I have to add another note on the NRA now that Mr. LaPierre made his speech. A personal note to Wayne LaPierre, CEO and Executive Vice President of the NRA—Mr. LaPierre, you are a clown, a shill, a stooge for the gun and munitions manufacturers in this country, and a pathetic example of a man who would sell his soul, and the lives of young children for profit and power. Your time is over. Your words remind me of those of the Tobacco executives that wanted us to believe cigarettes didn't cause cancer, or the White Supremacists and Politicians that wanted us to believe Afro-Americans did not deserve equality prior to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, or German citizens who did not want to believe Hitler meant to exterminate the Jews in WWII. Your words are anathema to any caring, intelligent adult who values the lives of school children, teachers and everyday people everywhere. And proposing more weapons on our streets and in our schools as the answer makes you just one more dangerous cowboy with no brains and no morals. The boys back at all the gun manufacturers must be sitting back throwing a few cold beers down and toasting you with the thought that "we gonna' sell a bunch'a guns now so everbody can feel safe!" You are a whore of the worst variety, and it is time we extricate you from our Political system. You are just one more rich bastard who will say and do anything to protect his little fiefdom and pile of money. Good people everywhere need to band together, call their legislators, and see to it that you and the NRA do not decide our public policy.

Guns, Murder and Madness

Somebody posted a moronic statement on Facebook yesterday referring to Timothy McVeigh, and that because he killed 168 people without a gun, "Murderers will murder with or without a gun." This came from somewhere called "Let's Make Fun of Liberals." I found this disgusting and abhorent. This logic is the same as saying that because hundreds of people drowned in a terrible accident on a ferry that sank, we should not co...

nsider having speed limits on our highways because "accidents will happen with or without a car." It is a specious argument that evades the senseless conditions that allowed the terrible events that led to these tragic deaths. The mental health of young boys with no support, coupled with lax gun laws that allow the sale of semi-automatic assault rifles with 100 round magazines and a mother who failed to ensure the guns were not available to her son. I am sickened by anyone that can argue in favor of these assault guns and large magazines when these massacres continue to plague us, and have now taken the lives of 20 children and the 7 adults trying to save them. The vast majority of Police forces Nationwide favor banning these assault weapons and their mega-magazines because they are first on the scene to deal with the carnage. If you hunt or want protection, handguns and single shot rifles are NOT in contention. The first ammedment provides for free speech, but we wisely do not allow people to yell fire in crowded public places for fear of the terrible consequences. The same is true of our second ammendment rights to bear arms. Keep your registered and legal handguns and hunting rifles, and let's ban the kind of gun that allows someone to kill 27 people in under five minutes, shooting some of them over ten times. NOTHING about the second ammendment sought to allow these types of weapons. And then let's have a discussion about locking guns in the home. And let's research the possibility of providing senors in the handles or triggers that can be keyed ONLY to the person that passed the waiting period and background check so only they can release the safety and fire the weapon. And then let's have a discussion about how we deal with a generation of violent video game burn-outs who are mentally and socially damaged to the point that this kind of grisly and sickening event can happen. And I hope I never see anyone post something about this tragic event that comes from something called "Let's Make Fun of Liberals" again. I don't find anything about any of this "fun." And if calling someone who wants to find a way to minimize or end the slaughter of little children a liberal, then fucking count me in, and be assured I will stand against the NRA and their "profit over children's lives" agenda. The America I believe in is better than this. And using the same old "liberal vs conservative" gun bullshit argument in the wake of this massacre of children just makes me want to puke. I refuse to take the same old gun rights bullshit from people too invested in firepower to see the death and carnage it creates.

Let's Talk Taxes

Seems to me, we need an overhaul of our tax code and strategy, not just a bump for the millionaire rate. Taxes, are just like the kitty in a poker game. Or they should be. You wanna play, you gotta pay. And it makes no difference what pile or lack thereof you are sitting on, you pay the kitty to participate in the possibility of winning.
Fair and simple taxation should be the order of the day. Certainly a progressive tax, in which the rate creeps up based on your overall earnings is the appropropriate method with the wide disparity of income levels we have in our cash rich country.

But I also agree that all, or nearly all should have a level they pay so no one can claim we simply let people off the hook. It seems to me that only those at the extreme low point on the income curve would escape paying anything. In my mind, this is somewhere between $5K and $10K annually. You, or your economist can pick the specific income point, beloe which you pay no taxes.

