Notice that during World War II, the war debt was paid by higher taxes on the rich at 90%. Now, when Trump asks for $1.5 trillion for the war in Iran, there is no mention that it should be paid for by raising the income tax rate on the Rich back to 90%.
Trump is not the only one who doesn’t mention it, though, is he?
I always wonder if it’s possible to win an election on a platform that recognizes that the national debt has to be brought under control by increasing income tax on the very wealthy; and that the main reason for Trump’s tariffs was to compensate for low tax on the wealthy - ie, he just needed the money so he put a “tariff tax” on the same people who were already paying an unfair tax burden.
Exactly, all of the politicians, media commentators, podcasters or bloggers could be the making that the front and centre issue. But the can't-tax-the-rich conditioning is so effective, it cannot even enter their minds.
Thom is right that if Dems win the Congress, the next big battle will be raising the debt ceiling. No problem raising it when they are spending our tax dollars, but when they are out of power, suddenly they become debt hawks.
“Have you noticed how little news coverage our record national debt — and last month our hitting the largest budget deficit in American history — has gotten in the corporate press? That’s in part because Democrats have failed miserably at any effort to educate people — or generate outrage — about this scam.” We really need to ask why that is the case. We can justifiably suspect that corruption isn’t the sole province of our fascists.
The progressive candidates who are running for the House and Senate are the ones who are talking about taxing the rich. They see what needs to happen. As a senior, I have no problem with voting for these people. We need to stand with them and encourage them to take the reins and kick ass when it comes to making changes in the laws and rules. Please get out there and encourage others to vote for them so we can fix the problems that Trump is causing and the previous Republican presidents have caused.
Whereas Democrats are tarred and feathered for being tax-and-spend liberals, the Republicans are borrow-and -spend conservatives. Democrats spend money out of existing funds, like a debit card; but Republicans spend money out of anticipated future receipts, like a credit card, and will have to pay that back, plus interest. Meanwhile, the means of acquiring those future receipts--through the productivity of ordinary working people--is being undermined by Republican anti-labor policies. Depression, anyone?
Thank you Thom for this straightforward report. It really hits home. And as you requested, I am sharing, multiple times, to multiple people and on Blue Sky. REPOSTING it several times on Blue Sky, in the hope more followers will also repost & share.
Reagan came into power while I was in college, and I am one of the last generation benefitting for what was before Reagan. My tuition never exceeded $250/per semester, and I'd put my education up against any Ivy League one every day. The future truly looked bright. Conversely my son is saddled with crushing student debt, just lost his health insurance, and cannot even afford a starter home, but he is still anxious to have a family, for now.
Again, thank you for all your efforts. It is MUCH appreciated.
I just this morning heard JD Vance say he doesn't think the US will continue to be the world's reserve currency. How will the US handle the national debt that now surpasses the GDP? When the debt was this huge after WW II, financial repression was used, but the US was the world's reserve currency. What could work this time, if anything?
As I understand it, in a recently republished 2023 interview he said that he was, "Not sure that I think reserve-currency status is actually good for the United States of America". Here he compared the status to a "resource curse," arguing it acts as a massive subsidy for consumers to buy cheap imports while serving as a heavy tax on domestic producers and the industrial base.
That might be so, though good luck buying oil if it is priced in Euros or (my guess) a basket of currencies of which the dollar is only part. As for returning manufacturing, this would be about as helpful as tariffs, but it sure would make imports more expensive while reducing America's influence in the world. Perhaps he's setting us up for the next stage of this administration's attack on its own citizens.
There is already a petroyuan.. Trump shitcanned soft power, China is a master at using it.
Iran accepts tolls for fees in Yuan ,stablecrypto and even Trump coin (smart move on their part)
He aims to own the SOH, and charge 20% tolls, some say he misspoke, he never does when it comes to his intentions. People thought he forgot about Greenland, he didn't, because it is important to the Paypal mafia, and their Praxis Cities, data centers project. Once a thought enters his mind, and he thinks that it is his, never lets up, anymore than a bull terrier or Jack Russell Terrier with a bone.
