WHY TAX CUTS EQUAL JOB CREATION IS NO LONGER TRUE (IF IT EVER WAS)

Growing up in the Reagan Republican dominated 1980’s, we were always told that tax cuts for the richest Americans and consequently the businesses they created and/or owned, managed etc. was the fuel that spurred the engine of job growth.  In other words, that there was a direct connection between cutting taxes on the wealthy and how many new jobs were created in America.

Well that’s questionable. In retrospect, was the damage to the deficit and the creation of debt worth the creation of jobs many that were temporary and/or paid the lowest wage possible?

But allowing that as a valid point for the moment, what was “true” a decade or longer ago is definitely not “true” anymore.

Why do I say this?  Because the oft discussed growing distance between the 1% superwealthy and everyone else indicates that this connection if it ever existed does not exist any longer.

The superwealthy in this country are no longer tied directly to job creation in the USA for wealth acquisition.  Rather, they invest in companies that have moved overseas to take advantage of lower wages, no environmental laws, etc.  This is what Globalism and NAFTA has wrought.

They are also able to grow their wealth through investments outside of the normal stock market shares in companies.  The repeal of the Glass-Steagall act in 1999 by President Clinton working hand in hand with Republicans got rid of the separation between commercial banks and investment banks.  The creation of a number of complex and unethical investment instruments (derivatives) allowed people to invest in the predicted collectability of bundled debt.  It was like a form of gambling and what they were betting on was if people could pay their mortgages and credit card debt when it was exposed that in fact this was a house of cards and people were funding their mortgages and credit card debt with more debt everything collapsed.

But the superwealthy were not affected too badly by this.  The government bailed out the big players under the excuse that bank failures affect the little guy too.

The bottom line is the lack of a real safety net, the lack of real government assistance in education and in health care is creating a permanent underclass without access to these services and without access to jobs in depressed economic times.

The paying of taxes at this point is a necessity for the other 99% to live decent lives.  Those jobs supposedly created by the Bush tax cuts are not coming, were never coming.  The acquisition of wealth among the superwealthy is no longer reliant on the American worker.   

I also commend the Occupy movement for advancing bringing back something like Glass-Steagall-Let’s get rid of the notion of “Too Big to Fail” once and for all.        

MUSIC THAT FEELS LIKE A HANGOVER - GOODBYE CRUEL WORLD BY ELVIS COSTELLO AND COSI FAN TUTTI FRUTTI BY SQUEEZE

GOODBYE CRUEL WORLD by Elvis Costello and COSI FAN TUTII FRUTTI by Squeeze share much both in the way they were perceived when they were first released and the general feeling they give the listener.

Both are quite a bit darker than other albums in these particular artists’ oeuvre.  Maybe “darker” is not the word maybe “murkier” is better.  Both use odd sounds and more synthesizers than normal to achieve their desired effect.

GOODBYE CRUEL WORLD has often been derided as one of Costello’s worst records.  I have never understood that as from a songwriting perspective it’s one of his strongest collections.  The result of keeping an office, 9 to 5 hours, and writing at a desk I recall reading.  Yes, the sound gets in the way from time to time but I would rank it my sixth or seventh favourite better than GET HAPPY and better than any albums he did after it with the exception of KING OF AMERICA.

The effect of the dense smoky sound at times is very close to 80’s radio synth fodder (“The Only Flame in Town”) other times older sounding and organic (“Joe Porterhouse”) At times pounding and harsh (“The Deportees Club”) other times icy and glacial (“Love Field”).  The overall effect ends up being likenthat thick headed feeling, like a hangover the next morning, groggy from too much to drink. 

Costello both produces songs that are in keeping with his normally inscrutable elliptical style of wordplay (“The Great Unknown”) but also tries to write quite conventional tales of the foibles of romance (“Room With No Number”, “Inch by Inch”).  The end result is this is both a challenging record and a fun record.  Costello balances the two quite well.  I also want to give props to “Worthless Thing”, “Sour Milk Cow Blues”, and “Peace in Our Time” three great songs.

Squeeze might have had some influence on the development of the more deliberately poppy side of Costello’s songwriting.  However, the despair among the melodies on GOODBYE (Costello was going through a divorce from his first wife at the time of the recording) may have had some influence back.

COSI FAN TUTTI FRUTTI was the first album Squeeze made after reuniting following the two principal members lone album under Difford and Tilbrook.  Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook’s one record without using the Squeeze name was filled to the brim with synthesizers so it wasn’t surprising when COSI was the same.