From there, we have a large number of hard working citizens, part timers, seniors, and unskilled labor that sits below $20K annually, but who can all pay something. It would seem an easy plan to come up with a flat pay scheme that would limit the pain, but ensure they pay into our collective American dream. Fix their tax at $200, or create a small scale, $8K, 12K, 15K 20K levels with $100, $200, $350, $500 flat payments. We should ensure they all pay something, but that it is fair and does not punish them as the low earners. Again, this would seem to be an easy task.

Over $20K annually, I think this becomes very easy. But first, we must fix the deduction merry-go-round and investment/capital gains fantasy. Two scenarios: 1) you are a bus driver in a major metropolitan area, working 48 hours per week, and barely breaking $50K annually. Your tax rate is 25%. 2) you are an investment banker who makes $250K salary plus commission and bonus income. As you have the ability to do so, you generally have $500K invested in the stock market, and you realize relatively large capital gains on this money each year. Your base tax rate is 34%, but you only pay 15% on your investment and capital gains income. The current rich guy/investor/congressman viewpoint is that if we don't give the investment banker a break on his investments, he and his other wealthy buddies won't invest and our economy will shrink. If this logic is correct, the bus driver wouldn't waste his time working his ass off only to make $50K a year, and our transportation system will come to a halt. Neither is true.

First, tell me where else will the banker find the kind of returns on his money that the stock market or other investment opportunites offer him? Putting it in his savings account at the bank? Buying baseball cards? No. if you look at the kind of money that can be made with large investment ability, even if his capital gains tax rate went up, it would still be the smart thing to invest it. And for those who want to shriek and wail that the money he used for his investment has already been taxed, how can we think of taxing it again at the same rate? Wow. Income from rich guy job, taxed at 34%, portion of income spent on stocks, which bring profit (income) from investment which is NEW INCOME, and should be taxed. Please, can we just for the moment deal in reality, and not a parallel universe where those with means make up new definitions for stuff we thought we knew about?

Now, what we are talking about is what is the goal of our tax system? Is it to provide a place for the fairly rich to get richer? Is it a big card game like Wall Street where those that play the game properly can make gazillion's of dollars because they had bazillions to start with? Is it an engine that can be aimed at varying industries or other endeavors to make them work better and oil the wheels of progress and profit to make things work better? No. No, and no.

Our tax system is a tangible payment that we as Americans make to ensure national security, a working infrastructure, court system, and political administration to run the workings of our government and ensure order. Once we started diddling the deductions, sheltering the income and providing tax dodges that were oh so legal, but maybe a little shady, we handed over our economy to the wealthy, powerful and politically connected. Do you really believe anyone making under $30K a year had a lot of pull with getting our current plethora of deductions and tax incentives implemented to cover his corporate jet? We must demand an end to this greedy profit grab which has severely damaged the middle class. And how do we do that, you ask?

I'll tell you how. We eliminate, that's right, eliminate — "that starts with T and that rhymes with P and that spells trouble," ALL DEDUCTONS save the mortgage on your primary home, and charitable deductions. And we put limits on those. Again, I hear the shrieking and gnashing of teeth that this will stall business development and profits and make us communist and the world will end and....bullshit! This will return the tax code to what it should be—a direct method of funding our government, shared by all but the lowest income individuals.

Now here is the good news — I refer you back to my comments, "I think this becomes very easy." Over $20K in income, without all the loopholes and tax havens and corporate Cayman Island Investment Schemes, we can now make three simple tax rate categories, and lower the overall percentage rate for each from what we pay now. If it were up to me, I would only lower it a little to bring the broadest amount of income, aimed at increasing it say, 20-25% over what it is now from these levels. So, again, get your own economist to work these percentages for you, but mine would be 15%, for income of $20K to $250K, 20% for $250K to $1M, and 25% over $1 Million. And remember, this would include all investment and capital gains income because it is, after all, income!

Now run along, get your friendly local economist, and work the numbers. This plan could work, and you could file your taxes on a post card at year end. And, it would have the lovely effect of raising tax revenues while lowering the percentages paid. Right now, we have these falsely inflated percentages, but if you are rich, your actual percentage is much lower than your tax bracket because you have all kinds of delicious ways of sheltering income. You know, so it will trickle down to us peons. What a load of shit. The American system of Capitalism is built on people having the freedom to build a business out of nothing, and with their hands and minds making it profiatble. We have for too long given in to the investment banker and wall street financier that what we really need is to float a few IPO's, grab some investment income, borrow some venture capital, sheiled oursleves from taxes, and watch our portfolio grow even if we have a mediocre product and lousy service. Greed is killing us, and if you wonder where that great American manufacturing engine went, it went up in smoke from the fire that companies like Bain Capitol built under American companies to squeeze profit from them as they disappeared. Our tax code rewards this kind of behavior, and it has to stop. We must learn again to compete on excellance, and conduct business with integrity.

