Go Liz!

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Sinema and Manchin are on board for Elizabeth Warren’s corporate minimum tax.

Proposal would apply minimum 15% tax on corporate profits. Bloomberg

For now they’re limiting alternative minimum tax to only Corp profits over $1 billion, would raise $400 billion over 10 years. Not enough but it’s a start.

Meanwhile: Mort Sahl died. Thank you for your service!

And… Now you tell us???

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80 thoughts on “Go Liz!”

  1. not much of a hard decision for sinema-chin to make since earlier this month

    136 countries agree to minimum corporate tax rate after Ireland drops its opposition – CNN

    London (CNN Business)A group of 136 countries have agreed to a global treaty that would tax large multinationals at a minimum rate of 15% and require companies to pay taxes in the countries where they do business.

    Estonia, Hungary and — most notably — Ireland joined the agreement Thursday. It is now supported by all nations in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and the G20. The countries that signed on to the international treaty represent more than 90% of global GDP. Four countries that participated in the talks — Kenya, Nigeria, Pakistan and Sri Lanka — have not yet joined the agreement.
    The Biden administration breathed new life into the global initiative earlier this year and secured the support of the G7 countries in June, paving the way for a preliminary deal in July.
    [continues]

  2. as for mort, here’s the guardian’s take:

    The Canadian-born comic was credited with revolutionising American comedy in the 1950s thanks to his acerbic political satire.

    Sahl was known for performing with a rolled-up newspaper as a prop and would frequently ask the audience: “Are there any groups I haven’t offended?”

    […]

    Robert B Weide, the executive producer of acclaimed comedy Curb Your Enthusiasm who filmed a documentary about Sahl said in tribute: “#MortSahl (1927-2021) was not only the most influential standup comic in the history of the medium, he remained, pound-for-pound, the funniest, most innovative comedian of them all, throughout his entire career.

    “He was also a good friend. RIP, Pal.”

    The Simpsons star Harry Shearer, who voices characters including Mr Burns, Waylon Smithers, Principal Skinner and Ned Flanders, also paid tribute.

    He said: “RIP Mort Sahl. He just invented modern American political satire, is all. Was still doing great standups on Periscope until very recently. And while he was best known for stinging wit, he was always an expert joke writer.”

    The actor and comedian Albert Brooks tweeted: “Most young people have no idea who he was but he was one the few comedians who yanked comedy out of vaudeville-type humour into the modern age. One of the very first to just talk to the audience. We’ll miss you Mort.”

  3. with regard to doc birx’s estimate of how many americans the former guy negligently murdered, she’s not the only one who thinks that, here’s backup story from last february:

     Lancet study finds 40 percent of U.S. COVID-19 deaths were avoidable. (slate.com)

    The British medical journal the Lancet, on Wednesday, published a damning assessment of Donald Trump’s presidency and its impact on Americans’ health, concluding that 40 percent of the nearly 500,000 COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. over the past year were avoidable. The journal came to the conclusion by comparing the U.S. health outcomes on the coronavirus—the country leads the world in COVID deaths and confirmed cases with more than 27 million—with the weighted average of other G-7 nations. So it’s not a wildly abstract conclusion to draw: the U.S. could have saved hundreds of thousands of lives if it had just performed similarly to its economic peers.

    [continues]

  4. Senator Kyrsten Sinema is one of two people standing in the way of President Biden’s $3.5 trillion bill. Here’s everything you need to know about Senator Sinema, a once-committed progressive who now changes her political beliefs like they’re wigs.

  5. Will creative accounting allow companies to show little or no profitability? Yep.

    Hollywood does that so they don’t have to pay as much to actors who take points of a movie’s profits in lieu of a bigger salary.

    Where there’s a weasel there’s a way out.

  6. ~But think of how much Orange Adolf saved in social security benefits that will never have to be paid out.~

    That brings up another point. Despite some wages being increased (more paid into social security), everyone at my company is making less (I assume we are not alone), and, many jobs are going unfilled (zero going into the social security pot). Where does this leave us?

  7. Probably leaves us with fake tombstones on the lawn, sheets hanging from trees, and plastic skulls screwed to the front door.
    ‘Tis the season.    
    “I’m crazy one-arm T-shirt guy! Now gimme some CANDY!”

  8. https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/27/china/covid-outbreak-lockdown-mic-intl-hnk/index.html

    Love the winter games, but zero interest in them until we are through this mess.

    “Wednesday marks the start of the 100-day countdown to the Beijing Winter Olympics, but not everyone is in the mood to celebrate, as officials instead race to suppress a widening outbreak of Covid-19.“

    “In addition to growing calls for a boycott over China’s crackdown on Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong, the Winter Games also risk being overshadowed by the pandemic — and China’s uncompromising zero-Covid policy.“

    I used to feel sorry for athletes who trained their entire lives for an Olympic moment. However, now they all have endorsement deals; it’s all about the money. I just don’t care if they have to wait, or, if they age out of performing at that level. It’s the same reason money will destroy college football. I understand that everyone except the athletes made money, but now it’s just going to be handled like pro ball. Pro ball is no fun.

