Apple is a case in point: Instead of investing more money, they hoard it; instead of paying their fair share of taxes, they avoid them. True, their behavior is legal, but that does not make it right for an American based Corporation which benefits from the “infrastructure” provided for them by the American taxpayer, like:

Countless legal and economic benefits by operating in America, benefits Apple wouldn’t enjoy anywhere else, such as:

* basic legal protections,
* a judiciary that safeguards and enforces the rule of law,
* an intellectual property regime that affords generous—in fact,
* overly broad—protections for new ideas and innovations,
* a world-class system of higher education,
* a (somewhat) open immigration policy,
* reliable security,
* an advanced infrastructure for business development,
* and countless other benefits from operating in a functional, developed society with a genuine social contract.

This Apple meme on avoiding corporate taxes is common, as most of our large corporations do exactly the same thing, thus depriving our nation with much needed revenue. Individuals like Mitt Romney practice the same tax avoidance scheme, legally.

Thus the obvious solution is to change the tax laws, a near impossibility given the fact that these same corporations and wealthy individuals support those law makers who then agree to the status quo regarding both corporate and individual tax laws and policies. So we are stuck? No, we are not. We have the power of the elections, and must use it. This also involves restoring the one man/one vote system under which we are supposed to elect our leaders. But then, we need to minimize the gerrymandering of House district lines nationwide, and eliminate voter suppression practices. Accomplishing these basic fair voting systems is where the big challenge lies, a gargantuan challenge indeed, one to which we have never fully stepped up to, due to the power of money in our politics. ‘Tis time to get started in earnest, before we sink to second world status.

Added: Extremist Republicans have called for austerity, like the sequester and worse. Cannot we not take a peek on the experience of the UK on austerity: They are heading for their third recession in four years! How could any American citizen wish for this. Keynes was correct about how to get an economy growing again: Stimulate it! Where would we be now if Republicans accepted historic economic common sense, instead of their seriously flawed ideology?

In spite of the dysfunction and outright opposition to efforts of President Omama and the Dems, our fragile economy proceeds on the path to recovery.

If we had followed the recovery policies of the Republicans, namely austerity, like the UK put in place, we would undoubtedly be in our third recession, as is the case with the Brits.

Let’s be honest with ourselves, Republican policies are dramatically tilted toward the upper 1%, assuming that the trickle down theory will work. Well it is not working.

What has been working has been to let the consumer drive the economy, the Keynesian way. But Republicans even severely restricted this approach, refusing to sign on to more stimulus when it would have been more effective, as the first stimulus was.

Instead, Republicans have managed to force us into austerity with their sequestration, by refusing to kill it before it took effect by agreeing to a budget intended to keep the economy growing. Just think how much better the economy would be doing without sequestration, on the contrary, with intelligent budgeting.

As bad, Republicans have continued to fight to undermine our democratic principles, by making it harder for the middle class and poor to vote, and by governing on the principle of requiring 60 votes in the Senate to enact legislation.

If we manage to get through this period of slow growth, it won’t be due to any help provided by the policies of Republicans, as has been demonstrated during Obama’s two terms up to now.

Well Republicans are just plain wrong, aren’t they?

And to top it off, look here. According to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office:

In fiscal year 2010, which was President Obama’s first full fiscal year in office, the budget deficit was $1.3 trillion. In fiscal year 2013, the Congressional Budget Office projects it will be $845 billion. That’s a 35 percent decrease in terms of dollars, and it’s even bigger—41 percent—if you’re tracking the deficit as a share of the GDP. The percentage drop is even bigger—roughly 50 percent—if you start from fiscal year 2009, which overlapped the final year of the Bush presidency and the first year of Obama’s.

Finally, the NYT on February 11, 2013, reported:

In figures released last week, the Congressional Budget Office said it had erased hundreds of billions of dollars in projected spending on Medicare and Medicaid. The budget office now projects that spending on those two programs in 2020 will be about $200 billion, or 15 percent, less than it projected three years ago. New data also show overall health care spending growth continuing at the lowest rate in decades for a fourth consecutive year.

This progress is rather remarkable when the opposition party, the Republicans, have done all they can to stall President Obama’s agenda: To hell with the American people.

