Thursday, July 26, 2012
Another License Plate Change For Texas
This should have been thought of before the plate was put in service, but it wasn't. Now they have gone to the plate above (the top picture). This is what Texas license plates used to look like (back in the sixties and seventies). So after years of many plate changes, they have returned to the old, tried but true design.
They started issuing the new plates this month, so you should be seeing them on cars very soon. Personally, I like the new plate. But then I'm an older guy who never understood why they were changed in the first place. It's a clean design and it works -- and that's all that matters. Beauty was never meant to be an element of license plate design.
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
Poverty Nearing 50-Year High In The U.S.
That was as good as it would get though. But the rate stayed in the 11% to 12% range until President Reagan took office in 1980. Once his "trickle-down" economics was instituted, the poverty rate again began to rise and was about 15% when Bush left office. It started another downward trend as President Clinton became president, and was slightly below 12% when he left office. Unfortunately, Clinton was followed by another believer in "trickle-down" economic theory -- President Bush. The poverty rate again began to climb, and when the recession hit began to rise precipitously.
By 2010, the poverty rate had climbed to 15.1% (and a record number of 46.2 million people in the U.S. were living in poverty). Soon, the newest poverty rate will be announced. If it rises just 0.1%, it will equal the poverty rate of 1965, making it the highest poverty rate this country has seen in 47 years. And most economists belief it will probably be closer to 15.7%, making it the highest rate in over 50 years.
And it's not going down anytime soon, as the economists predict it will stay at least this high for the next two and a half years (through the end of 2014). I think that's a rather optimistic prediction. It assumes there will be growing job creation and at least the current level of government help for hurting Americans, and if the Republicans maintain control of the House of Representatives, that is not likely. They will continue to demand cuts in social programs and they will continue to block any efforts President Obama proposes to create jobs (so they can give new tax cuts to the rich and the corporations).
We already know that half of Americans live within 150% of the official poverty level, meaning half of our population is in danger of slipping down below the poverty level. With unemployment benefits running out for many and most new jobs being minimum wage jobs, it is likely than many of these people will fall below the poverty line and the poverty rate will continue to rise. With the House Republicans being unwilling to help anyone but the rich, it is not beyond the realm of possibility that we will again see the disastrous poverty rate of 1959 again in the next few years.
This makes it very important to not only keep a Democrat in the White House, but to put many more Democrats in the House of Representatives also (and flip the House if possible).
Romney Is Afraid To Run On His Record
And frankly, I don't blame Romney. I'm not at all sure there is anything in his background worth bragging about. Even as far back as his youth, Romney was a bully who thought it was funny to torture his classmates (like holding a classmate down and cutting his hair off). That just illustrated his smug and self-centered attitude that he has displayed throughout his life (and even today, he doesn't think the American people deserve to know anything about his finances).
He doesn't want to run on his mormon religious devotion (although that is one of the two driving forces in his life, the other being making money). He knows that putting his religion front and center (like other candidates have done) will just upset the GOP's evangelical base -- many of whom consider the mormons to be some kind of cult. Running on his religion is likely to cost him more votes than it would get him.
There was a brief flirtation with running on his business record. But then that record was exposed as more "vulture capitalism" than good business. He made many millions of dollars, but he did it by stripping companies of their assets and letting them go bankrupt. In the process, he destroyed many American jobs and outsourced many more to foreign countries. That kind of "business" background certainly wouldn't let him campaign as a "job creator". And it doesn't look too good either that he put much of the money he made into secret foreign tax havens (and refuses to release his tax returns).
Then we have his tenure as governor of Massachusetts, which is probably the most relevant experience he has to establish his qualification to be president. He certainly doesn't want to campaign on that. The only real achievement of his administration was to pass a health care bill (Romneycare) that served as a model for President Obama's health care reform (Obamacare). He would like for the GOP base voters to forget that. It also doesn't look too good that he took a fairly prosperous state and reduced it to 47th in job growth during his term.
The latest effort is to portray him as some kind of savior of the Winer Olympics in Utah -- and he is going to the London Olympics to try and forward that notion. But that probably won't work either. It turns out that the paperwork on those Olympics is still unavailable to the public (or the press). And even if it was available, it probably wouldn't show much. It seems that the most important stuff, the contracts and agreements, were all shredded and destroyed (just like records from his tenure as governor). Romney is obsessive about keeping his actions secret. Another rather revealing thing about his tenure as Olympic organizer was revealed in Madeleine Albright's book Memo To The President Elect, where she says:
This episode is worth recounting because every prospective torch carrier was given, courtesy of the U.S. Olympic Committee, a special uniform consisting of a nylon sports jacket and matching pants. When my uniform arrived, I glanced at the label, which read “Made in Myanmar,” that is, Burma, a country that suffers under one of the most repressive governments on Earth. It was not yet illegal to import clothing from Burma, but public pressure had induced most U.S. retailers to stop doing business there. I had my own grounds for revulsion, having visited the country to pledge support for its courageous democratic leader, the Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. I was furious about the uniform but knew it was too late to reorder all the clothing, though I did go out and buy my own shirt and pants (Made in America). When I arrived in Salt Lake City, I informed Mitt Romney, head of the U.S. Olympic Committee, about the gaffe; he thanked me kindly for keeping my mouth shut. The following year, Congress approved a ban on all imports from Burma.