  10. In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations, and epochs it is the rule.
    —Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil. German philosopher (1844 – 1900)

    (One of his nice little things to say: What is done from love is beyond good and evil.)

  11. jamie, yeah, the few (very few) minutes media are not covering the latest drivel from former guy they’re declaring gloom and doom for dems.

  12. The Thomas Common translation was dreadful, but it was the first thing I got ahold of.   I wanted to find out about this “god is dead” business some of the Uberly hip kids would bandy about over there  in the corner during my 2nd stint in the twelfth grade.  It all smoothed out when I found Kaufman. Also took a semester of German and one of history of the English language just to get some rudiments.

  14. Book of the Day:
    Either/Or
    Søren Kierkegaard

    Either – Or.
    A Life Fragment edited by Victor Eremita (Victorious Hermit)

  16. One really good reason to read Nietzsche is when he writes about the ancient Greeks, and the ancients in general, because with  his being a doctor of philology of course he’d have a lot to say about those guys.

  17. wapo on “manchin machinations”

    […]

    Manchin’s eagerness to chip away at his own colleagues’ legislative priorities — and his increasingly prominent status as a nemesis of the political left — has fueled new speculation that he might abandon the Democrats altogether. Similar rumors swirled during the Trump administration, when Manchin was briefly considered for a Cabinet post, Democrats were stuck in the Senate minority and Republicans were eager to pad their thin majority.

     

    Following a report in Mother Jones magazine that he had discussed a potential party switch, Manchin acknowledged last week that he offered to become an independent — like Sanders and Sen. Angus King of Maine — while continuing to caucus with Senate Democrats, only to be dissuaded by his colleagues.

    In fact, Manchin has made clear in his deeds and words that he would be no more comfortable as a Republican than he is as a Democrat. During Trump’s presidency, he was sharply critical of the party’s efforts to repeal health-care coverage and cut taxes on the rich. He twice voted to impeach Trump and has expressed deep qualms about the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol — and the refusal of GOP leaders to support an independent commission to investigate it.

    “Do you think by having a D or an I or an R is going to change who I am?” he told Rubenstein on Tuesday. “I don’t think the R’s would be any more happier with me than the D’s are right now.”

  23. Yes, how do you tax something that doesn’t exist.  Companies have ways of making their profits disappear to avoid taxes, too.

    Just charge Bezos and Musk a huge tax to land back on Earth.

  26. I would certainly think so, Poobah?  They should also do the Bannon shuffle with any critters who don’t comply.

  27. Mort Sahl joke on Imus:
    Imus: “So, are you dating anyone?”
    Mort:   “I’ve got this friend who’s always trying to set me up with somebody….the other day she says, ‘I’ve got the perfect girl for you, she just divorced her urologist husband—she’s loaded!’  I’m thinking: at this point I might rather be introduced to the urologist.”

  28. Stray thought:
    The boomer stuff is by far the best stuff that ever the fuck was stuff.
    Suck it, all you other generations.

  35. To make music in the Beat Generation and the lost generation, etc you had to actually really be an actual note-reading musician. There wasn’t a whole lotta “playing by ear”.
     Boomer say: Fuck dat……we gonna play anyway

  40. Boomer say: Maybe we ought not send a army of dumb-ass teenagers halfway cross the freaking world to get shot and bombed and mortared into little pieces and then bring them home (the ones who make it) all freaked the fuck out.

  44. Bink – in the 70’s and 80’s I was on the road driving from motel to office and back every day. Long drives, like eighty miles each way.  My travelling companions and I had a lot of time to listen to music and talk. Every one of us disliked the eighties sound.

  46. Yup, BB, many of my worst memories are in terrible ‘80s cars with terrible ‘80s music on the radio, navigating a decaying post-war society

  48. I spent the entire 80’s–’79 to ’90….. in rocket 88’s of one sort or another barreling thru the night all across america, usually with 3 or 4 other citizens of the same ilk, and the radio was tuned in to the nearest all night 50,000 watter……..I didn’t hear much 80’s music.

  49. I guess the 80’s kind of kickered off with Charles Kuralt commenting on the death of Lennon……In the 90’s (94), Kuralt came and ate in the restaurant where we were the house band and from the stage I sent him a little note of appreciation for his commentary that day. He gave me the whole stand up big wave as they got up to go. That wasn’t bad.
    He looked like he was about 8 and one-half feet tall…..like a giant grizz……..

