"Charles Two Middle Initials Cooke (“We Can’t Trust The IRS”) -
I'll tell you what I can't trust , a guy with two middle names like "Cock Wobble " or " Chuck Wagon".
Boy, those TeaParty
Days , that was the Golden Age of Butthurt.
Old White People with too much time on their hands will be the end of democracy. We need to find useful outlets for all their energy. If I was all jacked up on B-12, Cialis and statins I'd probably be starting shit all the time too. Maybe an Early Bird version of Midnight Basketball.
Maybe if all of us younger than the Fox News cohort were to go down to the local edibles shop and grab a handful of Purple Kush Gummies to throw into Gramma's Centrum Siver Complete Senior Multi Vitamin Gummies (now with Electrolytes- What Seiors Crave) I bet we could see some real change!
Speaking of Jeff Bezos, the definitive rebuttal to the conservative claim that Biden is turning America into a socialist collective is the mere fact of Bezos breezily planning to go into outer space. If America were a socialist collective Bezos would know we’d never let him back in again.
An excellent, albeit depressing, post. What's even more depressing is that the real scandal, to borrow a phrase, is that this extreme tax avoidance of our capitalist overlords is all perfectly legal -- "Perfectly Legal" also being the name of a terrific aneurysm-producing book by David Cay Johnston that elucidates how the rich manage to get away with this. If by "Bipartisan majorities have long supported this part of the tax code" the WSJ means majorities in Congress, they are correct. The legislative authors of the very tax code that requires everyone reading this to pay a higher tax rate than Bezos, Gates, et al (and the lesser known Paulsons, Teppers, and Steve "It's Like When Hitler Invaded Poland" Schwarzmans, etc.) make their money the old-fashioned way, under the table. And lucky us, Bezos and Musk don't have to waste any of their Space Cadet Club money on welfare queens.
Pseudoconservatism is a one trick pony: tax cuts. That and vote suppression. And gun promotion. And womb regulation. And xenophobia. And racism. And militarism. And religiousity. OK, it’s an eight trick pony but it’s still horseshit.
". . . except for the drama of whether we’re gonna do anything about it."
Spoiler alert: No. And it's not because we the people don't care. It's because we the people are completely shut out of that conversation. If you're an average citizen, just try to get a 1-minute face-to-face meeting with your congressional representative. Not gonna happen. A meeting with either of your senators is about as likely as you being crowned Queen of Norway.
But if you're Bezos or Buffett, Gates or Koch, you have Senator Piemaker's personal cell number. When you call, Piemaker answers. And Piemaker really REALLY wants to please you. So Piemaker never even hears the constituent voices saying "TAX THE RICH!!!" What he does hear is the voices of the rich saying "You know, user fees would really be the best way to raise revenue, and I'd be happy to pay the toll on I-95 for the one time each year I use that road." Meanwhile, every working schlub who uses I-95 to commute 4 exits from home to work is subsidizing Daddy Megabux's yearly jaunt.
"Remember the Tea Party shtick, where the Car Dealers and Nail Salon Owners dressed up like a community theater production of 1776 and acted as if Nathan Hale died for a capital gains tax rate cut?" LOL, I adore you.
The problem is, the rubes would rather have Elon Musk (a man so rich he can afford to blow up rockets during test launches like the technology had not advanced beyond 1940s prototypes) and pay little in taxes than have any kind of almost sorta healthy society which might mean the immigrant driving to work for a 12 hour shift isn't hitting a pothole every 7 seconds or some darkies and skirts get a free education at a community college.
I'm sure when the GOP state legislatures refuse to certify the election results of any Democrat in 2024 and the federal government is again run by lunatics who think vaccines make your blood magnetic, the Republicans can retool the tax code (and eliminate the filibuster to stop Democratic interference, obviously) and demand all people pay a "fair" flat tax of $50,000 per year. Of course, if you can't pay your taxes, the IRS will investigate and prosecute you. It would be wrong to skip out on your tax obligation.
Wait, Roy—you didn’t think to sprinkle any Himalayan pink salt on Megan McArdle’s WaPo column (“…given a choice between letting billionaires spend fortunes reaching for the stars, or destroying those fortunes so that the rest of us don’t have to look at them, then personally, I’ll take the rockets”) from yesterday? Too low-hanging?
Megan is a snobbish wannabe rich person. Because she has failed at becoming that, she scribbles stupid apologia for the corruption of our capitalist elites and their enabling politicians.
It is a Newtonian-class law of physics, that the more wised-up and in-the-know these people think they are (and present themselves as being), the more oblivious they are of what I call "reality." E.g., they'll sneer that someone like Fauci is only in it for the self-aggrandizement and they money, but show them someone who really IS in it for the self-aggrandizement and the money, like Bezos or Trump, and they praise them for being selfless heroes.
Just like global warming: The climate scientists are all in on a worldwide conspiracy to fake the data so they can cash in on sweet grant money. BUT the fossil-fuel industry, having no stake in the outcome whatsoever, is providing the only true and clear picture of the situation.
