Tyranny Of Self-Interested Wealth

If you are not a card-carrying member of the wealthy elite, and if you see yourself as middle class, or even if you are honest enough to admit you might not quite be middle class, and there’s nothing wrong with that, I have a simple message for you. —

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Fact of the Day: Executive Compensation Is A Corporate Tax Deduction – Yes, That’s Really A Thing

Obviously I’ve had my head buried in the sand, because I was totally unaware that corporations can deduct executive pay from their federal income taxes. So what this means is, average tax payers are subsidizing a tax deduction for some of the richest corporations on the planet. And that might be fine if it was a tax deduction meant to spur something for the good of society. But no, it’s just a tax deduction that helps wealthy fucks pay other wealthy fucks large sums of money. — Robert Reich explains it with a lot more restraint than I.

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SNAP: Food Assistance: These Simple Charts Could Prove You’re An Ass

Many conservatives have no problem showing their disdain for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), previously known as “food stamps.” In December 2011, then Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum asked, “If hunger is a problem in America, then why do we have an obesity problem among the people who we say have a hunger program?” This is the kind of unthinking “wisdom” that emanates from the conservative bubble.

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Chart: Obama vs. Bush: Private Sector Job Growth (First 52 Months)

There is a lot of Republican right-wing misinformation about the state of the economy and private sector job growth. And breathtaking in their ineptitude are conservatives who believe President Obama is presiding over a net private sector job loss economy. This simply is untrue. I don’t say this because it’s my opinion, I say it because the data gathered by the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows net private sector job growth since January 2009 of almost 2.6 million jobs. It’s not something that can be disputed because we have actual data and record keeping. It’s information that anybody can research, but it requires a lot less conjecture and a little more work, which might produce a result that would not comport to right-wing narratives.

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