WCGreen
WCGreen's JournalSome pundits are questioning why Obama is in Iowa for three whole days...
Three days in a state that has only six electoral votes...
Why is he in Iowa?
Because he can!
Look, do you really think that President Obama is in any way depending on Iowa to tip him over 270?
I can tell you right here and now the Obama is here only because he can. Wisconsin is a neighbor state and the coverage from there will bleed into Wisconsin, Minnesota, Missouri and even South Dakota.
It's a great trip for him and his campaign to touch the people in Iowa that will carry the campaign in that state through November.
It also gives President Obama some good old fashion fun. It really is fun to campaign in the state fairs, I've done it and it's a lot better than driving from place to place and standing in front of another crowd. It's mingle time.
So, relax, kick back and watch what happens after Labor Day.
Remember this, most people are busy getting their kids ready for school, trying to squeeze a little more fun before fall kicks in. Just because people here on this board and the media is all crazy about the campaign, most people out there are not paying all that much attention or perhaps they are sick and tired of campaigns running from the day after the last election is over....
Watching the best western movie ever made...
The John Wayne John Ford The Searchers, is a tale of a man searching for his niece who was abducted by what was called renegade Indians.
It's a mature movie in that it shows how vengeance and retribution can eat at a man's soul no matter the reason behind all the anguish.
The last scene in the movie, when John Wayne comes back to civilization, he can't cross over to settlement, is gut wrenching.
In a way it's a story as old as we are, one that shows how a man is altered by war, how a man's soul is torn away, how old soldiers just fade away, tossed aside by civilization that doesn't want to be reminded of all that trouble, all that violence, all that loss...
TCM has the movie. Jeffrey Hunter is in it, the actor that gave us Captain Pike on the Star Trek pilot.
The movie takes in the whole southwest and, as Ford always did, that landscape becomes a character in his screen play.
I'm not a great big fan of John Wayne, but this movie rises above all his other Movies, including The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, The Shootist and True Grit.
That's it...
Pretty much anyone who has a portfolio, even just a mutual fund, will somewhere along the way
end up paying some foreign taxes. Usually this is paid by the mutual fund company on gains from sales of foreign stock within the mutual fund.
Basically that means that money earned and taxed at the source is treated as a deduction so that there will not be double taxation The money was basically earned outside of the US and so it has been taxed at the source.
Now not all foreign taxes are deductible.
But in the case of Romney, it looks as if he had a bunch of investments overseas that performed well in 2010.
I've been doing taxes since the 1980's, nothing any where this extensive, but I have had some clients over the years who have had 40-50 page tax returns. But 200+.... That's a lot of paper work...
If you look at it, and take away the Social Security Tax on line 56, you still have someone who earned 21,646,507 and paid 2,980,618 (you don't include Social Security payments as part of income tax rates), Romney paid %13.77 tax on 21,646,507.
Now I have a lot of clients who make more than 150,000 a year and I can tell you they pay at least 20% on their earned income.
Poor schlubs like most of us on this board, pay income tax higher than people who make a living from investing. If you want to know why this country is fucked up it's because those people who own things are treated more favorable than the people who work for a living.
And that, my friends, is why this country has become as stratified as it is.
God Damn it....
Is it too much to ask that we have one news show that has the sole purpose of keeping the country informed not from a conservative or liberal slant...
I want the news that informs me with facts and not polls or feelings or two partisan hacks arguing from some position developed by ass hats who could give a god damn shit about the welfare of the country...
Please, please someone do this.
We need a well informed electorate to make intelligent decisions when we walk into the voting booth.
There is a place for that partisan crap, but it should not slant the news to fit a political agenda...
God Damn it, is that too much to ask?
The problem with balanced budgets for the federal government is that they
have obligations that have to be taken care of in order to keep our society running somewhat smoothly. If the budget was, by law, to be in balance then what would happen to say the military or the flood relief or the welfare of people which, btw, assures at least a somewhat peaceful society, if there were a drop off in revenue due to an economic downturn.
If the government goes down then the basic rules of our society will fall down.
Another for instance the courts would go away, the prison system would be at risk. If the government can't borrow, because that is basically the only way to have a balanced budget year by year, what happens if the revenue falls short for one month to the next.
There are all sorts of practical reason such as how to insure just basic continuity in service to no Social Security, even for those who have already paid into the program. But the government borrows every day on short term bonds just to get through money crunch times.
If there were to be a balanced budget required, they couldn't really borrow because you are basing what you need on a day to day basis with what you are EXPECTING to come in in the short term. That inevitably results in deficit spending from one fiscal year to the next.
