Unpatriotic Corporate America

 Fuck Donald Trump

Peace,

emaycee

Go away, go away, go away, Dixieland

I came across this piece by Allen Barra in which he asks if the South is dragging down the rest of the nation (short answer--and I could have told this without reading the piece--yes, yes it is).  Mr. Barra (and this companion piece by Sara Robinson which shows how we in the blue states subsidize the South with our taxes) rightly points out how nine of the ten poorest states in America are in the South, how the South receives much more in our taxes than they pay in, that illiteracy rates, poverty rates, and divorce rates are higher in the South, how their right to work laws have undermined Labor Unions and have brought wages and benefits down for the rest of America.

Mr. Barra notes a book by Chuck Thompson, Better Off Without 'Em:  A Northern Manifesto for Southern Secession, that he had read skeptically the first time and with some more enthusiasm the second.  Thanks to the numbnuts Governor of Texas, the idea of Southern Secession is being floated--but kind of interestingly, it's being floated by both the right and the Left.  For the Left, there are those who believe in the e pluribus unum promise of America and aren't really interested, and on the other end, there are those like Mr. Thompson who wholeheartedly support the idea of Southern Secession, and those are are warming to the idea from the sheer frustration of watching our country being dragged down by people who wouldn't pour shit out of their shoes merely because a Democrat suggested it.

I can make it easy on everyone:  Southern Secession will never happen.

Because there is no way that America corporations based in the South are going to give up sucking on the teat that is the U.S. Government, most of it supported with taxes from those socialist blue states.

Being profitable because of handouts from the U.S. Government is one whole hell of a lot easier than actually running a profitable business on its own merits.

Peace,
emaycee

A pocket full of mumbles

It's been a while since I wrote one of those depressing posts with the really shitty economic data for working folks...so I figured, it's a gloomy Sunday night, what the fuck, why not tonight?

• Three in four--that's 75% for you republican geniuses--are now living paycheck to paycheck.  If republicans have their way, they'll pass the Ryan budget and make it nine out of ten (90%, same audience).
• From the same link, CEOs now make 273 dollars for every dollar we peons make.  Anybody ever known (anyone with a brain, that is) a CEO whose worth to the company you work for was 273 times your worth?  Didn't think so...
• The first quarter of this year saw the largest wage drop--3.8%--since the government began keeping track of wage increases/decreases 65 years ago.  It won't be long before my (still non-existent) grandkids will be asking me, "Hey, Grandpa, tell us about the days when people used to get raises...."
• A recent CBO report shows that 50% of our tax expenditures go to the top 20% of earners in the U.S., while the bottom 20% (you know, welfare cheats and lazy, no-good-for-nothings) get a mere 8%.  While I'm at it, I can teach my grandchildren how to light torches and carry pitchforks.
• It could be worse for you--you could be a temp worker (unless, of course, you already are).  Back in the day, I believe they called it indentured servitude.  Today, we call it Kelly Services.
• As if it isn't bad enough at one in six Americans in the richest nation in the history of humankind living in poverty, the Census Bureau believes its numbers actually underrepresent the number of poor Americans, and some believe it could be as high as 50%.  I'm not sure there are any words....

Such are the promises of what we used to call the American dream.

Thanks for playing, here's your cheesy parting gift, and have a nice evening.

Peace,
emaycee

A fine pair (of assholes)

Seems Phil Mickelson, professional golfer extraordinaire, got into a wee bit of a kerfuffle by proclaiming that California's tax rate was just too darn burdensome for a poor guy making $60 million dollars a year hitting a little ball into a hole with a stick.  Mickelson quickly apologized, perhaps realizing that the legion of golf fans who spend their hard earned dollars on the shit he endorses may not respond too empathetically to his, uh, dilemma.  Mickeson also threatened to retire, until reality snuck in and he realized that $60 million a year jobs are pretty darn rare.

Tiger Woods quickly offered support for Mickelson, saying the reason he had moved from California to Florida (where there is no state income tax, and unlike any other state, a tourist trade that makes this entirely possible) was because of tax issues.  Woods, as many heard, showed his true character when he cried into a phone asking his mistress to not tell Mommy that he'd been a bad boy.  Ever since, I can't look at Woods without thinking, "You should have manned up.  What a wimp!"

Apparently, it's never dawned on these two prima donnas that it takes taxes to build the roads their fans travel on, taxes to educate the people who build their expensive homes and cars, and that taxes have probably paid for many of the golf courses they play on.  But heaven forbid multi-millionaires should have to help pay for it--let the lowky shlubs making peanuts pay for all of it.  Because, you know, hitting a little ball into a hole with a stick has solved so many of the world's problems.

Listening to them about their money problems makes me very glad I believe in God--because I'm sure at the end of their days She's going to slap the living shit out of both of them for being such disgusting assholes.

Peace,
emaycee