California Passes ‘Yes Means Yes’ Law

          In my day, everybody just knew that a girl, when approached for sex, always said “No”; even though they might not really mean it. “No” might mean “Yes”; it might mean “maybe”; or, it might mean “No”. After all, to say “Yes” might make one think she was too “easy” and would go with just anyone, cheapening the relationship in process and jeopardizing her future. The male was supposed to seduce her; and, when she succumbed to his loving charms, he would feel complemented by his sweet success. Everything would be so good.

Over the years, however, it would seem that things have changed. Things have become more formal. “No” means “No”, and it must be said as such, which, if said, immediately terminates the process. In fact if the answer is “Yes”, the process can still be terminated anywhere down the line should anyone of the participant(s) change their mind and say “No”. The rule is “No means No”.

Now, it seems that the rules are, once again, about to change. The legislature for the State of California has passed a new law, now awaiting Governor Brown’s signature which defines sexual consent between people as “affirmative, conscious, and voluntary agreement to engage in sexual activity”. “Yes” means “Yes” and can be changed anytime within the process by just saying “No”.

Presumably with only the two partners in the room at any one time during the consummation of the sexual act, if one of them claims to have been raped or to have changed their mind and said “No” to terminate the act, it would seem to me that lack of a witness would render the law ineffective—bummer. But surprise—I have a solution to the problem. The State of California should amend the law to require a form to be prepared on which the various stages of the sexual act are identified with a “box” at the beginning of each stage to be initialed by each participant as the act is consummated. When they have “finished”, each partner should sign the form, swearing that they have dutifully obeyed the law and mutually consented to the act which they have just culminated. Then they should have the form officially notarized by an authorized Notary Public and, upon completion, submit the completed form to the Clerk of Courts for the record—problem solved.

Ronald Miller

Email me at mtss86@comcast.net

          Corporate Inversion II

          On the seventh of July, I wrote about corporate inversion, the despicable and, (I believe)—although currently legal, unpatriotic act of avoiding Corporate America’s fair share of corporate income taxes, i.e. their support of the cost of our government—our country. Simply stated, this is an act accomplished by moving a company’s corporate headquarters to a foreign country in order to avoid taxes.

Within the last two days, you have been literally bombarded by the media with the news of Burger King’s contemplated acquisition of Tim Horton’s, the Canadian coffee and donut chain, headquartered in Canada. Our maximum corporate tax rate is 35 percent and theirs is reported at 15 per cent, just below our effective rate of 18 per cent.

I’m going to slightly digress here to make a quick but related point. In these last two days, I have heard more discussion in the TV media about corporate inversion than I have heard over months of the past concerning this subject. Since most of our people receive the majority of their news from TV than any other source, this point is especially important, I think, because the planned Burger King inversion will have less impact on our nation than other inversions which have occurred. I think the extra attention paid to this by the TV media is due to Burger King’s recognizability by the public when compared with lesser known corporations—it’s more newsworthy, just one more example of corporate emphasis on profits than service to their customers—in this case, informing the public by the TV media. Corporate inversion is a serious subject having a significant impact on our country and our people. We shouldn't have to wait for information to be profitable in order to receive it.

May 5^th, Bloomberg News reported that at least 31 publicly traded companies with U.S. roots and executive offices in the U.S. are incorporated overseas. They’re listed on U.S. exchanges, including the N.Y. Stock Exchange. Dave Johnson, a fellow with Campaign for America’s Future and a senior fellow with Renew California,   reports in Campaign for America’s Future Blog that “The share of federal revenue coming from corporate taxes has dropped from around 32 per cent in 1952 to 8.9 percent now. As a share of gross domestic product, it has fallen from about 6 per cent of GDP then to less than 2 per cent now. Meanwhile the rest of us—including small domestic companies that don’t have armies of tax consultants—have to make up that shortfall, either through increases in things like payroll taxes, or through cuts in the things government does to make our lives (an insertion by rjm: the prosperity of our country) better.” Dave Johnson goes on to tell us, “One of the larger dodges is that we allow corporations to ‘defer’ (i.e. never pay) taxes on profits made outside the U.S. So they engage in all kinds of schemes to make it look like their profits are not made here. As a result many companies owe very little tax on the proceeds from their U.S. operations, and then defer their non-U.S. profits from being ‘brought home’ to avoid paying  the taxes on non-U.S. sales. It is estimated that as much as or even more than $2 trillion of taxable profits are being hoarded outside of the U.S. because of deferral.” Pfizer alone, we are told, had as much as $73 billion in taxable profits held outside the U.S. in 2012.

What about some of our politicians whom we pay to represent us and take care of our nation’s business? It was just reported on www.thewire.com two days ago that John Boehner and Dave Camp (R-Mich.), the Republican committee chairman who overseas tax policy, reportedly profited from one corporate inversion deal. It was reported by Bloomberg that they sold “stock in Covidien Pic within nine days of an announcement that Medtronic Inc. was planning to take over the company. The stock price of Covidien jumped after the announcement of the deal, under which the new merged company would be based in Ireland and avoid paying U.S. corporate taxes.” It didn’t explicitly say, but I’m thinking “Short Sale”.

