What Are Corporations Doing With The Funds From Their Tax Cuts?

Corporations are using the windfall from the cuts in their tax bill just like survey's said that they would.  They are buying back their shares, which increases the value of the unsold shares;  they are paying higher dividends to shareholders and they are looking to acquire other companies.  Since corporate executives are also large shareholders that is good for them.  It is also good for the richest 10% which owns 84% of corporate stocks.  That's good news for many of us, but that is not how the tax cuts were sold to the public.  They were told that corporations would use the funds to purchase capital equipment, build new plants and to increase wages.  Each of those outcomes would lead to higher economic growth, more jobs and higher wages.  Corporate executives are not interested in stimulating GDP growth.  They get measured and rewarded every quarter on movements in their stock price.  Making investments in projects that may increase the stock price a couple of years from today is not high on their priority list.  That, of course what they told economists in the surveys.  Apparently, Trump and his administration decided that it made more political sense to convince its base that they succeeded in passing a middle class tax cut.  Good politics but bad economics.

Donald Trump Does A Terrible Job Playing Our "Fearless Leader"

Donald Trump realizes that autocrats must convince their supporters that they are strong and brave enough to protect them from danger.  Part of the game is to increase the level of fear in their base.  The other part is to demonstrate strength and "manliness" in the face of danger.  Our fearless leader chose to use his powerful Twitter account to demonstrate his manliness.  He claimed that he would have personally attacked the gunman who used his assault weapon to murder 17 people at the Parkland school in Florida if he had been in the building at the time.  Its lucky for him that he was not present during the shootout because he has a poor record of responding bravely in the face of danger.  During the Vietnam war he sought and obtained a deferment due to bone spurs in his heel.  He has also been captured on film reacting to danger in a very unmanly fashion.  The Trumpster is much better at demonstrating power by issuing tweets from his bedroom in the White House while watching cable news.  He is more comfortable insulting enemies and barking commands over the Internet than he is in the presence of danger or retaliation. He is also comfortable speaking powerfully in front of true believers like those at his campaign rallies and far right conservatives at the recent CPAC meeting.  That's pretty easy.  He only has to tell them what they want to hear.  For example, he told the CPAC audience that we should give teachers guns to protect students from deranged individuals armed with assault weapons.  That, of course, echoes one of the party lines from the NRA which keeps conservatives informed about how to protect their Constitutional right to own assault weapons. All statements from the NRA are automatically accepted as biblical truths by CPAC.  Gun manufacturers also love the idea that more guns are needed to protect us from gun owners who want to murder innocent children with assault weapons.  If we did that, we may even be able to protect our students without having our fearless leader available in schools during an attack.

Some Questions For Trump To Answer If He Dares To Have Another Press Conference

Unlike former presidents, who regularly held press conferences, Trump has had only one press conference during the first year of his new job.  His press secretary has been given the job of not answering questions from the press.  Ruth Marcus reported a list of questions that Trump might be asked if he held a press conference.  They are good questions; they make it easy to understand why Trump prefers using his Twitter account to communicate with his base instead of dealing with "fake news" reporters who might ask some of the questions recommended by Marcus.

Marco Rubio And NRA Representative Jeered At Florida Meeting

The Governor of Florida and The President Of The United States, who winters in Florida, did not attend a meeting about the mass shooting in Florida.  They were smart cowards.  Marco Rubio, and a spokes person for the NRA, had to take the punishment and jeers from the parents and students in the audience.  Rubio was asked if he would continue to take money from the NRA.  His answer was as slippery as each of the positions that he took from the audience.  He claimed that the $3,000,000 in contributions he has received from the NRA had nothing to do with his position on guns.  After the jeers from the audience ended, he claimed that his position reflected the views of the public which he represents.  That was a bit more truthful because the NRA has a propaganda arm that defends the economic interest of gun producers.  A substantial portion of the Republican base has been convinced that government controls on access to guns violates their Constitutional rights.  Rubio and other Republican politicians depends upon their votes in elections.  They are a minority but their votes can be counted on by politicians like Rubio.  That explains why a politician as smart as Rubio pretends  that access to assault weapons is protected by a Constitution that was written when the US military consisted of private citizens who served in state militias with their own muskets.  He knows that the second amendment to the Constitution has provided a smokescreen that was invented by the NRA. He is constrained, however, to defend that nonsense in order to protect his seat in the Senate.

Rubio, and the NRA propagandist, took another position that makes Republicans comfortable.  They argued that guns are not the problem.  People who misuse guns are the problem.  That position is consistent with Trump's current views on the subject.  Instead of preventing dangerous people from having access to assault weapons we should try to cure their mental illnesses.  That is utter nonsense. We do not have more mentally ill citizens in the US than other nations.  We lead the rest of the world in deaths from guns because we possess almost half of the world's supply of guns available to households.  Politicians in Australia decided to reduce the number of deaths from guns by addressing the real problem.  They took actions to reduce the number of guns held by households.  That produced a huge decline in deaths from firearms.

Marco Rubio, and the NRA representative, may have lost a bit of sleep after hearing from the parents who lost one of their children and from students who lost classmates from the shootout.  They can also expect more pressure from the public to take some actions that might reduce senseless murders.  Their usual approach is to tinker around the edges of the problem.  They will not deal with the crux of the problem.  They will not ban the sale of assault weapons.  That is because our democracy is being held hostage by around 35% of the electorate.  Their votes can be counted upon in any election.  The only real competition in elections is for the 65% who are open to debate on most policy issues.  We don't have majority rule in the US for that reason.  That is also why the Russians have used cyberwarfare in the US and in Europe to exacerbate divisions over cultural and social issues like gun control, race and religion.  The goal is to undermine democracies without the use conventional warfare.

