Category Archives: Opinion

International, Opinion

France learns hard leason: Tax breaks for the Rich do not work

One of the things pushed through by President Sarkozy, at the beginning of his term, was tax breaks for the French Elites.  Four years later those breaks have proven to be an economic failure.  Now Sarkozy’s own UMP political party wants to stop it: “This government has a tax policy which benefits only a minority, and tries to tax the larger sections of the society. I am against such taxes.”- Herve Mariton, UMP Ruling Party

The French elites got huge tax breaks and exemptions, while the average taxpayer saw their taxes increased.  The French pay more taxes than taxpayers in Korea, or the United States, according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.

One of the breaks for the rich is a cap on the percentage of tax they pay, no more than 50%.  The average French taxpayer pays more than that.  On top of that, the French elites were actually paid by the government, a kind of Earned Income Credit for the rich: “While 8 million French live on less than 10,000 Euros per year, the Law was helping the rich. Not only their taxes were reduced, but each of them, all 1,700 of them in total, each one was given 30,000 Euros as tax compensation.”-Roland Muzeau, Communist Opposition Party.

President Sarkozy sold his tax plan to the French people, as a way of energizing the French economy.  It didn’t happen.  Pro-elitists, and pro-corporationists here in the United States don’t think Sarkozy did enough.  They actually accuse him of being too socialist!

French officials say they will reform the tax laws by the end of this year, but critics point out that the rich will still end up paying less than the average worker.  Is it time for another “French Revolution”?

Opinion, U.S.

Facebook wants exemption from U.S. election laws

Facebook officials are asking the Federal Election Commission to exempt them from U.S. election law.  The law Facebook doesn’t like; disclosing who paid for political advertising on their website.

Facebook’s arguments are really weak.  In a written explanation, Facebook says by disclosing who paid for the ad, it would make the ad bigger, and they don’t want bigger ads.  Also, Facebook tried to compare their political ads to things like bumper stickers and t-shirts.

How much bigger would the ad be, when it includes the name of who paid for it?  Also, comparing bumper stickers and t-shirts to paid political ads is comparing apples to oranges.  One is given away, or even sold, to supporters, the other is a paid advertisement.

What is the real reason Facebook doesn’t want to disclose who pays for political ads on their website?

International, Opinion, U.S.

China & U.S. sign something saying they’ll get along

The agreement has a lot of strong sounding words and phrases, like “comprehensive” and “concrete plans”.

Here’s what the Obama administration said;  China and the U.S. need “a cooperative partnership that is comprehensive in scope, cooperative in nature, and yields positive achievements that benefit our people.”

Basically China, and the U.S., spent a lot of taxpayer money to sit around and tell each other their woes, and why don’t we just get a long.  Then they signed a long winded agreement that basically says ‘we promise’.

What has been going on is being called “cooperation talks”.  Basically the U.S. is  in big debt, China holds most of that debt, China wants a piece of the U.S. action, the U.S. doesn’t want them to have any, but the U.S. owes China trillions so they try to make happy happy joy joy talk so we don’t go to war, or, so that China doesn’t dump all their trillions of U.S. bonds all at once.

Business/Economics, International, Opinion

Not only are the rich getting richer in the U.S., but in the U.K.

A study published by The Sunday Times shows that while the average Brit is struggling with a bad economy and government cut backs, the rich in the United Kingdom just get richer.

The Sunday Times “Rich List” says 1,000 of the richest Brits, not only kept their wealth, but actually increased it.  In fact, the number of British billionaires has increased to 73, up from 53 the previous year.

40 of the top billionaires were born in the U.K., but many British billionaires are from other countries.  Lakshi Mittal retains the number one spot, he’s Indian born and got rich in the steel industry.  Russian born Alisher Usmanov is now in the number two spot.  Chinese born Xiuli Hawken is the newest female billionaire, she got rich turning underground bunkers into shopping malls.

Keep in mind that money does not grow on trees, meaning there is not enough to go around for everyone, otherwise it would be valueless.  Knowing that, it should be obvious to people where the money is going.  The rich can only get richer because they are taking as much of the limited money/wealth supply as they can.  There is less for everyone else.

