JFK Obama and Hatred…

What Killed JFK, Frank Rich’s New York Magazine’s article, connects the vitriol that surrounded Kennedy at the time of his assassination to Obama.  It is a very disturbing analysis.  But, a must read.

“Immediately after the assassination and ever since, the right has tried to deflect any connection between its fevered Kennedy hatred and Oswald’s addled psyche with the fact that the assassin had briefly defected to the Soviet Union. But at the time even some Texans weren’t buying that defense. An editorial in the Dallas Times Herald chastised its own city for supplying “the seeds of hate” and “the atmosphere for tragedy.” The editor of the Austin American wrote that “hatred and fanaticism, the flabby spirit of complacency that has permitted the preachers of fanatical hatred to appear respectable, and the self-righteousness that labels all who disagree with us as traitors or dolts, provided the way for the vile deed that snuffed out John Kennedy’s life.

That atmosphere doesn’t surface arbitrarily in 11/22/63. Though King had first considered writing the book in 1971, what inspired him to finally do so was the spectacle of that Republican backbencher shouting out “You lie!” when Obama addressed Congress in the fall of 2009. “One of the reasons to write the book was because there’s so much hate in the air now,” he told the filmmaker Errol Morris (also at work on a Kennedy-assassination project) in a recent interview for the Times website, and “a lot of it’s directed at Obama.”

Occupy the Tax Code

OFFSHORE CORPORATIONS, NONPROFIT OR CHARITABLE FOUNDATIONS, BORROWING AGAINST STOCK, FAMILY TRUSTS….are some of the ways the the ultra rich shield their money from taxes.  It’s all legal, but it must change.

NYT  A Family’s Billions, Artfully Sheltered…

As he stood in the opulent marble foyer of a Fifth Avenue mansion late last month, greeting the coterie of prominent guests arriving at his private art gallery, Ronald S. Lauder was doing more than just being a gracious host.

… an heir to the Estée Lauder fortune whose net worth is estimated at more than $3.1 billion, the evening went beyond social and cultural significance. As is often the case with his activities, just beneath the surface was a shrewd use of the United States tax code. By donating his art to his private foundation, Mr. Lauder has qualified for deductions worth tens of millions of dollars in federal income taxes over the years, savings that help defray the hundreds of millions he has spent creating one of New York City’s cultural gems.

From offshore havens to a tax-sheltering stock deal so audacious that Congress later enacted a law forbidding the tactic, Mr. Lauder has for decades aggressively taken advantage of tax breaks that are useful only for the most affluent.

Some tax reform advocates say that it is unfair that the wealthiest can subsidize their lifestyles using myriad offshore maneuvers and complex accounting strategies.

“It’s admirable when people back their charitable impulses up with donations,” said Scott Klinger, tax policy director of the group Business for Shared Prosperity. “But the tax code shouldn’t allow the wealthy the kind of loopholes that let them, essentially, force other taxpayers to underwrite donations to their pet causes.”

Ms. Huffington, You’ve Got to be Kidding!

Vanessa Grigoriadis writes in her article, Maharishi Arianna, that Ms. Huffington is disappointed in Obama and could see herself voting Republican in the next presidential election.  Ms. Huffington is quoted saying, “To me the issues are more important than the party. Trust me, I realize how hard it is to change the system, but Obama has demonstrated only the fierce  urgency of sometime later and at the same time the middle class is under assault.  Which of course is the topic of my last book.”

“Trust me,” she says.  How can anyone trust Ms.Huffington when she could conceivably vote for a Republican who represents a party that denies a woman’s  right to choose, supports gutting the safety net for the  needy (did she discuss this in her latest book?), supports tax cuts for the 1%, denies climate change and wants to drill, drill, drill to end our dependence on foreign oil—all because she’s disappointed in President Obama.

Somehow this makes me think that Ms.Huffington has the “fierce urgency of me.”  She is reinventing herself once again to further her goals.  Over the years she’s been an anti-feminist, a socialite with a personal guru,  an avid Republican, a liberal Democrat and now, who knows.   She has written two biographies, one of Maria Callas the other of  Picasso, both times she was accused of plagiarism. Ms. Grigoriadis states that one author called her an “intellectual kleptomaniac.” Could the same also be said about her “brainchild,” the Huffington Post?

Avarice and the Affordable Care Act

The current Republican Party is the party of the 1% and every proposal suggested by the GOP lawmakers and presidential candidates preserves or expands tax privileges for the wealthiest Americans.  In Tim Dikenson’s, excellent article in Rolling Stone, he explains the GOP’s intense hatred of the Affordable Care Act. “To truly understand the depth of the GOP’s entrenched opposition to Obamacare, it’s crucial to understand how the reform is financed: The single largest source of funds comes from increasing Medicare taxes on the wealthy – including new taxes on investment income. According to the Tax Policy Center, Americans who make more than $1 million a year will pay an extra $37,381 in annual taxes under the plan. The top 400 taxpayers would contribute even more: an average of $11 million each. Rarely in American history has a tax so effectively targeted the top one percent. “It took Republicans about four months to figure out how much they hated it,” says McIntyre, president of Citizens for Tax Justice. Republican rage over the president’s health care plan has far less to do with the size of government or the merits of the individual mandate than the blow to the investor class. If Obamacare remains in place and the Bush cuts for the wealthy expire as planned, top earners will be paying a tax of 23.8 percent on capital gains – more than they have at any time since Clinton cut the capital gains tax in 1997. Health care reform, griped The Wall Street Journal, was nothing but a “sneaky way” for Democrats to wage a ‘war on the rich.’”

Definition of AVARICE

excessive or insatiable desire for wealth or gain : greediness

NYPD Stop and Frisk

“The NYPD’s stop-and-frisk practices raise serious concerns over racial profiling, illegal stops and privacy rights. The Department’s own reports on its stop-and-frisk activity confirm what many people in communities of color across the city have long known: The police are stopping hundreds of thousands of law abiding New Yorkers every year, and the vast majority are black and Latino.”  The New York Civil Liberties Union. The statistics compiled by the NYCLU for the last five years are listed below:

In 2007, 468,732 New Yorkers were stopped by the police.
407,923 were totally innocent (87 percent)
242,373 were black (52 percent)
142,903 were Latino (31 percent)
52,715 were white (11 percent)
In 2008, 531,159 New Yorkers were stopped by the police.
465,413 were totally innocent (88 percent)
271,602 were black (51 percent)
167,111 were Latino (32 percent)
57,407 were white (11 percent)
In 2009, 575,304 New Yorkers were stopped by the police.
504,594 were totally innocent (88 percent)
308,941 were black (54 percent)
179,576 were Latino (31 percent)
53,466 were white (9 percent)
In 2010, 601,055 New Yorkers were stopped by the police.
517,458 were totally innocent (86 percent)
317,642 were black (53 percent)
190,491 were Latino (32 percent)
55,083 were white (9 percent)
During the first six months of 2011, 362,150 New Yorkers were stopped by the police.
317,376 were totally innocent (88 percent)
184,186 were black (51 percent)
119,853 were Latino (33 percent)
33,805 were white (9 percent)

How can this not be called racial profiling?!