Nice work President Obama the the Dems! Thank you!!

Consider these quotes:

* Adequate health care should be provided for all, regardless of regardless of the ability to pay, which must be the foundation of any arrangement for financing the health service.  We can buy that!”

* The Tory government took the lead in extending unemployment insurance.

* Spending on people sick and disabled has ery nearly doubled under this government.

Consider also the following Thatcher policies:

* Approved Government assistance in housing;

* Increased government funded pensions 11% during “the worst recession since the ’30′s”;

* Increased VAT tax from 8 to 15%;

* Increased income taxes from 33.1% of GDP to 35.4% of GDP over her ten year term in office;

* Note well: Taxes under Obama are about 18% of GDP, a little more than half of Thatcher;

* Thatcher declared that Darwin’s work on the Evolution of Species was a high point in Science;

* She believed in reason and the scientific method;

* She said that mankind was “damaging our planet in dangerous wars”;

* She stated that “climate change must be addressed on a global level”;

* On climate change: “Those which are industrialized must contribute more to help.”;

* Maggie Thatcher was pro-choice!

To compare this staunch Conservative to the present American crop, well obviously there is no comparison. Our Conservatives are beyond the pale, promoting ideology over reason, and pulling our country down in the process. The contrast is striking!

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Sure he was a family man, a dad, a friend, all qualities we admire and miss when that candle is extinguished. As even Ariana Huffington said following his untimely and premature death.

“All I can think is what Andrew meant to me as a friend … his passion, his exuberance, his fearlessness.”

But in Andrew Breitbart’s case, he was much more, and that much more was/is not attractive, not because of his politics so much as with his behavior in promoting same.

I think David Frum, a Republican opinionator, got it right with these few paragraphs written as an obituary following Breitbart’s death:

This indifference to detail suffused all of Breitbart’s work, and may indeed be his most important and lasting legacy. Breitbart sometimes got stories right (Anthony Weiner). More often he got them wrong (Sherrod). He did not much care either way. Just as all is fair in a shooting war, so manipulation and deception are legitimate tools in a culture war. Breitbart used those tools without qualm or regret, and he inspired a cohort of young conservative journalists to do likewise.
In time, Andrew Breitbart might have aged into greater self-control and a higher concept of public service. Premature death deprived him of the chance at redemption often sought and sometimes found by people who have done wrong in their lives and work.
And this is where it becomes difficult to honor the Roman injunction to speak no ill of the dead. It’s difficult for me to assess Breitbart’s impact upon American media and American politics as anything other than poisonous. When one of the leading media figures of the day achieves his success by his giddy disdain for truth and fairness—when one of our leading political figures offers to his admirers a politics inflamed by rage and devoid of ideas—how to withhold a profoundly negative judgment on his life and career?
Especially when that career was so representative of his times?
We live in a time of political and media demagoguery unparalleled since the 19th century. Many of our most important public figures have gained their influence and power by inciting and exploiting the ugliest of passions—by manipulating fears and prejudices—by serving up falsehoods as reported truth. In time these figures will one by one die. What are we to say of this cohort, this group, this generation? That their mothers loved them? That their families are bereaved? That their fans admired them and their employees treated generously by them? Public figures are inescapably judged by their public actions. When those public actions are poisonous, the obituary cannot be pleasant reading.

But the adulation of Breitbart continues, as evidenced by his adulators, who continue at every opportunity to play the Breitbart poisonous game.

The latest development is that Republican House Leader Boehner has refused to meet with the President for last minute negotiations, said move greeted with cheers from the House GOP. This clearly sets the blame for the negative impact to come to our economy: Republicans!

Here are the impacts of the sequester, according to a study by economist Stephen Fuller of George Mason University:

* GDP: drops 0.7 to about 1.3;
* Jobs: loss of about 325,000 direct jobs;
* Unemployment: increase of about 1.5 to 9.5%;
* Hardest hit: TX, VA, and TX.

Moreover, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke opined:

Moreover, besides having adverse effects on jobs and incomes, a slower recovery would lead to less actual deficit reduction in the short run for any given set of fiscal actions.

