Recent comments
ADHD: Hunter in a Farmer's World
Thom Hartmann has written a dozen books covering ADD / ADHD - Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder.
Join Thom for his new twice-weekly email newsletters on ADHD, whether it affects you or a member of your family.
Thom's Blog Is On the Move
By webmaster
Hello All
Thom's blog in this space and moving to a new home.
Please follow us across to hartmannreport.com - this will be the only place going forward to read Thom's blog posts and articles.
"What’s the point of government oversight, when the guy in charge has his own fair share of unethical behavior?"
Why didn't anyone ask that question about Don Powell, Bush-Appointee head of the FDIC? The Amarillo bank he left failed after he removed to an Amarillo-Wells Fargo subsidiary from which he was appointed, and where his and everyone's stock then soared with a merger. Powell, never batting an eyelash through the mortgage crisis and WAMU, now has his own bank-setting up operation.
Why didn't anyone ask that question in 1849 when Thomas Ewing used his senatorial influence to purchase 510,000 acres of Virginia Land Scrip from "large dealers" out from under a federal land lottery which had been created for widows?
And actually, this shows an extension of the same associated gang, 1849-2002, known as The North American Company.
It's also what the song "I've Been Workin' On the Railroad" is about- WHISTLEBLOWING.
Quoting from that controversial book, Proverbs, "Evil prospers when good men do nothing."
Thanks.
..hover through the fog and filthy air....time to bring about some enlightenment and turn the tide against the real evil doers! Wouldn't it be really fantastic to prosecute these witch hunters and red-baiters, these arrogant greedy and selfish parasites, for a change? Time to lock up these arrogant bastards before they do any more harm to the well being of the majority of Americans.
But wait who will prosecute them? AG Holder? Yeah, right! But wait! Holder is very likely to leave along with Hillary Clinton and Tim Geithner. Yay!!! I say!!! Now, will Obama appoint people that will actually be effective in fighting crime and corruption and making decisions for the country that will actually turn things around? I don't think Obama wants to be the President when massive rebellion against a corrupt system is about to happen...or does he? Watch and see who he appoints this time around...it will be a good indication as to how the rest of his next 4 years will go. Will he appoint more useful idiots that will keep the entrenched, corrupt, status quo in power furthering it's noose around our necks, or someone who will actually fight for the American people...for a change?
to your Question? a fair share should be every dollar taxed gets taxed the same way. example: one earner makes $325k after all deductions, credits and loophole manipulation taxable income = $100k of which said taxpayer pays a whopping $2,800. Meanwhile? a couple that makes $130k and after all deductions and credits has taxable income of $84k yet paid $13,000 in taxes. to me its not so much about raising or lowering its about taxing it all equally!
Vaporization of assets...trillions in stock certificates and other paper securities...millions of American's 401k's, pensions, and stock accounts destroyed by Sandy? With a warning a week ahead of time...no one thought that all these 13.1 million pieces of paper would be destroyed by a potential flooding from hurricane Sandy? The lower floor vaults containing these very vulnerable to destruction pieces of paper were not water tight. Why not? They had plenty of time to move these securities to a high level why did they not move them? Why was all of the news attention focused on the watertight vaults that contained gold which would not be threatened with destruction even if they were exposed to flooding? Max Keiser has a lot to say about all of this.
No one created Hurricane Sandy, except perhaps through global warming, but I think something very shady could have taken place...just like during 911 (when billions of illegal bonds that were to come due on 912) were destroyed.
If a person is lucky enough to win big at the casinos or on the State Lottery, he/she will pay big taxes. Well, why not? What the heck did he/she do that should honor them with some special status of exclusion to what everyone else has to pay in taxes? What special skills or hard work or education did it take to plunk down their bets or buy that $1.00 lottery ticket? Many wealthy people are just plain lucky and/or very skilled at deception and manipulating other people into giving them their money. Many have inherited their fortunes from the illicit gains amassed by their families which is used as an unfair leverage in continuing to amass even more money. Many are actually criminals who have gamed the system and stolen other people's money..from retirement accounts...real estate scams..manipulation of the stock markets...and on and on. And many of these scum bags believe that they actually earned their money through hard work? They are the real parasites feeding on their hosts. And that will eventually lead to the deaths of their hosts and then to themselves because they will no long have hosts to feed upon.
