The US has a putative Democratic nominee for the presidency as well as a Republican one.
We're still in Iraq, trying to get the Iraqi government to cave in and let us fulfill our Holy Purpose to have:
- 14 or so huge, permanent military bases there ("Oh, no, no, no, says our Unitary Liar-In-Chief (ULIC); we don't want to keep the permanent bases [like small US cities] we've already built on your land. We just want 'enduring' bases! And as you know from your holy book, nothing lasts forever, so how could we ever have 'permanent' bases? That would be an ox for morons."
- Just a little bit of Iraqi oil for 35 years, or 'til it runs out, and
- Just a few 35-year oil-field service contracts, and
- Only a handful of 35-year prime exploration spots. "But, gosh," says the ULIC, "we don't want to take all your oil, we just want a small share of it--12.5% for you, 87.5% for the US and our friends in England & Australia--not Germany, of course, and CERTAINLY NOT FRANCE."
Prime Minister Malaki could be forgiven for saying, in response, "We have a saying here in Iraq--I don't know if you have one like it in Texas or Washington, but we say, 'Fool me once, shame on you, fool...unnhhhh, me twice, uuhhnn … well, you can't fool me again.' "
"Yeah," says the ULIC. "I think I've heard that one before!"
And in the midst of all that, the economy's gone to hell for the 95% of Americans who aren't the top 5% of Americans by income, Reagan tipped the US from a net creditor nation to a net debtor nation in 1985-6, and we've been borrowing from the world ever since.'
Just think about that for a minute: We're a debtor nation. The so-called Only Superpower In The World. In hock to the rest of the world. For the past 23 years. Wow!
We borrow money from the rest of the world, now in prodigious amounts to pay for this $3 to maybe $5 trillion Iraq invasion & occupation; we borrow money from the Federal Reserve System (it's not federal, there's no reserve — it's all system. We have borrowed ALL the money in circulation from the Fed, and put up IOUs, called Treasury bills or bonds, which must be repaid with interest (which adds to the national debt, of course). The Fed doesn't even pay to have its "federal reserve notes" printed or its coins minted. We do--we the squeezed and squished 95%.
And our elected officials (I use the word elected loosely, of course) do the bidding of the 5%--the corporate thugs that have used our citizens, our courts, our roads, our cities and towns, blackmailing municipalities to forego taxes, to build special roads, sewers, schools to "attract" these corporate thieves. Who've avoided (and evaded--a crime) taxes, set up dummy corporate HQs in island tax havens to hide income from the taxman and shareholders and all members of the public who would boycott their products/places of business if they but knew the half of the damage the corporations have done and continue to do to our economy, our government, and our way of life.
It's well past the time we did something about this awful mess.
So, what should we do? First, cause all citizens, especially families, to gain equality with corporations.
How? You don't marry; you incorporate. Marriage ,or whatever you want to call it, is a matter between you, your partner(s) and your spiritual or non-spiritual selves. The federal and state governments have no authority over adult relationships (just as they have no authority over what you do with your body).
Our lives get a little bit more complicated when we're all part of our own corporation, because we'll be running a business, filing business forms, tax forms, all of that.
However, all of the reasonable and necessary expenses we incur running our corporations, in business to raise children, acculturate, retrain, make wonderful citizens and contractors — are above-the-line deductions. Like what, you ask?
Like:
- work uniforms;
- corporate cafeteria;
- corporate health plan(s);
- corporate retirement plan(s);
- corporate training programs;
- corporate loans and mortgages;
- taxes on corporate HQ and property;
- corporate depreciation on corp. headquarters and off-site retreat facilities;
- corporate office furniture, maintenance, decorating
- corporate vehicles & other transportation;
- corporate entertainment (only 80% or so deductible. Hafta check w/ IRS regs)
- Legal assistance (in negotiating contracts with former employers);
- etc.
In other words, all of the reasonable and necessary expenses of running a family, now to be called a Domestic Domestic Corporation, or DDC. The two domestics refer to, 1) Domestic, as of the state in which incorporated, and 2) Domestic, as of the home.
States could facilitate this switch-over by declaring all citizens of the state to be a member of their own DDC, and declaring that money formerly paid to DDC corporate members as salary or wages, would automatically become 1099 income, money paid from one corporation to another.
I can see a really useful role for our moribund unions in this, helping families to incorporate, run these DDCs, negotiate with other corporations, both DDCs and other business corporations. And certainly, both boys and girls would now have to seriously learn "home economics" because it will have become all about "running the Home Corporation."
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