Finally, note well that if this 2011 Budget Control Act, the sequester, takes effect, it becomes the law of the land, not just for 2013, but on into future years.

Who needs this stupid sequester? Apparently Leader Boehner does, in order to maintain his leader position, as well as his screaming stupid House Republican caucus. To hell with the economy!

Conservatives are so easy to anger these days. Even the most insignificant statement can set off their tempers. If you want to enrage a conservative, I suggest saying the following:

1. A Socialist wrote the Pledge of Allegiance.
2. Jesus healed the sick and helped the poor, for free.
3. Joseph McCarthy was an un-American, witch hunting sissy.
4. Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee were traitors.
5. The South lost the Civil War, get over it.
6. The Founding Fathers were liberals.
7. Fascism is a right-wing trait.
8. Sarah Palin is an idiot.
9. The Earth is round.
10. Reagan raised taxes eleven times as President.
11. Reagan legalized abortion as Governor of California.
12. Nixon created the Environmental Protection Agency.
13. Ronald Reagan supported gun control.
14. Global warming is real.
15. Republicans hate illegal immigrants, unless they need their lawns mowed or their houses cleaned.
16. The military is a government-run institution.
17. The Cold War is over and the Soviet Union no longer exists.
18. Paying taxes is patriotic.
20. The Republican Party began as a liberal party.
22. George W. Bush held hands with the King of Saudi Arabia.
23. President Obama saved the American auto industry, while Republicans wanted to destroy it.
24. Hate is not a Christian virtue.
25. Jesus was a liberal.
26. Republicans spend MORE money than Democrats.
27. Tea parties are for little girls.
28. Public schools educate all children; private schools are for indoctrinating children.
29. The Constitution is the law, NOT the Bible.
30. Sharia law doesn’t exist in America.
31. The President is NOT a Muslim.
32. Corporations are NOT people. People are people.
33. Fox News is not real news.
34. The Federal Reserve was a Republican idea.
35. Women are equal citizens who deserve equal rights.
36. Women control their own bodies.
37. Abortion is a relevant medical procedure, just ask Rick Santorum.
38. Please use spell-check.
40. Social Security is solvent through 2038.
41. Health care is a right, not a product.
42. Roe v. Wade was a bipartisan ruling made by a conservative leaning Supreme Court.
45. Barack Obama ordered the killing of Osama Bin Laden. It took him two and half years to do what Bush couldn’t do in eight.
46. Waterboarding IS torture.
47. 9/11 happened on George W. Bush’s watch, therefore he did NOT keep America safe.
49. Separation of church and state is in the Constitution, it’s called the First Amendment.
50. Muslims are protected by the Constitution, just as much as Christians.
51. Barack Obama is the first African-American President, get over it.
53. America is a nation of immigrants, therefore we are all anchor babies.
56. Evolution is real.
57. The Earth is 4.54 billion years old, not 6,000.
58. The Founding Fathers did not free the slaves.
61. Federal law trumps state law.
63. Corporations care more about profits than they do about people.
64. Getting out of a recession requires government spending.
65. Glenn Beck is a nut-job.
67. Republicans don’t want to pay for your birth control, but they want you to pay for their Viagra.
68. Republicans actually NEED Viagra.
69. Fox News is owned by an Australian and has a Saudi prince as an investor.
70. Republicans complain about immigrants taking American jobs, then freely give American jobs to foreigners overseas.
71. Republicans hate communism, so why do they refer to themselves as red states?
72. Labor unions built this country.
74. Jesus was a Jew, not a Christian.
75. When Republicans see black, they attack.
76. Inside every Republican is a Klansman or a Nazi waiting to bloom.
77. Republicans only care about children BEFORE they are born.
79. The Christian-Right boycotts movies that have violence, and then promotes guns and insurrection.
81. Republicans that oppose gay marriage are most likely in the closet themselves.
82. Churches should stay out of politics, or be taxed.
84. Democrats think for themselves, Republicans form think tanks to do it for them.
85. Republicans hate education because they couldn’t hack it in school.
86. Greed is one of the seven deadly sins and Republicans wallow in it.
87. A little socialism on the Left is better than a little fascism on the Right.
88. The current corporate tax rate is the lowest in 60 years, so stop whining about it being too high.
91. Republicans have their own terrorists, just look up Timothy McVeigh.
92. Republicans love outsourcing, just ask the Chinese Communists.
93. The Republican answer to the oil spill was to apologize to BP, a foreign oil company.
95. Voter disenfranchisement is immoral and un-American, that’s why Republicans do it.
96. Republicans would let your house burn down unless you pay them to put it out.
99. Republicans think rape isn’t a crime, but miscarriages are.