Based on behaviors, not beliefs or words, Trump has been on a campaign, in which he is succeeding, to turn America into an isolated third world continent (I said America.North Central and South ,and include Greenland). a[[apparently in Helsinki or even Alaska, they worked out a deal in which they will carve the world up between themselves
The United States has been living on accumulated fat, for the last year, and the central nervous system is so large that pain inflicted on part of the corpus takes a year or two to travel to the CPU.
You can attach electrodes to a dead frogs legs and they will still jerk.
I don't need irrefutable facts to draw a conclusion, people have been executed on the basis of circumstantial evidence.
Good follow up. The frogs with moving legs aren’t completely dead but pithed—“to kill or immobilize an animal—such as a frog or cattle—by piercing or destroying its spinal cord or central nervous system.” So they are brain dead like much of the US electorate.
Talk of deficits and enormous numbers flies over deadheads. Our problem is personalizing the situation in 25 words or less, so to speak.
The thing with the frog legs, They are just legs of the frog, the frog is indeed dead. Legs, no body.I am sure you can find something of it on youtube.
Key billionaire and corporate leaders pay homage to this administration. They are both frightened and supportive of this present system and still give extortion money by the fists full to their leader and protector.
They may know how deranged he is but his whole organization (cabinet) is supported with and by these same corporate leaders. This administration doles out protection while dishing out targeted revenge for those in the organization that stray.
Their support assures that this protection will continue and if any member strays they are locked out of protection especially when an election temporarily turns against them. This is what they all have nightmares about.
Their’s is a long-term plan. As long as they have power from control and all the cash they can steal from us, even if there is a slight change in leadership, they quickly overtake this in subsequent elections. They pound on the fact that prices will never fall if they stick together as a group and keep pardoning and passing their own protective laws. They own more and more of our MSM and internet to keep us ignorant of these obvious yet strangely unknown facts by so many of us.
They own us and they know it. We now have a system that metaphorically rapes and pillages the people while supporting and protecting our jailers.
They wage war on us the citizens of this country who do the work and pay the taxes. And they ensure that targeted forever wars keep the armament manufacturers and the rest of their billionaire toadies raking in more of our money and the world’s, while controlling our military.
They continue to buy up property, waste our tax money on ludicrous costly and padded projects as a diversion. They shore up the oil industry to eek out the last drops of old energy technology that supports the present energy infrastructure. It cranks out the juice for AI data centers while they continue to replace human workers right and left as they have for the last 10 years.
They are systematically cutting us off from a real educational system that teaches and encourages critical thinking, keeping us poor, dumb, and dependent.
This is a huge round-robin conspiracy stretching all throughout our world at exponential speed.
More and more are being sucked into being supportive to their organization of thieves.
We can see the outcome of working with and being supportive of their organization of billionaire controllers when we look at Russia and its people. They are and have been so enmeshed in oligarchy for so long they sit practically helpless and silent. Their whole country is a prison of various levels of security.
Our system of government is not built for quick decisions. We are a government of and by a diverse people while they are a criminal organization of almost automatic consensus assured because if you don’t play ball they squash you and your interests and anyone who supports you.
Until we start acknowledging this as a conspiracy and openly talk about it being so, we have lost our only true hope for a wide spread consensus.
The Aisne‑Marne American Cemetery near Paris, France, which the Racist-in-Chief declined to visit and told aides, “Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers,” and separately referred to Marines killed at Belleau Wood as “suckers.”
Wrong!!! [as per usual]
The real Suckers and Losers [S&L] are the wage-slaves [WS] who bail out Rs by voting against the WSs' own interests.
Why?
Since '68's Nixon-Atwater Southern Strategy, S&L have willingly coughed up the ever-higher price of Race Hate. It's their crack; they're addicted.
So, to quote Henry Hill in the movie "Goodfellas"
During Henry’s narration, he explains how the mob [Rs] treats anyone [WS] who owes them money for Race Hate [crack.] He lists scenarios — business is bad, lightning struck the building, etc. — and after each one, he delivers the punchline:
“F**k you. Pay me!!!”
It captures the mob’s [Rs'] absolute, non‑negotiable attitude toward S&L's Race Hate Debts.