Here's an Australian example of that premise. The show is the A.B.C.'s Q&A. Senator Jim Molan exposing his ignorance to the world @ 4.00. The audience reaction is perfectly apt.
Nice clip. I "like" how this numbnuts says we have to mitigate it while ignoring questions about its cause. Also, what's with the American accent of the first guy? Also also, I love how the interviewer keeps pressing him.
The absolute evil freaking genius of the right wing “scandal” machine is its uncanny ability to create a “scandal” from little or nothing, have it be debunked over and over again, and then, for the rest of time refer back knowingly to said “scandal” as if it were established fact (which, for a certain subset of American — those who, for example, think BLM protests were orgies of violence and 1/6 was a literal picnic in the park — it is).
Back in the day, they would have nodded toward the argument that THAT money is different because it Creates Jobs. You like Jobs, don't you? (I see below ol' Broken Calculator McArdle came though, thanks Megan!). It show just how important outrage is to Republican philosophy is these days, they're cancelling William F. Buckley.
I saw somewhere a defense that the untaxed money was not liquid simoleans, and taxing unrealized gains would be unfair, somehow. Not an insane argumemt, so useless to Republicans. But I don't care anyway, there's more than 1 way to skin a plutocrat.
Once I remembered how often Abbie Hoffman used to dress as a Floundering Fodder and thought that being outrageous were an argument, I understood the Tea Party to have a lot of Yippie Envy—to repeat an earlier comment, just like Norbert the Narc they still would like to 'get a chance at them big-tittied hippie girls'.
On the main topic: is it better or worse that they don't frame it entirely as a moral issue and instead are just lubing themselves for an orgy of 'Look over _there_!'?
How about that wealth tax idea? Or is that extortion like making people pay all kinds of insurance and stuff just to live above board, and thereby funding whole sectors of our economy inefficiently but with plenty of room for graft and grift, not to mention grip and grin photo ops at the local chamber events?
*This* time the car dealers and nail salon owners went to the Capitol on 1/6 and tried to lynch their way to power. The IRS was a "least concern".
Not all nail salon owners. Some of them were busy entertaining NFL owners like Robert Kraft.
"Charles Two Middle Initials Cooke (“We Can’t Trust The IRS”) -
I'll tell you what I can't trust , a guy with two middle names like "Cock Wobble " or " Chuck Wagon".
Boy, those TeaParty
Days , that was the Golden Age of Butthurt.
Old White People with too much time on their hands will be the end of democracy. We need to find useful outlets for all their energy. If I was all jacked up on B-12, Cialis and statins I'd probably be starting shit all the time too. Maybe an Early Bird version of Midnight Basketball.
Maybe if all of us younger than the Fox News cohort were to go down to the local edibles shop and grab a handful of Purple Kush Gummies to throw into Gramma's Centrum Siver Complete Senior Multi Vitamin Gummies (now with Electrolytes- What Seiors Crave) I bet we could see some real change!
Just
Harmony and understanding
Sympathy and trust abounding
No more falsehoods or derisions
Golden living dreams of visions
Mystic crystal revelation
And the mind's true liberation -
as far as you can see
Or just get them a tank of pretty fishes to stare at. This is the dawning of the age of aquariums.
Well, they got the dribbling down good...
Speaking of Jeff Bezos, the definitive rebuttal to the conservative claim that Biden is turning America into a socialist collective is the mere fact of Bezos breezily planning to go into outer space. If America were a socialist collective Bezos would know we’d never let him back in again.
An excellent, albeit depressing, post. What's even more depressing is that the real scandal, to borrow a phrase, is that this extreme tax avoidance of our capitalist overlords is all perfectly legal -- "Perfectly Legal" also being the name of a terrific aneurysm-producing book by David Cay Johnston that elucidates how the rich manage to get away with this. If by "Bipartisan majorities have long supported this part of the tax code" the WSJ means majorities in Congress, they are correct. The legislative authors of the very tax code that requires everyone reading this to pay a higher tax rate than Bezos, Gates, et al (and the lesser known Paulsons, Teppers, and Steve "It's Like When Hitler Invaded Poland" Schwarzmans, etc.) make their money the old-fashioned way, under the table. And lucky us, Bezos and Musk don't have to waste any of their Space Cadet Club money on welfare queens.
Pseudoconservatism is a one trick pony: tax cuts. That and vote suppression. And gun promotion. And womb regulation. And xenophobia. And racism. And militarism. And religiousity. OK, it’s an eight trick pony but it’s still horseshit.
It's a wide tent of assholery.
An assholery spread wide, yes. And just look at the folks who say, "I'm in on that!"
Bu-bu-but they say that they're the true workers' party.
". . . except for the drama of whether we’re gonna do anything about it."
Spoiler alert: No. And it's not because we the people don't care. It's because we the people are completely shut out of that conversation. If you're an average citizen, just try to get a 1-minute face-to-face meeting with your congressional representative. Not gonna happen. A meeting with either of your senators is about as likely as you being crowned Queen of Norway.
