Dreaming

“So my dad never had the money or time to get a college degree. Without a college degree, became head of a big car company and ultimately a governor. And believed in America, believed in the opportunity in this country, never doubted for a moment that he could achieve his dreams. And Ann's dad, my wife's dad, was born in Wales. His dad was a coal miner. This coal miner got injured in a coal mining accident; realizing that there was no future there for him or his four children, he came to Detroit and worked in the auto factories until he could save enough money to bring his kids over, which he did. And then they got together as a family and said, you know, to be successful in America, you've got to get an education. And they couldn't afford an education. And the kids and the parents said you know, if we all work, and we all save, we could afford to send one of us to college. And they, they sent my wife's dad.”

Mitt Romney said the above statement during a fundraising event in Boca Raton, Florida in May 2012 and which was secretly videotaped.

I find it amusing and repulsive that this man is against immigrants unless they have specialized skills. George W. Romney was born in Mexico and his family moved back to the U.S. during the Mexican revolution. As a child he worked the fields and helped his father in construction. G.W. Romney’s family was on welfare for many years to make ends meet. G.W. Romney was not a good student, went to many universities and never graduated from any of them. In high school, he was not exemplary actually he was far from it. Those humble beginnings is what made G.W. Romney a more compassionate man, much more than his son will ever be. 

Ann (Davies) Romney’s parents were immigrants too. Ann’s father was Edward R. Davies and he came to the United States after his father, David Davis, a coal miner who had acquired black lung disease and who had been injured in a mining accident had migrated to the United States in 1929 and after working at a Ford plant he sent for his wife and son, Ann’s father, shortly after. Edward R. Davies was an avowed atheist until the day he died, he despised religion and never changed his mind about it. However, not even a year had passed after his death (September 8, 1992) when Mitt Romney and his wife, Ann ignored the essence of the man and baptized him post-mortem. In my opinion this is just one more example of how disrespectful and selfish these two individuals are, they can’t even honor the wishes of a dead man.

Both their own families came to this country in search of a better life for themselves and their family. Neither one of these families were wealthy when they got here or possessed any extraordinary skills: one a carpenter the other a sick coal miner. Yet, the desire for a better life drove them here and this country welcomed them, allowed them to work and to prosper. 

They were just the previous generation of Mitt and Ann Romney, not their great-grand fathers, not 3 or 4 generations ago. These people were their own parents. How can they now show so much disdain for the immigrants that come to this country in search of the same thing their parents came here for? Mitt Romney keeps repeating that he wants to bring people from other countries but only if they have special skills, I wonder what skills he is thinking off, will he accept carpenters, injured miners, wheat, potato and sugar beet field workers, or would any of those “skills” not be special enough for him? 

Mitt Romney has promised to veto the “Dream Act” which is allowing those that were brought to these shores as children by their parents and who are undocumented by no fault of their own. He will not think twice about it. He will destroy the dreams of these young men and women who are studying, trying to get ahead in life, serving our country and defending this country as their own – after all, they know of no other country – he will deny them the same opportunity his own father and his father-in-law had to succeed. What’s more, he will follow Arizona’s immigration law deporting more immigrants just because they come from South of the border and came here with no “special skills” but the ardent desire to provide their families a better life, to earn a decent living with the sweat of their brow, the work of their two hands and the strength of their heart… all to provide their children a better future than they had. 

That is what Gaskell Romney and David Davies did and no one kicked them out of this country. 

For Romney all of the above doesn’t matter, the opportunities his family had and he had were well deserved and they “earned” it… Perhaps, they “earned” it because they were white and spoke English, and the undocumented immigrants are brown and speak Spanish, and then he wants the Latino vote, in his dreams!

A Fistful of Dollars

Let me begin by saying that I am no finance expert nor do I consider myself an economist. I am just using common sense and as Bill Clinton said, arithmetic.

The government of the United is funded mostly by taxation.