#VOTE #WAKE UP #SAVE Ivanka from a fate worse than intimacy with Jared. [i.e., w/ DT]
It sort of looks as if we have been suckers, rubes, and gullible victims of slick swindlers and clever operators who sold us a bill of goods and hoodwinked us into going along passively and quietly with their long-term plan to fleece us and leave us holding the bag - a bag of stinking manure. How could we have been so foolish and gullible? Maybe they had a plan for that too. Maybe we failed to become more competent and aware by design. Maybe the "greatest generation" or the boomers or their parents only thought they were getting smart and thought they were prepared to deal with the slick bankers, investors, and politicians. Maybe our priorities have been screwed up. Well, we will do better now because we will find better leaders who talk tough, even though our own priorities have not actually changed and our kids will continue to have the same experiences and learn the same way. Keep your fingers crossed.
I know the history well. All fomented in the 1970s by Republicans Lewis Powell (Memo: have corporations take control of everything); Paul Weyrich ( founder of Heritage, “I don’t want everyone to vote…we are radicals”); Laffer (Curve aka trickle down economics); Jude Wanniski (Two Santas: Have GOP run up a deficit, then cut social spending). I have had these conversations with conservatives, independents and even moderate uninformed Democrats. I will continue to do so. Education of truth and the real history is important. It’s why Republicans think up new ancillary culture war “issues” during elections. It’s weapons of masss distraction. They know they can’t win a debate or election based on their history and their policies. It’s why they won’t allow fact checking during debates. To win, they have to lie and cheat. To win, Dems must get the truth out.
Here's another boondoggle making hte rich richer - Stinky's tarrifs. So he unilaterally imposed tarrifs on most of the world, raising prices for most Americans on just about everything they buy. The courts said his first round of tarrifs were illegal and he has to pay them back. So where does the money go when it is paid back? To corporations. The corps passed the cost on to consumers, and you and I paid for them. But the payback goes to the greedy rich owning and running the corporations. It is just another of the many schemes and scams and fraudulent tactics that are making corporate America into a runaway gravy train.
Forget About Fascist Republicans: Institutional Democrats: Corruption Of The Democratic Party
It's no secret that the Democratic Party has lost the American electorate(recent favorability 38%). This has ushered in the progressive left of the party represented by AOC and Sanders.
The success and popularity of Mamdani and El-Sayed under the Democratic tent has the centrist corporate wealthy donor class/institutional Democrats concerned about losing their platform and hence their influence and relevance in the political scene, particularly as it relates to the fascist led Israeli war.
For once the Democratic elite led by wealthy donors(for want of a better title Institutional Democrats) are losing to WE the People in a populist uprising which truly represents WE the People. For people like political consultants Neera Tandem, Zionist Simon Rosenberg, James Carville, and Ken Martin along with pundits Joe Scarborough, Bill Mayer, and Fareed Zakaria, this uprising threatens not only relevance but $$$ to the networks they represent. This has caused corporate millionaires and billionaires to pony up $$$ to fight this populist wave with the Third Way creation.
But this is not something new as Wajhat Ali and Dave Sirota(bit.ly/3SgNaBI) point out in a recent dialogue worth watching. MSM is losing the political relevance due to their past authoritarian stance to independent media such as The Lever, This Will Hold, Meidas Touch, Aaron Parnas, Left Hook, Zeteo among others. For decades this Democratic centrist group has used the antisemitic cudgel to support the Israeli Palestinian oppression/war but with the fascist Israeli pulling the US into its war, the antisemitic ploy is no longer working. WE the People are speaking out and saying if you’re willing to bullshit me on this, you’re probably willing to on economy etc.
Either party is screwing the American people. Time for a French Revolution 2.0 American style complete with political beheadings starting with Hakem and Chuck.
Part of Jon Ossoff’s success in communicating is that he does not deal in right and left - he agrees that both parties are responsible, to greater or lesser extent, for the failure of the system. He focuses on what needs to be done.
Given the extreme corruption, lies, irresponsibility. brutality of the Trump regime, and the willingness of the current Republicans to support Trump, though, there has to be a change of parties to have any hope of saving US democracy.
