Link Bundle: This Is Capitalism

 All of these links are about capitalism working as the capitalists intend it should.

 Toys R Us was murdered. And its final CEO got paid big bucks to mismanage other things to death. (I just did a Google on the guy; apparently he's taken his money and run, for now.)

The people who killed Toys R Us also did in Gymboree, among other places, stealing severance pay to give the CEO a nice golden parachute.

In America it's illegal to require that financial advisors not steal you blind.

 In terms of paid time off, medieval peasants had it much better than the average American, who is too terrified of losing their job to voluntarily take time off. 

A reminder that Ayn Rand is still killing people- and companies- and even countries. But what do you expect from someone whose biggest hero was a murderer?

 More of corporations literally killing people and facing zero criminal liability.

Capitalists don't even want you to be able to own the things you buy. And the housing you rent? The poorer you are, the more you're being overcharged.

 Payment services want a cut from both sides of every transaction, even if and when it's bogus and refunded. 

Building too-big-to-fail megacorporations, especially in finance, is a bipartisan effort.

A reminder that conservatives believe a profit today is worth the whole damn company tomorrow. 

Even those charged with the spiritual care of the people squeeze them shamelessly.

And with all this dough they're pocketing, the ultra-rich still insist only the little people should pay taxes. Because economic stimulus. (Hint: that's bullshit.)

Meanwhile, the people they've crushed are scarred for life, physically and mentally, by the effects of poverty.

 

 

 

Link Bundle #7

Hadn't done one of these for a while after a computer crash wiped out all my old tabs, but the browser's getting overfull again. So...

The ICE is inherently corrupt, part n+1.

CHP is spelled KKK.

And they have good friends, if not members, in the White County, TN sheriff's department.

And certain Alabama sheriffs may or may not be working with the alt-right, but they're deliberately looting the funds appropriated for their prisoners so they can get rich.

Trump wants the poor to eat less healthy. Which is a problem, because the poor generally are too poor to eat anything but cheap junk anyway- especially since food is the one pleasure they're still allowed.

White supremacists are recruiting openly, and nobody seems to be able to counter it effectively. Part of this is an attempt to indoctrinate young people into the cause, but more of it is a simple attack against the very idea of higher education.

In fact, the alt-right is so petty that they attacked a trio of black women science students in an attempt to get them thrown out of a NASA contest.

This is the kind of people Trump brings to Washington: an EPA "science advisor" who thinks pollution is GOOD for you. A financial industry watchdog who thinks 950% interest is perfectly fine, but students getting back fraudulently spent loan money is wasteful. A cabinet secretary who demotes and fires underlings for not being willing to spend enough taxpayer money on the secretary's personal luxury. A person in charge of the Bureau of Indian Affairs who harrassed women and native Americans in the employ of the government. A son in law so openly on the take it's ridiculous. And, of course, the president himself, who uses his 2020 re-election campaign as a personal revenue source and who sends goons to steal medical records from his doctor in broad daylight..

A reminder that five months ago, Trump and his loyal Republican ass-kissers were doing everything in their power to undermine good government, defend their leader, and protect Russia.

A worthy read about how the NRA became a vehicle of big business to turn Americans away from government and civic involvement... and against each other.

Our Revolution, the organization created by Bernie Sanders, endorsed Dennis Kucinich for US Senate in Ohio. It's not the first time they've endorsed an obvious crackpot (who thankfully lost)- or gone against Sanders's express wishes. It appears "Our Revolution" is not going to be a force for good, which makes me wonder who's really in charge of it anymore. It certainly isn't Sanders.

Oh, and remember the tax cuts Republicans enact which were going to lead to new jobs and investment? Nope! They're going straight into the pockets of the wealthy and staying there. Of course, when the biggest beneficiaries of the tax cuts are those who needed it the least, that's how it was designed to work in the first place, lies about new jobs notwithstanding.

Meanwhile, the Democratic Party did its best to surrender unconditionally on guns when confronted with yet another mass murder. They endorsed (and boosted to the nomination) a white male anti-abortion, anti-gay, pro-gun candidate over a liberal black woman.

Fun times. Still plenty of tabs, but that'll do it for now.

More on Paul Ryan's Republican "Roadmap for America's Future"

So, a few days ago I mentioned the "shadow budget" Republican Representative Paul Ryan has crafted, which basically puts Social Security and Medicare on death row.

Christina Bellantoni of Talking Points Memo has done an in-depth analysis of that budget outline, and here's what she's found so far:

* Abolition of the capital gains tax.

* Abolition of the estate tax.

* Abolition of the corporate income tax.

* Abolition of income tax for income derived from interest on bank deposits and investments.

