Here's where the late great John Bonham earned his slot in the firmament of rock and roll idols.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rvn6PKON4xU
I've heard more convincing drum solos in my basement.
Proves yet again it's not how you hit the skins... it's all about your PR team.
Thursday, July 13, 2017
Can Savior Macron save Trump?
So what's up with the fresh new breeze wafting through the halls of power in the Nations of Virtue? Looks like Manny "The Redeemer" and Donny J are spending the day doing touristy stuff in the City of Light. Isn't this the same Macron who was just recently praised to the heavens for standing up to Trump?
What goes on here?
This is especially intriguing given the completely opposite treatment these two alleged political neophytes have gotten at the hands of mainstream Western media. On the one hand, Macron has been received with near universal adoration. He is the fresh new face of a new politics that is neither of the left or the right, or so we are lead to believe.
Trump, on the other hand, has endured a non-stop torrent of loathing and vitriol from the same media.
So what gives? Could it be that one flim-flam artist has recognised a kindred spirit in the other?
Or is there something more sinister afoot?
Recall that a mere six weeks ago Macron was being loudly lauded for standing up to Putin. The new kid gave Bad Vlad a stern finger wag over everything from election interference to Syrian chemical attacks to the nefarious propaganda that Russian state media outlets Sputnik and RT have been aiming at gullible dupes in the West. Yes, Macron was unflinching in his anti-Putin stand.
Yet when the two men met again at the G20 last weekend, the tone was much more muted. Hardly a month after their first meeting, Macron has noticed a tangible change in Russo-French relations and is "ready to move on to a new phase..."
Well, that about-face wasn't long in coming!
Could it be that the Russians have a dossier on Macron too?
What goes on here?
This is especially intriguing given the completely opposite treatment these two alleged political neophytes have gotten at the hands of mainstream Western media. On the one hand, Macron has been received with near universal adoration. He is the fresh new face of a new politics that is neither of the left or the right, or so we are lead to believe.
Trump, on the other hand, has endured a non-stop torrent of loathing and vitriol from the same media.
So what gives? Could it be that one flim-flam artist has recognised a kindred spirit in the other?
Or is there something more sinister afoot?
Recall that a mere six weeks ago Macron was being loudly lauded for standing up to Putin. The new kid gave Bad Vlad a stern finger wag over everything from election interference to Syrian chemical attacks to the nefarious propaganda that Russian state media outlets Sputnik and RT have been aiming at gullible dupes in the West. Yes, Macron was unflinching in his anti-Putin stand.
Yet when the two men met again at the G20 last weekend, the tone was much more muted. Hardly a month after their first meeting, Macron has noticed a tangible change in Russo-French relations and is "ready to move on to a new phase..."
Well, that about-face wasn't long in coming!
Could it be that the Russians have a dossier on Macron too?
Tuesday, July 11, 2017
For a zero corporate tax rate
Lets end this race to the bottom once and for all. We see countries all over the world out-bidding one another for corporate HQs by offering lower corporate tax rates than their neighbours and their trading partners.
Let's go to zero and get it over with!
That may seem a little extravagant, especially coming from a self-identified small "c" commie, but hear me out.
While we're putting the corporate tax rate to zero, we have to bring in a few other measures, some from the past, some new.
First of all, we have to recognize the fact that contrary to what the Supreme Court of the USA thinks, corporations are not in fact people. This is a no-brainer to regular folks everywhere, but it's something that needs to have some legal backbone. Money eventually flows out of those corporations and into the accounts of actual people.
Secondly, let's bring back the marginal tax rates that obtained when America was a far more egalitarian country. After WWII America had a marginal tax rate of 90%. The rich still got richer, but not nearly as fast. The war debt got repaid. The working class prospered.
Third, we need to eliminate the practice of using corporate profits for share buy-backs. This has soaked up trillions of dollars for the benefit of shareholders and corporate management at the expense of society at large.
Four, let's tax capital gains as income, universally. Because that is exactly what it is. There are rich folks the world over who pay zero tax because their income is not considered income.
Finally, let's make the elimination of tax havens a global priority. What are tax havens other than a useful legal dodge that allows the wealthiest to avoid paying their share.
There you have it; advocacy for zero corporate taxes from a communist.
Let's go to zero and get it over with!
That may seem a little extravagant, especially coming from a self-identified small "c" commie, but hear me out.
While we're putting the corporate tax rate to zero, we have to bring in a few other measures, some from the past, some new.