Notice that during World War II, the war debt was paid by higher taxes on the rich at 90%. Now, when Trump asks for $1.5 trillion for the war in Iran, there is no mention that it should be paid for by raising the income tax rate on the Rich back to 90%.
Trump is not the only one who doesn’t mention it, though, is he?
I always wonder if it’s possible to win an election on a platform that recognizes that the national debt has to be brought under control by increasing income tax on the very wealthy; and that the main reason for Trump’s tariffs was to compensate for low tax on the wealthy - ie, he just needed the money so he put a “tariff tax” on the same people who were already paying an unfair tax burden.
Do the voters understand this?
Exactly, all of the politicians, media commentators, podcasters or bloggers could be the making that the front and centre issue. But the can't-tax-the-rich conditioning is so effective, it cannot even enter their minds.
Thom is right that if Dems win the Congress, the next big battle will be raising the debt ceiling. No problem raising it when they are spending our tax dollars, but when they are out of power, suddenly they become debt hawks.
“Have you noticed how little news coverage our record national debt — and last month our hitting the largest budget deficit in American history — has gotten in the corporate press? That’s in part because Democrats have failed miserably at any effort to educate people — or generate outrage — about this scam.” We really need to ask why that is the case. We can justifiably suspect that corruption isn’t the sole province of our fascists.
Don't forget the oligarchs own the media... of course it's been suppressed.
The progressive candidates who are running for the House and Senate are the ones who are talking about taxing the rich. They see what needs to happen. As a senior, I have no problem with voting for these people. We need to stand with them and encourage them to take the reins and kick ass when it comes to making changes in the laws and rules. Please get out there and encourage others to vote for them so we can fix the problems that Trump is causing and the previous Republican presidents have caused.
Whereas Democrats are tarred and feathered for being tax-and-spend liberals, the Republicans are borrow-and -spend conservatives. Democrats spend money out of existing funds, like a debit card; but Republicans spend money out of anticipated future receipts, like a credit card, and will have to pay that back, plus interest. Meanwhile, the means of acquiring those future receipts--through the productivity of ordinary working people--is being undermined by Republican anti-labor policies. Depression, anyone?
Thank you Thom for this straightforward report. It really hits home. And as you requested, I am sharing, multiple times, to multiple people and on Blue Sky. REPOSTING it several times on Blue Sky, in the hope more followers will also repost & share.
Reagan came into power while I was in college, and I am one of the last generation benefitting for what was before Reagan. My tuition never exceeded $250/per semester, and I'd put my education up against any Ivy League one every day. The future truly looked bright. Conversely my son is saddled with crushing student debt, just lost his health insurance, and cannot even afford a starter home, but he is still anxious to have a family, for now.
Again, thank you for all your efforts. It is MUCH appreciated.
I just this morning heard JD Vance say he doesn't think the US will continue to be the world's reserve currency. How will the US handle the national debt that now surpasses the GDP? When the debt was this huge after WW II, financial repression was used, but the US was the world's reserve currency. What could work this time, if anything?
As I understand it, in a recently republished 2023 interview he said that he was, "Not sure that I think reserve-currency status is actually good for the United States of America". Here he compared the status to a "resource curse," arguing it acts as a massive subsidy for consumers to buy cheap imports while serving as a heavy tax on domestic producers and the industrial base.
That might be so, though good luck buying oil if it is priced in Euros or (my guess) a basket of currencies of which the dollar is only part. As for returning manufacturing, this would be about as helpful as tariffs, but it sure would make imports more expensive while reducing America's influence in the world. Perhaps he's setting us up for the next stage of this administration's attack on its own citizens.
There is already a petroyuan.. Trump shitcanned soft power, China is a master at using it.
Iran accepts tolls for fees in Yuan ,stablecrypto and even Trump coin (smart move on their part)
He aims to own the SOH, and charge 20% tolls, some say he misspoke, he never does when it comes to his intentions. People thought he forgot about Greenland, he didn't, because it is important to the Paypal mafia, and their Praxis Cities, data centers project. Once a thought enters his mind, and he thinks that it is his, never lets up, anymore than a bull terrier or Jack Russell Terrier with a bone.
