One Stop Thought Shop

Cutting into the $1.4 trillion deficit left on Obama’s doorstep, where does government find revenue?

• Individual income taxes —42% of all receipts in 2009.
• Social security, unemployment insurance and other —43%.
• Corporate income taxes are only 6% of total federal income.

Bush Republicans cut government revenue 27%. Corporate taxes fell a staggering 66%. A crippling burden on business, no?

Thirty years stumping Reagan’s sloganeering of ‘Cut Taxes / Slash Spending’, from 1986 to 2009, total government outlays have increased 254%, national defense has grown 144%, entitlements have grown 321% and healthcare has grown a staggering 835%.

Lured to voting Republican?
Oh yes, the best way to lose weight is to eat more ice cream.

After quadrupling Federal debt, Republicans continue to hoot spending cuts.

The problem is that the amount of discretionary spending that is ripe for cutting is a relatively small portion of the pot.

Supply-Side Economics has been at the core of Republican economic philosophy. “Cutting taxes doesn’t add to the deficit, it’s how we fight the deficit!! Less is more, don’t you see?? Reagan proved it.”

That’s just junk —very sloppy junk that brought America to a $1.4 trillion deficit.

Tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy, never a burden in any case, have utterly failed. The truth is that there is virtually no evidence in support of the Bush tax cuts as an economic elixir.

It’s not Palin-Beck 2012 we want nor a revival of religion, but a robust and stimulated economy. And some smart tax increases because,

…wealthy Americans no longer invest in creating productive American businesses.

They primarily ‘protect’ the value of their money —financial speculation, the stock market, cherry-picking leverage.

With so much money at the top seeking yield, asset prices were driven higher and higher, until the point was reached where the only way to keep the bubble going was ‘securitize’ people who could not afford to pay it back. After all, derivatives must be derived from something.

Permanently plug nearly 3,500 abandoned oil and gas wells in the Gulf of Mexico? Remove 650 abandoned production platforms?

There’s more than 27,000 abandoned wells in the Gulf? What?

Interesting finding on Gulf spill dispersal.
Macondo’s proportion of spewing gas bloomed bacteria.
Radically nourished, microbe populations exploded.

The microbial communities in the four plumes first tackled easy-to-digest hydrocarbons, such as propane, butane and ethane, which were kept from bubbling quickly to the surface by deepwater high pressure and cold temperature.

After consuming these gases, which boosted the populations, the larger communities moved to harder-to-eat onger-chain hydrocarbons such as the alkanes that comprise oil.

Robert Rapier,
Misery essay of the day:

• I view a global oil production peak within the decade as a near-certainty.
• I think there is a small probability that the peak has already occurred, but we won’t know that until several years after the fact.
• I don’t believe that there is anything in the technology pipeline that can prevent a growing gap between supply and today’s demand.
• I believe that gap will be closed by price-induced rationing, which will be very hard on businesses and individuals.

We simply don’t have the money to use the oil that we have historically used. This will be a period of great economic difficulty, lasting for years.

At the same time that the economy is in great difficulty, oil companies will continue to reap big profits, causing an enormous amount of resentment and calls for higher taxation and greater regulation of the oil industry.

I simply do not believe it will ever be possible to replace major shortfalls in oil production with renewables. It may be possible to replace 20% of today’s oil production, but beyond that there will be increasing competition with arable land for food production — and pressure to turn forested land into arable land.

However, I also believe that humans are very resilient, and that we will eventually come through this.

As well as unbridled banksters, what other sector is regulated with the Republican voodoo of laissez-faire? Contract Animal Testing.

Pledging industry self-regulation, Bayer, Eli Lilly, Novartis, Merck, Sergeant’s, Wellmark, and Meria are caught at one of the most cruel facilities on earth.

They yelled and cursed at cowering dogs and cats, calling them “asshole,” “motherfuckers,” and “bitch”; used pressure hoses to spray water—as well as bleach and other harsh chemicals—on them; and dragged dogs through the facility who were too frightened to walk.

In one test commissioned by a corporation whose products are sold in grocery and drug stores nationwide, a chemical was applied to the necks of 57 cats.

The cats immediately suffered seizures, foamed at the mouth, lost vision, and bled from their noses. Despite this, the substance was put on the cats a second time the very same day.

No USDA employees appear, but PETA’s volunteer went undercover for months.

The video shows laboratory employees discussing the use of sedatives that expired in 2007. “Maybe that’s why it doesn’t work,” says a voice on the video, shortly before the scene cuts to a dog twitching as its teeth are pulled with a pair of pliers. In another clip, one employee counsels another not to bother reporting a dog’s sores to the veterinarian. “If you have ten dogs that have the same problem, it’s not a problem,” she says. “It’s a living condition here.”

