Well, decision made. Ron is flying to N. Carolina by himself. He's going to stay about 10 days. We just couldn't figure out a way to leave Mike without worrying ourselves to death. Ron was too afraid we'd just have to turn around and come back so I told him it was more important for him to go since it has been 4 years since he has seen his family.
We are getting some welcomed rain this evening. It rained pretty hard for awhile and now it is just a light shower. They say a cool front is right behind the rain and we may start seeing some fall weather. That would be great!
I'm once again on the hunt for the perfect haircut. I'm trying to let my hair grow a little longer so I can start over. I'm in need of a change.
I've been listening to all the talk about how to solve the illegal immigration problem. Every politician has something to say about it but nobody ever talks about taking the incentive away.......you know, the jobs! Start going after the people who are hiring them. Seems if there was nothing to come here for then you wouldn't come. But there I go again being logical.
My New Garden
1 week ago
3 comments:
Oh, good heavens, logic will get you in trouble these days. People will accuse you of being intelligent, and that's frowned upon by most of the voters.
Is there such a thing as the perfect haircut? I let my hair grow out after I retired, but it is back to short and easy to care for now.
Let's face it...the immigration "problem" it is largely about cheap labor. This countries shameful slave-holding history lingers still.
The immigration "problem" is far larger in the minds of Right-Wing politicians than it is in reality. But they have a vested interest in making sure the voter doesn't notice that the corporations pouring money into their campaigns are paying their top executives an average of 345 times more than their average employee makes. In 1970 the average CEO made 30 times what his average employee made. Now it's 345 times more.
Politicians need a diversionary tactic because while from 1947 - 1979 everyone's economic fortunes improved by about the same amount; in the 35 years since Ronald Reagan instituted his "Trickle Down" economic policies the bottom 20% of Americans have seen only a 15% increase in their net worth, while the top 1% have seen a staggering 261% increase. (Source: Congressional Budget Office)
To see how the wealth distribution looks represented on a map see:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b3/If-us-land-mass-were-distributed-like-us-wealth.png
And this doesn't take into account the wealth of corporations. For example, while the Republican candidates howl about the 1% of the federal budget spent on food stamps they say nothing about corporate welfare:
1) Bank of America, which reported $17.2 B in accumulated offshore profits in 2012. It would owe $4.3 B in US taxes IF these funds were brought back to the US.
2) Citigroup had $42.6 B in foreign profits parked offshore in 2012 on which it paid NO US taxes. It would owe $11.5 B if it brings these funds back to the US.
3) ExxonMobil had a three-year federal income tax rate of just 15%. This gave the company a tax subsidy worth $6.2B from 2010-2012. It had $43B in offshore profits at the end of 2012, on which it paid NO US taxes.
4) FedEx made $6B over the last three years, didn’t pay a dime in federal income taxes, but received a tax subsidy worth $2.1B.
5) GE made $88B from 2002-2012 and paid just 2.4% in taxes for a tax subsidy of $29B. Paid NO taxes for 4 years. Had $108B in profits in 2012 on which it paid NO U.S. taxes.
6) Honeywell had profits of $5B from 2009 - 2012. Its tax rate was 1% for the last four years for a tax subsidy of $1.7B
8) Microsoft transferred profits to Puerto Rico from 2009-2012 saving $4.5B in federal income taxes. It stashed $60.8B in profits offshore in 2012 on which it paid NO US taxes.
9) Pfizer paid no US income taxes from 2010 - 2012 while earning $43B. It did this by shifting US profits offshore. It received $2.2B in federal tax refunds.
10) Verizon made $19.3B in US profits from 2008 - 2012, yet paid NO federal income taxes. Instead, it got $535M in tax rebates. Verizon’s effective federal income tax rate was -2.8% from 2008 to 2012.
In the 1950s corporate taxes provided 35% of the federal government's income. Now they provide only 10% while corporations lobby aggressively for an end to Social Security, Medicare, worker's rights and minimum wage laws.
So, yes, keep the voters arguing about immigration, gay marriage, abortion, racial divisions, anything that will distract them from the real issues, which is that they are selling the US down the river, rewriting the tax code, and even the Constitution, to favour the corporation and the extremely wealthy.
Frankly I am baffled that people can't see it, but you get a buffoon like Trump up in front and people who can't tell the difference between "reality TV" and reality are mesmerized. It is enough to make you weep.
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