Recent Comments

1. 2 months ago on Ted Rall

   I’m still annoyed with ex-Gov. Cuomo for forcing Andy Byford out from the MTA, because Byford’s competence and genial personality made him popular and thus apparently threatening to Cuomo. People love to argue about left vs right, but basic competence and good faith governance is sadly underrated.

2. 7 months ago on Lisa Benson

   We currently tax based on income, not wealth. But that said, current taxation is quite progressive: the top 1% of earner pay 40% of tax revenues, the top 10% pay almost three-quarters of all tax revenues. Could it be more progressive? Should the carried interest exception be eliminated? Sure and yes – but let’s not act like high earners aren’t kicking in substantial revenues, that’s just not true.

3. 7 months ago on Lisa Benson

   Simplified would be great, but attempts to simplify suffer from the same issue as entitlement reform: people love simplification in principle, but also love specific exemptions in actuality – most of which incentivize behavior (owning homes, starting businesses, etc) that are broadly popular. And in a society in which (at the lower end) more than 40% currently pay no income tax, “fair share” is a slippery concept. But I agree that there must be a better approach.

4. 7 months ago on Lisa Benson

   I assume it’s quotes because what constitutes rich is a subjective assessment. Qualifying for the top 2% in income or assets in the US certainly means one is comfortable, but it’s not Thurston Howell III territory by any stretch. Everyone I know who has an income in the high 6 or low 7 figures pays 50% of their income in taxes, with the notable exception of income from carried interest/long-term capital gains, which should be fixed for sure, but won’t.

5. 11 months ago on Ted Rall

   It’s an interesting study. But the reasons the +$600k crowd’s kids are at an advantage is much more complex than courting donorship. $600k/yr ain’t funding any new academic building endowments. If you read the study, it’s more about the societal advantages conveyed up to and through the application process.

6. about 1 year ago on Ted Rall

   Has any foreign war or military intervention by any country ever been accurately “marketed”? Stop-the-Hun, etc. plays better than a wonkish policy analysis. Whether it’s a wise policy is a different question, that has very little to do with whether Ukrainian nationalist troops from the hinterlands are philosopher kings or bigoted rubes.

7. about 1 year ago on Ted Rall

   This cartoon is a great sendup of the poor reporting on this issue. But not the actual issue.

   The Azov battalion “nazis” and their ilk aren’t a new National Socialist Workers’ Party – they’re nationalists who don’t like Russians (with a liberal dose on antisemitism thrown in). In WW2 the actual Nazis inflicted so much death, destruction and misery on Russia that it’s left a helluva imprint on the Russian psyche. So if you’re a Ukrainian nationalist from the sticks, still seething over the Holodomor, the best FU to Russia is to start sporting swastikas.

   The current Russian state is no less (and in many respects more) nationalist, antisemitic and fascist than the admittedly troubled Ukrainian state, it’s just they would never use nazi symbolism. All the debate over “where are the nazis” is focusing on symbols at the expense of context.

8. almost 6 years ago on Alley Oop

   I’m not a vocal critic by nature, but do the Benders not recall that not only has Oop had pizza at the time lab, but he even considered bringing it to Moo. It’s an insipid rehash of something the strip has already done.

   https://www.gocomics.com/alley-oop/2003/10/07