* Abolition of the top three income tax brackets, leaving a maximum 25% tax on households making $50,000 or higher, 10% on people making less, with a larger standardized deduction.

* Creation of a new national 8.5% sales tax, with absolutely no type of merchandise exempted- food, medicine, printed matter all included.

* And, if you've forgotten, privatization of Social Security and the replacement of Medicare with vouchers to buy private corporate-run insurance.

Two lines Talking Points Memo quotes from the original document are astonishing in their bare-faced chutzpah:

"Lower {tax} rates reduce disincentives to work and increase earnings," the roadmap proclaims.

Ryan writes in the roadmap the changes are to keep the federal tax burden at its current level.

First, lower tax rates reduce disincentives on the rich to "increase earnings"- that is, to take as much as they can grab and leave nothing for anyone else. Why on Earth do the immensely rich, or even the comfortably-well-off, need incentives to make MORE money? And why, above all, do we want corporations to make as much money as possible- and pay taxes on absolutely none of it?

Consider: under the Republican plan, corporations pay no taxes. People who earn money buying and selling corporate stock pay no taxes, because that's capital gains. People who earn dividends from preferred stock pay no taxes. The only taxes levied under this plan are on wages- the wages of the working middle-class and the poor, not the rich- and on the necessities of life, which everyone must buy but not everyone can afford.

This plan is, put bluntly, a Republican ploy to ensure that "only the little people pay taxes." This is trickle-down economics at its most extreme- and brazen.

On to the second item: "keeping the tax burden at its current level." This is, put bluntly, bullshit- but, for the Republicans to claim that it will balance the budget, it's necessary bullshit. The Republicans somehow got a fig-leaf letter from the Congressional Budget Office which says:

The Roadmap, in the form that CBO analyzed, would result in less federal spending for Medicare and Medicaid as well as lower tax revenues . . . Federal spending for Social Security would be slightly higher than under CBO’s alternative fiscal scenario for much of the projection period, but the system would become sustainable as revenues increase and traditional benefits decline. The budget deficit would peak at 5 percent of GDP in 2034 and then decline. By 2080, the Roadmap would generate a budget surplus of about 5 percent of GDP. . . . debt is projected to peak at 100 percent of GDP in 2043 and to decline thereafter, reaching zero by 2080.

So, best case scenario: deficit spending continues for twenty years, and doesn't end until every last one of you reading this is long dead.

Except, as TPM's Brian Beutler reports, Ryan ordered the Congressional Budget Office to cook the books for this analysis:

For their analysis Ryan provided CBO with a remarkable assumption: he asked CBO actuaries to assume that the major tax cuts he calls for won't create any change in federal revenue over the next two decades--at all.

Here's how they put it, in budget-ese: "As specified by your staff, for this analysis total federal tax revenues are assumed to equal those under [current fiscal policy]," the analysis reads.

. . .

In 2008, the Tax Policy Center analyzed a similar GOP plan and determined it amounted to the biggest tax cut in history.

Whether Ryan was knowingly engaging in sleight-of-hand, or whether he was using an inaccurate supply side model to correlate tax cuts with increased revenue is unclear. But what is clear is that if CBO had based its analysis on an official accounting of the ways in which his proposed policy changes would impact revenue, they would have come to a different conclusion.

So, in short, the Republican plan is the bunk. And that's being kind to it.

Now, I would prefer a flat income tax with a very high individual deductible and no complex credits or exemptions, myself. I would prefer that estate taxes apply only to liquid assets- money, bonds, and stocks. And I'd prefer a sales tax or value added tax to income taxes as a whole- provided certain necessities are exempted and/or the poor get a rebate or "pre-bate" to make up for what they can't afford.

But this package? It's bullshit. Outrageous bullshit. This is the wealthiest among us, the corporations and the mega-wealthy, trying to evade taxes altogether- and put the burden on the rest of us- while throwing the poor and needy out on the street to root, hog, or die.

And yes, it might seem like the Republicans are backing away- after all, even the author of the "Roadmap" says it's "very different from an actual budget"...

... but don't be fooled. This is the same man who calls Social Security and Medicare "collectivist."

"We have an opportunity to make a choice clearly once and for all in the next two elections, and we owe it to the American people to give them a clear choice: Do you want a collectivist welfare state or do you want to get back to being a free market? We need to make a moral, not just practical or statistical, case," he told Reason, a libertarian magazine, in December.

. . .

And despite GOP attempts to frame these entitlement reforms as something other than privatization, Ryan has been clear on the point.

"Rather than depending on government for your retirement and health security, I propose to empower people to become much more self-dependent for such things in life," he said in a speech to the Hudson Institute last June.

