Do you know that under far-right American vice-presidential candidate Paul Ryan's budget Mitt Romney would have payed 0.82% tax on the $21 million dollars he made in 2010? (source)
To accomplish this Ryan's budget would gut medicare, food stamps, student loans, infrastructure spending and a thousand other programs and polices that people stop noticing because they haven't lived in a country with a poor, weak government.
Ryan's budget is pure class warfare; under it the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. (Definitive take-down is here)
To any 'fiscal conservatives' (those who believe that their government should not spend its citizens' money without oversight or restraint) out there, please understand that these bait-and-switch plutocrats like Paul Ryan (must-read article!), use you as a shield. Whether it's Reagan or Bush Jr. or Harper up here in Canada, they use all your arguments to scare the electorate but once in power rack up deficits that left-leaning parties would never abide (see Clinton in your country or Chretien in mine).
Don't get fooled again.
P.S. More music tomorrow but this decision was so huge it took my focus off the songs, even if only temporarily.
class warfare? my friend, the war is over, the one percent overlords won, and perhaps saddest of all, their victory was handed to them by those who are most victimized, the working, barely-middle-class faux "news" believers who support tax breaks for the wealthy as the "trickle down" myth starves them to death. so long as vast numbers of "average americans" support government exclusively by, and for the rich, and parrot the lies they are fed, nothing will change for the better.
ReplyDeleteelsewhere on your site you ask where the reasonable voice of the right may be ... i think the right has become so radical, there is no reason remaining, just as there are no more political moderates. alarming as the responses are to your political opinions, try suggesting ANY manner of reasonable gun restrictions in the u.s. i've had my *life threatened* for daring to suggest that, just maybe, assault weapon limitations might not be the worst idea on earth. seriously.
until voices of reason assert themselves as stridently as the right wing wack jobs do, we are doomed.
I cannot understand how people can vote against their own self interest. Is the American education system that bad that so many people cannot think for themselves and they just believe whatever Fox News or Rush tells them? These people will never be rich, their standard of living will only continue to decrease, and yet they continue to support the very people who are screwing them over? It just makes no sense at all.
DeleteThe GOP has become so far right that even the father of "trickle down" would now be considered a RINO. Anyone who would say "We're going to close the unproductive tax loopholes that have allowed some of the truly wealthy to avoid paying their fair share. In theory, some of those loopholes were understandable, but in practice they
sometimes made it possible for millionaires to pay nothing, while a bus driver was paying 10% of his salary,
and that's crazy. It's time we stopped it." has no place in the today's Republican party.
e.p. unum
Delete"until voices of reason assert themselves as stridently as the right wing wack jobs do, we are doomed."
I think that's why I speak up here, on a damn music blog from Canada yet, just to add the tiniest note of reason, however flawed, to this squall.
So please keep speaking up (even with those threats), because they haven't won the class war, otherwise they wouldn't be fighting Obama and co. with multi-million dollar ad campaigns.
It's only over when we give up.
Anon
DeleteOver on Metafilter someone pulled out this quote
"The rusty stains on Shirley Carter’s home are a permanent reminder of her fight with the local steel mill, just down U.S. Highway 17 near the boat docks. No matter how many cans of industrial-strength acid she went through, the red tint on her property never seemed to go away. In 1998, Carter and her neighbours sued Georgetown Steel, then owned by the company Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney co-founded, Bain Capital. They sought millions in cleanup costs and accused the mill’s owners of leaving their historic Southern neighbourhood looking like it had been hit by a “chemical bomb.” State officials determined the mill was largely to blame for the pollution. As the lawsuit dragged on for years, the steel mill filed for bankruptcy and the plant ultimately settled with the residents.
In the end, Bain walked away with more than $30 million in profits. Carter got $800.
“That wasn’t even enough to paint the house,” said Carter, who is a Romney supporter this election."
from this article
http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/1240674--steel-mill-polluted-town-as-romney-firm-profited
It's just hard to believe...
Shirley wants to get fucked by Mitt for a second time.
DeleteSo sad.
Deletefucking eh? haha get it!
DeleteI ended up here while looking for, of all things, photos of The Spazzys.
DeleteI'm very late to this discussion but it's not Election Day yet. I'm not voting for Romney but I wish that I didn't have to vote for Obama. Our current president is sincere, but he's not an effective leader.