First, the Corporatocracy and Power Elite take over our government, buying our votes through mind control, propaganda, campaign financing, buying the votes of our representatives (on both sides of the aisle), lobbying, and revolving door hiring of those entering and leaving government (yes they do it both coming and going). Then they take away our jobs through outsourcing to slave labor abroad (compared to wages, benefits, and the working and living conditions of our workers in this country, rendering us uncompetitive in most instances, relatively speaking, these are slave laborers—in my mind, without a doubt). Thirdly, they effectively stagnate our wages at home; and, lastly, they are working arduously to take away our safety nets of Social Security, access to National Health Care, and social welfare needs such as disability insurance, food stamps, etc., etc. Now, they are doing everything in their power to quit paying their fair share of taxes. I’ll leave for another day the discussion of their exploitation and abuse of our natural resources and the environment. Extrapolating into the future, these people, if allowed by us to continue on their present course, will reduce the ordinary people of this country and the world to little more than animals.

Alexandra Jaffe of THE HILL–Ref: www.thehill.com, wrote on August 27^th about comments Mitch McConnell made during a private strategy conference hosted by billionaires Charles and David Koch in which he laid out his strategy if the Republicans win the Senate in the November election. He said he is going to drop “all these gosh-darn proposals” being sponsored by the Democrats, “like minimum wage and extending unemployment benefits, as ‘staggering and beyond deplorable’. We’re going to go after them on healthcare, on financial services, on the Environmental Protection Agency, across the board”. Also, he stood up strongly for the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in their decision, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. I call it the “Corporations are people decision”. What all these people have been discussing has nothing to do with hard work, do the right thing, equal opportunity, a government of the people, by the people, and for the people, a free and prosperous nation, etc., which they constantly proclaim. What they are putting forth and doing—right before our eyes, is repression and, eventually, our enslavement. Followed to its ultimate conclusion, we will be little more than serfs in their fiefdom, the fiefdom of a world government ruled by the Corporatocracy and Power Elite. You can be sure. It will no longer be a Shadow Government then.

And you ask. What can you do? You can stand up and shout. Get on Face Book, Twitter, and other social websites. Let those “do nothing” representatives of our government and sell-outs to the enemy know how you feel (And you can bet your sweet tooty these people about whom I have been writing are your enemy). They are not working in your interests. Write and call your representatives in the House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate as well as the President. Call into C-span. Let them know you are no longer apathetic. Most importantly, let them know you are going to the polls and vote and then go. Do it!

          Really, isn’t it worth the effort? It’s your country. Protect it or lose it. Vote for tomorrow. It will matter to you and your children then. Vote for tomorrow. Don’t vote for yesterday. This is serious stuff. You don’t have to take this “crap” you are being dealt.

Ronald Miller

Email me at mtss86@comcast.net

How We Vote

          In his book, Blink, the author, Malcolm Gladwell tells the story of Warren G Harding, our 29^th President of the United States, arguably, according to historians of the time, one of the worst presidents in history, allegedly, unbeknownst to him, overseeing an administration of vice and corruption (His reputation has since been usurped by a worse and even more damaging president, but that is a subject for another time). Entering office March 4, 1921, Harding died in office of a stroke August 2, 1923.

According to Gladwell, “Harding was worth looking at. His head, features, shoulders and torso had a size that attracted attention; their proportions to each other made an effect which in any male at any place would justify more than the term handsome – in later years, when he came to be known beyond his local world, the word ‘Roman’ was occasionally used in descriptions of him. …., his legs bore out the striking and agreeable proportions of his body; and his lightness on his feet, his erectness, his easy bearing, added to the impression of physical grace and virility. His suppleness, combined with his bigness of frame, and his large, wide–set rather glowing eyes, heavy black hair, and markedly bronze complexion gave him some of the handsomeness of an Indian. His courtesy…..suggested genuine friendliness toward all mankind. His voice was noticeably resonant, masculine, warm. His pleasure in the attentions of the bootblack’s whisk reflected a consciousness about clothes unusual in a small-town man. His manner as he bestowed a tip suggested generous good-nature, a wish to give pleasure based on physical well–being and sincere kindliness of heart.”

To make a long story short, President Harding’s performance in office was reportedly lack luster and mediocre in just about every position he held throughout his career and into his presidency. He loved to play cards, drink whiskey, and women. His political progress and success appeared to be due only to his personal attributes indicated above combined with the salesmanship of the political machine promoting his candidacy. One can only conclude that the preponderance of the people who voted for him had to have placed their votes based on their emotional prejudices and bias formulated by his physical appearance and personality–certainly not rational and objective reasoning or knowledge.