The Great Depression started by the end of 1929 and ended by the end of 1940. During those tough times, the wealthy responded to the crisis not by taking their money somewhere else or by hiding it, they loved their country and were willing to do whatever was necessary to help America come out of the predicament it found herself in. The tax rate for individuals from 1932 to 1963 making over $200,000 was brutal (to see the rates, click here), yet they paid it and we came out of the Depression and flourished. Corporations were not as willing or perhaps the government was as usual more lenient on them, from 1929 until 1939 the maximum tax rate corporations paid was 19% but in 1940 their rates jumped, literally from one year to the next to 38.3% and by 1952 the corporate tax rate for any income above $25,000 was a whooping 52%! That sacrifice from both the wealthy and corporations is what helped this country to move forward and to cement us as the richest country in the world.

By the end of 1989 or beginning 1990, Grover Norquist introduced the concept that taxes could not be raised to any corporations or the wealthy and that is what has caused the steady economic decline of this country. The government of the United States of America does not produce anything, does not sell anything and it depends solely on taxation to survive. It is precisely during a financial crisis those taxes must be raised or we will never get out of the recession and will only keep increasing our national debt.

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The total revenue collected by the United States (in millions) from 2000 to 2012 as taxes (I = Individual Taxes) (C = Corporate Taxes) and (O = Other) were as follows:

2000 – $2,025,191 (I) $1,004,462; (C) $207,289; (O) $813,440
2001 – $1,991,092 (I) $994,339; (C) $151,075; (O) $845,668
2002 – $1,853,136 (I) $858,345; (C) $148,044; (O) $846,747
2003 – $1,782,314 (I) $793,699; (C) $131,778; (O) $856,837
2004 – $1,880,114 (I) $808,959; (C) $189,371; (O) $881,784
2005 – $2,153,661 (I) $927,222; (C) $278,282; (O) $948,107
2006 – $2,406,869 (I) $1,043,908; (C) $353,915; (O) $1,009,046
2007 – $2,567,985 (I) $1,163,472; (C) $370,243; (O) $1,034,270
2008 – $2,523,991 (I) $1,145,747; (C) $304,346; (O) $1,073,898
2009 – $2,104,989 (I) $915,308; (C) $138,229; (O) $1,052,452
2010 – $2,162,724 (I) $898,549; (C) $191,437; (O) $1,051,452
2011 – $2,303,466 (I) $1,091,473; (C) $181,085; (O) $1,030,908

From the taxes collected, about 85% of the total amount came from individual taxes, 12% from corporate taxes and 3% from other taxes.

In average, corporations made from 2002 to 2011 around $5.4 trillion dollars in profits and paid $2.8 billion in taxes while individual taxes for the same period were $19.7 billion. According to the Small Business Administration, there were 27.5 million companies in the United States in 2009, that is the latest data I could find. Considering all the taxes loopholes, foreign banking, etc. corporations are literally getting a “free ride.” Even Social Security and Pensions paid more than corporations.

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The days when privileged people and businesses were concerned about the well being of the country are long gone. The very rich just want more and more money and don’t have any shame in admitting it and the country can go down the drain for all they care; the only thing that matters to them is money. The patriots that during the depression contributed at times with more than half of their earnings to help the country is a thing of the past. Back during the Great Depression these companies didn’t think of dismantling their businesses and take them somewhere else. They understood what  needed to be done and everyone benefited from their sacrifice, the economy finally flourished and businesses bloomed.

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Republicans keep insisting in extending the Bush tax cuts for the very wealthy, refusing to raise the taxes of those making huge profits during a recession while increasing the taxes on the middle class and the elderly. Not satisfied with this, they are persisting in engaging in more wars and refusing to make cuts to the Defense budget or reducing Defense expenses. Their sense of balance, fairness and simple arithmetic its non-existent.

