This is the last day of spring, or - in the new Global Warming reality - the end of the “First Summer”, the “Third Summer” will be here in three months. The traditional or “Second Summer” could just be shortened to “Hell”.
New farming methods may become necessary, -maple syrup production in Wisconsin was cut by 2/3 this year because winter ended so abruptly. A hard frost killed almost all the fruit crops across the midwest because everything bloomed a month too early. In this new reality it doesn’t matter that the mechanical corn planters spray a highly effective nano-particle insecticide on the seeds and this is now know conclusively to be killing all the honey bees. The bees aren’t really needed, they’re as obsolete as unionized teachers, firefighters and bridge inspectors.
Corn is self pollinating (no bees needed), and high-fructose corn syrup is “just like honey” if you don’t mind the one in three chance of diabetes, and the 100% chance of obesity. And people thought the plot of the movie Soylent Green was crazy. That movie revolved around the oceans dying (that can‘t happen of course), and the corporations who ran everything having a hard time feeding the unemployed masses. High-fructose corn syrup had just been invented when Charlton Heston was doing his stint as a food inspector. In the real world they aren’t reducing the population by making people into food, they’re just making food that reduces the population directly.
Mitt Romney runs his wife’s dancing pony hobby as a business, so he can write off the losses. Try that with your Bass Boat and you‘ll get to know a nice man from the IRS. This revelation is on the only Romney tax return we’ve been allowed to see, who knows what‘s on the rest of them. This hobby tax write off amounted to $77,000 last year. This is almost exactly what the average American worker makes in three years. To be fair to Mitt, at his tax rate of 14%, it didn’t really amount to that much in tax savings, only about $11,000. This is about the same amount of money you could make working 29 hours every week at Walmart (what Republicans consider a generous income).
Mitt would be happy to cut his tax savings in half. Not by raising his taxes up to pre-Bush levels (and god forbid, pre-Reagan levels), but by cutting his tax rate in half, lessening the value of the write-off. When Republicans talk about eliminating the loopholes, they mean that with no taxes on the “job creators“ no deductions are necessary. The peasants would lose their “loopholes” too, but not the taxes.
If Willard worked the same number of hours per week that produces the income that a Walmart associate is expected to live on, Willard would make $14,323. That’s only $3,323 more than the $11,000 a common worker makes. Except that would be his hourly pay, $14,323/hour. Republicans resent that the $11,000/year worker doesn’t pay any federal income taxes, (never mind the thousands in other taxes he does pay). They also resent that the $14000/ hour “job creators” pay any taxes at all.
We also don’t know what Romney made in the previous 30 years that prompted him to open multiple offshore bank accounts where secrecy is everything. In fact Romney’s wealth is insignificant compared to the people he would be working for if he became President. Sheldon Adelson has already committed to spend more money on the election than Mitt’s entire known fortune. He may spend 5 times that, if he thinks he can win, and it would not even cut into his pocket money. Of course most of his fortune comes from casinos in China. So who is really buying the White House? Those jokes about the Red Chinese owning us could take on a whole new meaning.
More of this heartache at www.prairie2.com