First of all, we have to recognize the fact that contrary to what the Supreme Court of the USA thinks, corporations are not in fact people. This is a no-brainer to regular folks everywhere, but it's something that needs to have some legal backbone. Money eventually flows out of those corporations and into the accounts of actual people.
Secondly, let's bring back the marginal tax rates that obtained when America was a far more egalitarian country. After WWII America had a marginal tax rate of 90%. The rich still got richer, but not nearly as fast. The war debt got repaid. The working class prospered.
Third, we need to eliminate the practice of using corporate profits for share buy-backs. This has soaked up trillions of dollars for the benefit of shareholders and corporate management at the expense of society at large.
Four, let's tax capital gains as income, universally. Because that is exactly what it is. There are rich folks the world over who pay zero tax because their income is not considered income.
Finally, let's make the elimination of tax havens a global priority. What are tax havens other than a useful legal dodge that allows the wealthiest to avoid paying their share.
There you have it; advocacy for zero corporate taxes from a communist.
Manny "The Redeemer" Macron sheds white man's burden
And not a moment too soon!
The wunderkind of the neoliberal world order set the record straight on the challenges facing Africa at the weekend while in Hamburg for the G20 shindig.
Apparently the plight of many African nations today, poverty, instability, a ruling class made up largely of thugs and looters, has nothing to do with hundreds of years of rapacious colonialism.
Nope!
Not at all. Africa's problems are "civilizational."
Yup!
Africa's problems are due to the women of Africa's inexplicable prolificacy in popping out new Africans! That's it! Apparently all it would take to bring peace and prosperity to Africa and bring it into the modern era would be to have African women keep their legs shut.
You must admit it's quite an accomplishment to insult 1.2 billion Africans in one brief media interview!
Attaboy Manny!
You're showing the world what you're made of!
Emmanuel Macron is a colonial era reactionary shitbag whose ideas are as fresh as 1925, and quite possibly an imbecile to boot.
Good luck, France!
And God help Africa.
The wunderkind of the neoliberal world order set the record straight on the challenges facing Africa at the weekend while in Hamburg for the G20 shindig.
Apparently the plight of many African nations today, poverty, instability, a ruling class made up largely of thugs and looters, has nothing to do with hundreds of years of rapacious colonialism.
Nope!
Not at all. Africa's problems are "civilizational."
Yup!
Africa's problems are due to the women of Africa's inexplicable prolificacy in popping out new Africans! That's it! Apparently all it would take to bring peace and prosperity to Africa and bring it into the modern era would be to have African women keep their legs shut.
You must admit it's quite an accomplishment to insult 1.2 billion Africans in one brief media interview!
Attaboy Manny!
You're showing the world what you're made of!
Emmanuel Macron is a colonial era reactionary shitbag whose ideas are as fresh as 1925, and quite possibly an imbecile to boot.
Good luck, France!
And God help Africa.
Sunday, July 9, 2017
A case study in irresponsible parenting
Me and the Farm Manager were having breakfast at the Topnotch this morning, when this family of five strolls in; Mom and Dad and three kids between maybe four and nine. They settle in by the front window, and the first thing I notice is that nobody, adult or child, has any electronic device in evidence. No iphones. No tablets. No gameboys.
That in itself set alarm bells ringing. It's one thing if the grownups want to create a tech-free pseudo-reality for themselves, but what are they doing to their poor kids? Haven't those parents heard that we're living in the information age?
You won't believe what happened next. They pull out a little chessboard!
No shit! A chessboard! Who does that?
While they're waiting for their server, Mom and the older boy play chess. Dad is reading a magazine article to the younger kids. They're asking questions. They're engaged.
This goes on after they order. I notice not a one of the kids are expressing their youthful exuberance by running about the place raising hell and annoying the other patrons. Makes you wonder what kind of a regimented and coercive home life these poor youngsters must have.
Sure hope those kids get woke real soon. Call the Child Help Line before it's too late, kids!
Everybody deserves a normal childhood!
Otherwise, it's not hard to see what's going to happen here. Those kids are going to grow up to be engaged, chess-playing, highly literate independent thinkers as adults.
And as a society, that's certainly not something we want to encourage.
That in itself set alarm bells ringing. It's one thing if the grownups want to create a tech-free pseudo-reality for themselves, but what are they doing to their poor kids? Haven't those parents heard that we're living in the information age?
You won't believe what happened next. They pull out a little chessboard!