According to Statista.com, the above statistics show corporate profits after tax in the United States from 2009 to 2011 Corporate profits are defined as the net income of corporations in the National Income and Product Accounts (NIPA). In 2010, corporations made profits of $1.4 trillion AFTER tax.

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This trend of less revenue and more weapons has to stop; no country can sustain an economy where the money that comes in is below to what goes out. As usual, Republicans want to make cuts to balance the budget on the things that help the poor and elderly survive, on education, scientific research, police and everything but the kitchen sink in order to keep giving to the rich and stealing from the poor, in order to keep the war machine going and the fat cats purring. I wonder how much money do the weapons manufacturers “donate” to these loyal Republicans, there has to be big money involved for the GOP to be so faithful… they would sell their soul to the devil for a fistful of dollars.

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There is absolutely no way that we can ever balance our budget and come out of a recession unless we take drastic measures. Our obsession with war has to come to an end, we can’t continue on this trend where there is no end and no matter how armed we are, it seems it’s never enough. Our desire to be feared (which some call it “respected”) is nothing but cowardice, masquerading as a Good Samaritan and the main reason most of the world hate us and distrust us. Would you trust someone coming to your aid that has a bloody axe on his shoulder? Neither would I!


Sources:

White House Budget
Bureau of Economic Analysis
Statistica.com
Small Business Administration
IRS

USGovernmentspending.com

The Man That Wants To Be King But Will Settle For President

I went to see President Bill Clinton give a speech at FIU, U.S. Century Arena on Tuesday, September 11. Needless to say, I was extremely excited and I was even more excited when I got to sit in the front row. I was so close that I swear could smell him!

Clinton’s speech, beside a brief recount about where he and his family were during the fateful attacks of 9/11, was a short version of his speech during the DNC Convention. No doubt that Clinton is the “Secretary of Explaining Stuff” as President Obama, jokingly but rightfully, has called him. To see the video of Clinton’s speech at FIU, click here.

Then I returned home to find out about what had taken place in Lybia and Egypt. What horrors these representatives of our country in faraway lands must have endured! I felt so sorry for their families here and abroad. I learned that one of the biggest advocates for the people of Libya succumbed to the irate mob – died by the hands of those that he was always defending. Ambassador Chris Steven was the loudest voice Libyans had in the United States, but a movie produced and directed by a Sam Bacile, a real-estate developer from California – according to the Wall Street Journal - aired in YouTube depicting the prophet Mohammad as a homosexual. To make matters even worse, it was uploaded dubbed into Arabic, if that wasn’t a clear and irresponsible provocation then nothing is. According to the article from WSJ, Sam Bacile tried to incriminate the Jewish community by claiming that he was a Jewish-American and that he received over $5 million in donations from the Jewish community to create the clip in question but, after some research by WSJ it seems that “Bacile” is Coptic, has an Egyptian background and is fluent in Arabic, the film was promoted by Morris Sadek, head of the National American Coptic Assembly. It is obvious to me that the film was released to provoke an uproar, to incite Muslim fanatics to do precisely what they did and, by linking the film to the Jewish community create a conflict between the Muslim countries and Israel. There must be an in depth investigation about this but for some strange reason I think, I sense that those with enough power in this country and who are desperately wishing for a war in the Middle East to “defend” Israel might be behind this (Sheldon Adelson comes to mind), all of those involved should be brought to justice because they knew perfectly well what the outcome of their actions would be.

Mitt Romney couldn’t keep his mouth shut and this is one of the reasons why I suspect Sheldon Aldeson to be behind this. Romney has not picked up any points after the RNC Convention; he is trailing behind and in a desperate effort to discredit the President decided to make a public announcement about what took place in Libya and Egypt. Following is his attack on President Obama and his administration about it:

“I’m outraged by the attacks on American diplomatic missions in Libya and Egypt and by the death of an American consulate worker in Benghazi.

It’s disgraceful that the Obama Administration’s first response was not to condemn attacks on our diplomatic missions, but to sympathize with those who waged the attacks.”

