Slouching Towards Oblivion

Friday, December 15, 2017

It's Brookings

...and Brookings is "left leaning", but that don't make 'em wrong.

Like Colbert said: "Reality has a well-known liberal bias."

(I just wish this kind of stuff could come from an author with a name other than Looney, y'know?)

Anyway:

THE ISSUE: House and Senate Republicans are working on a tax bill that will overhaul several parts of the U.S. tax code. By introducing new complexities to the tax code, the new bill creates tax sheltering opportunities for many Americans, especially the wealthy and those with good financial advisers.

- the first 3 points -
  • By taxing wage income and business income at different levels, the bill adds complexity to the tax code and creates many new opportunities for more sophisticated and well-advised taxpayers to reduce their tax burdens.
  • One of the least desirable parts of the bill is a provision that allows pass-through business owners to deduct 23 percent of their income before they calculate their taxes. This would result in very large differences in the tax burden of taxpayers in very similar circumstances.
  • For example, if a plumber makes $60,000 a year as wages paid by an employer, he or she will pay 60 percent more in income taxes than if that plumber had been a sole proprietor or self-employed and takes advantage of the pass-through rate.
  • The most sophisticated taxpayers and the highest income taxpayers will have a multiplicity of choices about how to structure their income and businesses in order to reduce taxes the most.

But let's get really real - if these jokers wanted to cut taxes for working families, they'd be  doing exactly that.  It's not about "relief", and anybody living within driving distance of a smart phone knows that.

It's also not about simplifying the Tax Code - not when it installs new ways for Corporations to avoid paying their fair share, which only increases an already pretty severe slant against the Workin' Guy.

These jagoffs are setting a deficit time bomb that they'll be using as the excuse they need to dismantle the main economic safety features which, for a good 80 years, have proven essential to making sure we have a properly-functioning middle class.

Paul Ryan has already tipped his hand by saying 2018 is when they'll be taking a nice big whack at Medicare.

We'll see what happens with Ryan. Rumors about his probable departure have intensified of late, but that could easily be a shot at gaining a bit more leverage - dunno. There are so many flips and turns and double-, triple-, and fourple-crossing that goes on, it's not really possible to keep up.

As always, the sausage-making continues apace.

Today's Pix

Click on a pic
















Thursday, December 14, 2017

Today's GIF

FCC spokes-critter answers the public outcry:

Sorry For The Delay

...but we were waiting for confirmation.

Here's another live shot of the skies over Alabama yesterday.

The Web


Ajit Pai is a lyin' sack of shit.  Net Neutrality is the deregulated internet. This jackass wants to deliver it into the hands of privateers and rent-seekers.


First - fuck you, Mr Pai. The web is absolutely vital to people who are just trying to get on in their everyday lives. (eg) It's nearly impossible now to apply for a job without internet access. Killing Net Neutrality translates into people having to pay for the privilege of looking for a job. Obviously, there's a cost to it now, but your "deregulation" opens it up to massive potential for abuse.

How do we know this "Plan To Restore Internet Freedom" is bogus? The name. When these assholes are selling something that's aimed at fucking us with our pants on, they give it a name that's exactly the opposite of what happens if they put it into practice.

The Clear Skies Act: allowed for massive increases in air pollutants.

The Clean Water Act: raised the allowable amounts of things like arsenic in drinking water. 

The Healthy Forests Initiative: opened protected Public Lands to logging - including clear-cutting in certain cases.

When we deregulated banking the 1st time in the 80s, we got the Savings & Loan crisis.

Deregulating the airlines - are there more air carriers now? Do they offer better service at a lower price?

How 'bout electric utilities? I seem to recall something called Enron.

Deregulating banks again in the 90s gave us a near-total collapse of the world economy, and a "recession" that we're still stuck in.

When 45* fucked up Bears Ears recently, his closing pitch was "protecting our precious resources".

We don't protect our resources by handing them over to private mining interests.

It's the game of opposites.

And by the way:

  • Uranium deposits in Utah (Bears Ears)
  • Pimping the Uranium One scandal
  • Hillary Clinton gave away 20% of our precious uranium supply!?!
  • We must do something to compensate
  • I know - we'll sell off some of the National Monuments for peanuts and let a few rich guys get a lot richer at tax-payer expense
  • Yeah - that's the ticket
As stoopid and incompetent as Cult45 is, there's a whole school of very adept sharks and flocks of talented vultures cashing in.

Wednesday, December 13, 2017

Today's Tweet



The ones who show up get to make the decisions.

So show up or shut up.



Turnout was not all that great, but it looks like Dems - especially WOC - made the difference.

Tuesday, December 12, 2017

Way To Go 'Bama

Looks like Doug Jones has pulled it off.


Alabama's Secretary of State is a guy named John Merrill. Mr Merrill goes to observe elections in Russia, and pronounces them 'free and fair'.

What the fuck is it with these assholes and Russia!?!

Anyway, the in-person voting was solid enough to make the absentees not such a big deal, but let's not forget or underestimate the GOP's capacity for rat-fucking.

It's Late

...but I'm hoping against hope that Doug Jones pulls it off.

Cuz too many of these fuckin' goobers really are just that stoopid.

Today's Political Maxim


"Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity - but don't rule out malice."
--Robert Heinlein
(paraphrasing Hanlon's Razor)

Way Way Out

I had to get this one up because it warrants preserving for the historical record:


It would seem there's nothing negative that these knuckleheads won't co-opt, and then double down on. And since they can't be that tone deaf - because NOBODY'S that tone deaf - there has to be a method to their madness. 

So Occam's Razor requires us to consider the probability that "Whatever Makes A Liberal Mad Enough To Cry" is being pushed hard towards the Logical Extreme.

People With Living Thinking Brains: "That's gotta be as bad as it gets - they can't go any lower than that."

GOP: "Hold my beer, Cletus, and watch this."


Sing It, Bubba

Randy Rainbow

Monday, December 11, 2017

Today's (disturbing) GIF

When Roy Moore wins tomorrow:

Today's Pix

click a pic and start the show















"Unsubstantiated..."



But knowing what we know - what we've heard 45* say out loud and on record - even allowing for the total bluster of a guy who so rarely tells the truth about any-goddamned-thing at all - how hard is it to believe what this woman is telling us?



Today's Tweet



"Hello - how are you today?"