Or, put bluntly, you're on your own- and that's how it ought to be. Let the poor and unlucky die.

This is the Republican Party, plain and simple: more wealth and power for the rich and powerful, and nothing for anyone who can't pay for it themselves.

EDIT: Apparently Democrats are hammering Republicans on the "Roadmap"- and a few, including Arizona Rep. John Boozeman and Georgia Rep. Jack Kingston, are defending it.

Boozeman: "Congressman Ryan is working to cut the deficit spending and I appreciate his commitment to putting our country on the road to fiscal responsibility. His proposal may not be perfect, but I think he is making a thoughtful and serious effort to prevent Congress from driving our country into financial ruin."

Kingston: "We need to go in, and we need to cut duplicate programs, programs that are inefficient, programs that are expanding the entitlement mentality. I think we should go back to Social Security, take it off budget, dedicate the funds, put personalized accounts on it. On Medicare, I think something like vouchers, where people actually have an incentive to save money for the government, and they're rewarded for doing so."

CORN FLAKE FRIDAY: Ed and Elaine Brown

I've been waiting on this one for MONTHS.

Back in January New Hampshire residents Ed and Elaine Brown were convicted of tax evasion for failing to pay any income taxes from 1996 to 2003- despite having an average of about $240,000 income per year during that period. Their argument? That no law exists requiring individuals to pay income tax. The Sixteenth Amendment was not ratified correctly; the law enacting the income tax was illegal; but mostly, there was no additional law requiring any person to actually pay the enacted income tax. Since the IRS refused to provide reference to the law requiring payment of income tax, the Browns claimed, they were not liable to pay it.

Well, last point first: the IRS has a 64-page document debunking all tax-protest claims in very clear terms here.

As for specific statutes:

Except as otherwise provided in this subtitle, gross income means all income from whatever source derived, including (but not limited to) the following items:

1. Compensation for services, including fees, commissions, fringe benefits, and similar items;
   
2. Gross income derived from business;
   
3. Gains derived from dealings in property;
   
4. Interest;
   
5. Rents;
   
6. Royalties;
   
7. Dividends;
   
8. Alimony and separate maintenance payments;
   
9. Annuities;
   
10. Income from life insurance and endowment contracts;
    
11. Pensions;
    
12. Income from discharge of indebtedness;
    
13. Distributive share of partnership gross income;
    
14. Income in respect of a decedent; and
    
15. Income from an interest in an estate or trust.
    

--- U. S. Code of Law, Title 26, § 61

When required by regulations prescribed by the Secretary [of the Treasury] any person made liable for any tax imposed by this title, or with respect to the collection thereof, shall make a return or statement according to the forms and regulations prescribed by the Secretary. Every person required to make a return or statement shall include therein the information required by such forms or regulations. [In other words, IRS regulations not enacted by Congress still have the force of law, and are binding on all persons.]

--- U. S. Code of Law, Title 26, § 6011(a)

If that's not good enough, Section 6012 (which you can read for yourself here) goes into detail on who must file and who is exempt. (Hint: the second category is much smaller than the first.)

As for the most basic argument, that Amendment XVI was never properly ratified... the Wikipedia article on the subject makes it pretty clear that errors of punctuation or capitalization are not sufficient cause to reject ratification by a state. And as for Ohio not really being a state (having been admitted to the Union improperly) and thus being ineligible to ratify... that ignores the fact that other states ratified Amendment XVI after Frank Knox declared the amendment in force a hundred years ago.

And the final, killer argument: if the courts did something they've NEVER done, despite literally HUNDREDS of prosecutions and lawsuits involving tax protesters, and overturned the federal income tax... exactly how long do you think it would take Congress and the states to MAKE the income tax legal?

Answer: not long at all, not when two-thirds of the national government's income comes from the income tax or associated payroll taxes.

So- that disposes of Ed and Elaine Brown's legal standing. When it became apparent that the case was going against them, Ed quit coming to the court hearings, and Elaine destroyed the ankle-cuff tracker that was a condition of her bail. When the verdict came out, they holed up in their home- a structure with surrounding property for which the term "compound" is quite accurate- and threatened to kill any and all law enforcement officers who would try to take them in. A loose siege began in early June, with two incidents where SWAT teams closed in on the compound, only to back off when their presence was reported to the public (and, thus, to the Browns).

If that wasn't daffy enough, they tried to file an order in the courts to dismiss the case- representing themselves as court and judge, and calling themselves "Edward, a Living Soul in the Body of the Lord, of the House of Israel," and "Elaine, a Living Soul in the Body of the Lord, of the House of Israel."

