Category Archives: Capitalism

Aphorism: On Capital Punishment

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By Madison S. Hughes (09.21.2011)

 

For Troy Anthony Davis, tonight is the night that the lights went out in Georgia. No doubt, “Tea Baggers” across the nation are cheering for yet another execution of which they so shamelessly demonstrated broad support for during a recent Republican clown show under the guise of a primary presidential candidate debate. Ironically, these same knuckle-draggers lost one of their own earlier today as a white supremacist met his Maker at the hands of the State of Texas. The mental midget, and Texas Governor Rick Perry must be so proud as he added yet another notch to his lipstick case of the growing record number of executions under his reign. No doubt, he will sleep almost as well as Troy Davis this evening.

The recantation of seven of the nine eyewitnesses that testified under oath in the trial against Troy Davis was apparently insufficient to sway the Supreme Court of the United States to stay the execution of a black man in Georgia. The State of Georgia killed Troy Davis by lethal injection at 11:08 p.m. Eastern Time, two days shy of the 2011 CE autumnal equinox. With the exception of the United States, the civilized world has long since banned the death penalty.

One may simply add this execution to the litany of unconscionable wrongs committed by this country, both foreign and domestically. If, in contemporary times, one is proud to be an American, then they are either uninformed, ill-informed, or misinformed, and obviously spend little to no time in serious reflection. But then again, the patriotic knuckle-draggers of today are mostly of the reactionary persuasion to begin with.

As for me, I cannot expatriate to Europe fast enough. Autumn in Paris, who could ask for anything more?

Aphorism: On Supply-side Economics

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By Madison S. Hughes (09.20.2011)

Anytime the responsible idea of increasing taxes, or decreasing subsidies on corporations making record profits during times of economic recession caused by the economic policies implemented by the corporate masters, the specter of the “job creators” raises its ugly head in its usual punctual manner. The spurious “job creators,” especially corporations, have never, ever created a job. That is worth repeating, the spurious “job creators” especially corporations, have never, ever created a job. DEMAND creates jobs, not supply.

The idea that “job creators” create jobs, and must be kowtowed to so that they will give us the privilege of laboring for minimal sustenance is not only absurd on the surface, but it is utterly inconsistent with empirical evidence, particularly since the inception of the neoliberal experiment of the first 9/11 disaster of 1973. Supply-side economics has proven over, and over, to be an utter failure. Repeating supply-side economic mantras does not make them viable.

Equality In The Military: Religious Right Suffers Setback In Its Campaign For Theocracy

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Today gay men and women are serving openly in the U.S. military, marking another milestone in the march toward equal rights for all Americans. And needless to say, Religious Right leaders aren’t happy . . . Goldwater famously said of this issue, “You don’t have to be straight to be in the military; you just have to be able to shoot straight.” Equality and fairness. Those are concepts that are foreign to the forces of the Religious Right. They prefer intolerance and theocracy. But in a nation built on the separation of church and state, they cannot and must not prevail. Read more . . . 

Job Creators

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 . . . Boehner’s so-called “job creators” become “job destroyers” as they lay off people and close businesses. That is if we adopt the “employer” definition of “job creators” as opposed to the “consumer” definition . . . Representative Boehner is giving us meaningless political rhetoric rather than meaningful political solutions. Read more . . . 

It’s not ‘class warfare,’ it’s Christianity

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Americans sharing more equally in the burden of pulling our country out of massive debt, and using tax revenue to stimulate the economy and create jobs isn’t “class warfare,” it’s actually Christianity . . . According to some Christian conservatives, unregulated capitalism, with all its inherent inequalities of wealth, is God’s plan. . . . Just reduce taxes and let the “job creators” do their thing. Remember “trickle down economics” from the Reagan years? This is the belief system that launched the Reagan Revolution in the U.S. and started the decades long reduction in real wages of the American middle class and the rise in American poverty levels. Read more . . . 

Obama’s Millionaire Tax is Class War, Say Republicans

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Taxing America

• Last week the US census revealed that 46 million Americans – one in six – now live in poverty, the highest number ever.

• In 2010, the top 20% of Americans earned 49.4% of the nation’s income. The top 1% account for 24% of all income.

• About 47% of US people pay no federal income taxes, either because their incomes are too low, or because they qualify for enough tax breaks to eliminate their liability.

• People who make money from investments pay far lower taxes than those who earn it from their wages.

Read more . . . 

Eugene Robinson, “Where are the compassionate conservatives?”

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Rick Perry, Mitt Romney, Bachmann, Paul and the others onstage in Tampa all had the same prescription for the economy: Cut spending, cut taxes and let the wealth that results trickle down to the less fortunate
. . . Government is more than a machine for collecting and spending money, more than an instrument of war, a book of laws or a shield to guarantee and protect individual rights. Government is also an expression of our collective values and aspirations. There’s a reason the Constitution begins “We the people . . .” rather than “We the unconnected individuals who couldn’t care less about one another . . . .”
Read more . . .