The Film Flam Man...
A wonderful movie about two lovable scamps pulling the wool over the eyes of gullible Southerners.
Notice the word Gullible. You see a con can never really work unless the people who are being Flamed buy into the Flim.
The key to the scam is that no matter how much evidence and testament comes to light about the scam, those on the Flam side are caught in a situation that even if they figure it out they, more than likely than not, will suspend belief and hope it all goes away before the sham explodes all over the place.
Now there is always a bit of a con man in every politician just because of the nature of the game which is basically painting a rosier future than the other guy or gal who is out there with their version of how the world will be.
And that is why con men succeed more often than not.
So looking at what the republicans have on their hands right now. They have their very own Mordicia on their hands in guise of Mitt Romney. He wants you to trust him, trust him that he looked over his tax returns and announces that he saw nothing wrong so what's all the Whoo Haa over the tax returns.
Don't think for a moment that the GOP doesn't know this but they sure don't want to look like they have been Flamed again. They are banking their whole campaign on tearing down president Obama because when you really look at it, they have nothing more than more of the same.
Would you, if you where a republican (perish the thought), stand up and say we've been bamboozled once again?
I think not. We just have to make sure we get the people who see through the con to the polls on November 6th...
There use to be this term that described American's abroad.
It was the Ugly American.
This type of American goes over seas and refuses, at the least, the local cuisine and at the worst, insisting that they all talk American...
And Mitt Romney fits this bill to the max. Blithely careening across Europe and the middle east in a cocoon made of American Exceptionalism. This isn't the idea that Americans are Exceptional but the Mitt is above anything that happens anywhere but the US of A. Worse yet, his protected and skewed view of his place in the United States...
This is reminiscent of the way Dubya looked out over the world, that the rest of the world had one purpose, to condone anything the US does...
Watching one of the Movie's Fellini made between the late forties and deep into the 60's...
especially the one's filmed in Italy, you can still see the devastation that the War had wrought on the people.
It's as if Fellini used that stark back drop, rubble and all, almost as if it was a character in the film. It serves as a great contrast between, especially those filmed in B&W, life and death. Everywhere there is evidence of tragedy and yet, life goes on.
The one movie, La Strada, features Anthony Quinn as a rough-neck traveling strong man who performs for tips and food. This is a disturbing movie on many levels but it also shows that life goes on, no matter what happens all around you. Of course there is a lot more to it than that, It's a Fellini movie. Suffice it to say it is hard to watch but you will come out the other end slightly wizened
I don't know really where I am going with this but I must say I am glad I waited to watch these films until I was able to gather enough life to understand fully what these films were all about.
One of my favorite persons in the whole world use to say "you don't have to be Fellini to figure that out" when people made a super obvious comment to describe something. It made laugh when I was in my 20's but now, halfway into my 50's, I just smile to myself as I enjoy all that life has to offer.
Investing, via a hedge fund does not make you a business man, whatever that means...
It means you are an investor and investors only want one thing out of their portfolio; the largest return on capital they can"create".
To me, a business man is a person who is interested in all aspect of the firm they are running.
There are many aspect, of course, but here are the ones I think are pretty universal.
First, producing good products to build up your firm in the publics eye, second, looking for the best way to sell your product, third, how to best keep the people in your employ by treating them fairly and equatable. And finally, turning a sustainable profit which means looking far beyond the next few quarters.
I'm an accountant and deal with a lot of small business people and what they wanted most was a sense of building something good and also looking for a comfortable living. Doing this can take a lot more than just a few quarters.
So to say Mitt Romney is a business man is just disingenuous. To me, Mitt Romney is a vulture capitalist who swoops down into a situation with only one goal on his mine, getting as much money he can get and moving on leaving others to pick up the pieces.
If Romney is successful in November without releasing tax returns...
or any other financial record, that would, to me at least, be the death knell of our open political process.
From this election on, we would hear from candidates on both sides that it is none of anyone's business what goes on in my private life and so we, the citizens, won't be afforded a look into the financial nature of the candidates.
This is a watershed moment, folks. There is nothing more revealing than where a person invests and what deductions they feel comfortable with.
For all we know, Romney may have pushed the envelope a couple of times over the years and it would show up on his tax returns. This would show what kind of man he is.
Some people are comfortable taking the letter of the law right to the point that the action is teetering on the fulcrum of right or wrong.
This is a big deal If he gets away with it, well...
But don't forget, if you are a working stiff, well, the people from Romney's class whole heartedly support trust but verify when it comes to the rest of us.
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