Shades of 500 million sick eggs! Many dogs had raw, oozing sores. The USDA finally inspected the lab last week, and has permanently shut down the company, Professional Laboratory and Research Service.

Sick. America. Sick all through.
And lazy.

What’s old and tired infrastructure, America?
• 2,840 significant gas pipeline accidents since 1990
• more than a third causing deaths and significant injuries

It took almost two hours to close the 30-inch-diameter pipeline that exploded in California!

Two valves a mile away were near the San Bruno disaster. Rush hour traffic? The government put the utility on notice regarding shut-off valves in 1981. We know about these problems.

I smell a trillion dollar jobs frontier. If only shareholders knew what to do with our money…

Never underestimate the power to defer.

Only since 2002 were utilities required to inspect but no rules impose repair. 3,000 unsafe sites discovered but unimproved. Lobbyists are currently pushing to relax inspections from once every ten years to once every fifteen.

Regulators arrive after the fact. Fail. Post-Reagan rule-makers rely on obviously unreliable incentives and deterrents, allowing the industry to police themselves. Fail. Utilities notoriously put off maintenance to boost earnings. Fail. Like BP’s drilling watchdogs, or eggs for that matter, is the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration not enforcing rules? There’s merely 100 inspectors for 2 million miles of pipeline. Fail.

Pipeline Safety advocates here.

GDP is a crude measure.
The big deal in this chart is human welfare, how we compare globally.

This is a ‘welfare metric’ combining data on consumption, leisure, inequality and mortality. It’s not a Happiness & Satisfaction GDP, but compares what we have that helps us get by.

[pdf] Beyond GDP? Welfare Across Countries and Time, the work of Peter Klenow with Chad Jones, September 2010.

Maybe we bellyache a wee bit much.

Barebones but progressing, here’s a terrific Mission Statement:

This blog is intended as a tool to identify the most powerful and influential people in the world — criminals, academics, politicians, and even possibly a well-regarded philanthropist or two. Will we end up with a pyramid? Concentric rings? Let’s find out. Those advocating lynch mobs are not welcome.

With any luck, we’ll be able to paint a picture of the true pecking order of society, and with that knowledge be able to prevent it from causing further catastrophic damage.

Existing lists of The 100 Most Influential are helpful and we should definitely link to them, but let’s dig deeper to find out the names behind the names; who marches to whose drum. Please provide valid arguments and evidence. Doesn’t have to be fancy and poetic, but please make it intelligible and informative.

 

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We know nothing about the rich. We have no idea what a $1,000,000,000 can do. For that matter, commas and zeros is a lost frontier in a world too unable.

Jobs. The IMF is warning governments that there will be no recovery until jobs restart. The IMF is urging governments to start factoring back-to-work policies into their overall equation for stoking growth. The IMF is warning governments that unemployment is fanning unrest.

• Countries that have so far avoided the harsh judgment of financial markets could afford a small increase in debt to ward off persistent joblessness…

• Such a move could pay for itself in the form of increased economic activity…

• Rising long-term unemployment is a crisis…

• the United States, too, should consider subsidies to help the long-term unemployed…

• Countries that need to rebuild credibility should first reallocate spending to get the long-term unemployed and young people back into the labor market.

Countries need to rebuild credibility? There’s a thump on the head to deliver to Congress!

Republicans holler that taxes and regulations bridle business. Oh do they holler. But is that true?

If it is true that lower taxes = lower unemployment, why do facts show otherwise? Nearly all apolitical economists see this clearly.

Congressional tweaking has been sorry leadership for decades. Lazy and brain dead tax cuts do not lead to more hiring.

Stumping Busting: revealing the lies of politicians. Not good television but gee whiz we are mired in baloney.

Comment snippet: “The fear of social unrest is the only thing that might work. There sure is no response to the pain and suffering of others.”

A world’s top utility. What can it do when old pipe explodes?

Julio has 3rd degree burns on his ear and second degree burns on his hand and his back. He’s signing papers saying he’ll pay the medical bills “if no one else would”. The clinic made him sign. Richard is also filling out forms. He’s offered cookies. Loretta was burned fleeing her home. She’s in an auditorium filling out forms. She’s offered a box of chicken. Les is 78. He’s outdoors on the sidewalk waiting.

With everyone else, the utility is here to help.

Oh. The utility arranged to have clothes on hand too. Good of them. No?