would be able to support the same team. I have some days off, so we can even meet in his home town if he wants. I’m staying only a few towns over from where he lives (or at least lived). I’d be on my very best behavior. James can join us too if he can get a flight on a short notice.
But I don’t expect CG to take up the offer. I’ll just have to manage to get over it!
I’m part of an “evil” group that hates Palestinians (perhaps more than one), so you aren’t missing out.
Yeah – For openers, you indicated were okay with Netanyahu further expanding into Palestinian territory, and presumably are okay with the blockade in Gaza that has directly contributed to the extreme poverty there.
I know that the Palestinian plight is another issue that you are morally indifferent to – or you would have found some time over your tens of thousands of posts to show you care at least a smidgen.
You can defend what you promote – but why would you care if I believe it is evil. After all, you believe I am a liar.
I don’t believe I have said that at all. Most recently, I have expressed a wish for Israel to have a new Prime Minister. I have no doubt that whomever that person winds up being, that they will be steadfast in supporting the security and survival of Israel.
And over many posts, over many years, I have said how the Two State Solution would be ideal, I have said throughout the years that it is a shame that Hamas was elected to lead the Palestinians, because they do not want a Two State Solution and they do no care about their own people, they only care about killing Jews. To them, 4 dead Palestinians is worth the price of 1 dead Jew.
So, who are the people who really do not care about the plight of the Palestinians? And who is really morally indifferent when everything is always blamed solely on Israel?
“Israel cannot be expected to negotiate with a party that calls for its destruction, engages in terrorism and maintains an armed militia. Hamas must choose: bullets or ballots.”- Joe Biden
“If there were not an Israel, we would have to invent one to make sure our interests were preserved,” – Joe Biden
May I remind people VP Biden got screwed by Bibi back a few years ago…
He got promised no more settlements after he sat down with the Israeli’s in person there….
Ten minutes after Air Force 2 left the country?
They announced MORE settlements…
Biden will NOT support settlements and will go back to dealing with Bibi like Obama did…
No American president will leave Israel in the cold….
The briefers will explain the 7 day war history to them and how desperate Israel became…
That and the American Jewish vote….
“No American president will leave Israel in the cold….”
Can this really be said of any of the Democrats running for President?
Additionally, Biden has been very forthcoming in expressing his personal “love” for Netanyahu.
I have no idea what the last two paragraphs are supposed to refer to and I know better to ask.
Any Jewish or Palestinian death is a shame, but there just haven’t been that many Jewish deaths in the past ten years. Hell, one gunman in Las Vegas probably killed more people in one hour than the number of Jews that were killed by Palestinians in the past ten years. But that gunman in Las Vegas didn’t really bother you because you believe he has a constiturional right to own guns. Yet for some reason, the deaths of Jews over a multi-year time frame bothers you greatly.
Do you believe that Israel was wrong in that Palestinians who were expelled from Israel should have had a right to return?
Injustice causes extremism. I have no sympathy for Hamas, but I believe that Palestinians voted for Hamas because of a general feeling that Israel is perfectly fine with the status quo, and Israel isn’t going to do anything beneficial to Palestinians without extreme pressure. And it would be difficult to argue they are wrong.
You are the face of Moral Indifference.
“but there just haven’t been that many Jewish deaths in the past ten years. ”
Maybe because Netanyahu and his policies succeeded where they were supposed to?
For those who feel the need to keep “score.”
People killed in Las Vegas incident by gunman- 58
People inside Israel who were killed by terrorism this decade alone (2010- present) 172
Obama may not have liked Bibi
But American policy remains the support of Israel….
For several reasons.,..
First my reference to 1967….
The war between Israel and Egypt found Israel running out of ammo and equipment….
America became very worried that the Israel would use a nuke on Egypt…
Since then?
The Pentagon is WELL aware that Israel should not be where it was back then….
Basic American politics…
A good amount of American jews vote for President….Most vote Democratic …
Some vote Republican…
Every American President pledges fidelity to Israeli for votes…
They ain’t stupid…
Under Jared Kushner (is he jewish?)
Trump has changed American Policy
Trump has gone opposite Obama (and Biden) and move the US Embassy in theory and backed Bibi a fellow leader charged with crimes…
The whole thing is a mess…
But America and Israel REMAIN tight even there is squabbles within the two countries in different levels….
Remember….
Donald Trump has NO cohesive foreign policy
He is incapable of thinking in that level…
The next guy WILL have to put things back together …
I didn’t put in the religious and color part ….
And to add to the mix there is Iran….
Back in the day?
Jordan kicked the Palestinians out…
The whole thing is VERY COMPLEX….
The number of Jews (which is relatively small) in the U.S. aside, might it be that America has traditionally supported Israel because it is our staunchest ally in the Middle East and a country that shares our democratic values?
It’s not really all that complex. What might be more complex are the various schisms within Islam and the wars between them and how Muslims have greatly mistreated other. Muslims for religious reasons.