But there may be a day when the hosts get so tired of this game...and in a fit of rage or just plain trying to survive...the hosts might just stomp on those parasites at the top of the economic pyramid. These parasite know that they can keep feeding as long as they control the propaganda and keep their hosts dumbed down, too scared to fight back, or hold those carrots in front of their faces. The rest of the world, breaking out in their own revolutions, are setting an example of what may happen here very soon.
I highly doubt that anyone who is really making so much money that he/she has to worry about having their taxes increased (because they are making so much money) would take the time, or interest, in participating in communicating in a blog like this. Most likely, they are rich-man/woman wannabes, dreamers and schemers, pretenders, who are convinced that they, themselves, will one day be at the top of the economic pyramid. Or they are paid lackey sock puppets sent by their wealthy employers to argue in their defense. Truly wealthy people would not bother, themselves, to mingle with the riff raff. But, there are a lot of wishful true believers that hope to scam enough people one day to amass their own personal wealth.
As individuals and as a society, we are using the wrong measurement to gauge our success and for our very motivation to succeed. Wealth, in the form of money and possessions, is what stimulates our desire to get up, go to work and what we do all day. Our schools give us the tools and teach us how to measure. From Kindergarten to Harvard School of Business, we are taught to respect those who wallow in abundance and power while we ignore and cast aside those who have less. We are taught how to take from others, to maximize our profits, then hoard and even worship the material riches we have accumulated. This process is self-destructive and will ultimately lead to the death of the societies and the environments in which we live.
There is a better more constructive way to live our lives. We would be far better off if we were taught to care for ourselves by taking care of others. The measure of our success would be the overall well-being of every member of our communities and the health of our environments, not our vast private collections of possessions. These notions have been discussed widely from the beginning of time in theological texts and refined by luminaries such as Adam Smith, Karl Marx, Wolfgang Goethe and John Lennon, et al, to the point of being cliché. Yet, we persist, as a society, to exploit the weakest among us for personal “gain.” How do we break from our current model of success?
Although it is difficult not to agree with Vice President Joe Biden and Patty Murrey, it looks like the President has different ideas. He is replacing some of his cabinet. The first to go will be Timothy Geithner. Barack Obama's #1 choice to fill the seat of Treasury Secretary is Erskine Bowles. This is the guy who worships Paul Ryan and the Ryan budget, as the following clip would suggest: https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=dbzpuqWo6yU
If this is also the way our president thinks, then the Ryan Budget is not far behind.
From these posts its apparent that most people believe we are helpless slaves to this corrupt ponzi scheme money from nothing, money as debt system. BTW, Global, what exactly is this job you work so hard at? There are a lot of wealthy people talking about how hard they work, but lo and behold, come to find out they work at moving money around. That's not really work, say like the people who actually work with their hands and minds to produce tangible goods and services that other people use and these people reciprocate same. It's the actualy workers who are getting screwed by this top down, trickle on economics and the people like Romney and Rove and the American Enterprise Institute, and The US Chamber of Commerce types who actually do NO WORK at all, they manipulate other people into supplying the goods and services they crave and hoard.
I have no idea what your income might be, but I'm pretty sure no one believes you should pay more than 50% unless it's in the UNEARNED muti millions as in Uncle Mitt's type of catagory.
Say I happen to work for a company which is one of Uncle Mitt's Bain acquisitions and end up making $30,000, an amount requiring me most likely to be a head manager. I end up with $20,000 after all forms of taxes, property, gas pump, and all other types of sales tax, income, what you might call entitlements, but programs we still pay for, you name it. So I ended up paying a 33% tax rate.
Now at the same time Uncle Mitt made 30 million without lifting a finger thanks in part becasuse I showed up to work for his Bain acquisition and thus made it possible for him to make his money without working. He ends up paying anywhere from 0% to 13.9% and still has at least 25 million left to pay his landscapers, buy his food, gas, car elevator, you name it. Maybe you could explain to me what is moral about this current tax set up?
Tax the hell out of the rich and slice the military budget in half, cancel the debt to the Federal Reserve as Ron Paul tried to do with a bill and we've suddenly come a long way toward solvency.