But what was and still is surprising is what they do with them.  Whereas, the D&T solo labum was nothing but poppy near hits (although it did close out on the slow and eerie “The Apple Tree” about nuclear war perhaps a precursor to the songs on the Squeeze reunion album), COSI is an album of deep disorientation filled with bad drug experiences (“Big Ben”), family problems caused by drinking (“King George Street”), infidelity (“I Learnt How to Pray), domestic violence (“Last Time Forever”) even terrorism (“Hits of the Year”).  Even a simple statement of the support of a loved one like “By Your Side” is turned into a desperate plea not by the lyrics but by Tilbrook’s normally beautiful McCartneysque vocals distorted so they sound like someone undergoing great emotional pain. Keith Wilkinson’s amplified bass also contributes to this mood.

Here the hangover effect is much more direct with alcohol figuring in at least half of the songs’ lyrics and even directly in a title (“I Won’t Ever Going Drinking Again”) interestingly the last song on the record as if the whole record was nothing but a bad drunk’s nightmare.

This is not to say the music here is not catchy in Squeeze’s hybrid Beatles way, it is very much and in among the sadness is pretty music but Squeeze once had a song entitled “When the Hangover Strikes” and here they come close to actually creating the musical sound equivalent of that.  The synthesizers on COSI are neither warm nor welcoming they are either completely inhuman or sound like crying, the accompaniment to a very blue mood.      

      

A FEW THOUGHTS ABOUT JON HUNTSMAN

Today I watched the foreign policy debate of Republican presidential candidates which took place in South Carolina.  This was probably the least controversial debate so far, the one where there was the most agreement among the candidates and the least fireworks except for Ron Paul who advances such “controversial” notions that bombing other countries makes more problems than it solves, that torture is not only morally and legally wrong, it doesn’t produce quality info, and the extrajudicial assassination of Anwar Al Awlaki, a US citizen, sets a bad precedent.

But aside from Paul, whom I’ve liked and supported for a long time as you can tell from my numerous posts about his candidacy, I am getting more and more impressed with Jon Huntsman.  Huntsman’s selling point this primary season is that he is reasonable, believes in evolution and climate change, is not a religious extremist and will not pander to the most hateful elements of the Republican Party.  Of course, this a hard sell in today’s batshit insane tea party GOP which is why he has about the polled support of 1% (You don’t want to know the other 99% in this case).  He is basically a Bush Republican not George W Bush but George Bush his dad.  He is a 1988-1992 Republican.

I have no illusions about Huntsman.  He is the son of a billionaire and his fiscal platform is a bit hazy, flat tax, a cut in corporate tax  none of which are bold enough solutions to the current problems America faces.  I don’t think he gets it on the superwealthy and not paying their share.  He is a “100 % pro life”.  While moderate in some ways foreign policy-wise, he also bows before Israel and talks tough on Iran.

However, what impresses me about Huntsman is he was governor of one of the most conservative states in America, Utah, and did not govern as an ideologue despite having the necessary legislative votes to do so.  Some examples – despite being against gay marriage, he supported civil unions as a compromise IN UTAH!.  He supported driving privileges for illegal aliens (which I actually oppose so he’s to the right of me here) as well as more visas for foreign skilled workers.  When’s the last time you heard a presidential candidate especially a Republican one say he wants more immigration? He also has supported Cap and Trade as well as an increase in the federal minimum wage.  He also agrees with Ron Paul on pulling the troops from Afghanistan and banning torture.

What Huntsman’s record shows is that he knows how to govern, how to compromise and how to craft legislation with a legislature something President Obama has problems with.  He’s not a slave to ideology, he’s not a fanatic to any dogma and is basically running a similar campaign to what Obama did in 2008.  In addition, Huntsman has said he’s more spiritual than religious and has an adopted Indian daughter who he allows to practice her Hindu faith and his wife is Episcopalian so I don’t think his Mormonism would get in the way of his governance.

If Huntsman changed the focus of his fiscal policy, adopted some more of Ron Paul’s foreign policy and end the fed, I could even consider supporting him in a future presidential campaign.        

In addition unlike Mitt Romney plastic and phony and the rest who are angry or crazy or some mix of the two (I am excluding Paul here who speaks just fine), Huntsman speaks like someone who thinks before they talk which is a rarity in the Republican party these days.  In another saner time, he’d be front runner for the nomination.

MUSIC ROUND-UP - THIRD ENTRY FOR 2011

My third posting for 2011 on what I've been listening to. My first one is here http://rgdinmalaysia.blogspot.com/2011/04/music-round-up-for-2011-so-far.html

 and my second one is here http://rgdinmalaysia.blogspot.com/2011/06/music-round-up-what-im-currently.html

Not to mention my post on The Weeknd http://rgdinmalaysia.blogspot.com/2011/05/house-of-balloons-by-weeknd.html 

 (a review on their second album also released this year is forthcoming) 

Here's the new entries.... 

