Humor. . .

. . . and truth. . .
. . . from John Kenneth Galbraith

"The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.
"

"Under capitalism, man exploits man. Under communism, it's just the opposite."


"It is a far, far better thing to have a firm anchor in nonsense than to put out on the troubled seas of thought." 

"The only function of economic forecasting is to make astrology look respectable.

as a form of employment for economists."

"The salary of the chief executive of a large corporation is not a market award for achievement. It is frequently in the nature of a warm personal gesture by the individual to himself." 

"Faced with the choice between changing one's mind and proving that there is no need to do so, almost everyone gets busy on the proof." 

"We all agree that pessimism is a mark of superior intellect.
"  

"Politics is the art of choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable.
"  

"Liberalism is, I think, resurgent. One reason is that more and more people are so painfully aware of the alternative."    


"The conventional view serves to protect us from the painful job of thinking."  


"More die in the United States of too much food than of too little.
" 

"In economics, the majority is always wrong.
" 

"Few can believe that suffering, especially by others, is in vain. Anything that is disagreeable must surely have beneficial economic effects."   


"In all life one should comfort the afflicted, but verily, also, one should afflict the comfortable, and especially when they are comfortably, contentedly, even happily wrong."  


"Wealth, in even the most improbable cases, manages to convey the aspect of intelligence.
"  

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Totally. . .

. . . disgusted with Washington DC. . .

 (Source:  By Matt Stoller, Naked Capitalism | News Analysis - http://truth-out.org/news/item/13648-eight-corporate-subsidies-in-the-fiscal-cliff-bill-from-goldman-sachs-to-disney-to-nascar) Corporate CEOs expressed to the administration their agreement with modest increases of tax rates on the wealthy to tackle the deficit problem. In exchange for their support, they wanted “tax extenders” amounting to about $205 billion in tax breaks to be included in the fiscal cliff bill.  Few political operatives paid attention to this part of the bill. A few hundred billion dollars of tax expenditures is a BIG deal to overlook.

And what about our popular media?  Talk about overlooking!
And here are the winners. . .

1) NASCAR -  Anyone who builds a racetrack and associated facilities will get tax breaks on it. This is projected to cost $43 million over two years.

2) Railroads - Tax credits will be available to certain railroads for maintaining their tracks. The value of this one, around $165 million a year.

3) Disney - Will be allowed extension of special expensing rules for certain film and television productions. According to the Joint Tax Committee, was projected to cost $150 million for 2010 and 2011.

4) Mining Companies - Will get tax incentives to buy safety equipment and train their employees on mine safety.

5) Goldman Sachs Headquarters – "tax exempt financing for York Liberty Zone,” which rather than going to small businesses affected after 9/11 (originally intended). Michael Bloomberg actually thought the program was excessive at $1.6 billion in tax free financing for its new massive headquarters through Liberty Bonds.

6) $9 billion Off-shore financing loophole for banks –Basically allows American banks and manufacturers to engage in certain lending practices without having to pay taxes on income earned from it. This is well supported by GE, Caterpillar, and JP Morgan.

7) Tax credits for foreign subsidiaries –  Extends the “Look-through treatment of payments between related CFCs under foreign personal holding company income rules.” The cost was $1.5 billion from 2010 and 2011, and the US Chamber loves it. It’s a provision that allows US multinationals to not pay taxes on income earned by companies they own abroad.

8) Bonus Depreciation, R&D Tax Credit – Projected to cost $8 billion for 2010 and 2011, and the depreciation provisions were projected to cost about $110 billion for those two years, with some of that made up in later years.

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Soapbox. . .

A new day, a new week.  Old worries, new worries. 

That damned Fiscal Cliff fellow just won't go away.  Who to believe?  Boehner and his camp have not instilled me with great faith.  I prefer the perspective of the other side, but why don't the DO SOMETHING???  Maybe it's time for something drastic??? 

Christmas is coming.  The geese are getting fat.  (At least that's how the song goes.)  The sooner it arrives the sooner it will be gone.  The epitome of capitalism, is it not?

Korea wants to prove how far their missiles can go.  Worrisome? 

Warm weather for a couple of days in the east.  A tease from Mother Nature.  Can't fool me though.
It's winter.

Music remains abundant soothing this savage breast and maketh all things good again. . . well. . . at least BETTER!

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Yes, we are . . .

Question:  Who can disagree with ANY of these?

Answer:  Either someone with an agenda (i.e., rich who want an unfair advantage, corporations with power enough to formulate their own policy, the corrupt, banks who profit from fraud, investment firms taking advantage of 'loopholes' or elected representatives who are OWNED!!!

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