No shit! A chessboard! Who does that?
While they're waiting for their server, Mom and the older boy play chess. Dad is reading a magazine article to the younger kids. They're asking questions. They're engaged.
This goes on after they order. I notice not a one of the kids are expressing their youthful exuberance by running about the place raising hell and annoying the other patrons. Makes you wonder what kind of a regimented and coercive home life these poor youngsters must have.
Sure hope those kids get woke real soon. Call the Child Help Line before it's too late, kids!
Everybody deserves a normal childhood!
Otherwise, it's not hard to see what's going to happen here. Those kids are going to grow up to be engaged, chess-playing, highly literate independent thinkers as adults.
And as a society, that's certainly not something we want to encourage.
Saturday, July 8, 2017
The thing about Trump
What a lot of folks don't seem to get their heads around is the fact that Donny J is just a symptom. He is not the disease.
Those folks tend to believe that if we had a suave operator in the Oval Office everything would be hunky-dory. It's only due to the short-fingered vulgarian that America has become a laughing stock.
Suave like Hillsy.
Suave like Barry O. Barry was even better than Hillary; he allowed a lot of liberal white folks to congratulate themselves about how racially inclusive America has become.
Oh lookee! We have a black president! Everything is beyond cool!!!
Sure it is.
Don't look now, but countries like Croatia and Iran are giving America a good run on prosperity metrics like infant mortality and percentage of population working in poverty.
America continues its inexorable slide into decrepitude in all aspects of society save one; the illustrious military-industrial millstone around her neck.
Don't know if you caught Trump's speech in Poland the other day. Yup, America and her allies will prevail in the clash of civilizations. Pure PNAC boilerplate from end to end. I have no idea why PNAC stalwarts like Robert Kagan have such a hate on for Trump. After all, that Poland speech could have been written by some pro-empire twit like "axis-of-evil" maestro David Frum.
Maybe it's because they know that when Trump spews PNAC boilerplate he's just talking shit. His heart is not in it. He'd just as soon build condo towers in Tehran as nuke the place. That's not the kind of self-dealing opportunist that the PNAC crowd wants to see in the Oval Office.
They want a true believer in manifest destiny and American exceptionalism.
Donald J. Trump is not their man.
Those folks tend to believe that if we had a suave operator in the Oval Office everything would be hunky-dory. It's only due to the short-fingered vulgarian that America has become a laughing stock.
Suave like Hillsy.
Suave like Barry O. Barry was even better than Hillary; he allowed a lot of liberal white folks to congratulate themselves about how racially inclusive America has become.
Oh lookee! We have a black president! Everything is beyond cool!!!
Sure it is.
Don't look now, but countries like Croatia and Iran are giving America a good run on prosperity metrics like infant mortality and percentage of population working in poverty.
America continues its inexorable slide into decrepitude in all aspects of society save one; the illustrious military-industrial millstone around her neck.
Don't know if you caught Trump's speech in Poland the other day. Yup, America and her allies will prevail in the clash of civilizations. Pure PNAC boilerplate from end to end. I have no idea why PNAC stalwarts like Robert Kagan have such a hate on for Trump. After all, that Poland speech could have been written by some pro-empire twit like "axis-of-evil" maestro David Frum.
Maybe it's because they know that when Trump spews PNAC boilerplate he's just talking shit. His heart is not in it. He'd just as soon build condo towers in Tehran as nuke the place. That's not the kind of self-dealing opportunist that the PNAC crowd wants to see in the Oval Office.
They want a true believer in manifest destiny and American exceptionalism.
Donald J. Trump is not their man.
Tuesday, July 4, 2017
This Independence Day, shadow of Omar Khadr casts pall on US-Canada relations
Especially when the news leaks out today, much to Justin's chagrin, that young Omar just scored a ten million plus settlement with the government of Canada.
Here at Falling Downs we opined early and often re the Khadr case. Check out this missive from 2012. That was five years ago!
Frankly, I don't believe for a moment that ten million dollars sets things right. But at least it's an acknowledgement that we went wrong somewhere.
Needless to say, the jackals on the radical right in Canadian media are having conniptions over this.
Here at Falling Downs we opined early and often re the Khadr case. Check out this missive from 2012. That was five years ago!
Frankly, I don't believe for a moment that ten million dollars sets things right. But at least it's an acknowledgement that we went wrong somewhere.
Needless to say, the jackals on the radical right in Canadian media are having conniptions over this.
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