Earlier this week, I got in — not one but two — debates with good progressive friends about the wisdom of the BLM movement shutting down Bernie Sanders speaking at a Social Security and Medicaid event last Saturday in Seattle. It’s a lot of ground to cover, but I read something by Hamilton Nolan (whoever he is) at Gawker that … Read More
Fox News Airs “Dehumanizing” Segment On Homeless
This O’Reilly segment on the homeless in Penn Station is… one of the most dehumanizing things I’ve seen on Fox. http://t.co/OHV428A8G1 — Carlos Maza (@gaywonk) June 30, 2015 Yeah, I tend to agree. This segment plays into some of the worst stereotypes about the homeless. This “Watter’s World” guy is Jesse Watters, and his shtick is to interview people on the … Read More
Pity The Rich
Monday night, Bill O’Reilly wanted you to know about America’s poor, put-upon rich people. “[Y]ou can see that taxes are through the roof on affluent Americans and business profits.But for the rest of Americans, things are not so bad. The bottom 60% of wage-earners pay just 2.7% of federal income taxes. The bottom 40% actually get money from the feds; … Read More
The Estate Tax Battle….. Again!
Seems like we do this every year: The House is gearing up to vote Thursday on repealing the estate tax, an issue that has energized the base in both parties — and that Democrats and Republicans see as a political winner. Republicans are making the vote the centerpiece of their agenda during a week when millions of taxpayers face the … Read More
Obama’s Tax Proposal
So here it is in one graphic: Basically, the bottom 20 percent would see their after-tax incomes grow by around 1.2 percent, while people in the top 20 percent would receive -0.7 percent less. But by dollar amounts, the differences between the bottom and the top are much bigger. The bottom 20 percent would receive $175 more per … Read More
2015 SOTU Preview
They’re called “Democrat pipe dreams” by some. I’m referring to Obama’s plans which he will raise in his 2015 State of the Union speech tonight. Top among those plans is his $60 billion pitch for free two-year community college tuition and $175 billion in new tax benefits for the middle class. How to pay for that? In a very West … Read More
No Question. The Ferguson Police Are Thugs
I've withheld writing about the fatal shooting of Michael Brown. For those distracted by other news stories, Michael Brown was to start college this week. Instead, his parents are planning his funeral. On August 9th, Mr Brown was shot several times and killed by a policeman in Ferguson, a suburb near St Louis, Missouri. The police say the black 18-year-old attacked … Read More
Senate Republicans Block Minimum Wage Legislation
Because why not
Newsflash: Having A Problem With The 1 Percenters Makes You A Nazi
Venture capitalist Tom Perkins compared liberals' push to reduce inequality in the United States to Nazi Germany's war on Jews. In a letter to the editor published in The Wall Street Journal Perkins, a founding member of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, asks whether a "progressive Kristallnacht" is coming. Perkins's letter is in response to an editorial on speech codes at American … Read More
Obscene Income Inequality is Obscene
Just 1 percent of the world's population controls nearly half of the planet's wealth, according to anew study published by Oxfam ahead of the World Economic Forum's annual meeting. The study says this tiny slice of humanity controls $110 trillion, or 65 times the total wealth of the poorest 3.5 billion people. Other key findings in the report: — The world's … Read More
Too Discouraged To Blog
There's this… which is totally true. The headlines this week, buried in the back of your favorite newsite, said: Income Disparity Between Richest 1% And Rest Of US Biggest Since ’20s WASHINGTON (AP) — The gulf between the richest 1 percent and the rest of America is the widest it’s been since the Roaring ’20s. The very wealthiest Americans earned … Read More
Four Graphs: What’s Wrong With America Today
Corporate profits and profit margins are at an all-time high. American companies are making more money and more per dollar of sales than they ever have before. Wages as a percent of the economy are at all-time low. Why are corporate profits so high? One reason is that companies are paying employees less than they ever have as a share of GDP. … Read More
Report: Richest 7% Got Richer During Recovery
WASHINGTON (AP) — A new report says the richest Americans got richer during the first two years of the economic recovery while average net worth declined for the other 93 percent of the nation'shouseholds. The Pew Research Center report says wealth held by the richest 7 percent of households rose 28 percent from 2009 to 2011, while the net worth of the other 93 percent of households dropped … Read More
Not Even Trying
Mike Lux wrote this piece yesterday, telling people about a new report on Wall Street. It's not pretty: There is a new report out this morning once again reminding us of the greatest disappointment progressives have in the Obama administration: the lack of toughness in regards to Wall Street.The report, issued by the Campaign for a Fair Settlement (full disclosure: … Read More