  52. If Charles become king and then dies while ruling, William becomes king, then William’s kids, but never, ever Camilla unless she raises a private army and usurps the crown

  53. yeah, but the wife of the king can be addressed as the “queen”  i think……it’s a special kind of different kinda queen.  

  57. If I was 70 freaking years old and all of a sudden got to be the damn king of everything WHITE……I think I’d be tempted to TAKE CONTROL and make a few changes.

  58. Aint they Windsors now?

    They’re whatever they have to be to retain ownership of all the best real estate on that island

  62. Well like it or think it’s goofy—-Charles is going to be the Boomer King.   

    hahahahahahahahahah that just occurred to me. A veritable Traveling Wilbury.

  63. yeah i think they had to shed some germanics and pick up some bloody Wind sore and afterwards World war one was a family quarrel.

  64. Burning daylight…..some director used to say it and then they put it into the john wayne movie as diaogue…..i think david niven wrote it down first in (Book of the Wednesday)  BRING ON THE EMPTY HORSES.

  72. craig, respectfully disagree!  if they keep just the universal preschool for all 3-4 year olds and nothing else it still would be a big step forward to a more promising future citizenry.  that’s where it all begins, the real foundation to build upon

  73. Republicans should be ashamed of themselves.  That goes double for Manchin and the little show he’s been putting on.  They don’t care about this country. They don’t care about the lives of their constituents. Money-grubbing, corporate-*%#€-sucking asshats. Oh, yeah, and some of them are fascists who want to completely destroy our democracy. It’s too bad the cofeve didn’t dispatch them when it had the chance..

  74. If they had funded community college, where would we get cheaper labor?  Republicans are just a bunch of mercenary weasels. How much better would the lives of the next generation be with higher education? Pre-K will help out with childcare costs for their parents. The benefit for the advancement of the children is questionable. It depends on how it’s structured. I think it will just be daycare for most.

  75. https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/27/politics/joe-manchin-coal-interests/index.html

    “…Manchin helps set US energy policy as chairman of the Senate’s Energy and Natural Resources Committee…”

    “Manchin, whose vote is crucial to passage of President Joe Biden’s domestic policy priorities in an evenly divided 50-50 Senate, has holdings valued at between $1 million and $5 million in Enersystems, Inc., the coal brokerage business he founded, according to his most recent financial disclosure form that covers 2020 activity.
    And last year, he made more than $491,000 from his Enersystems holdings, the filings show. That’s more than twice his $174,000 annual Senate salary.
    “Manchin is a walking conflict of interest,”

    “Manchin’s Senate campaign also benefited from of a flood of political contributions from the energy industry in recent months. He took more than $400,000 from energy interests during the July-to-September fundraising quarter,…”

    Eff him!

    These old farts think they will be in power forever. Mother Nature always wins and to dust we all return. Why make others suffer so you can have your ego stroked?

  77. There’s even talk that Charles might immediately or quickly abdicate to William, who actually seems like a decent guy, contrived noble lineage aside

    He’s not a Stuart, either, so if Charles is crowned i think he’d be “George VI” or something like that

  78. https://www.texastribune.org/2021/10/27/ted-cruz-joe-biden-ambassador-nominations/

    “Cruz has single-handedly delayed dozens of key State Department nominees in retaliation for a Biden decision to drop U.S. opposition to a Russian pipeline to Germany.“

    “The Nord Stream 2 pipeline will compete with pipelines in Ukraine, a country that continues to surface in deeply partisan disputes in the U.S. Members of both parties expressed anger at Biden for the move, but it gave Republicans — whom Democrats accused during the Trump era of going easy on Russia — a way to reset that foreign policy conversation.“

    Cruz is creating consternation inside of the Treasury Department, at the White House and in international circles.

    “It is essential that the Senate confirm these highly qualified nominees who are ready to get to work helping families and small businesses recover from the pandemic, and who are critical to the department’s national security objectives of disrupting illicit finance and combatting terrorism,”

    “This risks being hyperbolic, but it’s like negotiating with a terrorist,” U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Connecticut said about Cruz’s holds on nominees to The Washington Post. “He is not the secretary of state. The people of this country did not elect him or his party to represent us abroad. And what he’s asking for is to control American foreign policy.”

  79. https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/27/asia/tsai-ingwen-taiwan-china-interview-intl-hnk/index.html

    “Tsai became the first Taiwan President in decades to acknowledge the presence of US troops on the island for training purposes. The last official US garrison left in 1979, the year Washington switched formal diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing, though last year media reports hinted at small deployments.“

    “The US military posted and then deleted a video in early 2020 that showed US Army Special Forces training soldiers in Taiwan. In November 2020, Taiwan’s Defense Ministry announced and then denied to local media that US troops were training local soldiers on the island.“

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