The US suffers from a lack of true leadership as much as any class warfare issue. Both current parties are moving farther to the right. We need Centrists but we also need true Democrats. We need at least four political parties.
What we really need is a middle-class revolution. Occupy Wall Street accomplished nothing for all their rhetoric. For all his wild ideas, I'd almost vote for Ron Paul just to knock us out of the paradigm that we're in.
@anon, there is no understanding it. any more than there is any sense in congress failing to act in anyone's best interest other than their own and their peers. even america's politicians, and their peers/owners, must realize that destroying our economy and environment will cause the country's (if not the world's) ruination, and yet they go on with their selfish, destructive ways. i suppose so long as the world lasts as long as they do, it's ok with them. you hit on the only conceivable reason these have-nots could possibly support the have-mores, anon, and that is that they must think they will someday be "haves" themselves. or it may be that we finally made it all the way to bizarro world, a journey we started under the last bush admin, when the admin OPENLY, unapologetically lied to the world (like a clean air act revision that allowed for DIRTIER air), and down-is-up became acceptable to these ignorant masses.
ReplyDeleteand it's not only that the u.s. education system fails to provide a decent basic education, it is no longer possible to challenge the government or encourage students to think for themselves. trust me on this, i know all too well.
there isn't enough extreme weather or extreme poverty or extreme class discrepancy to convince those people that positive change -- not the same old deceit and wealthy self-interest -- is the only way we'll survive.
All politicians are cunts, fucking the people over!
ReplyDeleteMaybe but some are uglier than others!
DeleteHere's the rub...the uninformed low information moronic idiots that vote republican down here think that they themselves are going to become rich just like the fascist overlords they vote for. They don't realize they are voting against their own best interests each time they vote for a repuglican.
ReplyDeleteYeah the lie that "someday all this could be yours", like the lottery, allows some unfortunate people to get utterly fleeced.
DeleteStick to music: you don't know as much as you think that you do.
ReplyDeleteObama has done nothing positive for the vast majority of job seekers over the last 3 years.
"Tax the rich...til there are no rich no more" is lousy economic policy
Trolling Made Easy:
DeleteStep one
Begin by insulting the other speaker "you don't know as much as you think that you do"
Step Two
Ignore what the person has said " ")
Step Three Insert random straw-man talking point"
"Tax the rich...til there are no rich no more" is lousy economic policy"
Not hard is it?
Whether Republican or Democrat in the USA, Labour or Conservative in the UK or any other party in any other place in the western world, all politicians have one thing in common - they're all capitalists backed by even bigger capitalists.
ReplyDeleteFor generations politicians on all sides have been saying that they will eradicate poverty, they've used it as a manifesto with which to get elected. But now it seems some of them can't even be bothered to pretend any more. Why should they? Successive governments have ripped up their manifesto once elected and still manage to get re-elected, so why waste time any more? Just state straight out that you don't care about the poor - the poor don't vote anyway.
In this world there are those who have nothing and no way of changing it; there are those who have a little but have enough cheap consumer goods to distract them from the real issues; and there are those who have wealth and will do anything to maintain that. And if you're trying to get elected of course let's not forget the bogeyman of Communism/Islamism/Whatever-it-is-at-the-moment-ism that they're "protecting" us from.
A revolution is only a revolution if things change for the better afterwards (something parts of Eastern Europe are finding out) and that will never happen because people are basically greedy. This could be a symptom of having been brought up in a capitalist society, or it could just be a natural human instinct. I don't really know.
I don't want to be rich. I don't want to be poor. One only exists because of the other and I for one want no part of it.
I hear you weariness with all of this business.
DeleteJust remember that the plutocrats of our world, feed off our discouragement. There is nothing resembling a perfect or ideal choice but things can get worse (look how much income inequality has risen in the last thirty years!) and I'm willing to fight for the better choice, even if it's not as big as difference as I'd like.
*end spiel*
People visit your site because you spend the money and effort to give away interesting music. When we don't leave enough comments you cry like a little girl. You troll your own comments section like a little girl. Now you think we care about your political hatreds.
ReplyDeleteYou don't even live in the US. Do you take seriously what an American thinks about Canadian politics?
Stick with giving away free music. Nobody would visit if you stopped. The creepy and manic sides of your personality shines through on these other posts and it's not pretty.
Awesome snark, anonymous dude.