So, what does that leave? Nothing of Romney's background or record. That means we're probably going to see a whole lot more negative advertising from the Romney campaign (and his super-PACs). Since he doesn't have a background or record he can run on, he is reduced to trying to tear down the record of President Obama.
The NRA - Defending Rights Or Shilling For The Gun Makers ?
In our current reality, Wayne LaPierre’s National Rifle Association owns the GOP, body and soul, and controls the Democrats through fear. The NRA has successfully marketed itself as the national symbol of ‘Merican Freedom™ and as the only logical answer to all modern fear and anxiety.
Personally I’m not anti-gun. I am against the gunshow loophole. I’m against how easy it is to buy semi-automatic rifles and high capacity mags because Bush let those bans expire. I’m against how easy it is for straw purchasers along the border to load up on semi-autos and high capacity mags for Mexican cartels (Hello! Fast and Furious).
You know who’s not against any of those things? The NRA. Their bottom line is profit for gun manufacturers and dealers — that’s who they lobby for. Doesn’t matter who buys their products, only that their products are bought. If terrible crimes are committed with their product, great. They’re happy to generate more fear so more of their products are purchased. Follow the money.
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
Trillions Hidden In Foreign Bank Accounts
Using information from the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the Bank of International Settlements, and many national governments, Henry estimates that at least $21 trillion (yes, that was TRILLION) is being hidden in secret, tax-free, foreign bank accounts to avoid paying taxes. That's more money than the total economies of the United States and Japan combined. And that may be a lowball number -- the figure could be as high as $32 trillion.
Now all of this money does not come from rich tax-dodgers in the United States (about $800 billion has left Russia since 1990), but a large hunk of it is from this country. Just imagine, if this money had been taxed at a conservative 30% rate it would have yielded an additional $6.3 trillion in revenue for the countries it came from (and taxed at only 20% would have yielded an additional $4.2 trillion), and it could be even more. That money could have kept a lot of countries from having to invoke "austerity" programs, cutting aid to their most needy citizens.
And one of those hiding much of his money in overseas accounts to avoid paying U.S. taxes is Republican presidential nominee Willard Mitt Romney (aka Wall Street Willie). We know he has accounts in the Cayman Islands, Bermuda, Switzerland, and several other foreign countries in "tax havens". What we don't know is just how much money he is hiding overseas -- he could be worth much more than the $250 million he admits to. And since the accounts are secret, we also have no idea how many millions of dollars in U.S. taxes he has dodged.
Now Romney will claim that he is doing nothing illegal by keeping secret funds in these accounts, and he may be right. But it should be illegal, and it most certainly is unethical -- especially in this recession where millions live in poverty and millions more are in danger of falling into poverty through unemployment (and falling wages). While most Americans declare all of their income and pay their appropriate tax on that income, it is just not right that Romney (and other super-rich people) are able to dodge their taxes by hiding money in overseas accounts.
Remember this when you go to the polls next November. By voting for Romney, you will be saying it is OK for the super-rich to evade paying taxes by hiding money overseas. Is that really what you believe? Do you really want a tax evader (who refuses to release his tax returns) as President of the United States?
Obama Approval Rises (3rd Straight Quarter)
Does this mean the president will or won't be re-elected in November? That's hard to say. Gallup generally regards job approval over 50% to be a good sign of re-election and job approval under 40% to be a predictor of defeat. For instance, Reagan (53.9%), Clinton (55.2%), Nixon (57.8%), and Eisenhower (70.8%) all have 14th quarter job approvals of over 50% and all of them were easily re-elected. While Carter (35.8%) and Bush I (39.2%) had 14th quarter job approvals ratings under 40% and were easily defeated.
The closest 14th quarter job approval rating to that of President Obama is the one for Bush II, which was 47.9%. Bush II was re-elected in a close election. This could bode well for the president, especially since the job approval numbers are trending upward (as Bush II's were in 2004).
Of course, all of this could mean nothing since we are still several months from the election. But I thought it was interesting -- and thought you might also.
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