Day: October 30, 2019

Closing Thought–30Oct19

Tax Cuts!

Every time we have a cut in taxes we are told that they will pay for themselves and that all the benefits for the wealthy will trickle down to the rest of us peasants….both are lies that the people believe every time and every time we , the average person, gets the shaft.

That said what about the tax cuts of two years ago the Speaker Ryan helped pass and screw us people….

After two years, President Trump’s tax cuts are not on track to pay for themselves, the latest Treasury data released Friday suggest.

Total federal government revenues ended up lower in 2019 than was projected before the passage of the GOP tax overhaul in 2017.

Then, in 2017, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projected that fiscal 2019 revenues, without the tax cuts, would be $3.69 trillion. Instead, revenues with the tax cuts were only $3.46 trillion.

To be certain, the difference, $225 billion, cannot be attributed solely to the tax cuts. Other economic factors have influenced economic growth over the past two years. For example, the tariffs put in place as part of Trump’s trade wars likely counteracted the stimulative effect of the tax cuts.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/two-years-in-trump-tax-cuts-not-on-course-to-pay-for-themselves

THat was a con job…..but what about all the bravado that Trump thumps his chest about….like” this is the best economy in our history”

More con….more lies…..look at the stats for yourself…..

It’s true the economy has been doing well – but there have been periods when it was even stronger.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-45827430

The truth is that the economy is the best in decades but only if you are already wealthy and are getting wealthier…..the rest of us continue to struggle….day to day……

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

I Read, I Wrote, You Know

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

Making America(n History) Great Again–Part 38

I have been posting a series written by Maj. Danny Sjursen and this is the final part of the historic perspective.

Maj. Danny has taken the reader from the very early days to the present……

For all the readers and visitors that are interested in his entire series I give you the series by Maj. Sursen…..

Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5; Part 6; Part 7; Part 8; Part 9; Part 10; Part 11; Part 12; Part 13; Part 14; Part 15; Part 16; Part 17; Part 18; Part 19; Part 20; Part 21; Part 22; Part 23; Part 24; Part 25; Part 26; Part 27; Part 28; Part 29; Part 30; Part 31; Part 32; Part 33; Part 34; Part 35; Part 36; Part 37.

This part is the final episode and it takes into consideration the world of today…..

There is a widespread belief that American history is best viewed in a linear context. The United States, the narrative goes, began as a flawed experiment in democracy—replete with slavery and bigotry at the start—but has gradually and consistently improved into a more perfect union, a millenarian nation on its way toward serving as an example for the world, a “city on a hill.” Minorities, according to this notion, may have once been oppressed but have gained equal rights and equal protection under the law; America might have conquered Indian and Mexican land but has long since set aside its imperial ways. As such, both at home and abroad, the U.S., though still imperfect, is a force for good in the world.

Progress, such as it is, has been wildly inconsistent and halting since the Anglo colonization of the eastern coast of North America. Take the plight of African-Americans. Theirs has been a history of false starts, dreams deferred and hopes enlivened only to be dashed. Consider, for example, that more blacks were U.S. House members and senators in 1877 than in 1967. In the wake of the Civil War, the reforms of Reconstruction launched African-Americans into positions of power they would not regain for nearly a century. During this time, Northern whites abandoned them to the whims of Southern bigots, and the result was Jim Crow—systemic segregation, a parallel apartheid system in the American South. A further example is that blacks finally saw their voting rights protected by the 1965 Voting Rights Act—which required the federal government to carefully review electoral procedures in the former Confederate states—only to find many of those protections stripped away by a reactionary Supreme Court early in the 21st century. Clearly, there’s very little that is progressive or linear in the journey of black Americans.

American History for Truthdiggers: A Once, Always and Future Empire

The “Bright City on the Hill” of Reagan fame is just a slogan and an outright lie….but that matters not to most Americans….nothing about history matters to most Americans.

This is an excellent series and every person interested in American history should read and learn.

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

I Read, I Wrote, You Know

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

Lock Her Up……Lock Him Up!

The chant made famous by those supporters of the president…..

There is a bit of a dispute among people that do not like the president and his antics and lies….

Sunday at the World Series game the president was booed and treated to the chant of “lock him up”…..