Republicans continually call attention to the job numbers, our unemployed, but I must note that the Romer/Bernstein report, which produced a goal of 8%, was produced in late 2008, at a time when the economy was in free fall, saved by bailing out the banks to prevent a global collapse of the financial system. Moreover, Christine Romer was out of her job in the Fall of 2009, because her predictions were too optimistic.

Therefore, should it really be a big surprise that their recovery projection should have been somewhat inaccurate? This was truly uncharted territory. What do you think should have been done and should now be done now to speed up the recovery?

I think it is rather remarkable that we have almost achieved the 8% goal for unemployment, down 20% from the peak 10% mark, in about three years. What do you think should be done to bring down unemployment?

This has been no standard recession, much worse, yet the stock market has about doubled from the low in the spring of 2009. Moreover, American Corporations continue to be strong, even with the significant headwinds in Europe and the slowdown in the BRIC emerging markets. What do you think we can do to respond more positively to this headwind?

The rupture of the housing bubble was so severe that now, about four years later, finally it may be about bottoming out. Foreclosures continue at record highs, and millions of Americans remain underwater on their mortgages. What do you think should now be done to further solve this economic headwind?

I note that so far Romney offers no solutions to these continuing recessionary problems, nor do any of you righties on here. Here is what we know of Romney’s plan:

* Cut 20% of everyone’s federal taxes, and eliminate loopholes like mortgage and charitable deductions. This greatly favors the wealthy again, as did the Bush tax cuts! Does this make sense?

* Invoke the Ryan Plan of austerity. This will negatively impact the middle, the poor, and our elderly citizens. How wise is this?

* Defense spending cuts are exempt. We all know there is plenty of waste in the DoD budget. Why not eliminate all the waste?

* Get tough on China. Right, antagonize our major creditor! What will this accomplish? What do you suggest?

* Encourage Israel to get tough on the Iran nuclear bomb program. No specifics here, just rhetoric. What is wrong with our policy of continuously increasing sanctions on Iran?

Not only does Willard Mitt Romney avoid giving us specifics of his stated initiatives, but he lies constantly about President Obama’s programs. Moreover, he cannot be held to any of his comments, because he has the reputation of changing them at any time.

Why should we even consider for a minute to elect a man unwilling to run on his record, unwilling to reveal his tax returns, and willing to flip-flop on issues seemingly on a whim? Please, this is an accurate characterization of the man.

And then there are the uncompromising tea party extremists who would come to power with Romney, folks who will likely cause Romney migraine headaches, and cause our country to prematurely embark upon austerity, and perhaps upon further military engagement in the Middle East, producing the above mentioned serious negatives.

President Obama has proven himself, for the most part, in his shepherding us through our economic crisis, as proven by the fairly positive results to date. Granted, job creation is still the outstanding issue, but I’ve heard nothing from Romney or the Tea Party on how to solve this continuing crisis. Austerity (the Ryan Plan) will certainly set us further back, at least temporarily, as in the UK. The President has sought to further stimulate job growth, something like FDR did, which should be done; but the Repubs rejected the jobs act.

Your mistrust of President Obama is ideological and yes, seemingly racial, neither of which goes to the man he has demonstrated himself to be, neither of which is a reasonable and rational assessment of the man, which is frankly what worries me the most about our future, that your assessment will somehow prevail due to all the negative noise which money can buy, and voter suppression.

