Member since Aug 5, 2011

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  • Posted by:
    ChetDude on 08/03/2016 at 12:48 PM
    I've been aware of USAmerican pResidential "elections" since Ike's 2nd nomination.

    This year's is the most egregious case of "vote for OUR candidate or we'll kill this puppy" I've ever seen...the two worst "choices" in history...

    Folks, in Arizona the safest, sanest vote is for Jill Stein - Green Party...!
  • Posted by:
    ChetDude on 04/27/2016 at 11:30 AM
    Ah, huppenthal, you commit the typical crime of the trickle-on zealots -- you cite ONE misleading number in a vacuum to "prove" the entirely laughable...

    ------------------------------------------------

    The top 1% of income "earners" received approximately 20% of the pre-tax income in 2013...versus approximately 10% from 1950 to 1980

    GDP 1980: 6.5T
    GDP 2015: 16.47T
    Since 1980, the GDP has increased 250%.

    The income of the top 1% has increased 100%

    The 1% derive a large proportion of their income from capital gains which are taxed at a LOWER rate than middle-class taxpayers pay on their income...

    The Stock Market, where the REAL income gains primarily for the 1% have been realized are therefore taxed at a much lower rate (if the rich allow the money to be taxed at all!)...

    The DOW was 1000 in 1980 (YOUR base year) and is currently hovering around 18,000 - An 1800% increase in wealth in the market...

    Inflation alone makes that 138B 1% paid = 400B in today's dollars...an EIGHTY PERCENT INCREASE in constant dollars...

    So let's do some REAL math, huppenthal...

    If we ONLY look at basic income, the 1% got a 100% raise and only an 80% tax increase...

    BUT, if we add in the real income producer for the 1% which is the lion's share of capital gains, they got at least a 900 to 1000% increase in gains but STILL only paid 80% more in taxes on income AND gains...

    But, folks, it's even worse!

    The 1% pays 27% of Federal Income Tax while the middle class pays 60% of Federal taxes...on their ONE THOUSAND ONE HUNDRED PERCENT RAISE!

    ==============================================

    HERE'S THE REALITY (AND ARIZONA IS AMONG THE WORST)...

    Income inequality in the United States has increased significantly since the 1970s...

    The U.S. ranks around the 30th percentile in income inequality globally, meaning 70% of countries have a more equal income distribution...

    The U.S. consistently exhibits higher rates of income inequality than most developed nations due to the nation's enhanced support of free market capitalism and less progressive spending on social services...
  • Posted by:
    ChetDude on 04/21/2016 at 11:19 AM
    This is the most amusing year to be republican watching since 1964!

    From the peak of gerrymandering and pushing the Big Lie in 2014 to imploding in 2016...

    And now the establishment repubs are skipping their big booze-up and the call girls!

    Bwaa-haaa-haaa...
  • Posted by:
    ChetDude on 04/21/2016 at 11:13 AM
    I'd suspect that rat is a fan of slaveowners...
  • Posted by:
    ChetDude on 04/19/2016 at 11:17 AM
    Amazing.

    If the egregiously jejune, nasty regressives like what and rat weren't posting here we'd have to invent them in order to expose their racist, bigoted, short-sighted "points of view"...

    Thanks for being here to spew your vitriol, guys!

    (As for Broadway AND GRANT ROAD, what part of less traffic, higher temperatures and less water in the future does the growth lobby not understand?)
  • Posted by:
    ChetDude on 03/24/2016 at 10:55 AM
    There are some very basic, clear reasons:

    1) USAmerica is not and was never designed to be a democracy...

    2) If we wanted a democracy we'd dump this Plutocracy and institute;

    a) public financing of elections (and OUTLAW private financing of same)
    b) use of The PEOPLE'S AIRWAVES for substantive candidate statements and debates on ISSUES
    c) Ranked Choice Voting with proportional representation
    d) elimination of the Electoral College (and the Senate)
    e) effective, truthful education in all school grades in the skills of citizenship, how things actually work (someday, hopefully "worked"), etc...
    f) including another, more effective attempt to encourage critical thinking...

    As long as each state is allowed to create their own disparate, convoluted, perverse "election rules" -- In the red states such rules are now obviously designed to suppress voting by "certain groups" (the already disenfranchised non-affluent folk) -- this sort of voter suppression will become even more commonplace...
  • Posted by:
    ChetDude on 03/14/2016 at 11:36 AM
    Republicans HATE voters since even in bat-crap crazy Arizona they're outnumbered...