Ron Paul, NDAA, SOPA, Taxes & Republican negotiating tactics

Ron Paul, NDAA, SOPA, Taxes and Republican negotiating tactics, in that order:

Ron Paul – the GOP machine has already started smearing Dr. Paul and will, if the results are in his favor in Iowa claim that they were hacked by Anonymous and then declare either Mitt or Newt the winner. The GOP has every reason in the world to smear the only libertarian in the race to prevent the conservative base from asking too many questions or learning about what Dr. Paul represents. Now I disagree with Rep. Paul on almost everything (except foreign policy) but as you can see here, have voted for him in the past.

Why you ask? Because I respect his philosophical consistency and because the State of Arizona foolishly has a semi-open primary. He believes in small government, low taxes and basically a “fend-for-yourself” attitude. Again, I disagree with his position, but any candidate that makes conservative voters take the blinders off and realize that the “mainstream” Republican Party doesn’t care about anyone but the super wealthy deserves my support.

If Ron Paul starts winning states, his candidacy seriously threatens to break the Republican Party. Ron Paul would likely get crushed in a national election because his small government policies are anathema to most elderly voters who rely on social security and Medicare. But Ron Paul can help us on the left too. If a radical candidate like Paul can get real grassroots support, so could a real progressive in 2016.

I will be a happy man if Ron Paul’s ascendency ushered in a 4 party (or more) shift in American politics. In the absence of a parliamentary democracy this would be incredibly difficult, but more parties would allow Americans to choose between the two centrist corporate parties and parties that actually represent the left and the right. Everyone wins, except the corporate interest who control the false dichotomy that passes for American democracy today.

NDAA – After backing down from a veto threat, the President signed this law that will allow the indefinite detention of US citizens. Why did we elect him again?

SOPA – The corporate law writers temporarily gave up their effort to basically outlaw the internet. Thanks guys. This is fascinating since this fight represents the clash of two powerful industries, Hollywood and Silicon Valley. Lots of tech executives have testified that this bill, if passed would basically break the internet as we know it.

Taxes – The democrats predictably gave up on a halfhearted attempt to partially fund the payroll tax cut extension with a surcharge on millionaires. Big surprise.

Republican negotiating tactics - Could there have been any clearer example of how the modern Republican party negotiates than what happened this week? The Democrats gave them everything they wanted to extend the payroll tax cut and they still demanded more!

Thankfully, even the Wall Street Journal is calling the house GOP out for their absurd "no compromise whatsoever" approach.

Erik and Ty at the Dog Park or Will the dirth of poop bags wake people up?

I was lucky enough to escort the illustrious and popular Ty Guenther to the Magnuson Park off leash area last week. As you can tell we both had a blast:



While leaving the park I saw this sign:

Is this what it is going to take for people to realize the extent and severity of the budget cuts that been enacted at all levels of government? Most middle class tax payers have yet to feel the real impacts of state, local and federal budget cuts. In contrast poor and working class families already know the strains that budget cuts have put on their already struggling families. But when will the middle class wake up to the reality that we are selling Washington's future up the river?

I know this seems trivial compared to the cut backs in programs like The Basic Health Plan here in Washington, but not having poop bags at the dog park might finally wake some people up to the impacts of rejecting common sense tax measures like last year's I-1098 and I-1107.

If you owned a 164’ yacht, what flag would you fly?

That is the question I was faced when biking back from Golden Gardens Park past the Ballard locks last month. Now I fancy myself something of a flag aficionado but the flag this super yacht was flying was not familiar to me. It had the union jack and a red field. Okay so that narrows it down to somewhere in the former British Empire, not a lot of help there... (my best guesses are below)

This is the Wabi-Sabi, a 164’ charter yacht coming into Lake Union from Puget Sound using the Hiram H. Chittenden Locks: (I made a mistake with my captions in the video, its lake Union not Lake Washington)



As you can see, this massive yacht is registered out of the Cayman Islands despite the owner's attempt to be discreet and abbreviate Cayman Islands as C.I. For those of you who don’t know, the Cayman Islands is a notorious offshore tax haven.

Watching this behemoth transit the locks I couldn’t help thinking about the irony of such an extravagant yacht in the middle of the great recession. Do you think anyone is paying taxes on this yacht? If they are, I would bet it isn’t very much. Is it fair that this tax dodging super-yacht is able to take advantage of the public structures that our tax dollars pay for?

This story is a parallel of modern American politics. The super wealthy (who now encourage tea-party radicals to protest the very existence of government and taxes) have built their fortunes relying on the shared public structures we all support with our taxes. Government is not a vending machine, the whole of government spending is greater than the sum of its parts. Without it, the wealthy would be unable the amass their fortunes. Many of the super wealthy understand this and happily pay their taxes. But even if you are a super wealthy anti-tax yacht owner, the public structures we all pay for come in handy from time to time.

So really, what flag would you fly?

Bermuda?
 

Manitoba?

Ontario?

Its a tough call, but I am going to have to go with Bermuda, I hear its nice there.