But if you're Bezos or Buffett, Gates or Koch, you have Senator Piemaker's personal cell number. When you call, Piemaker answers. And Piemaker really REALLY wants to please you. So Piemaker never even hears the constituent voices saying "TAX THE RICH!!!" What he does hear is the voices of the rich saying "You know, user fees would really be the best way to raise revenue, and I'd be happy to pay the toll on I-95 for the one time each year I use that road." Meanwhile, every working schlub who uses I-95 to commute 4 exits from home to work is subsidizing Daddy Megabux's yearly jaunt.
Just last week I woke one day to find I was being crowned. Not Norway but some other queenly state.
"Remember the Tea Party shtick, where the Car Dealers and Nail Salon Owners dressed up like a community theater production of 1776 and acted as if Nathan Hale died for a capital gains tax rate cut?" LOL, I adore you.
The problem is, the rubes would rather have Elon Musk (a man so rich he can afford to blow up rockets during test launches like the technology had not advanced beyond 1940s prototypes) and pay little in taxes than have any kind of almost sorta healthy society which might mean the immigrant driving to work for a 12 hour shift isn't hitting a pothole every 7 seconds or some darkies and skirts get a free education at a community college.
I'm sure when the GOP state legislatures refuse to certify the election results of any Democrat in 2024 and the federal government is again run by lunatics who think vaccines make your blood magnetic, the Republicans can retool the tax code (and eliminate the filibuster to stop Democratic interference, obviously) and demand all people pay a "fair" flat tax of $50,000 per year. Of course, if you can't pay your taxes, the IRS will investigate and prosecute you. It would be wrong to skip out on your tax obligation.
Wait, Roy—you didn’t think to sprinkle any Himalayan pink salt on Megan McArdle’s WaPo column (“…given a choice between letting billionaires spend fortunes reaching for the stars, or destroying those fortunes so that the rest of us don’t have to look at them, then personally, I’ll take the rockets”) from yesterday? Too low-hanging?
Megan is a snobbish wannabe rich person. Because she has failed at becoming that, she scribbles stupid apologia for the corruption of our capitalist elites and their enabling politicians.
Megan's father was a crooked NYC contractor and she grew up in chauffeured comfort. Her first words were probably "Cut Taxes On The Rich!"
I would have thought her first words were "Power of attorney!"
If you look in the Online Dictionary under 'syncophant'
there is a picture of McMegan.
Swear to God.
Lol no I just missed it. Thanks!
As long as Manchin and Sinema are senators (never mind the entire GOP) we will do nothing about Stop the (Tax) Steal.
It is a Newtonian-class law of physics, that the more wised-up and in-the-know these people think they are (and present themselves as being), the more oblivious they are of what I call "reality." E.g., they'll sneer that someone like Fauci is only in it for the self-aggrandizement and they money, but show them someone who really IS in it for the self-aggrandizement and the money, like Bezos or Trump, and they praise them for being selfless heroes.
Just like global warming: The climate scientists are all in on a worldwide conspiracy to fake the data so they can cash in on sweet grant money. BUT the fossil-fuel industry, having no stake in the outcome whatsoever, is providing the only true and clear picture of the situation.
Exactly. And--here's the punch line--they pride themselves on reaching these insights through *common sense.*
Here's an Australian example of that premise. The show is the A.B.C.'s Q&A. Senator Jim Molan exposing his ignorance to the world @ 4.00. The audience reaction is perfectly apt.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAAB93cTEQo
Nice clip. I "like" how this numbnuts says we have to mitigate it while ignoring questions about its cause. Also, what's with the American accent of the first guy? Also also, I love how the interviewer keeps pressing him.
EAIAC
Lois Lerner!!!!
The absolute evil freaking genius of the right wing “scandal” machine is its uncanny ability to create a “scandal” from little or nothing, have it be debunked over and over again, and then, for the rest of time refer back knowingly to said “scandal” as if it were established fact (which, for a certain subset of American — those who, for example, think BLM protests were orgies of violence and 1/6 was a literal picnic in the park — it is).
Back in the day, they would have nodded toward the argument that THAT money is different because it Creates Jobs. You like Jobs, don't you? (I see below ol' Broken Calculator McArdle came though, thanks Megan!). It show just how important outrage is to Republican philosophy is these days, they're cancelling William F. Buckley.
I saw somewhere a defense that the untaxed money was not liquid simoleans, and taxing unrealized gains would be unfair, somehow. Not an insane argumemt, so useless to Republicans. But I don't care anyway, there's more than 1 way to skin a plutocrat.
Once I remembered how often Abbie Hoffman used to dress as a Floundering Fodder and thought that being outrageous were an argument, I understood the Tea Party to have a lot of Yippie Envy—to repeat an earlier comment, just like Norbert the Narc they still would like to 'get a chance at them big-tittied hippie girls'.
On the main topic: is it better or worse that they don't frame it entirely as a moral issue and instead are just lubing themselves for an orgy of 'Look over _there_!'?
whether we’re gonna do anything about it. Not if Joe Manchin has a say in things!
How about that wealth tax idea? Or is that extortion like making people pay all kinds of insurance and stuff just to live above board, and thereby funding whole sectors of our economy inefficiently but with plenty of room for graft and grift, not to mention grip and grin photo ops at the local chamber events?