The above message on the subject cannot be found on Romney's website, but I had the clarity of mind to take a picture of the screen, to see it click here. Apparently Romney took it down after being severely criticized by the media and by many influential Republicans that were openly saying that he (Romney) was not fit to lead on foreign policy. As it is customary with Romney, he bluntly lied about the stand of our President and even though it has been proven that President Obama did not do such a thing, that hasn’t stopped Romney from airing ads maintaining and spreading the lie. He is a disgrace, a wannabe president eager to start a war, any war with anyone, take your pick: Russia, China, Iran, Libya, Egypt, Cuba, and Venezuela among others.

President Obama did speak about the uproar in Libya and Egypt. He delivered a presidential speech that not only rejected the actions that had taken place but also was trying to appease a very sensible situation in those countries while reaffirming our beliefs and clearly stating that we will not tolerate attacks against our citizens. Unlike Romney, President Obama was consciously preventing matters from escalating into a possible war. To read the transcript, click here.

Romney tried to pin on the President and his administration a message posted by the U.S. Embassy in Cairo while the protests were taking place, the message has been deleted from the Embassy website but this is what was posted by them on September 11, to see the picture of their website click here:

U.S. Embassy Condemns Religious Incitement

September 11, 2012

The Embassy of the United States in Cairo condemns the continuing efforts by misguided individuals to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims – as we condemn efforts to offend believers of all religions. Today, the 11th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States, Americans are honoring our patriots and those who serve our nation as the fitting response to the enemies of democracy. Respect for religious beliefs is a cornerstone of American democracy. We firmly reject the actions by those who abuse the universal right of free speech to hurt the religious beliefs of others.

The U.S. Embassy in Cairo didn’t follow protocol to clear the messages through the White House first, but we must understand that they were under siege at the time and desperately posting on their official site as well as in Twitter without clearance, we can all identify with their fear.

The embassy also posted several messages in Twitter, which for the most part have been removed; to read them, click here.

Once more, Mitt Romney publicly displayed how incompetent he is and what little, if any, decorum he has. This is not a man that cares for the American people, for strengthening our relationship with the world or for our economy. This is a man too eager to become president to start a war, ignoring diplomacy over aggression and disregarding our already shaken economy. What does he think, that the U.S. Treasury has a Swiss account like he does? Is Romney planning to pay for these wars with a voucher? Giving tax breaks to the wealthy and engaging in more wars equates to the total collapse of the United States, he is so arrogant that he doesn’t give a damn about it, he just wants to be king!

MagicJack Plus... Don't Waste Your Money!

I never use my blog for anything that is not for a political or social cause, but I believe this merits a post to alert those that may be thinking to purchase a MagicJack Plus, don't do it.  Go with the cheaper version, the only plus in the MagicJack Plus is the price tag.

I've been using MagicJack for quite a long time now, great product.  That motivated me to purchase the MagicJack Plus (as seen in the picture) because it offered the advantage of connecting it to a router instead of the computer, freeing the computer from having one more USB in use.  The problem I encountered was that the system didn't recognized it.  No contacts where showing in the menu and no access to 911.

I decided to get in touch with the company to find out what was I doing wrong, if anything, and get help to make the device work as promised.  I got a guy by the name of "Adam" who told me to connect it to the USB drive, that unless connected to the USB drive I was not going to be able to see my contacts or dial 911.  That is not what they promise with this product!

I told them that the price for this device was almost double of the regular MagicJack precisely because it offered the capability of not using an USB drive so I inquired where could I file a complain.  "Adam" refused to say.

At the end, I ended up with a product almost double the price of the regular one that does nothing of what it promises.

I love the product, it's very good and nothing out there offers you what this product does.  Just don't waste your money purchasing the MagicJack Plus it doesn't do what it promises to do.  Go with the cheaper version, at least you will not be robbed like I was.