Day: 12/13/2011

Donald Trump: I’m Fired!

Posted by on December 13, 2011 at 6:38 pm. NO Comments :

When Donald Trump announced that he would be hosting a Republican presidential primary debate, the news was met mostly with mockery and from Democrats and dread from Republicans. The only person who ever took it seriously was Trump himself. And Trump was typically bombastic in describing it as the most important debate ever, and insisting that it would be watched by more people than any other debate.

Today Trump realized what most of the knowledgeable observers have known all along. This debate was a cockeyed notion that interested only people who wanted to laugh along with his comedia. So he released a statement that he would not be hosting a debate after all. And his reasons for canceling are just as funny as his reasons for signing on in the first place.

“The Republican Party candidates are very concerned that sometime after the final episode of The Apprentice, on May 20th, when the equal time provisions are no longer applicable to me, I will announce my candidacy for President of the United States as an Independent and that, unless I conclusively agree not to run as an Independent, they will not agree to attend or be a part of the Newsmax debate scheduled for December 27, 2011. It is very important to me that the right Republican candidate be chosen to defeat the failed and very destructive Obama Administration, but if that Republican, in my opinion, is not the right candidate, I am not willing to give up my right to run as an Independent candidate. Therefore, so that there is no conflict of interest within the Republican Party, I have decided not to be the moderator of the Newsmax debate.”

The only candidate who said anything about the prospect of Trump running for president as an Independent was Michele Bachmann. The overwhelming majority of the criticisms of Trump’s event were focused on the circus atmosphere over which he was certain to preside. Nevertheless, Trump used as his excuse for pulling a Palin (withdrawing prematurely) was his determination to keep his options open for an Independent candidacy.

Let’s be perfectly clear about this. Donald Trump canceled the debate because he didn’t have the stature to pull it off. Not even with the help of his third rate partners at NewsMax and ION-TV. What’s more, he is not going to run for president as an Independent or anything else. To suggest that he canceled the debate to keep that open as an option is absurd in the extreme. He might as well have said that he wants to keep open the option of traveling to Venus for a conference of mermaids and minotaurs.

Personally, I’m disappointed. There isn’t much on television in the days between Christmas and News Year’s but cheesy holiday specials and old movies I’ve seen a hundred times. The Trump debate would have been a welcome comic relief. I guess I’ll have to be satisfied with reruns of yuletide episodes of sitcoms and NetFlix.

Occupy Messaging: Who Are The Real Job Creators?

Posted by on December 13, 2011 at 10:53 am. 8 Comments :

For too long now, right-wing propagandists like Frank Luntz have been manipulating language to distort the real issues that impact so many lives of American citizens. They engage in dishonest wordcraft that disguises their true meaning in order to shape public opinion and deceive voters. It’s time to counter that rhetorical offensive by restoring definitions that actually reflect reality.

One of the most recent and insidious examples of this practice is the conservative effort to replace references to “the rich” with the phrase “job creators.” It is of no interest to these hacks that no evidence exists to validate the claim. In fact, NPR’s congressional reporter, Tamara Keith, asked members of congress and representatives of conservative business groups to refer her to business people who could substantiate the assertion that tax cuts for the wealthy would induce them to increase hiring. They were unable to come up with a single name or example to affirm their half-baked theory. However, Keith found several examples of her own that utterly refuted it. This caused Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to note that “Millionaire job creators are like unicorns. They are impossible to find and don’t exist.”

The agenda that Republicans have adopted has literally no popular constituency. Every poll taken on the subject reveals that majorities of Americans (including majorities of Republicans) favor increasing taxes on the rich. Even polls of the rich show that they believe that they are not presently sharing the sacrifice required to restore the nation’s economic health. An independent group of Patriotic Millionaires released a video beseeching Congress to raise their taxes.

So the next time you hear some GOP flunky whining about the plight of the rich whose only desire is to be unburdened from the shackles of what are the lowest taxes in decades, remember that they have not, and cannot, certify any claim that lower taxes will spur hiring. In fact, the evidence is all to the contrary. And whenever possible, we need to recapture the phrase “job creators” and use it in a manner that is more in line with reality. Here is a handy, shareable chart that illustrates who the real job creators are:

(click to view larger)
Job Creators

[Addendum] President Obama asked these questions in his economic address last month:

Are you going to cut taxes for the middle class and those who are trying to get into the middle class? Or are you going to protect massive tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires, many of whom don’t even want those tax breaks?

Are you going to ask a few hundred thousand people who have done very, very well to do their fair share? Or are you going to raise taxes for hundreds of millions of people across the country – 160 million Americans?

Are you willing to fight as hard for middle-class families as you do for those who are most fortunate?

What’s it going to be?