Based on behaviors, not beliefs or words, Trump has been on a campaign, in which he is succeeding, to turn America into an isolated third world continent (I said America.North Central and South ,and include Greenland). a[[apparently in Helsinki or even Alaska, they worked out a deal in which they will carve the world up between themselves
The United States has been living on accumulated fat, for the last year, and the central nervous system is so large that pain inflicted on part of the corpus takes a year or two to travel to the CPU.
You can attach electrodes to a dead frogs legs and they will still jerk.
I don't need irrefutable facts to draw a conclusion, people have been executed on the basis of circumstantial evidence.
Good follow up. The frogs with moving legs aren’t completely dead but pithed—“to kill or immobilize an animal—such as a frog or cattle—by piercing or destroying its spinal cord or central nervous system.” So they are brain dead like much of the US electorate.
Talk of deficits and enormous numbers flies over deadheads. Our problem is personalizing the situation in 25 words or less, so to speak.
The thing with the frog legs, They are just legs of the frog, the frog is indeed dead. Legs, no body.I am sure you can find something of it on youtube.
Key billionaire and corporate leaders pay homage to this administration. They are both frightened and supportive of this present system and still give extortion money by the fists full to their leader and protector.
They may know how deranged he is but his whole organization (cabinet) is supported with and by these same corporate leaders. This administration doles out protection while dishing out targeted revenge for those in the organization that stray.
Their support assures that this protection will continue and if any member strays they are locked out of protection especially when an election temporarily turns against them. This is what they all have nightmares about.
Their’s is a long-term plan. As long as they have power from control and all the cash they can steal from us, even if there is a slight change in leadership, they quickly overtake this in subsequent elections. They pound on the fact that prices will never fall if they stick together as a group and keep pardoning and passing their own protective laws. They own more and more of our MSM and internet to keep us ignorant of these obvious yet strangely unknown facts by so many of us.
They own us and they know it. We now have a system that metaphorically rapes and pillages the people while supporting and protecting our jailers.
They wage war on us the citizens of this country who do the work and pay the taxes. And they ensure that targeted forever wars keep the armament manufacturers and the rest of their billionaire toadies raking in more of our money and the world’s, while controlling our military.
They continue to buy up property, waste our tax money on ludicrous costly and padded projects as a diversion. They shore up the oil industry to eek out the last drops of old energy technology that supports the present energy infrastructure. It cranks out the juice for AI data centers while they continue to replace human workers right and left as they have for the last 10 years.
They are systematically cutting us off from a real educational system that teaches and encourages critical thinking, keeping us poor, dumb, and dependent.
This is a huge round-robin conspiracy stretching all throughout our world at exponential speed.
More and more are being sucked into being supportive to their organization of thieves.
We can see the outcome of working with and being supportive of their organization of billionaire controllers when we look at Russia and its people. They are and have been so enmeshed in oligarchy for so long they sit practically helpless and silent. Their whole country is a prison of various levels of security.
Our system of government is not built for quick decisions. We are a government of and by a diverse people while they are a criminal organization of almost automatic consensus assured because if you don’t play ball they squash you and your interests and anyone who supports you.
Until we start acknowledging this as a conspiracy and openly talk about it being so, we have lost our only true hope for a wide spread consensus.
The Aisne‑Marne American Cemetery near Paris, France, which the Racist-in-Chief declined to visit and told aides, “Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers,” and separately referred to Marines killed at Belleau Wood as “suckers.”
Wrong!!! [as per usual]
The real Suckers and Losers [S&L] are the wage-slaves [WS] who bail out Rs by voting against the WSs' own interests.
Why?
Since '68's Nixon-Atwater Southern Strategy, S&L have willingly coughed up the ever-higher price of Race Hate. It's their crack; they're addicted.
So, to quote Henry Hill in the movie "Goodfellas"
During Henry’s narration, he explains how the mob [Rs] treats anyone [WS] who owes them money for Race Hate [crack.] He lists scenarios — business is bad, lightning struck the building, etc. — and after each one, he delivers the punchline:
“F**k you. Pay me!!!”
It captures the mob’s [Rs'] absolute, non‑negotiable attitude toward S&L's Race Hate Debts.
