Darkness
Psychoanalyst/Marxist
Castro is an evil dictator, who runs a damned police state.
-
Welcome to Religious Forums, a friendly forum to discuss all religions in a friendly surrounding.
Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to the following site features:- Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
- Our modern chat room. No add-ons or extensions required, just login and start chatting!
- Access to private conversations with other members.
We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!
Obama Still on Top!
- Thread starter ShaunGoldstein
- Start date
Castro is an evil dictator, who runs a damned police state.
Darkness
Psychoanalyst/Marxist
Hugo Chavez is also a petty dictator, who somehow lost his own rigged election. :sarcastic
Smoke
Done here.
Darkness
Psychoanalyst/Marxist
I'm sorry. It wasn't an election. It was a referendum to give the President (i.e. Chavez) more executive authority.
dust1n
Zindīq
Why do Venezuelans love Hugo Chavez? | Marketplace From American Public Media
SCOTT JAGOW: President Bush said this week he's worried about democracy in Venezuela. That country's leader, Hugo Chavez, responded by saying Bush is the real threat to democracy around the world. There's no love lost between these two. What's happening in Venezuela is an intriguing story. So we just sent our reporter Dan Grech down there. He's joins us from Caracas.Dan, what will you be looking into?
DAN GRECH: Well the first question that I have is, Chavez who is so villainized in the United States, who is archenemy No. 1 of the United States, was actually reelected just this past December in a landslide. His margin of victory was the largest of any President in Latin America and there were 13 elections this past year. So I'm going to look at where the base of his popularity is and why in particular Venezuela's poor are so dedicated and are so supportive of him.
JAGOW: Do you have any sense about that?
GRECH: You know, it all starts I think in his social programs. What really people love about him is the fact that he's subsidized cars, that's he's offering free or inexpensive health care and that there are now parallel markets called mercales that offer food at a fraction of the price of the regular markets and one of the stories I'm going to do is going to focus on those mercales.
JAGOW: Well, Chavez was just reelected in December and he's made a lot of moves to concentrate power again, that centralization idea. What has he been up to in the last month?
GRECH: He actually underwent the first nationalizations of his eight years in office, of telecom and electricity which just so happen to be two industries that are right now controlled by U.S. corporations. Two days ago, Venezuela's parliament gave him the power to rule by decree for 18 months, so he's basically got a carte blanche to do whatever he wants.
JAGOW: Yeah things have been going so fast, the Bush administration's head is probably spinning about all this. I mean, how does the Bush administration feel about Chavez nationalizing everything including the oil fields.
GRECH: Well I think the Bush administration is nervous. On the face of it they say that they just want Chavez, he does nationalize oil, to reimburse the companies for what he takes, but the larger point is that the U.S. needs affordable oil from Venezuela. And without that oil the U.S. economy can't run smoothly. But at the same time, and I think this is a point that's not made often enough, is that Venezuela needs the U.S. I mean, the U.S. is Venezuela's No. 1 customer, and so by buying Venezuelan oil, the U.S. is actually making Chavez's revolution possible. And so when he's doling out money to the poor in Caracas or to Bolivia or Nicaragua or Cuba, he's handing out dollars.
JAGOW: Our Americas Desk correspondent, Dan Grech in Caracas, Venezuela.
That sounds about right. Ironically that number is very close to the number of Americans who don't pay taxes.
That sounds about right. Ironically that number is very close to the number of Americans who don't pay taxes.
You mean the number of Americans projected not to pay income taxes, right? Surely you are not saying that many Americans don't pay payroll taxes -- only the retired and the very wealthy get away with not paying payroll taxes, right?
Smoke
Done here.
That sounds about right. Ironically that number is very close to the number of Americans who don't pay taxes.
47 Percent 'Don't Pay Taxes'? No Big Deal | The Atlantic Wire
Smoke
Done here.
Yeah, that's exactly where I am.
When I said, "don't pay taxes" I meant income taxes. Yes, they may have withholding from their payroll, but at the end of the year, they get it all back.
Darkness
Psychoanalyst/Marxist
The Conservative narrative running amuck is that about 48 percent of Americans do not pay taxes. Do you honestly believe it is an accident that the word "income" is so often left out? If you can get people to believe the poor do not pay taxes, then it makes the wealthy out to be the victims, accosted by the nagging virmin down below. :sarcastic
Alceste
Vagabond
This is correct. Obama signifies a return to "business as usual", with a normal, intelligent, accomplished and mostly reasonable person at the helm of the world's most heavily armed and violent nation. We don't perceive Obama as some great hero, but we are enormously relieved that the US and its arsenal is no longer in the hands of an irrational and dangerous cadre of terrible villains.
Bush would have been the joke if we were not all so nervous about the divisive and destructive political and environmental impact of his awful policies. Obama is generally well respected, although still very far to the right of anything we're comfortable with at home.
(by Alceste on behalf of the rest of the world)
I think what worries folks is when politicians say, "vote for me and I will give you something, but don't worry, I'll make the evil rich pay for it all".
When the majority of Americans do not pay INCOME TAX, they could make the minority pay for everything. Thats well and good if your a muti-millionaire, but many folks work real hard to make a 6 figure income.
My biggest worry is when people just quit work and say it is just not worth it any more. When people in New York make 300,000 and only get to keep 75,000 after all taxes, it is just plain robbery!
Alceste
Vagabond
I think it is the folks in the top 25% that are worried, they don't have the tax shelters the top 1% does.
Darkness
Psychoanalyst/Marxist
You mean like when everyone quit working after our recovery from the Great Depression and World War II, when the top marginal income tax rate was over 90 percent?
It is a convenient lie the wealthy have crafted. Sadly, we have forgotten all the lessons we learned during the Great Depression. Even more frightening is that we are not learning those lessons anew. The liberal consensus that we had after the Depression, never materialized after 2008.
Reverend Rick said:
Which is why we need a more progressive income tax. The top bracket should not be set at +373,651 USD.
Last edited:
Wieldthescythe
seeker of knowledge
Emperor Palpatine. He rules the whole galaxy! That takes some talent.
Hyperborean
Cultural Conservative
This is a minor point, but I wonder why the OP decided to refer to Obama as "President Barack Obama" and call the Dalai Lama "His Holiness," while he didn't bother to give other world leaders their title, or accord the same respect to the Pope.
enchanted_one1975
Resident Lycanthrope
Am I reading this wrong, or are all but the first three groups paying more in taxes than they make in income?