The anchors of MSNBC’s Morning Joe thinks it is un-American to chant this….

When you hear Morning Joe and Trump in a sentence together, you probably expect them to be on opposite sides. Not so much this time: The married MSNBC morning show hosts are taking the president’s side, sort of, after he was booed at a World Series game Sunday night. Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski on Monday morning took issue with the chants of the crowd at Washington, DC’s National Park to “lock him up.” That’s a play, of course, on Trump’s calls to “lock her up” related to Hillary Clinton during the 2016 campaign. “It’s just un-American,” said Scarborough of the chant. “It started with Donald Trump, in fact he’s made it the centerpiece of his campaign rallies.” Added Brzezinski, “We find it sickening when it happens at his rallies.”

Scarborough continued: “Of course it’s sickening. We are Americans and we do not do that. We do not want the world hearing us chant ‘Lock him up’ to this president or to any president. That’s why I’m saying, let’s hope as we move forward maybe this is one less fascist tactic he and his supporters use during chants.” As the Daily Dot reports, the internet did not agree. The site rounds up social media criticism for the pair insisting there was nothing wrong with the chant, and leading Scarborough to respond on Twitter: “So let’s see if I’ve got this straight: When crowds chant ‘Lock her up’ toward Hillary, it is illiberal and anti-American. (I agree). But when crowds chant the same toward Trump, it is suddenly a fulsome exercise of sacred First Amendment rights.” Brzezinski was slightly less staunch in her defense: “While I understand why it happened…And that Trump created this atmosphere, the scene worried me, for exactly that. It is a race to the bottom. Its very difficult not to get caught up. #gohigh.”

That is MoJo’s opinion and now we have someone else to weigh in on this debate…..

President Trump attended Game 5 of the World Series — the first baseball game that he has attended since his swearing in as president of the United States — which was being played between the Houston Astros and the Washington Nationals. In so doing, Trump himself became a target of baseball’s notorious heckling. And that heckling was nothing short of patriotic. 

https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/trump-world-series-booed-video-lock-him-up-nationals-park-reaction-a9174781.html

My feeling….what is good for the goose is good for the gander….if he cannot take the ribbing then he should just stay home and watch FOX for they will massage his genitals for him….and make him feel all better.

There was a time when I would have thought this was a stupid idea, booing someone, but in the age of stupid I say…WHY NOT?

In the past I tried to be civil but that did nothing to bring the conversation forward……in an age of BS news and lies and accusations then booing is acceptable…..at least to me.

I Read, I Wrote, You Know

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

Whose Oil Is It?

As the US is leaving Northern Syria they have been detoured to the oil fields of Eastern Syrian….after I read this I wrote a post asking “Syrian? Whose Oil Is It?”……..https://lobotero.com/2019/10/21/syria-whose-oil-is-it/

The US controls the oil? Really? What does that mean?

A article that I read says that Trump wants Exxon to take on these oilfields…..

Having sent growing numbers of troops into eastern Syria explicitly to control the oil, President Trump now says he is seeking a deal with Exxon Mobil or “one of our great companies” to go into occupied Syria and take the oil.

Trump has long suggested that in his view, the US should be able to just take oil from countries it is involved in militarily, as a way to recover some of the costs of his various wars. Trump said on Sunday that the oil is valuable and “we should be able to take some also.”

That Trump is sold on this idea is one thing, but convincing a US Oil and Gas Major to go along with the operation is another thing. The legal basis, particularly internationally, of taking Syrian oil without Syrian permission, and keeping US military forces there to keep Syria from stopping them, is going to be complicated, to say the least.

Trump’s conviction that legally it’s probably fine, after all, doesn’t mean the US company, whichever it turns out to be, wouldn’t get sued in the US or internationally for looting Syria’s oil.

These huge multinational companies are notoriously risk-averse about conflict, and would likely be so about joining the president in an oil-taking scheme of this sort. That means while Trump continues to war to keep the oil, he’s going to face a big job selling the idea to any company.

Now as far as I know Syria is a sovereign nation….then any attempt to take this oil is an illegal act……since Assad is the leader of Syria, like him or not, this is a simple case of attempted theft by the US. 

Does the arrogance of this man know any boundaries?

I Read, I Wrote, You Know

“Lego Ergo Scribo”