DeleteI love the fact that the paucity of your vocabulary led you to use the 'like a little girl' simile twice (especially "troll like a little girl" which makes no sense at all.)
Now I'm not offended as you'd hoped, since I know some pretty tough little girls, none of whom would be so cowardly and small-minded as to insult someone who gave them something they wanted for free.
P.S. On the faint hope that you were actually genuine about your question, "Do you take seriously what an American thinks about Canadian politics?". The answer is "Yes, so long as they are informed and respectful." It's a big world out there and I can take anyone having an informed opinion on my country's politics, without whingeing about it like a thin-skinned xenophobe. After all, I left your rudely-worded comment on my blog stand, even though I feel no kinship with you.
The last "Anonymous" comment bears a further response, albeit one that covers obvious points made before at this blog and others I've seen wherein the blogger stepped out of the bounds of what at least some readers thought acceptable. I, too, come here for the tunes, but good gawd I cannot imagine complaining to the blogger about his sidetrack into politics any more than I could imagine complaining to him about some music he put up that I thought sucked. Jeezus -- he's putting it up FREE!! If you don't like the politics -- or the selection of music -- move on! It's easy -- just go to another site for the day (or forever if you're THAT offended). I'm amazed that right-wingers and moralists (who are often the same) hate when someone with a public forum has the gall -- the GALL!!! -- to express their opinion. Like, they gave up their right to have and share an opinion when they got an audience! This particularly sticks in their craws when it's them thar Hollyweird types. It, o'course, isn't cuz they're celebrities, it's because they tend to be left of the right-wingers who hate them. But, folks, try to get this: When people get famous, they don't relinquish their AMERICAN right to convey their opinion. Really, they don't! Rush Limbaugh, Charlton Heston and Sarah Palin -- all entertainers, if not all entertaining -- all have/had the right as Americans to speak their mind.
ReplyDeleteAnd, o'course, Jeffen, as a Canadian, has a right to weigh in on American politics. Case you haven't heard, the choices America makes affect everyone. Again, I love how these folks who screech about American exceptionalism and power in one voice cry "like little girls" when non-Americans acknowledge that power and feel a stake in the results and effects of American power. Does "Anonymous" not give a shit when a potential rival/influential country has scary politicians running for power? Really? You wouldn't care if, say, a moderate ran against a hard-core Islamist in, say, Iran? We both know the answer to this, unless you're so stupid as to not care what happens outside your borders. And, if you're a typical willfully ignorant right-winger, you just may not care.
End of rant.
C in Bunny-Huggin', Tree-Lovin', Whale-Savin' California
C
DeleteWhat a beautiful rant. It's actually touching to be defended with such strong and clear language.
The one sentence, I wish I'd written was this one:
"Again, I love how these folks who screech about American exceptionalism and power in one voice cry "like little girls" when non-Americans acknowledge that power and feel a stake in the results and effects of American power."
Both Romney and Ryan are spoiled little rich boys with "Daddy" issues!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-reich/obama-tax-proposal_b_1661908.html
Hey Evil Rev! You douche bag! Remember the Clinton years? It was easy to get a job back then, especially in his second term! The Republican controlled congress has done NOTHING but obstruct this President for the last two years! Literally, NOTHING! They have the worst record of any congress when it comes to writing and passing bills.
http://www.gallup.com/poll/152528/congress-job-approval-new-low.aspx
"Both Romney and Ryan are spoiled little rich boys with "Daddy" issues!"
ReplyDeleteNot sure I'd put it that way myself but it is interesting how so many Republican leaders come from money (these two f'rinstance) and how many Democrats leaders come from more humble origins (both Obama and Biden).
That's not to say that people who come from money are bad and that those who come from modest means are good, just that Democrats these days seem to be the last ones fighting for social mobility.
If you researched both men's family history, you might come to different conclusion. George Bush Jr. had many "Daddy" issues. One resulting in two unfunded wars, one war which was completely unnecessary! The other ones mission compromised to the point of failure. But it did make he and his Daddy's friends rich beyond believe. The Republican Party has been taken over by the Tea (Bag) Party. It's irrelevant as to how rich a candidate is at this point in time. The Citizens United Act proves this. It's all about who's funding their campaign and how much Corporate Dick they are willing suck!
ReplyDeleteThe Citizens United decision has the potential to devastate democracy. I'll admit that the democratic process is being totally undermined by money already but, as is so often the case. it could get so much worse
ReplyDelete