“By cassandra_m
We’ve all been pointing and laughing at the Romney campaign as they find it simply impossible to defend not releasing his tax returns. Between throwing up a shiny bit of news bait of Condi as VP, stupid allegations of cronyism (from a guy who won’t tell who funds him or who bundles contributions) and even the desperation of taking the President’s words out of context — they can’t find their footing. Jonathan Chait writes in NY Magazine that Mitt Romney Gets Angry. And in getting angry, they aren’t going to get smarter, they are going to morph into the comments section of (insert rightwing blog site here). So that John Sununu trying to tell people that President Obama is not American is not a mistake of the news day — it is the signal that more is coming.

Chait relies on reporting from Buzzfeed:

In speeches from Des Moines to Dallas, Romney has always been careful to hedge his tough digs at Obama with a civil nod toward the president’s moral character: “He’s a nice guy,” the Republican has often said. “He just has no idea how the private economy works.” But Tuesday’s speech included no such hedge — and one campaign adviser said there’s a reason for that.
“[Romney] has said Obama’s a nice fellow, he’s just in over his head,” the adviser said. “But I think the governor himself believes this latest round of attacks that have impugned his integrity and accused him of being a felon go so far beyond that pale that he’s really disappointed. He believes it’s time to vet the president. He really hasn’t been vetted; McCain didn’t do it.”
Indeed, facing what the candidate and his aides believe to be a series of surprisingly ruthless, unfounded, and unfair attacks from the Obama campaign on Romney’s finances and business record, the Republican’s campaign is now prepared to go eye for an eye in an intense, no-holds-barred act of political reprisal, said two Romney advisers who spoke on condition of anonymity. In the next chapter of Boston’s pushback — which began last week when they began labeling Obama a “liar” — very little will be off-limits, from the president’s youthful drug habit, to his ties to disgraced Chicago politicians.

So instead of issues and vision, we are going to be treated to a tour of the fevered swamp wingnutland. Where President Obama isn’t one of us, where he has drug issues, active ties to disgraced politicians, Jeremiah Wright and whatever else they can gin up to remind people that it is Obama’s ontological blackness that is his disqualification for office. It is a stupid strategy — Palin and McCain (Palin mostly) worked this vein like nobody’s business and were eventually smacked back by even the media. But it is a strategy designed as a pitch to his pathetic ans racist base who won’t be happy until they get the notice of the tree they should all meet up at. Here’s Chait:

The point of disparaging Obama’s character is to paint him as a cultural alien unfit for the presidency. More of this theme may or may not have helped in 2008. But you can’t do that effectively against somebody who is already President of the United States. Obama has spent four years being photographed and filmed in the Rose Garden and saluting the troops and waving from Air Force One. Hard-core conservatives may still regard him as an alien figure, but this strategy stands zero chance of working with middle America. All it can do is chip away at Romney’s personal standing, which (in an electorate with settled views about the incumbent) is the one real variable at play here.

Apparently Rmoney is mad that Stephanie Cutter has the nerve to suggest that misstating the facts on an SEC filing may be a felony. But let’s remember that Romney took the President out of context not once, but twice in the fall and when this was pointed out to him, “he gleefully refused to apologize for dishonestly taking Obama out of context, thinking this makes him look like a player”. Now Romney is pissed of because the Obama campaign has been successful in impugning Rmoney’s only claim for qualifications for the job. And Rmoney was supposed to be the adult in the room. Apparently even he doesn’t believe his own bullshit and what is left is only what his angry and delusional base tells him to say. Because really, all of this crap is based entirely in the wingnut delusion that Obama wasn’t properly “vetted”.

TPM is also reporting on this. (Why would a campaign tell reporters is it not only going negative, but that they are making stuff up while they are at it?) Telling the world that you are getting ready to succumb to wingnut fever dreams that most independents already find distasteful seems unhinged, thin-skinned and vindictive and not ready for prime time. Because when the 3AM call comes, you don’t get to rely on fever dreams to make the problem go away.”

Willard Romney’s demeanor to date in campaign mode makes it hard to imagine bridging the gap with a person like this. Add to this his incessant flip-flops, suggesting that he has no core, and the extremist Republicans he would represent were he to be elected, we Americans have a worst disaster coming if we mistakenly elect this man and his party into power.

But you know what, with voter suppression, rich Super PACs, and multitudinous outright lies to contend with, Willard Romney could well be our next President, unless we all unite in a massive get out the vote effort, and unless we out every lie proffered.