Recent Comments

1. about 9 hours ago on Clay Jones

   Often a weapon of genocidal war …

   During the Sino-Japanese war, the Bangladesh Liberation War, the Iraqi Civil War, the Yugoslav Wars, and the Rwandan genocide, mass rape was an integral part of those conflicts and launched the concept of rape as a genocide to international display.

   The use of rape during conflict is both pre-planned and a deliberate military strategy. In the last half century, conflict has shifted from wars between nation states to communal and intrastate conflict. Rape as a weapon against the civilian population by state and non-state actors occurs more frequently. Evidence of this exists during conflicts in the Former Yugoslavia, Rwanda, Sierra Leon, Sudan, Uganda, Liberia and in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The purpose of this is two-fold: 1) to instill terror in the population with the intent to forcibly dislocate, and 2) to degrade, humiliate and shame so that they will not return.

   https://thegenocidereport.org/rape-as-genocide/

2. about 18 hours ago on Matt Davies

   Sadly, politicians think they know how to grow the GDP …

   " …

   Corporate tax reform is a topic of discussion among policy analysts and policymakers. The proposed options range from broadening the tax base/lowering the rates to moving to a territorial system with low tax rates to outright elimination of the corporate income tax. Given that the corporate income tax serves several important functions, outright elimination of the tax is ill advised. The justification for lowering the corporate tax rate is that it will increase economic growth.

   In 2012, corporate profits (before- and after-tax) as a share of national income were at a postwar high. Corporate profits were relatively high throughout the late 1940s and 1950s, and fell throughout the 1960s and 1970s to reach a low in 1982. Since then, corporate profits reversed course and have generally been rising to their current postwar high.

   The top statutory corporate tax rate has been falling since the early 1950s. The top corporate tax rate was 52 percent throughout the Eisenhower administration—17 percentage points higher than the current top rate of 35 percent. U.S. GDP grew by almost 4 percent annually in the 1950s compared with a 1.8 percent growth rate in the 2000s. On the surface, it would appear that more robust economic growth is associated with higher corporate tax rates. Further analysis, however, finds no evidence that either the statutory top corporate tax rate or the effective marginal tax rate on capital income is correlated with real GDP growth.

   …"

   https://www.epi.org/publication/ib364-corporate-tax-rates-and-economic-growth/

3. about 23 hours ago on Clay Jones

   Rape and plunder have always been the chosen tools of barbarians trying to destroy civilized societies … only now it’s being done from within our society.

4. about 23 hours ago on John Deering

   Our whole extended campaign period is making a mockery of the legislative process as so much time/money is spent campaigning with such meager results in delivering essential proactive legislation.

5. about 23 hours ago on Matt Davies

   Too long has the Democratic party used “just enough” campaign effort to win by sometimes, slim margins — e.g. the US Senate and House — creating the perception of the population being evenly divided politically. Redistricting, gerrymandering, restricting voter access, well funded/distributed disinformation, etc are helping a malicious, anti-democracy, minority have an unfair advantage.

6. about 24 hours ago on Robert Ariail

   Logical inconsistency?

   “…

   COLUMBIA, S.C. — South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster reiterated Tuesday that now is the time for people who want to get vaccinated to get vaccinated.

   With the Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) reporting a surge in COVID-19 cases, deaths and hospitalizations, McMaster was asked repeatedly about using DHEC’s protocol of vaccination and wearing face masks in order to help stop the spread of the virus.

   Time and again, McMaster responded while individuals should be vaccinated, it was up to the individual to get a vaccine or to wear a mask in public.

   “Parents are the best experts on their own children," McMaster said. “If they want them to wear a mask they should insist them to wear a mask, if they don’t want their child to wear a mask then they’re the expert and they should not be forced by the government to wear a mask.”

   When asked pointedly on his thoughts about South Carolina State Epidemiologist Dr. Linda Bell saying that masks should be used in schools since children under 12 cannot be vaccinated, McMaster said, “Parents — regardless of what the experts say — must be the ones to make decisions about their children.”

   …"

   https://www.wltx.com/article/news/health/coronavirus/south-carolina-governor-henry-mcmaster-vaccines/101-8977ec01-efde-4912-b05e-a650759a70d7

7. 1 day ago on Stuart Carlson

   The Republicans are indeed the party of NO — drugs, abortion, brown immigrants, non-fundamentalist christians, highly educated, etc — and now are having trouble making sense of their own fairy tale alt reality as their numbers decline due to their unrealistic measures against Covid.

8. 1 day ago on Stuart Carlson

   We all have less trust in the media — national, local, and social — especially Republicans, after 2019 …

   https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/08/30/partisan-divides-in-media-trust-widen-driven-by-a-decline-among-republicans/

9. 1 day ago on Stuart Carlson

   Republicans don’t trust news that is considered mainstream, but are unwilling to disclose their acceptable sources …

   https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/07/01/republicans-less-likely-to-trust-their-main-news-source-if-they-see-it-as-mainstream-democrats-more-likely/

10. 1 day ago on Nick Anderson

    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8118520/

    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7582550/

    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8382453/