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Quheleth: Capital gains were created as a way of encouraging the long-term holding of assets. I don't know what was in the minds of the politicians when the concept was created, but am guessing that the primary focus was on stock ownership and home ownership. Essentially a lower tax rate is given on investments that are held for over a year. It adds a bit of stability to the market as well as encourages homeowners to hold on to their homes for the long-term, effectively saving for retirement.
Unfortuntately, smart people have found ways to "lock in profits" and beat the system. (Big short-term winnings can be hedged.)
Today's tax system is overly complex, and as you said, does wacky things at times. It needs completely redesigned with a goal towards simplicity and fairness. The problem is that it is an enormous system with a huge amount of momentum, and will take decades to overhaul (If ever.) Plus ... Wall Street has a fair amount of money and owns a fair number of politicians. What's the chances they'll increase their own tax burden, or give money to candidates who will do so? Perhaps Trump will be elected and make some radical changes, but realistically, I'm guessing that nothing significant will change anytime soon.
I just watched Jill Stien's speech in Detroit and what I heard was Bernie Sanders. From climate change to the TPP to banning fracking and leaving fossil fuels in the ground to citizen United etc. etc. I was cheering enthusiasticly for Bernie sanders when he made these same statements at his rally in Eugene!!
Despite all this, I'm still planning on holding my nose and voting for the lessor of two evils, Hillary Clinton, but remind me again why I shouldn't take my hand off my nose, take a deep, refreshing breath, and vote wholeheartedly for Jill Stien.
(Turn the White House green)
Truly amazing! The climate is already SO far gone, holy crap!! Jason Box's comment comes to mind. Once we get to open ocean in the Arctic in the summer, we'll really see the sh*t show go up an order of magnitude. Eventually that the end -- climate collapse -- is indeed near will be readily apparent ...
Considering we are at 400ppm of CO2, and 1.85ppm of methane, that is x112 CO2, we're right at about 600ppm, effective. No wonder things seem to be falling at an ever accelerating rate! http://www.epa.gov/climate-indicators/climate-change-indicators-atmospheric-concentrations-greenhouse-gases shows the horrifying data
And, BTW, here in Colorado we tried to put ballot initiatives up to deal with fracking. There was an oil & gas guy who came on KGNU public radio in Boulder and said, among other things, that climate change isn't caused by humans! I wondered what year, or decade, or century the due was living in! The graphs make it pretty clear. Because they profit, they want to just keep doing it! No matter WHAT the consequences are at all!!
The US and the industrial world has gone the almost exactly wrong direction for the last roughly 50 years, in terms of energy generation and transportation. Maybe only good news is we didn't build even yet more nuclear than we did.
We have utter BS climate "acton" like COOP 21, that even Hansen says is useless, or worse. Worse in the sense that it pretends to do something, while actually just keeping on with business as usual -- especially by Exxon and crew, and Washington, and Saudi Arabia.
When I heard Hillary picked Salazar, who is pro-fracking and pro-TPP, I knew that all the Berner's hard work on the Dem Party Platform was great, but she, like Trump, would just ignore the platform and pursue her own, makes that Wall Street's and corporate fascism's own, agenda.
When the government is in bed with the corporations, and when those who know -- the scientists -- are too affraid of saying the whole truth, and when we just keep on keep on the path we are on, ...
When will we EVER "pull the fire alarm"?!? When will we EVER actually have somebody stand up and say: yes, the planet is on fire, and unless we change a whole lot of things starting now, we will ALL be dead in 20 years, or less!!
We are so affraid of being alarmists. When we refuse to face the possibility, we almost guarentee we'll end up facing the worst possibility, right at the end ...
I want to know why it is that the money you earn from your own labor is taxed at a higher rate than the money you sit back and rake in from other people's labor (hedge funds, capital gains, inheritances, dividends, etc.)?
I wrote and asked the Congressman from this district, Mark Meadows, about this, but all he sent back was a mindless regurgitation of talking points about the "death tax."
☛ The Missing Verse of the Star Spangled Banner
That May Change Your View of Our Anthem
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEl9gUOgvZQ
The Star-Spangled Banner' and Slavery 'snopes.com
Like so many of his compatriots, Francis Scott Key, the wealthy American lawyer who wrote "The Star Spangled Banner" in the wake of the Battle of Fort McHenry on 14 September 1814, was a slaveholder who believed blacks to be "a distinct and inferior race of people, which all experience proves to be the greatest evil that afflicts a community." It goes without saying that Key did not have the enslaved black population of America in mind when he penned the words "land of the free." It would be logical to assume, as well, that he might have harbored a special resentment toward African Americans who fought against the United States on behalf of the King.
☛ Head of police organization: Colin Kaepernick’s socks ‘disrespectful’ and NFL at fault
The executive director of one of the largest police organizations in the country blasted Colin Kaepernick and the NFL on Thursday after learning that during training camp practices in August, the San Francisco 49ers quarterback wore socks that bear the image of cartoon pigs wearing police hats.
They may have a point.
Cops are more like the Animal Farm attack dogs, not pigs.
☛ Napoleon – The pig who emerges as the leader of Animal Farm after the Rebellion. Based on Joseph Stalin, Napoleon uses military force (his nine loyal attack dogs) to intimidate the other animals and consolidate his power.
☛ Political Commentary: Fuck the Pigs!
☛ Court OKs Barring High IQs for Cops
A man whose bid to become a police officer was rejected after he scored too high on an intelligence test has lost an appeal in his federal lawsuit against the city.
