Obama's proposal to cut the corporate income tax rate to 28% is just another present for the richest 1%. It will help more than the 1%, but most of the beneficiaries will be relatively rich, and will probably benefit more than the regular people will from their payroll tax cut. It's arguable that that the corporate rate cut will provide needed stimulus, but the rich are already pretty well stimulated.
One reason interest rates are so low is that rich have plenty of money are are not investing. Thus relatively few people are borrowing to start businesses, etc. The current wisdom is that banks are not lending, but mainly that means not lending to regular people. The rich can get loans; they just don't need or want them.
Obama's going to help them out anyway, because they will give him money if he does. Of course, they will end up making a lot more money than they contribute to his campaign, but he'll get his cut.
Monday, February 27, 2012
Monday, February 13, 2012
Syria Is Another Religious War
The article in today's New York Times and Tom Friedman's column of several days ago make it clear that Syria is yet another religious war between the Sunni and Shiite Muslim sects. Syrian President Assad's Alawite sect is Shiite, a minority in Syria; most of the protesters are Sunni, who are the (oppressed) majority. So the Shiite Iranians are going to help Assad, and the neighboring Sunnis are going to help the protesting rebels. The NYT says that the Iraqi Sunnis, who used to rule Iraq, until they were overthrown by the US invasion, now support their rebelling colleagues in Syria.
In the Iraq war, the US overthrew the Sunni government and set up a Shiite government that is best friends with Iran. Now, the Republicans, who defeated Iran's worst enemy, Saddam Hussein, want to send in American troops to die overthrowing the Iranian government that was strengthened by the US invasion of Iraq. I guess the important thing is that the American government wants to foment sectarian warfare in the Middle East. It may well be coming next in Egypt.
In the Iraq war, the US overthrew the Sunni government and set up a Shiite government that is best friends with Iran. Now, the Republicans, who defeated Iran's worst enemy, Saddam Hussein, want to send in American troops to die overthrowing the Iranian government that was strengthened by the US invasion of Iraq. I guess the important thing is that the American government wants to foment sectarian warfare in the Middle East. It may well be coming next in Egypt.
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Jews for America
While I've been critical of American Jews who love Israel more than America, there are many who have done great things for America. First comes to mind the owners of the New York Times, the Sulzbergers, where most of my information comes from. Then there is the guy, David Rubenstein, who is contributing half of the cost of repairing the Washington Monument. I thought that I would find that he also gave tons of money to Israel, but if he did, it's not immediately obvious on the Internet. For some reason, it seems to be the Republican Jews, who you would think are the most patriotic, who actually seem more devoted to Israel.
For example, The New York Times Magazine highlighted the issue of Israel's invading Iran, which I don't think is entirely favorable to Israel.
For example, The New York Times Magazine highlighted the issue of Israel's invading Iran, which I don't think is entirely favorable to Israel.
Monday, January 30, 2012
Israel Lovers Buy Newt
Yesterday's New York Times article on Sheldon Adelson's campaign contributions to Newt Gingrich illustrated my concerns in the previous post about American Jews whose first love is Israel. It appears that Adelson's main reason for supporting Gingrich is that Newt is a 100% supporter of Israel. Earlier articles said that the main bond between Adelson and Gingrich was Newt's anti-union stance, but that hardly seemed worth $10 million or more. Newt's support for Israel is a better justification for the campaign contributions.
The article says that Adelson, who was born in America, did not get the Israel bug until middle age, but once he got it, he really got it. It's not surprising that Adelson supports Israel, per my earlier post, but I don't know why Newt is such a fervent supporter of Israel. Why should America base its entire foreign policy on a relatively small country? I doubt that he subscribes to the evangelical Christian ideas about the importance of Israel for the endtime. Newt is not Jewish, but I'm guessing that he likes all the financial and political support that the gets from Jews for espousing pro-Israel policies. Jews have wealth and political influence far exceeding their proportional representation in the American population.
It sounds as if Newt is willing to send thousands of young American gentiles for fight and die in Iran, because Israel feels threatened by Iran. This from a man who was a draft dodger during the Vietnam War. Ironically, Newt's father was apparently in the Army infantry, but Newt had no intention of following in his father's footsteps. Although there were many reasons for the US invasion of Iraq -- 9/11, Bush II's love/hate relationship with his father, massive intelligence failures -- one was certainly the Israeli/Jewish desire to get rid of Saddam Hussein, who in the first Gulf War had fired Scud missiles into Israel. There was enormous Jewish pressure to attack Iraq, led by prominent Jews such as Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz. Israelis were not willing to invade. In fact, few American Jews enlisted to fight Iraq, but rich Jews paid to have poor, gentile rednecks fight there.
Of course, now that it has come out how unjust the American income tax system is, it looks like rich Jews did not really pay that much to the rednecks. They just got Congress to support the war, and the gentile middle class fought and financed Israel's war on Iraq. Thank you Joe Lieberman, Carl Levin and your many Jewish political colleagues. Of course, ironically for both Israel and the US, the Iraq War may have ended up strengthening Iran, thus further endangering Israel, rather than protecting it. Iraq never really posed a threat to the US.
I'm not sure, but Jews may perceive Mormons as less obsessed with Israel than other Christians, perhaps even as somewhat anti-Semitic. Therefore there could be a Jewish movement for anybody but Romney, with Newt currently the most feasible not-Romney.
The article says that Adelson, who was born in America, did not get the Israel bug until middle age, but once he got it, he really got it. It's not surprising that Adelson supports Israel, per my earlier post, but I don't know why Newt is such a fervent supporter of Israel. Why should America base its entire foreign policy on a relatively small country? I doubt that he subscribes to the evangelical Christian ideas about the importance of Israel for the endtime. Newt is not Jewish, but I'm guessing that he likes all the financial and political support that the gets from Jews for espousing pro-Israel policies. Jews have wealth and political influence far exceeding their proportional representation in the American population.
It sounds as if Newt is willing to send thousands of young American gentiles for fight and die in Iran, because Israel feels threatened by Iran. This from a man who was a draft dodger during the Vietnam War. Ironically, Newt's father was apparently in the Army infantry, but Newt had no intention of following in his father's footsteps. Although there were many reasons for the US invasion of Iraq -- 9/11, Bush II's love/hate relationship with his father, massive intelligence failures -- one was certainly the Israeli/Jewish desire to get rid of Saddam Hussein, who in the first Gulf War had fired Scud missiles into Israel. There was enormous Jewish pressure to attack Iraq, led by prominent Jews such as Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz. Israelis were not willing to invade. In fact, few American Jews enlisted to fight Iraq, but rich Jews paid to have poor, gentile rednecks fight there.
Of course, now that it has come out how unjust the American income tax system is, it looks like rich Jews did not really pay that much to the rednecks. They just got Congress to support the war, and the gentile middle class fought and financed Israel's war on Iraq. Thank you Joe Lieberman, Carl Levin and your many Jewish political colleagues. Of course, ironically for both Israel and the US, the Iraq War may have ended up strengthening Iran, thus further endangering Israel, rather than protecting it. Iraq never really posed a threat to the US.
I'm not sure, but Jews may perceive Mormons as less obsessed with Israel than other Christians, perhaps even as somewhat anti-Semitic. Therefore there could be a Jewish movement for anybody but Romney, with Newt currently the most feasible not-Romney.
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