This is yet another positive baby step by Biden. But come on Joe, let’s just rip the bandaid off and do it: Corporate tax at 50%, and no fucking loopholes to offshore earnings. Do it you coward, that’s all the tax revenue you’d ever need to actually be FDR 2.0. Do you care about your legacy or not?
Asking whether those things are hate speech is a yes/no question. Pretending to not know Kirk is a racist sack of shit was obvious deflection. Good on the students for calling out this bs.
Rittenhouse acting like a complete and utter coward. Gee, color me surprised.
I don’t fully understand Christianity, but isn’t the Antichrist supposed to herald the coming of the devil??
Sadly, that film was quite prophetic.
Yes, tax them! Failing to do so is one of the greatest failings of neoliberalism. And of course conservatives have always defaulted to giving corporations everything.
You know, in 1968, just 56 years ago, corporations were paying 52.8% tax rate! This allowed us to invest in our own people and fund so many wonderful programs for growth and prosperity. And these corporations paying over 50% of their profits in taxes were happy to do so! Because it meant they got to do business in the USA.
Now that they aren’t being taxed at even half that rate, what do they do? Buy politicians off for even lower taxes, purchase their own stock to artificially inflate its value, and pay dumbasses like spez 100s of millions of dollars yearly. And if those CEOs fuck up and tank the company? Golden parachute for you - multi-million dollar exit packages and easy access to new boards and leadership positions at other corporations. It’s sick.
All we are asking for is access to affordable healthcare, decent education to better ourselves and level up our skills, and the means to make a decent enough living to afford a roof over our heads and not have to panic about paying for it each month. This shouldn’t be too much to ask in a nation of such incredible excess.
We’ve enacted a plan to reduce the drilling of holes by 30% over the next 10 years. Give us your next paycheck to help get us there!
Kind bar + protein shake
I’ll see you there =]
Right, this is kind of my point. Dems are far too acquiescent to Republican framing. The news-media is wholly complicit in this as well, but that’s another matter.
Instead of fear mongering about orange man bad, why not galvanize support behind actual progressive policies (which are extremely popular btw)? Where are the Dems repeatedly and loudly asking republicans about the last time they proposed any legislation at all that would meaningfully improve the lives of their constituents, ideally in those Repugs’ own districts where it would get free local news coverage and be seen by voters? Instead they’re content to play the republican games, and “slam” them on msnbc for repeatedly failing to impeach Biden or some such nonsense. This isn’t reaching voters and won’t do anything to garner independent votes in November. The Dems maintaining the status quo is enough to convince many of us that their true goal is for “nothing to fundamentally change.”
The president isn’t king, thankfully you’re right about that. Monarchists can fuck off. But the president can wield a tremendous amount of power and influence via the bully pulpit. We don’t see that from Biden, and it’s a shame, because we could really benefit from an energetic and engaged leader at this time. Instead it looks like more of a competition to see who can lose the least amount of supporters before November…very disheartening. When can we have leaders who will actually fight for us?
What the actual fuck are those things?!
Compromise with who? This is dem code for giving republicans everything and more. And in some cases (like the recent border security bill), it’s still not enough.
I’d much prefer to see some democrats with a spine, instead of pandering to right wing lunatics, how about they propose and lead with their own policies instead? Dems are still hanging their hats on the Republican healthcare bill that shoveled 25mil Americans right into the pockets of insurance companies, ffs. Is that what accountability to constituents looks like? Because it seems much more like accountability to their donors.
Ok Mr Obtuse - I’m saying they can cherry pick stats to support their narrative all they want, but at the end of the day material living conditions for the majority of Americans have declined in this time period. Over 62% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck today, and cannot afford an emergency $400 expense. That number is up from 40% pre-pandemic. If you live in a major metro, open your window and look outside to see how the size of tent cities are multiplying. These people simply aren’t counted by the new metrics. How is this the strongest economy we’ve ever seen?
Well considering wages have remained stagnant since the 1970’s, compared to skyrocketing productivity, I’m inclined to agree!
Right, these record unemployment and CPI numbers are derived by changing the calculations, it’s amazing how quickly that’s been forgotten. This is the true power of controlling the narrative of the American propaganda machine.
For those “enjoying” this record employment, it still means busting ass working 2-3 low paying jobs just to barely make ends meet. Those same jobs won’t let you get above 32 hours either, so forget about benefits afforded to full time employees, such as marginally more affordable healthcare. And over 62% of Americans are literally living paycheck to paycheck, unable to afford an emergency $400 expense. Good thing they have backup financing available at payday lenders on every street corner I suppose…
It’s really sad how brutal America is to its own citizens. And mind boggling how twisted Americans are to deny this is happening at all until they’re blue in the face. Open your eyes and your ears people, think for yourself, and question authority.
What you’ve got to start realizing is that their economy is not our economy.
I think you’ve really identified to crux of the matter here. The stock market is not the economy. To rich DC insiders, it’s everything, but to the other 99% of us, who gives a shit? Wake me up when we can do insider trading too I guess.
The meteoric rise of a select few chip manufacturers is what’s driving this “strong economy”, btw. How on earth is that considered sustainable economic success?
Never claimed that it trumps their stats, simply that the character of the economy they describe does not mesh with reality. Kind of tired of the incessant gaslighting, when no significant changes to materially improve our living conditions have materialized.
…highest rate of economic growth among nations in the G7, the lowest inflation, and the strongest wage growth. The unemployment rate hasn’t been this low for this long in half a century. Even accounting for inflation, wages are higher today than they were before the coronavirus pandemic…
Yo, can some of this wage growth trickle down to me already? Nobody in my circles is even getting standard merit raises, never mind the 6%+ each year we’d need to stay ahead of inflation. Most companies seem to be withholding raises, and enshittifying existing policies, as an underhanded way to get people to quit without doing actual layoffs.
In fact, I suspect slate is just making this up entirely, based on anecdotal experience. They go on to claim that the big recipients of these wage increases are the lowest paid workers. Does that mean minimum wage earners got some 50% increase to now make $12/hr? News flash: that still doesn’t afford you groceries in today’s economy.
Not seriously injured though - the cops missed the mark, in a hospital setting. Amazing.
It’s important to keep in mind that this rarity is often artificial scarcity by the pharmaceutical companies. There are some conditions which are rare, but have treatments that have been available for decades now with generics on the market for years. They simply don’t produce much of those meds, even though it’s cheap to do so, in order to artificially inflate the market price.
Insurers are complicit in this scheme because they don’t push back on this practice at all. Without single payer, we have no negotiating force to get pharmaceuticals to produce drugs in an affordable way, so they can manipulate the market however they please. It’s absolutely depraved.