 

International, Opinion

Tens of thousands of Mexicans continue to protest Drugs War

It’s interesting how the main stream U.S. media reported the number of Drugs War protesters, over the weekend, as in the “hundreds”.  It was tens of thousands!

Reports out of Mexico vary from 20,000 to 85,000.  The latest protests took place from May 5-8, in several Mexican cities.  The people were not only protesting drug gangs, but the police and military as well.

Most of the victims in the Drugs War have been innocent civilians, especially migrant workers from Central American countries.  Which, when you think about it, doesn’t make sense.  Why would drug dealers, police or military want to kill civilians and migrant workers?  So far many local police have been arrested in connection with the mass killings of migrant workers.  It makes you wounder if this is really a Drugs War.

Now the main stream U.S. media is running reports that Mexicans support their President’s Drugs War policy.  In actuality the percent of supporters is slightly down from 2010.  Makes you wonder why the U.S. media seems to be downplaying a war in Mexico that has killed more people than the wars in Afghanistan & Iraq combined, in the past few years.

 

International, Opinion, U.S.

Imperialist Barack Obama to build permanent U.S. base in Poland, Russia getting pissed

Polish media reporting that President Obama will be announcing a deal made with the Polish government that will allow a permanent U.S. base on Poland’s territory.

The new U.S. air base, at Lask air field, would replace the Aviano air base in Italy.  The USAF has F-16s based on Aviano, and they might be transferred to Poland in 2013.

Russian officials say they will counter the U.S. move to Poland.

If you were Russia, and your rival makes several deals with eastern European countries for “missile shields”, and, now they’re going to move an air base from Italy to Poland, wouldn’t you think your rival is positioning itself to attack you?

International, Opinion, U.S.

Defense Department home video of Osama bin Laden is pathetic

The home video released by the U.S. Department of Defense is pathetic.  The decrepit man in the video, supposedly Osama bin Laden, was so much a threat to the world that we had to expend such great effort to kill him?

What I see in the video, is a really old man who spends his days watching videos of himself (if it is Osama bin Laden).  Again, pathetic!   Yeah right this guy was directing all kinds of evil against the world!  The guy probably had alzheimers and had to watch videos of himself to remember who he was!  What a threat; send in the SEALS, no wonder there wasn’t any resistance to the assault.

Why not simply arrest the old codger and bring him back to New York City?

Has anyone seen if the video ever shows the old guy’s face?  I find it suspicious that what the U.S. media shows is from behind.

Come on President Obama, the Bush Jr administration was better at BS than you!  I’m putting on hip waders, it just gets deeper and deeper!

International, Opinion

Rumors that Gaddafi is dead

Italian media is claiming that Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi is dead.  They point out that it’s been nine days since he was seen in public, since the time a NATO airstrike killed one of his sons.

Several foreign envoys are also spreading the rumor by saying there is talk within the Libyan government about who will take charge.  If Gaddafi is dead, then it is proof that he was not in total control of the Libyan government, because the Libyan military continues to pound rebel positions.  It might also explain why NATO leaders stated, a second time, that there is no military solution to Libya.

 

International, Opinion

Israel cuts off tax moneys for Palestinians, punishment for Fatah & Hamas unifying

Talk about taxation without representation, Israel collects most of the customs fees, and taxes for the Palestinian territories.  It’s another way the Israelis make life hell for the Palestinians.

Now Israel says they will not turn that tax money over to the Palestinian government, in retribution for Fatah and Hamas unifying.  The money Israel is withholding is more than have of what the Palestinian government needs to operate.  Palestinian officials say they’re now forced to ask for donations from the international community.

Business/Economics, International, Opinion, U.S.

China continues to sell off U.S. bonds

China is the biggest buyer of U.S. sovereign debt (bonds), but has been selling off that debt at a steady pace. In February China sold off $1.15 trillion (yes, trillion) in U.S. bonds.

Chinese officials say the sell off of U.S. bonds could continue for another two months, or as long as the Federal Reserve continues with its quantitative easing (QE) policies.

According to the U.S. Treasury Department, China holds $4.47 trillion in U.S. sovereign debt.  China wants to cut it to less than $1 trillion.  Even then, Chinese officials say holding that much U.S. debt is only good for the short run.  I guess they don’t think the future looks very bright for the United States.