Don't Underestimate Trump Supporters!

Don't underestimate Trump Supporters!

I am as bothered by the current Trump chaos as anyone. Like many people, I  am tempted to lump all his supporters into the ‘low-info, stupid voter’ category, who I am now calling ‘Trumplings’. It's evident that Trumplings actually are uneducated boobs who bought into Trump's con, and his ‘Make America Great Again’ scam. It’s just so hard to believe that anyone with a modicum of intelligence could actually believe any word from, or support such a monster as Donald Trump. While it's  true that many Trumplings are moronic fools, I believe it's a huge mistake to classify all Trump Supporters are stupid or unintelligent. 

Notice I have separated Trump people into two categories, i.e., “Trumplings” and “Trump Supporters”.

I think many Trump Supporters are smart and intelligent people, and thereby dangerous. The problem is, so many, most, of these are warped and perverted individuals in their thought processes and suffering from a pitiable dearth of character and ethics, not to mention personal sensitivity. Attorney General Jeff Sessions is an example of the sort of person I am thinking about here. Ted Cruz is another.

Ted Nugent on the other hand, would qualify as a high profile Trumpling, a dumb-assed, low-info, (and narcissistic!) moron. Mike Huckabee and Paul Lepage, current governor of Maine are two more. These are the types Trump himself was referring to when he claimed he could shoot someone in the middle of Fifth Avenue in NYC and his ‘supporters’ would not care. The pitiful part of that statement is that it is literally true for these types of his enablers!

I believe it's a result of an inexorable propagandizing of their very souls, rendering them completely incapable of considering other viewpoints. I also think they are almost always culturally predisposed for this to happen. Think ‘White Nationalism’ and 'fervent religiosity' as two facets of this type.

A great many Trumplings seem to be of the Christian evangelical persuasion, which to me, marks them as victims of a life-long subjugation of personality to the evilness of a perverted religion in a very similar way as radical Muslimism affects its adherents. And history proves that the Christian version can be every bit as dangerous if left unrestrained. Obviously, not all Christians are Trumplings, but many of evangelical types appear to be. For some reason, many Catholics seem to be as well. I say this as a lifelong agnostic, having no religious persuasion, except perhaps ‘anti-religions’.

I am very struck by the eerily similar way that today’s US radical right-wing so closely mirrors the German and Italian Fascists of the 1920’s, ‘30’s and 40’s. Many of those folks were educated, intellectual, and very effective people with the regrettable flaw of possessing evil souls, if I might use that word. There has always been a sort of right-wing Fascist mentality throughout recorded history, and conservatism has always been its close first cousin. These are the folks who cling to the past, and who can easily be motivated by fear, particularly fear of change, and fear of those unlike themselves. All it takes to get them excited and aroused is some rabble-rouser like Trump (or Hitler) who cultivates and nurses their fears. Fervent nationalism, religion, and racism are very often the first go-to catalysts for fear used by rabble-rousers.

Now deceased columnist, intellectual and conservative icon William F. Buckley perhaps described conservatism most succinctly:

“A conservative is a fellow who is standing athwart history yelling ‘Stop!’ “

The more I read, the more I see the world throughout history has had a roughly equal complement of Yin/Yang types, conservatism versus liberality. There seems to be a roughly obvious balance today, though the pendulum does tend to swing back and forth over time.

Nazi Fascists of the past had plenty of the stupid, sheep-like followers too, who bought into the Hitler’s mythical scam of ‘The Fatherland’ and ‘Lebensraum’, and not at all unlike how Trump’s ‘America First’, 'Make America Great Again', and ‘Build That Wall!’ slogans motivate his own obscene hoards today.

My point is, I believe it's a grave mistake to lump today’s American Fascists into an ‘all-dumb-as-rocks’ category. Many Trump Supporters are intelligent, well-educated people with plenty of energy, patience, and pragmatism - a dangerous mix for any group when they have an agenda, which our own Fascists today surely do. It is very dangerous to underestimate groups like these. The world has already made that mistake once which almost sent civilization back to the Dark Ages. (Twice, if you count the Visigoth barbarians' defeat of the Roman Empire - which actually DID result in a Dark Age!)

Steve Bannon is a good example of the type I mean. I believe Trump himself, is merely a Hitler wannabe, without the cleverness or intellect required. He doesn’t seem to have one-quarter the smarts Adolph Hitler had, thank goodness. Yes, he may be able to read, even read well, but he doesn’t bother. He probably has a good, basic raw intelligence too, but he appears to be too lazy and bored to develop that into any meaningful intellectual power, which is likely a good thing for us all.

In my view, the saving grace of our current national political chaos, of which Trump is but the figurehead, is that it will ultimately be self-regulating, and will very likely result in much needed political change for the better.

That is certainly my hope!

"Side With The Truth Tellers"

  ~ Sir Harold Evans

The Trump Nation and Taxes

"Tax reform" is in the news. The GOP has promised to do that. Golly gee, wonder where that is going? With the GOP now solidly in charge all around, any halfway sentient person already knows, except for Trump supporters of course.

Almost no one likes paying taxes, although you might think by all rights they should. For most people, and corporations too for that matter, the more income or profits you have, the higher the tax rate is and should be. So, all in all, the more you make, the more you would keep, even after a higher tax rate - and the happier you ought to be, right?