#VOTE #WAKE UP #SAVE Ivanka from a fate worse than intimacy with Jared. [i.e., w/ DT]
It sort of looks as if we have been suckers, rubes, and gullible victims of slick swindlers and clever operators who sold us a bill of goods and hoodwinked us into going along passively and quietly with their long-term plan to fleece us and leave us holding the bag - a bag of stinking manure. How could we have been so foolish and gullible? Maybe they had a plan for that too. Maybe we failed to become more competent and aware by design. Maybe the "greatest generation" or the boomers or their parents only thought they were getting smart and thought they were prepared to deal with the slick bankers, investors, and politicians. Maybe our priorities have been screwed up. Well, we will do better now because we will find better leaders who talk tough, even though our own priorities have not actually changed and our kids will continue to have the same experiences and learn the same way. Keep your fingers crossed.
I know the history well. All fomented in the 1970s by Republicans Lewis Powell (Memo: have corporations take control of everything); Paul Weyrich ( founder of Heritage, “I don’t want everyone to vote…we are radicals”); Laffer (Curve aka trickle down economics); Jude Wanniski (Two Santas: Have GOP run up a deficit, then cut social spending). I have had these conversations with conservatives, independents and even moderate uninformed Democrats. I will continue to do so. Education of truth and the real history is important. It’s why Republicans think up new ancillary culture war “issues” during elections. It’s weapons of masss distraction. They know they can’t win a debate or election based on their history and their policies. It’s why they won’t allow fact checking during debates. To win, they have to lie and cheat. To win, Dems must get the truth out.
TY
Here's another boondoggle making hte rich richer - Stinky's tarrifs. So he unilaterally imposed tarrifs on most of the world, raising prices for most Americans on just about everything they buy. The courts said his first round of tarrifs were illegal and he has to pay them back. So where does the money go when it is paid back? To corporations. The corps passed the cost on to consumers, and you and I paid for them. But the payback goes to the greedy rich owning and running the corporations. It is just another of the many schemes and scams and fraudulent tactics that are making corporate America into a runaway gravy train.
Forget About Fascist Republicans: Institutional Democrats: Corruption Of The Democratic Party
It's no secret that the Democratic Party has lost the American electorate(recent favorability 38%). This has ushered in the progressive left of the party represented by AOC and Sanders.
The success and popularity of Mamdani and El-Sayed under the Democratic tent has the centrist corporate wealthy donor class/institutional Democrats concerned about losing their platform and hence their influence and relevance in the political scene, particularly as it relates to the fascist led Israeli war.
For once the Democratic elite led by wealthy donors(for want of a better title Institutional Democrats) are losing to WE the People in a populist uprising which truly represents WE the People. For people like political consultants Neera Tandem, Zionist Simon Rosenberg, James Carville, and Ken Martin along with pundits Joe Scarborough, Bill Mayer, and Fareed Zakaria, this uprising threatens not only relevance but $$$ to the networks they represent. This has caused corporate millionaires and billionaires to pony up $$$ to fight this populist wave with the Third Way creation.
But this is not something new as Wajhat Ali and Dave Sirota(bit.ly/3SgNaBI) point out in a recent dialogue worth watching. MSM is losing the political relevance due to their past authoritarian stance to independent media such as The Lever, This Will Hold, Meidas Touch, Aaron Parnas, Left Hook, Zeteo among others. For decades this Democratic centrist group has used the antisemitic cudgel to support the Israeli Palestinian oppression/war but with the fascist Israeli pulling the US into its war, the antisemitic ploy is no longer working. WE the People are speaking out and saying if you’re willing to bullshit me on this, you’re probably willing to on economy etc.
Either party is screwing the American people. Time for a French Revolution 2.0 American style complete with political beheadings starting with Hakem and Chuck.
Part of Jon Ossoff’s success in communicating is that he does not deal in right and left - he agrees that both parties are responsible, to greater or lesser extent, for the failure of the system. He focuses on what needs to be done.
Given the extreme corruption, lies, irresponsibility. brutality of the Trump regime, and the willingness of the current Republicans to support Trump, though, there has to be a change of parties to have any hope of saving US democracy.
You're preaching to the choir.... brother. We have created a culture where everyone steals!!!! Read Polanyi or Streeck.