This might be a good idea for Cop Boot Camp…
☛ An aspiring police officer who went undercover in a jail for 2 months describes why ‘violence is almost necessary’ behind bars
Allerdings können die Kreditnehmer eine kleine Spanne zwischen den Zinsen auf diesen beiden Formen angeboten finden als ungesicherte kleine Cash-Darlehen in der Regel höheren Zinssatz im Vergleich zu gesicherten Form haben. kredite ohne bonitaetspruefung
Yes, that was pretty nasty of Thom. Despite HRC's catastrophic foreign policy decisions and wheeling and dealing, it's Stein that he chooses to smear. Disappointing.
We're told we have to vote for a ruthless warmonger or else get a bigoted fool. Wonder what the turnout will be.
Well this is the plan and its working to give the rights of Democracy to corporations .
A corporation is amoral and is defined by the marketplace .The free market economy is the greatest invention of Humans (some think this) so it makes sense to give those rights to the winners of the market system .Corporations need to live forever that is their purpose is it not ! So self perpetuation seems resonable at any means possible .Even if its a complete threat to actual Natural Human Beings and the Planet which supports and sustains all of us .We have the blind leading the blind .
Money has no right in politics and only the elctorate has the means of financing political parties with a maximum contribution as Rudolph Steiner wrote about over a hundred years ago .(Social Three Folding ).The more people making the final descision the closer to democracy you will have ,needing two-thirds majority to secure the vote .
The Three Spheres of Human culture should all be kept seperate from one another.
Politics, Economy and Cultural life .
Namaste
MisterBe - How?
An american revolution is unthinkable due to general listless indulgence of media bromide
Other ideas might also be fraught due to apathy
Historically, the answer to fascism has always resulted in war
Perhaps that's what they want?
I want good loopholes.
VoteVets.org
Sign the card: Support Colin Kaepernick's right to protest
http://action.votevets.org/page/s/kaepernick
Only the weasels wrapping themselves up in a plastic flag are against Kaepernick's right to protest. The flag they bought at MalWart's. Made in China with Iraqi and Iranian crude oil. Sewed by kids in sweatshops taking an American job. Plastic Patriots are unAmerican.
Levi chemical cotton sucks.
90 million pounds of poison used on the US cotton crop yearly.
I prefer organic blue jeans that don't abort pre-babies in the bible belt..
http://www.dashhemp.com/Hemp-Pants-s/27.htm
Thank you, Thom, for the opportunity to be heard. But, most of all, thank you for your intellectual courage. I have said it before, and I'll say it again, you and your program have changed my life in many respects.
End corporate personhood, overturn Citizens United and have public financing of elections.
I'm hardly a Trump lover, but the Clintons have been responsible for murder. Ok, so you can't directly tie them to all the questionable and unsolved deaths of associates. But why isn't the media covering the deaths of Seth Rich and Shawn Lucas? Rich was even singled out by Julian Assange, suggesting he was the Wikileaks informant for the DNC emails that showed a conspiracy to rig the Democratic primary for Clinton. Do we have any democracy left when the two major candidates for President are despised by the electorate?
Just think of how many elections in Third World countries that the CIA not only influenced but controlled.
Over-attention to Trump
{... a rhyme ...}
Over-attention to Trump’s bizarre acts
from important issues our attention detracts,
such as how our government should behave: -
- by reasoning’s analyses? or by Trump’s rant-and-rave?
==============================================
Let ‘em Eat Crow
{… a rhyme …}
The way things are going, let’s say apropos
that Repugs should have kept their Rightwing in tow -
- lest they’d stupidly flaunt
their brain-power {’tho’ low}, -
- and lest it’s Trump they would vaunt.
{Well, let ‘em eat crow.}
Not in a Million Years?
{… a rhyme …}
The Donald flounders, yet still might win!!
Future historians’ heads will spin: -
- “This couldn’t happen a million years in.”
and
- “Not before seen is anything akin.”
================================
Money out of politics. That would take care of many aspects of the challenges to our nation, and address whether or not our nation will will rise out of oligarchy.
Sombody needs to remind Clinton's campaign officials that the election is in only nine weeks. The media won't pay attention to mld mannered politeness....Trump is an easy target for the heinous person that he is. He's being charged with the rape of a minor and faces felony fraud charges related to his University swindle. He's called for 2nd amendment nuts to shoot Clinton. He doesn't understand why we can't use nuclear weapons....for god sakes is this country totally off it's nut? I'm sticking with the red red wine until the night of the living Trump is over.
Forget about the US as a nation state.
Congress represents monied interests from a around the planet.
And there is very little you can do but complain.
ct
Simple. We need a constitutional amendment clearly stating that corporations are not people, that the Bill of Rights absolutely does not apply to corporations, and that corporations cannot give one red cent to any campaign, full stop. That will remove the ambiguity that corporations hide behind.
The election of Don Trump will end foreign nationals spending millions to undermine our democratic process. Once elected all global hell will break out. Foreign nationals will wish they had supported the anti- Jeb Bush party! Trump is a Republican every bit as much as the Bush family. They share the same out of control thirst for money and power.
I had a person ask me what I meant the other day when I posted " Mars help us"??? Buzzed sarcasm apparently only works with my like minded buzzed friends. "Mars" was the ancient roman god of war. Mars is obviously the new god of the Teapublic Party....certainly will be under Dangerous Donny anyway. "Mars," the god of war feeds the Fascists with unending wealth and in my strong opinion it will be our undoing just as it was for the western roman empire in the 5th century. Trump is a imminent national security threat. "God help us"
I would like contributions for office to come from constituents only. Not businesses, but actual citizens. I.e. Only Californians could contribute to their Senate, House, Mayoral races within the area they are registered to vote. I could not contribute to a San Francusco candidate for mayor because I don't live in SF. Same fir political parties. Money used from their coffers MUST be from actual constituents of the candidate being supported. This would keep the Kochs, Adelsons, Soroses, etc. from buying up Congress or any state other than their own. Presidential races would be open for all citizens as that is countrywide representation.