But, that's not how it works in reality. The more money people - or corporations - make, the more inclined they seem to be to use tax avoidance scenarios. 

For individuals, unless they are in that top 5% category, the kinds who use tax shelters and offshore banks, there is a limit to how much taxation you can avoid without going to jail. Small businesses are generally in the same category. But, for big corporations it is an entirely different story,  These guys operate under an entirely different set of actions. Same rules, yes, but most assuredly a more imaginative, and sometimes even borderline (and over!) criminal way of utilizing them.

Not all big corporations do so, lest I be accused of being anti-capitalist. (Actually, I do sometimes flirt with being anti-capitalist, be that's a subject for another story). Some big companies do stand right up to pay their fair share, honestly and completely with no cute cheating. But a majority of the bigger companies DO NOT. And, the bigger and more multi-national they are, the more likely they are to be creative in avoiding taxes.

Here's a chart with the trajectory of US corporate tax rates over the years. The takeaway is, starting from a high of 58.8% in the late 'sixties (during the Richard Nixon administration!), there has been a more or less steady decline ever since to 35% beginning in 1993, and where it now stands today. Historically, you must go back to BEFORE WWII to find a lower rate!

Corporations, and their hand-maidens in Congress like to point to this chart showing, among other things how the US is among the highest corporate taxing nations in the world.  And, I'd like to point out right here that both major political parties have their hands in this evil pudding. It's not just a GOP thing, although now with Mr. Trump in office - and bloviating about his 'tax reform' plan the GOP is determined to reduce the official rate even more!

Ah, but there's also a multi-trillion dollar catch. The chart above is merely the official, US Department of Revenue rate. This chart accompanied always by all the GOP venting over 'high taxes' is a prime example of what I call a 'Graphics Lie". The rate actually PAID by corporations - called the 'Effective Rate' - is altogether different, and is but a very pale shadow of the official rate. The Effective Rate for corporations for recent tax years in the US is an aggregate 12 percent or so. In 2011 - the latest year I can find - the Effective Rate was 12.2% - the lowest since World War One! The current international average is over 16 percent.

The tax rate for an individual in the US is 15% for income between $9276 and $37650 for crissakes! For a 'head of household it's 15% for income between $13251 and 50,400! Something smells very rotten in Denmark if you ask me!

Here's a chart over the period since WWII, with the actual Effective Rate., i.e., "Reality":

Overall, corporations today pay just 9% of US Federal Revenue, down from over 30% in the 'fifties!

Below is just one example from down under. There are hundreds more for anyone interested in finding out more. I, myself am just simply too disgusted - and mostly naive too I know, to root them out. Taxation is a tedious, dry and dusty subject after all, truly loved only by the devious, the OCD and the anally-retentive I'm guessing:

Rupert Murdock's News Corp has one cute little trick it employs to avoid paying taxes in Australia (I'm sure they are creative in avoiding taxes everywhere else too):  The gist of it is they loan money to themselves from a foreign subsidiary at an exorbitant interest rate (at twice the industry average), then deduct the interest. The truth is, they loan money to themselves at high interest, deduct the interest as an 'expense', and meanwhile pay the 'interest' to themselves on the other end. I'm sure the 'subsidiary' does the exact same thing in reverse too, to avoid taxes on their end. It's a win-win-win-win as far as you like for Murdock and the News Corp.

Multi-nationals spend big bucks employing tax lawyers to find loopholes to avoid taxation. The thing to remember, however, the loopholes would not be there in the first place without the legislation.

And, here is where the story becomes truly appalling. Now that corporations are defined as 'people' in the US, and there is no limit to their political contributions (read, 'bribes to legislators'), it is party time in corporate boardrooms. Corporations are now in the position to buy any legislative favors their itty-bitty little hearts desire - and they are doing so with wild abandon. Thus, now corporations are completely free to vote with their money, and all their shareholders are too. This is what amounts to de facto double-voting in the interests of corporations. Am I right?

So, if corporations are 'people', why aren't they paying taxes like people you ask?

Here's a chart which will put that in perspective for you. This chart shows what percentage of US taxes corporations pay, and what individual income tax payers pay. FAIR WARNING! This one just might blow your mind:

It's pretty damned obvious that corporations have turned out to be pretty damned special as people isn't it? And, that is the nut, kernal, and gist of this story.

There's a long list of big corporations who paid no taxes at all, with some getting billions back in tax 'subsidies'. Here are just a few out of the hundreds:

Try to keep these things in mind the next time you spend your hard-won dollars. Also remember, that corporations are heavily into propagandizing these days. They are free to spend as much as they like - those expenses are tax deductions for corporations after all - to influence public opinion in their favor, while the individual may not. No tax deductions for you or me for such silly things!

The sad fact is that the US is now a true oligarchy in all but name. And if Herr Trump has his way, our nation just could get officially renamed as "The Trump Nation of and for Trump and Other Companies".  Then, maybe Trump will feel himself on an equal footing with Putin/Russia Inc.

But, I doubt it. Donald J. Trump is an unsatisfiable megalomaniac. Too much is never enough for that man!