What is really not that complex is that Israel is a democracy in the Middle East, where there was none other (until we propped up Iraq at great cost).
Israel supported the U.S. when many other nations in the region were hostile or under the sphere of the Soviets.
Of course, the United States also sacrificed much in the way of blood and treasure during the Second World War to free Europe and to do such things as liberate Concentration Camps where the horrors of persecution and brutality were undeniable, and thus demonstrated the necessity of establishing a Jewish homeland.
Most of the nations in the Middle East have HAD American support,…
Despite the different muslim sects?
Things remain remarkably stable….
Iran has worked to gain influence in weak places…
But NOT in major countries
I will venture this which most here will NOT agree with…
Democracy should the goal of representation…
But some countries are simply NOT prepared for it…
A vacuum of strong leadership allows destabilization and even the worst groups gaining power…
The problem for America has been pushing for Democracy only to have the transition period result in bad players take over,…
Again?
Complex…
What is seldom reported in American media and supported by Bibi’s marginal support is that there are Israelis’ that are tired of the fight with Palestinians and the Arabs….
Bibi is in his 3rd election…
Israel has other problems…
Fighting with everyone is NOT GOOD FOR their economy and politics ….
If Palestinians were truly willing you kill four of themselves for one Jew, then you would see more than a few dozen Jewish deaths over many years. While of course, there are some Palestinians who feel that way, the overwhelming majority of course do not. And yet you have no problem in making a post that implies that most Palestinians believe the death of one Jew is worth the death of four Palestinians.
The Jews in Israel have gotten pretty good at defending themselves. Some are upset at that and wish they did not.
But of course, one innocent death is one too many. 100 percent of the blame lies with the terrorists. 100 percent.
Once again, you proving your lying bona fides, when my post clearly references “Hamas” in that regard and not “most Palestinians” which you choose to lie about now upon being cornered.
I have said many times that the average Palestinian is a victim of the terrorist regime they live under. The average Palestinian who lives in Israel itself also has more rights than they would anywhere else in the world.
We can obviously say the same thing about the average LGBT person. If Zreebs had his way, and Israel ceased to exist as a Jewish state, what would happen to them?
And yet some people will not be satisfied until Israel is wiped completely off the map.
Talk about “moral indifference…”
I never said Israel should cease to exist, nor do I believe that in the slightest. You just made that up.
How would Israel be able to exist if it could not defend itself? What would the result be? Which side currently wants a two-state solution more? Israel or Palestine? Which side only wants one state and openly calls for the death of everyone in the other?
Perhaps I should be clear that you are merely morally indifferent to the matter.
Israel should have the right to defend itself.
But there are consequences to extreme actions. Just as there are consequences when policemen treat blacks unfairly.
Does it matter who fires first?
Is there an example of Israeli forces taking deadly action against anyone or any crowd who was not trying to literally kill a lot of people first?
I suppose “more restraint” which just make it more “fair” in terms of the number of Jews dying, but I think there is a big difference in distinguishing those who kill in the name of terrorism and those who have to kill in order to stop terrorism from succeeding.
Remember, the Jews are already vastly outnumbered to begin with, in the Middle East, and in the world at large, and they are not the ones saying they every single person who who practices a certain religion to be dead and they are not the ones teaching this to children in government schools, like the Palestinians (and other Middle Eastern countries) do.
Of course, there are examples of Israel forces initiating deadly action. Here is one.
https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2019/country-chapters/israel/palestine
I do not see an example of that in the link. The links talks about demonstrators being fired upon. Surely, that was after they were violent and rioted first.
In any event, the Israeli military of course has a system of accountability for anyone who violates standards or who does something improper. The terrorists of course do not.
We should recognize how difficult it is for the Israeli military to protect the people of the country while still showing restraint under constant attack.
Thoughtful people on the Left should of course keep this in mind, especially as Trump defenders sometimes express their desire for a “wall” or other methods on the southern border because “that is what Israel does” as if the two situations were remotely similar.
Israel faces far more danger from its neighbors than the U.S. does from Mexico.
I always assumed Presidents of both parties pledged to support Israel because they believed it as important for things such as American national security, world peace, the demonstration of western values, and the survival of the Jewish people after thousands of years of brutal persecution, especially including very recently before the establishment of the State.
I guess I did not realize that those things were less important to them then getting the votes of my relatives. According to james, I just must be a Pollyanna,
Yeah – right.
Go back to attacking the victims of Kavenaugh and in defending his bragging about rape in his yearbook.
After all, he share your basic values.
This is how you lash out when you have nothing else to rely on. Unsurprising.
Kavanaugh’s stupid yearbook (which was signed off on by people who should have known better) references drinking and perhaps to those with perverted imaginations poisoned by tribalist politics, some possible references to consensual sexual encounters, although those ties are extremely difficult to prove.
Only years after the fact now are we left with the claim that Kavanaugh defended “rape” in his yearbook.