In my mind, this is what Mr. Obama should be promoting; instead of leaving himself open to right-wing criticism that he is "re-distributing" wealth and stifling new business and jobs by raising taxes on the job makers. My plan doesn’t re-distribute" wealth, it cleans and simplifies the tax code for us all. How long have we heard about Romney's complaint from Republicans that "47% of Americans don't pay any tax?" Well let's fix that. Let's ensure that with the exception of under $5K in income, all Americans pay their fair share, and this includes those over $1 Million without sheltering them from the full tax that the rest of us are burdened with.

Isn't it better if we all pay, and all our tax brackets come down, the code is simplified, and we raise more income to fix our economy, our infrastructure, Medicare, Social Security and the deficit?

Now, lest you think I am naive, it will take the people of this great country, big and small, rich and poor, well known and obscure, to give this plan a chance of seeing the light of day. What I would like are concrete ideas of how to achieve this. Leave me a post and offer your thoughts.

Let the Mystery monkey go Free!

The monkey says it all. I have previously referred to the fact that none of us, myself included, are very far removed from our Simian roots. I recognize this fact every time I see one of those commercials where the guy is surrounded by chimps in a business office and they take nothing seriously. Or if I watch one of those "Trunk Monkey" videos on Youtube which leave me in tears from laughing so hard. But of course, that proves without doubt that I am laughing so hard because I identify with the monkeys, not the actors in the video. just recognizing this frees me to embrace the animal in me, and of course makes me want a banana or to go pee in the corner.

Now when I compare these revelations to the recent Political storm we just barely lived through, I feel much more like crying than laughing. It is all to clear that all of our so called "civilized" machinations are simply the same sentiments as those apes in "2001: A Space Odyssey" when they find the ability to pick up clubs and sticks and beat the other tribe silly, thereby winning the day.

Now don't misunderstand—I would have been happy to mimic this activity in the heat of the electorate battle and club people like Rush Limbaugh, Paul Ryan, Mitt Romney, Michelle bachman and Anne Coulter. It is just that on reflection I see clearly that our system is no better than a bunch of mountain gorillas going at it to establish the pecking order. Once the dust settles, we pretty much revert to the "every mammal to them selves" stance for four more years and hope somebody takes care of the details while we go back to scrounging food, liquor, tail and a new iPhone. You know, seeking more monkey sex.

And yes, for those of you who have weathered my high and mighty diatribes on facebook, where I stylistically and with great literary poise eviscerate my Republican counterparts, and generally flip a finger at all opinions I deem narrow minded and moronic, I am certainly a fundamental part of the problem, and enjoy fresh fruit and maniacal laughing as much as the next ape. But in my defense, I also tried very hard to make logical, studied arguments that I had researched so I could back my opinions up with real facts and figures so I could attain Alpha male status in the facebook tribal order. Well, at least in my local tribe.

But now, the battle has been won, and my choice was victorius. I can now hope and pray for peace and prosperity to return, so that I can once again afford to subscribe to Modern Drummer Magazine, and buy new shoes whenever I want. And as I now turn to pushing the powers to be to revamp our tax system so it is able to be understood by mere mortals, built to favor none and be affordable to all, I can't help but offer up a little chuckle, completely out of character for a wild mountain ape who would be beating his chest and shrieking loudly, that America has come to a point in it's demographics that allowed it to re-elect a Black man–a Harvard graduated, family guy soft talking kind of Black man with a distinctly suspicious middle name to the highest office in the land when the white country club types can't even figure out how he got there in the first place! I feel certain that the day after voting day in 2008 there was a hue and cry from gated communities and golf courses everywhere that sounded very close to..."Are you fucking kidding me?" And now, these same people believed in their narrow little white, upper and way-the-fuck upper ruling class homes across the land that the Mittster could not possibly lose to this guy that the Donald claimed was not an American citizen, did not actually graduate from Harvard and was intent on converting us all to the Socialistic Muslim wing of the Communist Atheist party. So yesterday, there once again rose a chorus of sound that might have been..."You have got ot be kidding me! Get my broker on the phone, NOW!" Ain't democracy grand? Now I am off to scratch my nuts in public, and spit fruit seeds on the sidewalk while cackling like Cheetah as I sneak through the night to find the place where they are keeping the hillsborough County Mystery monkey caged and free him to the Central Florida jungle once again!