Wednesday, February 22, 2012

MSM Blackout of Ron Paul Continues

It's amazing, watching the events unfold in this country.  After all the subjection to the nastiness of nascent fascism in the United States, the mainstream media blackout of Ron Paul is all the more disheartening.  I suppose it isn't much of a surprise that the MSM has chosen to blackout coverage of Ron Paul, given their allegiance to the stewards of fascism and empire, but allowing the implications of this blackout to sink in is akin to hearing the death knell of the country (if it hasn't already been rung tenfold times).  What ever happened to integrity?  How have so many people forfeited themselves over to an authoritarian mindset?  It's really disheartening, but maybe I shouldn't let shattered illusions be an impediment to dealing with the fact that fighting against what's happening in this country is not easy, free, or short-term. 

Obama Proposes to Lower Corporate Tax Rate to 28%, Forgets His China Policy

Obama has proposed lowering the corporate tax rate from 35% to 28%.  I admire the notion that lowering the tax rate will draw more businesses to conduct their operations in the United States, but again I have to point to the "China price" trumping his proposal.  The major corporations prefer low-tax, low-regulation, low-wage countries, such as China, for conducting their operations.  These types of countries offer the easiest, and most ethically questionable, way to generate higher profits.  Leave the pollution there, don't care for the community's health and wellness, and outsource responsibility.  This is the typical business model of major corporations.

How is this relevant to Obama's proposal?  The real problem lies in the institutionalization of poor ethics, which has driven investment into the countries where the rules can be broken for a relatively cheap price or where there are few rules at all.  It's simple - the major corporations based in the United States and Europe have chosen to operate in and exploit other countries because everything is cheaper.  Therefore, Obama wants to kick down the high corporate tax a few notches, but all the policies that drive corporations to other countries in the first place remain.  Forget the loopholes that allow the major corporations to skirt that 35% tax rate in the first place.

China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001.  Just look at the trade statistics since the accession:



source:  https://www.uschina.org/statistics/tradetable.html

The numbers are pretty clear.  Exponential growth.  China's production has literally exploded since the WTO accession in 2001.  I should probably find the direct policies affecting the trade, with quotas and eliminations of foreign investment laws, but anyway we look at it, the United States is the big player in the Chinese trade relationship.  The U.S. is also the home of the major proponents of getting China into the WTO.  The saying goes, a tiger can't change it's stripes.  If Obama really wants businesses to return production and manufacturing to the U.S., he's going to have to address his China policy, which doesn't stray in the least from his predecessors.  Also, the tax rate for American imports in China is 25%, and the tax rate for Chinese imports in the U.S. is 2.5%.  Explain that little fact away with the coming tax debate, Obama.

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

The Ire of "Obamanots in Denial"

Whatever you do when talking politics with Obamanots in denial, beware that you will be subjected to hormonal and emotional attacks on your integrity that require excessive amounts of patience and salt to counter.  You will be lambasted with litmus tests on your support for LGBT rights, taxing the rich, being a racist, being a white male power-man, or abortion, all the while any discussion of pertinent issues of say, imperial overstretch, corporate malfeasance, or extreme hypocrisy (a la Larry Summers, Tim Geithner, or Michael Taylor...i.e. corporate revolving door).  One thing that's striking about Obamanots in denial is how narrowly focused on social issues they are.  It's like they were living under a rock for the past three years.  They're just incredibly happy to have campaign oriented conversations about nothing that relates to the dismal state of the country's trade deficit, the foreclosure scandal, or any other realpolitik issue.  Obamanots in denial, if there is one thing you're good at, it's cheerleading.  Maybe you should channel that energy into Billy or Sue's little league game where the losers are winners, too. 

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Cowed, Dogged, and Penned

Do you hear that, that deafening silence?  The quiet and unrecognized passing of honor, of dignity, of principles long ago replaced.  Principles of liberty and universal rights, replaced by authoritarianism and corporate personhood.  How is it that justice is served so unequally, lies told so brazenly, and rights trammeled so wantonly?  In the process of awakening to the omnipresent grief and sorrow we now find ourselves submerged in, appeals to the great and the good have taken primary residence in the face of interminable uncertainty.  Show me the man who knows how to navigate this world, with answers to the eternal mysteries.  Where is the righteous indignation at the usurpation of freedom?  No, for, all that remains, is silence.  We have been cowed, dogged, penned - like industrially farmed animals commodified and proffered by an iron fist.

The passage of days in the United States, expending and compromising the true self, for external necessities of consumerism, subjugation to the corporation, and the ever quaint niceties of jockeying with wannabe aristocrats.  Problem is, "Crtl+P" Bernank is printing most people's wealth into oblivion.  It's like Mao is about to come and take all our silverware and pots and pans, the little that we have, and smelt it into worthless steal.  The sociopathic, demonic men laying claim to our humanity, our earth, and our future profit from the activities of destruction, but we have reached a fulcrum point.  It is obvious the system is crumbling, yet we are fighting against the emergence of a worse reality.  I don't know the answers.  All I know is that controlled perceptions mask the activities of conspiratorial power mongers, and it's a late stage in the game to be so acquiescent to their multitudinous, suppressive dictates.