The way I see this issue is very simple. It is not a tax increase to the 1%, it is just go back to how it was prior to Bush's Era. If they have billions to "buy" their Republican buddies they should have money to pay their share. They are not "job creators" they are "abusers of the system." If they don't like it, let them go, we do not need these toxic corporations. In my book, Rove and his gangsters are not citizens they are inhabitants, there is a big difference. As to Riley's comment about Mr. Obama giving the 99% "stuff" the only stuff takers is pundits like him and Rove's gangsters who are giving money and then "collect and profit" from recipients. Tampa, FL
Suggest a campaign of emails to John Boehner.
http://www.speaker.gov/contact
ScottfromOz, I did not mean to imply that it had to be closed in one year, but it certainly needs to be significantly narrowed. This one trillion a year stuff has got to stop, and "tax the rich" is just a very small step in the right direction at best.
Still waiting for a reply to my question. Would someone please tell me what percentage of TOTAL taxes on my income is my "Fair Share"? I am waiting to be convinced- seriously I am open to being convinced if someone can tell me why Uncle Joe is correct with some facts. And FYI - who the heck is Joe Biden to talk about contributing a "Fair Share"?
What did he donate to church and charity last year- $300. 00 or so???? Uncle Joe sure is a magnificient example of contibuting his "Fair Share"!!!!!!!! Typical progressive liberal - rant and rave about what is "fair" and get someone else to pay.
Someone please tell me why I should pay more than 50% of my income in TOTAL taxes is fair - I will sing your praises in this forum.
Let's finish them off- burn 'em to the ground !!!
This time we can't assume President Obama can do it all by himself -- OR that the two parties will do it for us. WE THE PEOPLE must find ways to keep the pressure intensly on them. Where necessary WE may have to do it ourselves through some sort of referrendum process. We have organizations, we need to support them.
Meanwhile we as individuals should find our nearest T-Bagger "and 'splane it to 'em in no uncertain terms." Quit beating up ourselves, start comming down hard on the stonewallers and foot-draggers, the liars and self-serving scoundrels.
Just sayin.
DAVID I COMPLETELY AGREE! I can't believe that the majority appealed to the two party poopfest. No one wants to listen to actual progressive thinkers, like Thom. They fell pray to believing Obama and Romney because (in my opinion) they failed to see the disruptive foriegn policy, not to mention the persecution of the people exposing the gov't of war times, under the Obama Administration. OR, they believed Romney, with his master of wizardy, could fix the ecomony with "magic". Never thinking that he, and Paul Ryan, never gave out the numbers of his ecomonic plans. They acted on blind faith.
Well, we were blind in 2001, and it seems that the majority can't come to terms to look at the present in the context of history.
Here's my take on the slogans:
"Forward"...into a growing Orwellian nightmare, with endless wars, and more silence from those who expose our violations of humanitarian right
"Believe in America"...because you have been in the past decade, and your continued blind faith will make you think that everything will be ok
"Restore America Now"...because look how much of your civil librities have been taken away, look how much of a mess your ecomony is in because of the two parties who will always be involved in endless wars
The legacy of Ron Paul lives within us. His rule of law is the constitution, and has continued to keep himself bided to that law.
From John Quincy Adams "You will never know how much it has cost my generation to perserve your freedom. I hope you will make good use of it"
Let's see, the democrat's plan, the one that is to end temporary extensions on tax cuts that were temporary to begin with, and only on the very wealthy, is according to all the mass media reports I hear, simply a "tax increase." which makes it sound like a tax increase for everyone.
It only took the first 28 words of my initial statement to state a truth you will never hear the corp media mention to those who need to hear it most, future voters with little interest, most of the time anyway, in political discussion, which is the vast majority of the American people. An under informed electorate is why the house is still controlled by those who would do us all great economic harm in exchange for their own selfish financial gain. Maybe social media is the best answer for a way to well inform the general public, because it sure as hell appears the corp media is the best way to well misinform!