The social media contribute the divisions that are being exacerbated in the US.  It didn't take long for a video posted on YouTube by an obscure individual in Idaho to go viral with a conspiracy theory about the murders in Parkland.  Mike m posted a video of David Hogg is who a student at Parkland.  The video is about another incident that happened in August.  Mike m declared that David Hogg is an actor who has been hired the MSM (short for networks other than Fox News) which promote left wing ideologies.  The video was picked up other conspiracy sites.  It appeared on Facebook and Twitter as well as on YouTube which is owned by Google.  There were over 200,000 hits to the "trending" video  before it was blocked by YouTube.  Mike m was encouraged by his success.  He posted another video that YouTube blocked.  His account will be deleted by YouTube if another of his posts is blocked.  Of course, he can also create another account on YouTube to move from obscurity in Idaho where he resides. 

Its Time To Vote NRA Prostitutes Out Of Office

Tom Friedman describes what Republican lawmakers get in return for blocking reasonable changes to gun laws in the US.  They get $174,000 per year in salary and they get free parking at Reagan National Airport.  They will do just about anything to hang on to their jobs.  They also understand that they could lose their jobs if they take any actions that concerns the NRA.  Those who receive campaign contribution from the NRA will have to find other sources and the NRA will do what it takes to turn NRA voters against them.  Friedman believes that some of them may have difficulty with their NRA deal when they see young children being shot in schools but most of them are more worried about losing $174,000 and free parking at Reagan National Airport. 

Friedman was encouraged by students at the most recent shootout who would like politicians to take actions that will keep more of them alive.  He understands, however, that there is only one solution that will protect them.  They, and other Americans must go to the polls and take away their $174,000 jobs and their free parking at Reagan National Airport.  Nothing else will work.  Its hard to get prostitutes to seek a more honorable profession when they have such a nice gig with the NRA.

Putin's Useful Idiots On The Social Media

It is now well known that Putin funded hundreds of social media trolls in a disinformation campaign that began in 2014.  He referred to social media users who were sucked into his disinformation campaign as "useful idiots".  It was easy to find the useful idiots because they were everywhere on Facebook and Twitter promoting socially divisive issues.  Putin's trolls joined with them in prompting conspiracies and fake news stories that appealed to splinter groups.  The goal was to amplify story lines that were socially divisive.  The trolls were quick learners.  They could write a book about the useful idiots and the issues that divided them from most Americans.  They tend to be many of the same issues that Republicans have used to win elections since Richard Nixon's Southern Strategy was implemented.  After, Trump won the GOP nomination, with the help of Russian trolls who put the GOP favorite Jeb Bush away early in his campaign, they backed Trump, Bernie Sanders and Jill Stein while doing everything they could to turn Hillary Clinton into Satan.  Its hard to determine the number of voters who were influenced by the Russian disinformation campaign but Clinton would have carried Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania,  and won the 2016 election, if she got all of the votes from Democrats who voted for Jill Stein.  They also provided Sanders supporters with information that might have discouraged many of them from voting for Clinton in the general election. 

Russia and many other nations, including the US, have used disinformation campaigns to serve their interests.  However, the social media have changed the disinformation game dramatically.  It was expensive and much more difficult to distribute information when a small number of news sources controlled the media.  Lyndon Johnson famously announced that he lost the Vietnam war when Walter Cronkite turned against the war.  His evening news show, on one of the three major networks, provided millions of Americans with the information that influenced their opinions on major issues. Those days are gone forever.  The social media have made the distribution of information more democratic and much less expensive.  It wasn't hard for trolls to locate the most likely audience for each of their divisive messages, and the disinformation that they provided did not have to go through an editorial process to determine the veracity of their messages.  Everyone has been given an inexpensive megaphone by Facebook and Twitter.  The Russian trolls, along with a host of splinter groups have learned how to amplify their freedom speech on the social media which do not employ editors to fact check the information that they broadcast.

Senator Marco Rubio's Speech Shows Why We Can't Stop Mass Shootings In US

Marco Rubio gave a speech which argues that making it more difficult for mass shooters to obtain assault rifles like the AK-15, which was used to murder 17 students in his state,  would be pointless.  If we made it more difficult for the 19 year old who used an AK-15 to murder 17 students, it would not have prevented the crime. The shooter would have found an illegal way to obtain the weapon that he used.  In other words, there is no way to stop mass shootings by restricting access to guns.  Guns are not the problem.  Demented individuals are the problem.  Rubio's logic would also make it pointless for the government to restrict access to drugs like heroin.  After all, drug addicts can often find illegal ways to obtain heroin.  We might just as well sell it at CVS.  That would make it easier to purchase, and it would reduce the price because illegal drug drug dealers must charge high prices to cover the costs of obtaining heroin and the risks of being arrested.

Marco Rubio is not stupid.  He only makes stupid arguments because it is in his interest to do so.  Rubio has received over $3,000,000 from the National Rifle Association (NRA) in campaign contributions.  He doesn't want to bite the hand that feeds him and other politicians who have been bought and paid for by the NRA.  Rubio also understands that the majority of Republican voters in his state oppose government restrictions on access to guns.  They see no difference between an AK-15 and the rifles that are used  for sport by hunters.  Some of them even believe that the best way to protect students in schools from mass shooters is to arm the students so that they can protect themselves.  Fox News and popular talk radio hosts like Rush Limbaugh make that argument after each mass shooting.

The bottom line is that many politicians, especially those funded by the NRA, care more about winning elections than they do about mass shootings.  They are not stupid; they are immoral.  They offer meaningless prayers to those whose suffering they have enabled because they have sold themselves in order to win elections.