He went on to reject the county property tax bill sent to his home, claiming:

"Nay! Nay! The land . . . at 401 Center of Town Road, Plainfield, New Hampshire, and all that is in and upon it, including the Lords bodies, are in the kingdom of heaven, belonging to the Lord, have been claimed by him, and thus can be claimed by no man, nor can any man have beneficial interest in it . . . Stand down and away from the Lords land and the bodies of the Lord. So it is written. So it is done."

The Browns's defiance of federal and state tax laws drew a lot of supporters from Libertarian circles- most notably a blogger I've referred to here before, Michael Hampton. Some of these supporters backed off once they met Ed Brown or heard some of his *ahem* inspiring rhetoric:

"This is the beginning of one very huge movement. I'm not quite sure you understand the ramifications of what's going on right now. This is massive. This is international. We are fed up with the Zionist Illuminati. That's what this is all about. Loud and clear. Zionist Illuminati. Lawyers, whatever they are, okay, it's going to stop. And if the judge is a member of that, I know that McAuliffe [the Federal judge in Brown's tax case] is, I know that U.S. Attorney Colantuono is, they'd better stop. This is a warning. You can do whatever you want to me. My job is to get the message out, and I'm getting the message out, and I'm warning you guys - not you guys [referring to the radio show hosts], them - to cease and desist their unlawful activity in this country and every other country because once this thing starts, we're going to seek them out and hunt them down. And we're going to bring them to justice. So anybody wishes to join them, you go right ahead and join them. But I promise you, long after I'm gone, they're going to seek out every one of you and your bloodline."

. . .

If federal agents storm Brown's property, he and his supporters will come out shooting. Brown said yesterday [August 9th] that if those agents kill him or his wife, Elaine, his supporters will systematically find and kill Plainfield Police Chief Gordon Gillens, Sullivan County Sheriff Michael Prozzo and others Brown says are sworn to protect him.

Oh, yes. Show the high ground by threatening the lives of the families of law enforcement officers. Show your superior morality by promising vengeance against law enforcement officers who aren't even involved in the case.

To put the icing on the cake, Brown revealed he was an anti-Semite and a conspiracy theorist:

"We're not conspiracy theorists. We deal with conspiracy facts. Freemasonry and Judaism -- that is the truth. That is the fact. That is where all the world's problems come from . . . I know for a fact that they're working together."

This obvious insanity drove off some of Brown's supporters, but he personally ejected others who disagreed with him, including a leader of the Free State Project who opposes the income tax but also opposes violent revolution- a cause Brown advocates. This didn't concern Brown, who felt that (a) God was on his side, and (b) there were always new supporters to replace the old ones.

This revolving-door mentality was what allowed the United States Marshals to capture the Browns, a week ago yesterday, while I was on the road to South Padre Island, TX. on business. Over the course of weeks a marshal went undercover, posing as a supporter of the Browns, and gained access privileges to the Brown home. Finally conditions became right on October 4, and the marshal handcuffed the Browns in their own home and led them out into the waiting arms of the law they defied for over half a year.

Subsequent searches of the Brown compound proved Ed Brown's rhetoric of violence and bloodshed was no bluff. In addition to a large cache of firearms, investigators found a large number of homemade bombs and booby-traps laid around the perimeter. Manufacturing explosives without a license is a federal crime; laying lethal traps for humans is a state crime in New Hampshire. The Browns are highly unlikely to ever see the outside of a prison again for the rest of their lives, except when they are tried for these crimes.

So, what is the net result of the Brown siege? All the laws the Browns claimed don't exist still exist and remain in force. The anti-tax movement has had months with a certifiable lunatic as their most visible spokesperson, and in the process its leaders have said a great many things they can't retract in support of a violent revolutionary... a violent and well-off revolutionary. Despite the fact that Ed Brown was not a member of the Free State Project, he is perceived as such by the media and the residents of New Hampshire, discrediting that organization likely for good.

And prominent among the supporters of Ed Brown, of course, were vocal members of the Libertarian Party, which must also find some way to wash Brown's slime off a reputation already rather stained from involvement with other self-serving or insane tax protesters and conspiracy theorists.

Friends, there's a good case to be made for abolishing the income tax and replacing it with something less unjust. There might even be a case for not replacing it at all, although by and large I don't think that will sell with most of the country, who like having an army and navy, a public highway system, a federal court system to protect individuals from government overreach, etc.

Ed and Elaine Brown, for undermining those arguments and for encouraging the anti-tax movement to associate with nuts, and thereby LOOK like nuts themselves... this week's, possibly this YEAR'S, Corn Flakes!