But, you see, all those people who make the big bucks actually believe they deserve all that they make. They continue to squeeze the little guy..their employees...or they even ship their jobs overseas. They started this economic war...this class war... many years ago...and it may very well end up as has happened so many times before in the history of the world...when the exploited and cheated masses rise up and kick those arrogant butts into the sewers where they belong. Tsars and their families have been murdered..French Kings and other aristrocrats lost their heads because they all thought they were too good to pay their fair share of the taxes. China's revolution made many wealthy people pay dearly for their greed. And now the heads of countries are going down around the world. Revolutions are breaking out all over.
Many rich people are just luckier or more criminally clever than most other people who try to stay within the law and not cheat others. Some wealthy people may have had "talents" and "worked" hard but none of the really very wealthy families got that way honestly or fairly. And many many working people work just as hard as, or even harder than, many wealthy people..they are just more honest. And that has never been truer than today.
The US is a vast criminal empire where the crooks control the news...the propaganda...the money...the political process, and the politicians...everything. They even thumb their noses at law enforcement. Heck, our Attorney General, Eric Holder, won't even go after the really big, obvious criminals...they have to turn themselves in like Bernie Madoff did. The IRS won't go after the really big tax evaders...they go after the easy prey..they millions of less sophisticated tax payers who may have made tiny mistakes.
http://www.bloomberg.com/video/ron-paul-on-fiscal-cliff-and-vows-to-compromise-MYkAiqYBTaiHwXZL9Tvxkw.html
Ron Paul comments on the fiscal cliff.
Oh, I forgot, if you don't believe that then you are a racist.
Yeah, sure, like we're going to believe you are taxed at a 50% rate. Aren't you just a little jealous that Romney only pays about 15%? And you think that is all right? That's fair? If you pay any where near 50% taxes then you are either a saint or you have never heard of tax shelters and other creative tax schemes that most wealthy people all take advantage of. I'd like to see all high income earners pay the kind of tax rates they had to pay in Eisenhower's day. They would all still have so much money left over they wouldn't know what to do with it all...except gamble it away on the stock market...and if they lose..they get bailed out anyway. That's what our country has become...a kind of socialism for the very wealthy...corporate welfare which amounts to way more than any so-called bunch of welfare queens. It's time to roll back the clock and tax the heck out of the rich. I mean it's not like they are trying to create more jobs...except in China. Turn the damn Pentagon into a shopping mall and stop milking the middle class with all those costly, illegal, and quite unnecessary foreign wars. It's blood money. War Crimes!
All of the blustery talk by some Obama supporters indicating they believe Obama will be more aggressive this time around and negotiate from a stronger position is much ado about nothing...what will amount to yet another give away to the rich. Any "compromises" will put a hurt on the social programs...Social Security, Medicare, etc. and the Pentagon's spending will continue to pillage the middle class taxpayers and make those who have spent their working lives paying into the system and deserve every bit of SS and MC they get, while the rich tax evaders will continue to blame social programs while avoiding paying their fair share of taxes.
Compromise?! We don't need no stinking compromises! The Republicans haven't compromised! Instead of whining that we all just should get along...Democrats, in any moment of advantage, should use it to do what the Republicans have done to us all along. But they won't because they are not much better than the Republicans. They are all in it together. None of them are....middle class or poor. The grand illusion will continue to fool a lot of people until they are too disillusioned, hungry, sick, and weak to really fight back. And when they see those drones flying over head they will wimp out...or will they? We'll see.
Tsars, Kings and other heads of state who continued to ignore what their really ticked off peasants could do may have wished in those last moments.."my kingdom for a horse". Mubarak was put in a little cage and urinated on. Ghadafi was beaten to a bloody pulp. al-Assad is frightened for his life. And somebody here in the US must be just a little nervous if they have to leak that various government departments are buying up millions of rounds of ammunition, spying on us, and starting to fly drones around our neighborhoods.
The overwhelming government forces in other countries were not enough to hold back the raging citizens. If the obstinate and obstreperous wealthy continue in the same path they did in the last 4 years...we may very well see some very violent actions in our streets and in places of business. Prices will shoot up making the necessities of life..food..etc. and it will force the people to take action. It won't be pretty!
Good points, but with the progressives it is all emotion -- no logic involved. As you can tell by the posts on this subject it is the hate tax on those who have more. It is that guy down the street who drives the nice car and makes the big bucks - he is the one who makes me work this crap job and kick the dog every night.