No wonder so many idiot Republican House members feel they are within their right to stand by DJT and lash out against those who demand truth and accountability, regardless of evidence.
Right. It is my fault that Republicans defend Trump. Glad to have you making statements that people should be accountable for what they say.
It’s the fault of a lot of people, not just you of course. It goes back many many decades for example when people shrugged off the illegal and reprehensible actions of Ted Kennedy at Chappaquidick simply because he was a Kennedy and they felt a need to stand by his political agenda regardless of what he had done or might do in the future… (which would go on to include a fairly well documented public sexual assault in a restaurant)
Those in the Republican Conference who looked the other way on Trump, I still hold personally responsible for their absence of conscience. They know better.
In the true spirit of the Holiday Season,
Rep. Paul Gosar(InTheCult-Ariz.) reran a video from 1992 of Hillary Clinton almost being hit from some falling studio lighting.
Gosar seems like a creep and his whole family dislikes him, but that must be the 60 Minutes video from 1991. It actually humanized them in the moment… assuming it wasn’t staged, since Don Hewitt, the producer of 60 Minutes begged them to come on the show and said , “I will make you President.”
Gosar added “Remember the reason for the season.”
I presume he was implying that it would have been a good thing if she had been hit by it.
Gosar is rather Typical Trumpist ,in my view ,full of hate and contempt for anyone who disagrees with him.
A creep?Certainly.
I don’t know what Gosar was intending, but I know that Hillary’s immediate reaction was to yell, “Jesus, Mary, and Joseph!”, so it sounds like Gosar was going for the lamest of lame jokes in regards to the Holiday season.
I long ago gave up trying to ascertain anything “logical”from the blathering of Trumpists.
It seems pretty easy to surmise that was the “wordplay” he was going for, and his office is confirming it.
He was not implying that he wished harm on them, but it was still a dumb joke and he has himself to blame for even letting something that be open to interpretation. There’s nothing funny about video of someone being scared or nearly hurt unless they are in on it afterwards and say it’s ok.
Gosar could also be the Poster Child for the “Leave the Humor to the Jews” Movement.
We can each have our own “interpretations “ of this creeps “intention.”
I will personally stick with my own.His statement from his office notwithstanding.
Meanwhile Trump calked for “unity” in his Christmas message(anyone think he actually wrote that?).
Then he called Nancy Pelosi “crazy.”
Of course who knows?In Trumpworld?That might be a “unifying “message!
Minnesota will hold its first presidential primary since 1992 next year.
Republicans ,however ,will find only one name on the ballot,
Guess who?
Apparently, it was the work of the Republican State Chairman.
A lawsuit against the law allowing such has been filed.
Guess who?
Harold Stassen?
Too bad he passed from the scene.
I read a book about him last year.He was actually quite a serious candidate back in the forties .
Some believe he was instrumental in helping Eisenhower grab the Republican nomination from Taft in 1952.
He later served in some foreign policy posts in Eisenhower’s administration.
I have noticed a large number of Tulsi Gabbard billboards around Charleston .
I read an article the other day that Gabbard believes this is the way to go.Billboards seem more late Twentieth Century to me.
She’s probably hoping for some low-info voters to see her on a billboard and confuse her for Nikki Haley.
Yeah they do look something alike.
Gabbard signs though have in huge letters…
TULSI!
“I’ll take Anagrams for $200, Alex.”
Once again, Ted Kennedy, a man who has been dead for ten years seems to be Corey’s go-to guy when he wants to deflect from something disgusting that Trump has done and the Republican Party supports with its silence.
Please correct me if I am wrong.
He loves George W. Bush who is for all intensive purposes a war criminal, who along with Dick Cheney killed over 100,000 Iraqi civilians because they tried to kill his daddy (a direct quote).
But the flawed Senator from Massachusetts who drove a car off a bridge killing a friend, while he was most likely getting a blow job, on a drunken and disastrous night, is the reason all of America is desensitized to the crimes of Donald J. Trump.
I see.
Is that anything like Harry Reid being the reason the Republicans nominated Trump in the first place?
I need a clarification please?
Ted was a terrible drunk until Victoria cleaned up his act, no doubt about it. He had wild sex, but no one accused him of attempted rape like they have with the drunken preppy mauler Brett Kavanaugh.
Brett is there for his long miserable entitled life. Can’t be voted out, while another drunk, Ted Kennedy, went before the voters every six years. And, in the wisdom of the Democratic electorate, he was never the Party’s nominee for President.
Both Donald Trump and George Bush were. What does that say about the Republicans?
This fascination with Ted Kennedy’s sex life by Corey is interesting to me, it appears to be the centerpiece of an obvious moral superiority complex. Boring too among other things.
But he appears to be bored much of the time, does his boss know?
Please Corey, I encourage you to sit down and break bread with Zreebs. You might learn something about rational and respectful discourse.