Today, our world is on fire, people are suffering all over, and our nation is in deep political and economic trouble. Midterm elections are drawing near. Emotional and prejudicial thinking among our voters are a threat to the very existence of our democracy; and, yet, there are those among us who will put our nation at risk by their refusal to seek the real truth and vote for those who really represent their true interests–mainly because we just don’t want to take the time. We refuse to accept the premise that with freedom goes responsibility. There are still those among us who persist in using the same criteria for voting that we did in 1921 when we voted for Warren G. Harding.

Election Day is coming. It is imperative that we vote rationally and intelligently. It is imperative that we vote for those candidates who represent our own interests. Who represents yours? Are you poor? Are you working or unemployed? Are you homeless? Are you in need of healthcare you can afford? Are you on Social Security? Are you disabled? Are you on Food Stamps? Are you middleclass? Are your jobs being outsourced to foreign countries, to slave labor? Or, on the other hand, are you in the top 1% of the people, those taking in the highest income and holding the most wealth among us–those on the top end (the receiving end) of the income inequality picture–those whose interests are represented by our Shadow Government, the Corporatocracy and Power Elite among us. Chances are that you are one of the 99% of us. You know who represents the 1%. Who represents you, the 99%?

In either event, what is any of this discussion worth if you don’t get out and vote, if you don't protect your interests. One thing you can count on–you can take to the bank, the Corporatocracy and Power Elite will.

Ronald Miller

Email me at mtss86@comcast.net

Our Underclass

          Saturday, August 9, 2014, a young black teenager, Michael Brown, 18, was tragically killed by an officer of the law in Ferguson, Missouri—shot dead while unarmed. I am not going to discuss this tragedy here. I am only using it as what I believe is an example of an ever increasing problem throughout our country and in hope that it will serve as a beginning toward a solution to that problem, an ever increasing underclass and our people’s discrimination against them.

          Surely, there is no informed citizen in our country who is not aware of the ever increasing inequality in income, wealth, and equal opportunity among our people. Surely, there is no informed citizen in our country who is not aware that the rich are getting richer and the poor poorer. Surely, there is no informed citizen in our country who is not aware that, as jobs are being outsourced to slave labor in various countries abroad, their jobs in this country are, for the most part, coming out of our middleclass (Don’t anyone say that isn’t true. A rose is a rose by any other name. Slave labor abroad is supplanting our middleclass jobs here. If those overseas jobs were to be returned, along with the people performing them there, back to this country at the wages they are being paid there, relative to our wage levels here, they are, in my view, effectively, slave labor); and, those so displaced, are forced into our ever increasing underclass—all part of the “trickle down” theory.  Our rich get richer and our ghettos get bigger.

          But I digress. There is an even bigger and more ominous problem. We must, to the best of our ability and the fullest extent possible, eliminate our underclass. We must enable them to return to the middleclass and beyond in accordance with their abilities. Equal opportunity for all must be available to all. The ultimate security of our country, our nation, depends upon it. In as much as the majority of our underclass is black, I want to discuss their plight first. To that end, let us begin at the beginning with some simple facts.

          In the beginning of our great nation, the black people here then were slaves, brought here on slave ships from abroad and auctioned as property in the slave markets to the highest bidder. To make a long story short, our nation fought a long and bloody civil war to eliminate slavery and make all men free. Once freed, they were loosened on their own, with little or no support, into the countryside to fend for themselves. Of course there were exceptions; but, for the most part, they were denied education and means of survival—they remained defacto slaves. They were never accepted as a free people within our society. Yes, their condition slowly improved over the years that followed, but they never really improved until the Civil Rights Act of 1965. Unfortunately, that didn’t’ wholly solve the problem either, as hatred and discrimination against them continues to this day. They continue to be denied equal opportunity, education, and recognition. These are the basic facts and the root(s) of the problem. These people have serious problems, social, economic, and otherwise. Consequently, our nation has a problem, our problem—every last one of us, bar none.

          These serious and severe problems have consequences which no serious thinking person can, in my mind, deny. Undereducated people cannot be expected to think or reason rationally. People reared in severe poverty, deprivation, broken homes, and crime ridden communities will not, and should not be so expected, have the values and motivation of those more fortunate among us. Jesus tells us that, as we think, so we are. Our environment has everything to do with how we think. Again, those people came here on slave ships. Ever since, we have been their environment. We have a problem, and we created it. Now we must solve it. For the past 238 years since our revolt against Great Britain, the majority of our people have been white. Now, that is about to change. We are about to be their environment. If we don’t change and end our hatred, we are going to reap what we have sown.

          Now, I want to approach this subject from another angle. Discrimination and hatred runs both ways. Also, it goes above and beyond the color of one’s skin. A person’s behaviour, personal appearance, and speech transcend all. Some characteristics are just not socially acceptable no matter what color one is, especially in one’s search for employment. As I have said, we all have an immense stake in solving this very critical problem. We must work together. We must supplant hate with love and respect for one another. We must make every effort to educate and improve the lot of the underclass if not eliminate it completely, i.e. enable them to rise to the middleclass.

Ronald Miller

Email me at mtss86@comcast.net