FAMOUS FIRST WORDS By Viva Brother

It’s like 1995 again and here we have the classic Brit pop sound – Nothing new here but such a glorious well produced collection of songs (Nice to hear Big Oasis guitars again) that it pushes the music sugar spot again and again regardless of originality.

LE NOISE by Neil Young

Neil Young’s best album in 15 years.  The hook here is that there are no drums either the songs are buried in orchestral feedback or are acoustic.  In the last decade, Neil’s albums have often been ambitious and contained a couple great songs but also much filler.  Here we have consistent songwriting all the way through and Neil sings these songs with such grizzled majesty.

BLOUSE by Blouse

Synthpop from Portland, OR  with a beautiful torch singer type female vocal over the blips and beats and occasional guitar and Peter Hook type bass rhythms.  The difference is the amount of memorable melodies they produce here.  A band I will be following in the future.

A DIFFERENT KIND OF FIX by Bombay Bicycle Club

I wasn’t sure what this was going to be like. After the herky jerky new wave throwback of their first album led to the almost completely acoustic arrangements on their second album, would the third album be synthesisers or a full orchestra or death metal perhaps??? No the end result is closer to the first album albeit less frenzied with some pianos and other things thrown into the mix.  Here the songs are slower, longer and there is an older man’s wisdom behind these tired vocals and lyrics.  A good record - let’s see what they do next

MY NEW POETRY PROJECT 50 PEOPLE PLUS A REVIEW OF MY TWO POETRY BOOKS

Some info about my new poetry project I am slowly starting work on entitled 50 PEOPLE (from my other blog which is dedicated to my poetry)

http://rgdinmalaysia.xanga.com/756300958/50-people/

Also a great review for my two poetry books THE RETURN OF THE MAGNIFICENT NINNY and SOLIDARITY WITH THE FLESH EATING MOSAIC   

http://beachsloth.blogspot.com/2011/11/raj-dronamraju-two-books.html

ON SEXUAL HARASSMENT - CLARENCE THOMAS THEN AND HERMAN CAIN NOW

I must admit that in the summer of 1991 when the confirmation hearings of Clarence Thomas took a dramatic turn following accusations of sexual harassment, I believed the accused over the accuser.

It wasn’t that I didn’t find Anita Hill credible as a witness.  It was more the lack of corroborating evidence (both witnesses and other women who had been harassed by Thomas) as well as her continued association with Thomas after he had first crossed the line.

I also was offended by the link made between Thomas, a single man at the time, and his viewing of pornographic films.  If watching a pornographic video made one automatically a sexual harasser then every man in a developed country would be out propositioning and annoying women.

However, there has been a lot of information brought out in the years since the hearings and Thomas’s elevation to the Supreme Court (Much of it hidden or neglected during the original hearings).  There were other women who the senate chose not to hear from who could confirm Thomas’s behavior as well as confirm that Hill told people about Thomas’s treatment of her.  In addition, Thomas interest in porn wasn’t the common variety man/woman stuff but his tastes were more perverse leaning towards bestiality among other kinks.  We have learned a lot about sexual harassment since then and Thomas fits many of the standard patterns of the textbook harasser.

I, 20 years later, now believe that Anita Hill likely told the truth.  Much of Thomas’s career is built on fraud especially how much of a big role affirmative action played in his rise and which he consequently has tried to eliminate for anyone else coming after him.  As far as his performance as a Supreme Court Justice goes, I feel he’s been a sub-par justice and a corporate stooge

At this time, there is nothing close to the amount of information that was out on Hill-Thomas about the sexual harassment charges leveled at Herman Cain.  Apparently, the National Restaurant Association which he was CEO for in the mid 90’s settled at least two different harassment claims by two different women with cash payouts (which also stipulated confidentiality).

I think Herman Cain is a narcissistic boob- A vanity candidate running for the presidency to increase his asking price as a public speaker and to get a talk show on the Fox News Channel.  It’s only the self-immolation of Rick Perry and the lack of any other serious conservative alternative to Mitt Romney that has elevated him to a higher position as a candidate.

Cain is almost totally ignorant of anything outside finance and even there his 999 tax plan is regressive and would increase the tax burden on the working poor and middle class.  It’s a great deal for the superwealthy though.

I’ll be waiting to see if there’s fire as well as smoke here.  I do believe that sexual harassment is pattern based-that is a person who uses their position to harass a subordinate or other employee will continue this behavior until dealt with so if Cain is really guilty of this then more stories of those subjected to this harassment should be forthcoming.